It didn't. Because of this person's actions, several of the members unsigned themselves from the group. One even contacted me afterwards privately to let me in on the rest of the story. The culprit, whom I shall call "Victor" for the purpose of this story, has gone around to several lists to post explicit stories and images, all pointing to violence against women. He stalked this one member from list to list, each time finding out where she's gone next. And because he uses a free web email provider, there's no easy way to track him down.
Victor is still out there. He's not the first to do this. And he won't be the last. Reporting such occurrences helps to keep tabs on what's going on and hopefully reach a point where the person can be caught.
The original definitions of the terms: Rape and Stalking, tended towards physical events. A person was doing something physically threatening to another person. With the Internet, the definitions are still the same but the distance between the people has increased. Just because the distance is greater doesn't make the threat any less.
In many ways, "distance" has taken on new meaning in light of the Internet. It's my hope in the next issue to share with you some of my experiences with people on the Internet. If you're interested in sharing yours as well, please email(carb@mailcity.com) me and let me know.
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