Doxxed (kinda)

Here's the (abridged) version of an email I sent yesterday to my close family and friends. Brackets [] indicate stuff I removed to remain anonymous on search engines and Blogger. Curly brackets {} indicate clarifications and additional information. I've also used some of my usual obfuscation here as a way to block Google searches.

Just a quick note to clarify what I posted on Facebook earlier today about going dark for awhile.

If you G00gle "#dg@r c0^nty w@tchd0gs" and "0rl@nd P@rk" {not my community} and go to the 'lead' story for today {i.e. Wednesday} you'll get some sense of why I've decided to hunker down. It's a long story, but essentially I made some comments on Facebook in a librarian group {over the weekend, at home} about the bullying behavior of M#g@n F0x (not the actress); she is somehow associated with the #dg@r c0^nty person/people. A little digging will show that she has made the lives of the employees of 0rl@nd P@rk L!br@ry hell for quite some time. If you have a strong stomach, you can find her on Facebook on a page called F@ns of M#g@n F0x. Make of it what you will.

I'm sending this to family and a few close friends but blind CC. I think I deleted any work emails from the addresses--I don't want ANY of this to bleed into a weird place for any of you. If people with whom you live want to read this but didn't get the email, it's because I don't have a "home" address for them.

This morning, my boss (the library director), the mayor of [the city in which I work], and the HR director for the City all received an email from the author of the #dg@r c0^nty BS alerting them to that "article." So, yeah, I've brought the wrath of Sauron (??) down on the whole building. There's another weird coincidence that could blow the lid off, but I'm hoping that doesn't occur. They have also [asked for] my workplace for my timesheets.

{That was yesterday's request. Monday they asked for all our credit card statements and receipts. Earlier in the month, they apparently spam-requested every library in the state for our internet porn policies and some other policy information. By the way, I'm so paranoid that the [] brackets in the previous paragraph refer to a certain act [hint] that ensures that we all have the freedom of [hint] asking for information [hint] from the government. It's meant to be a good checkup for people to investigate details of what various officials are up to, but it has been badly mishandled and abused in recent years by people like this crowd. The initials of the law are in the italicized words above.}

I'll just end with a request that if you get any weird email or other contact from anyone related to this, let me know. My Facebook page was (already) pretty locked down, but I don't know if they were able to nose around at all. Most of the info in that article is from LinkedIn, while [sic] I've now closed down as well. Generally, though, I'd appreciate it if you'd keep the whole thing under your hat in public forums or with friends. Yes, I'm paranoid!

Wow, this turned into a lengthy email! Sorry. Drama is so much fun. Don't use Facebook at work--thank goodness I did all the commenting about the situation over the weekend at home!

I am heartened to know that my boss and the City are behind me in support of my freedom of speech. I hope it doesn't come to needing that support in any way beside my morale, but I did call an attorney friend yesterday to alert her.

Right now I'm in full-DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS mode. I'm angry at myself for allowing myself to be "caught" by this. I'm not convulsively visiting any of the sites in question, although I do have a blogspot site pinned called M#g@n F0x is a Cyb#rbully (feel free to visit that if you'd like to know how to report her Facebook page...or not, as you wish). She and her minions have been over there spouting their shit so if you want a short primer on their tactics that might be the place to start.

FWIW, and to be clear, I am not a fan of p0rn0graphy on the internet, but I do abhor censorship. Filters have been shown not to work well, which is why libraries generally don't use them on public computers. I have asked patrons to please stop viewing inappropriate sites in plain sight of other patrons, which really is the issue here. If you want more (and more...and more) information on filtering or the 0rl@nd P@rk Publ!c L!ibrary, there is tons on the ALA site besides the link above, and at this link.

So now I'm off to grand-jury duty. Tomorrow I'm going to the hospital where Katharine is to be induced for the birth of her third child. They have found a 'mass' near his kidney or adrenal gland, so he will go directly to NICU for evaluation. I won't be at work officially again until next Monday, by which time hopefully this will have all blown over.