AutoAdmit Hits Me

I officially got on the bad side of AutoAdmit. They linked to my post Internet Stalking Is Real."

AutoAdmit poster Great Teacher Onizuka writes:

Wow. I know it's hard for outsiders to "get" xo humor, but how can anyone interpret that Chinesedude post as online stalking? Even if you're not familiar with the schtick it seems clear that he's making fun of the OP by calling him a loser too chickenshit to talk to girls like Jill in real life.

I wrote this post about Jill Filipovic's problems with the message board. She wrote about her bad experiences with the site at Feministe. I did some research and found this comment made by AutoAdmit user Chinesedude.

Wants to learn about girl, but is social outcast, so have to stalk her on internet.

I read that comment and found it creepy. I didn't see Jill mention this in any of her posts. I thought the comment was worth mentioning in a blog post. I ran it by her to see if it was okay. She said yes and now the AutoAdmit kiddies are bothered that I'm calling them on it. It must be a bitch having their own words quoted back to them.

Chris Clarke wrote about how the AutoAdmit members would put Jill's class schedule on the message board.

Jill Filopovic‘s name and class routines etc have been regularly posted to this board, and at least one of the pseudonymous board-members claims to be Jill Filipovic‘s classmate. Photos that Jill Filipovic posted (with full rights reserved) to an internet photo-storing and sharing site have also been posted to the sleazy discussion board without her permission. This is a horrendous invasion of Jill Filipovic‘s privacy, a violation of copyright law, and calls the ethics and character of the alleged law-students participating in these discussions on the discussion board into question.

That sounds like stalking to me.

Update: Anthony Ciolli of the AutoAdmit board showed me examples of Chinesedude making bizarre statements. I thought I post a part of his email

I saw your follow-up post about Chinesedude's post on AutoAdmit, and I
just want to clarify the matter further privately. As you might know,
on AutoAdmit people commonly create fake characters, usually for humor
purposes. "Chinesedude" was one of those fake characters, and his
shtick was to make fun of AutoAdmit posters for being losers who are all
brave and cocky and cool on the internet but are too cowardly and scared
to ever do any of those things in real life. Here are some examples of
his humor:

It's pretty clear that he's not saying that he wants to stalk Jill on
the internet, but that he's making fun of the guy who started the thread
by calling him a social outcast who is too scared to talk to Jill in
person and thus has to stalk her on the internet. In other words,
Chinesedude is completely *agreeing* with your position -- that stalking
Jill online is wrong, that the people who do stalk people like Jill
online are losers, etc. Maybe it's wrong to assume that someone who
isn't familiar with the site or the Chinesedude would get this, but if
you read the thread in the context of the Chinesedude shtick you'll see
that it's just absolutely ridiculous to think that Chinesedude is some
stalker. I agree with you on a lot of things, but it does everyone a
disservice to mischaracterize a post like you did on your blog (for one
thing, it immediately detracts from all the legitimate points you make).

That is part of the problem. Someone makes a cheeky statement and someone reads it the wrong way. I did talk with Jill about Chinesedude's comment and she is understandably less than thrilled. The problem with the internet is posts and comments can be interpreted in many different ways without knowing the true intent of the writer.

This is a different issue than people trying to find out Jill's class schedule online. That certainly is stalking.

AutoAdmit would probably be better off staying away from posts about female law students. Considering the recent controversy.

Update: here is something about Ciolli's politics.

Turns out Mr. Ciolli's delusions extend to the realm of politics. As a Penn law student pointed out to me, Mr. Ciolli is also "very dissappointed with Bush" since "he is FAR too left wing for my tastes." Wow! This may also explain why Mr. Ciolli thinks hosting a forum for racism, anti-semitism, and threats of rape and sexual assault is in good taste.

Wow.