NO!  I'm dealing with all this garbage re: the reporting of the incident.  I am exhausted, hurt and sad.   This is just a mess.

This bugs the fuck out of me.  You have been and remain one of the classiest people on these forums (maybe ever since I've joined in 2006).  I liken this to intimidation.  Please don't cower to shit like this.  Put on your internal ignore feature, delete, whatever you have to do.  We're on your side here.

Scotty, there is a huge difference between kindly complimenting someone, like you always do, and what this other forumite did to many women. Men here shouldn't feel uncomfortable around us, women, because of this. Any smart man knows where and when to stop. Only the creeps don't want to stop.

NO!  I'm dealing with all this garbage re: the reporting of the incident.  I am exhausted, hurt and sad.   This is just a mess.

Hang in there Heidi. You absolutely did the right thing. To echo others you are one of the nicest posters I've ever run across

Heid you haven't done anything wrong! You did exactly what you should have, and because of your outspokenness about the situation a creep got banned. That's important stuff and I'm proud if you for coming forward.

I am sorry that this is happening to people in these forums.  The other thing that I thought of is something that Beth's comments brought to mind....

 

Several threads such as 'show me your legs', 'hot abs', 'best feet', etc. are created with (I hope) the intent of having a bit of fun on the forums, however by doing so, whether you post pics of your family, feet, abs, ear lobes, ugly toes (sorry pet peeve of mine...I jokie joke) legs, etc. you are exposing a part of you (literally in some cases) which can be seen by thousands of people, and can copied, pasted, stored, stared at, etc. (you get the idea).  Things like this are really just an extension of your personal information.  Let people see how many miles you run in a week..cool.  Where you run those miles at?? 'Prolly' not a good idea.  Participate if you want, but don't be so naive to think that people who aren't part of these forums (and some who are) aren't copying these pictures.  I think this is one of the big lessons that needs to be learned from the unfortunate experience of Heidi, etc. 

 

Now...Jack Klompus please delete the e-mail and PMs that I sent to you.  I heard somewhere that PMs lead to sex.... (sorry, another jokey joke...no disrespect to the subject at hand).

It's also worth noting that, on RWOL and, to a lesser extent, here on RA, we are not as anonymous as we would like to think that we are.  For every one person who replies to our posts on these forums, there are probably hundreds of lurkers who are reading them.  Those lurkers probably include co-workers in your office building, local friends in your weekend running group, or maybe even some family members. 

I first joined RWOL in 2009, and my first posts were race reports of my first marathon, which I had completed the previous weekend.  My avatar was a photo of me approaching the finish line of that marathon. 

One week after I joined RWOL and posted those race reports, I was running on a local trail when a large group of runners passed by me in the opposite direction.  Some guy called out, "Hey Jason!  I saw you on Runner's World!  Congrats on your marathon!"

It's actually a frequent occurrence for someone to approach me at a race and say that they recognize me from RWOL or from my blog.  It's a choice that I make, of course, since I dress the same at every event and such, but the loss of privacy is always somewhere in the back of my mind.  Not necessarily because I'm worried about stalkers or assault, but more for amusing situational reasons.  I would not want somebody posting, "I saw RunJasonRun eat a dozen doughnuts in two minutes at Krispy Kreme, buy a dozen more, and start eating them in his truck as he drove off.", or something to that effect. 

Sorry you had to go through this.  I'm fairly new here and I was lurking in that other thread about the routes being private and while reading through the thread I was wondering what the heck was going on there.....it all makes sense now, unfortunately.  

I am sorry that this is happening to people in these forums.  The other thing that I thought of is something that Beth's comments brought to mind....

 

Several threads such as 'show me your legs', 'hot abs', 'best feet', etc. are created with (I hope) the intent of having a bit of fun on the forums, however by doing so, whether you post pics of your family, feet, abs, ear lobes, ugly toes (sorry pet peeve of mine...I jokie joke) legs, etc. you are exposing a part of you (literally in some cases) which can be seen by thousands of people, and can copied, pasted, stored, stared at, etc. (you get the idea).  Things like this are really just an extension of your personal information.  Let people see how many miles you run in a week..cool.  Where you run those miles at?? 'Prolly' not a good idea.  Participate if you want, but don't be so naive to think that people who aren't part of these forums (and some who are) aren't copying these pictures.  I think this is one of the big lessons that needs to be learned from the unfortunate experience of Heidi, etc. 

 

Now...Jack Klompus please delete the e-mail and PMs that I sent to you.  I heard somewhere that PMs lead to sex.... (sorry, another jokey joke...no disrespect to the subject at hand).

Agreed - other things I have seen people do that I personally wouldn't on a public board, especially as a person who has been stalked....   I wouldn't post what race I will be doing next along with having my photo available for viewing, won't take much for someone to find you if they wanted. I also would be careful about posting results of a race with my exact time - with results posted on line, it would take someone two seconds to find out your full name, age and the town you live in...  Other things like posting children photos, leg shots, etc...  

Everyone has different comfort levels for exposure, and that's fine, but some of the stuff I've seen posted here has been kinda crazy in terms of public information.  There are creeps out there, for sure, and this is all public and you don't know most of these people "in real life".    

I have my FB settings so that most of the stuff I post only gets seen by my close circle of friends and family, and I don't like accepting requests from people I don't know.   

Anyone who is giving you crap, Heidi, should just hush up.  You were right to say something.

Heidi has not done anything wrong.  That comment about reporting the incident was addressed to me and I think she misunderstood what happened.  I was made aware of those PMs she posted 30 minutes to 1 hour prior to her opening the thread.  I was working on something after lunch and I had no access to RA.  I didn't even have time to consult with my other admin, LRB before this thread was opened.  I understand that she is hurt, but there was nothing I could do until we reviewed the PMs and, like I said, I was on vacation when the thread posted here happened and I missed most of it as some posts were deleted.  I tried to resolve it prior to the PMs being sent but both LRB and myself were busy.  Sorry, I am not perfect.  I will do better next time.

 

But neither LRB nor I have been treating Heidi badly for her reporting it.  She is an awesome girl that has been a great addition to the BF and I am really sad that this asshole took it upon himself to PM her with creepy stuff.

Why don't you have more admins? Having only two in a group this size seems too low. I am sure there are many trustworthy people here that could handle the responsibility. Like Heidi, for instance.