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Persistent Stalking
Feb. 21st, 2020 12:49 am***This whole post is about a dude stalking me, so if you find that triggering, this is your warning.***
I don't know what it is about me that says "stalk me," but there must be something, because this is the third time it's happened in my lifetime.
This one is... I don't know how to put it. Relatively harmless? But only in the way that it is unlikely he'll ever be in a position to harm me. He's certainly the most persistent of my stalkers, as he's been doing this for two and a half years. I only ever notice him intermittently, so I can't tell if he only remembers every now and then to come and do something else, or if he's always around but just being extra passive.
He found me when I was actively streaming on Twitch, back in September or October of 2017, I don't remember exactly. He popped up in my chat, interacted normally for a while, and then when I ostensibly wasn't playing the game the way he wanted, he began "screaming" (capslock counts as screaming, I guess) abuse at me, calling me a ( misogyny and other grossness ) and generally making an unpleasant nuisance of himself. So I banned him, and left it at that.
He came back a week or so later with an almost identical username (one digit was changed), and I banned that account too. He did this twice more, and kept trying to get my attention by posting in various places. Then he tried to be my "friend" on Steam under a totally different username, but on Steam you can look up what other names a user has had, and that gave him away, and I blocked him there.
After that he started watching my streams without being allowed in chat (when you ban someone on Twitch they can still watch but not chat). Most streamers, when they end a stream, will go host another streamer (either a raid or just a normal host) as a fun surprise, and their viewers often hang out in the new streamer's chat. This is how a lot of streamers get new followers and more views, and is generally a very positive thing. Of course, this can be abused, and some people use raids to bring a truckload of toxic people to someone's chat (usually POC streamers' chats in order to be gross and racist and also sexist for good measure). In the case of my stalker, he would watch my stream and then "follow" to the next streamer, at which point he'd start posting gross abusive stuff there. At best he was making everything unpleasant for everyone, and at worst the streamer would assume I was bringing toxic people into their chat and ban me and everyone else.
I stopped streaming in early 2019 because there was too much to juggle, and I was having serious internet connection problems (which I still have intermittently), so I kind of forgot he existed.
Then today I decided to do a quick cleanup of my Twitter followers to get rid of bots and porn accounts, and what did I find? A brand new account he'd created in December of 2019 with the same display name(different handle), using a picture of me that was obviously a screenshot or still of me while I was streaming as his profile picture.
I just. That is so gross. I can only assume that he's using the same username or display name as a weird power move. He never speaks to me, but he's clearly following me around the internet, even a year or more after I stopped streaming. If he was only a weird creeper, he'd just make a different account and follow me that way. He must know that I'll recognize his username and ban/block him, so it must be just in order to get a reaction out of me.
Ugh. Anyway. I don't feel like I'm in any danger. The guy would have to work pretty hard to find me, and he doesn't seem interested in that. It's just the feeling of accidentally putting your hand in something super disgusting every time he shows up again, like a bad penny.
I don't know what it is about me that says "stalk me," but there must be something, because this is the third time it's happened in my lifetime.
This one is... I don't know how to put it. Relatively harmless? But only in the way that it is unlikely he'll ever be in a position to harm me. He's certainly the most persistent of my stalkers, as he's been doing this for two and a half years. I only ever notice him intermittently, so I can't tell if he only remembers every now and then to come and do something else, or if he's always around but just being extra passive.
He found me when I was actively streaming on Twitch, back in September or October of 2017, I don't remember exactly. He popped up in my chat, interacted normally for a while, and then when I ostensibly wasn't playing the game the way he wanted, he began "screaming" (capslock counts as screaming, I guess) abuse at me, calling me a ( misogyny and other grossness ) and generally making an unpleasant nuisance of himself. So I banned him, and left it at that.
He came back a week or so later with an almost identical username (one digit was changed), and I banned that account too. He did this twice more, and kept trying to get my attention by posting in various places. Then he tried to be my "friend" on Steam under a totally different username, but on Steam you can look up what other names a user has had, and that gave him away, and I blocked him there.
After that he started watching my streams without being allowed in chat (when you ban someone on Twitch they can still watch but not chat). Most streamers, when they end a stream, will go host another streamer (either a raid or just a normal host) as a fun surprise, and their viewers often hang out in the new streamer's chat. This is how a lot of streamers get new followers and more views, and is generally a very positive thing. Of course, this can be abused, and some people use raids to bring a truckload of toxic people to someone's chat (usually POC streamers' chats in order to be gross and racist and also sexist for good measure). In the case of my stalker, he would watch my stream and then "follow" to the next streamer, at which point he'd start posting gross abusive stuff there. At best he was making everything unpleasant for everyone, and at worst the streamer would assume I was bringing toxic people into their chat and ban me and everyone else.
I stopped streaming in early 2019 because there was too much to juggle, and I was having serious internet connection problems (which I still have intermittently), so I kind of forgot he existed.
Then today I decided to do a quick cleanup of my Twitter followers to get rid of bots and porn accounts, and what did I find? A brand new account he'd created in December of 2019 with the same display name(different handle), using a picture of me that was obviously a screenshot or still of me while I was streaming as his profile picture.
I just. That is so gross. I can only assume that he's using the same username or display name as a weird power move. He never speaks to me, but he's clearly following me around the internet, even a year or more after I stopped streaming. If he was only a weird creeper, he'd just make a different account and follow me that way. He must know that I'll recognize his username and ban/block him, so it must be just in order to get a reaction out of me.
Ugh. Anyway. I don't feel like I'm in any danger. The guy would have to work pretty hard to find me, and he doesn't seem interested in that. It's just the feeling of accidentally putting your hand in something super disgusting every time he shows up again, like a bad penny.
