Someone mentally ill has been harrassing our staff and users for over a year now

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Costello

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As someone who has been running a relatively large video game site for the past two decades, I can say that it isn't unusual to have to deal with idiots who think they rule the world. We ban dozens of people every day: spambots mostly, but also people who post threats, who post atrocities, and whatnot.

But there's been one single guy that has been continuously harrassing us for over a year now. That guy is known on the internet as "Clancy" or "clancydaenlightened" on Twitter.

You may think I am exaggerating, because this sounds unbelievable, but truly there hasn't been a single day over the past year where this guy hasn't created dupe accounts, flooded our mailboxes, mass PMed our staff or members, posted threats on twitter, facebook and all that. He keeps creating dupe accounts here through Tor, proxies, VPNs, and our staff continues to block him every day. We have a team of 30+ staff members so it only takes us a second to wipe out his dupe accounts (whereas from our estimate it takes several minutes to create a dupe on our site) so we can literally do this all day.

We have had our lot of persistent assholes in the 20 years this site has existed, but none of them had been at it for more than a week or two. This guy has been at it EVERY DAY for over a year now.
Some of our moderators, having had enough with the guy, started investigating him personally to see what the deal was. Turns out this guy has got all his data out there in the open, he literally doxes himself everywhere and shows the drugs he's under, on social media. His real name, address, phone number, family members, are all easy to find or identify.

He seems to be a legitimately, severely mentally ill person, and I say this not just because of his year-long harrassment but also based on the things he posts on social media. He was recently banned from Twitter and subsequently posted this:

1653528875147.png


There is a hall of shame that exists in our collective memory at the GBAtemp mod team, and, through this thread, I wanted to share with you that we have a winner with this guy. None of us have ever had to deal with someone this deranged and bizarre.

He spends entire nights flooding our mailboxes with shit like this:

1653529642120.png


In light of what's happening in the USA lately with the mass shootings and killings, I am truly wondering if we should probably do something more practical about his behavior -- I'm talking about reporting him to the police, but certainly not doing ourselves justice. Inbetween the flood of insults there's also been threats of mass slaughter and crazy shit like that, that you wouldn't normally take seriously on the Internet. But the recent events make me wonder if not reporting him may put us, or someone else, at risk.

A member who was frequently harrassed by Clancy has told us that they reported him to the local police already, but it doesn't look like they did anything about it -- even though the police was given a name, an address, and a phone number. Now if you have any recommendations on how to handle this properly and avoid what could be another true, real life disaster, we're all ears.
 

Deleted member 194275

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I'm confused about the presumption that you are looking for a solution. The guy loves you more than he loves himself. He rated you on par with Google. It's obvious to me that you don't actually see risk, otherwise you wouldn't be asking "what you you think, tell me what you think in the comments!".

To me this reads like a humblebrag alluding to the idea that "we do dangerous work here". With P1ngs latest clarification, "don't annoy us or we might put you on blast"
I believe there is a risk indeed. The OP do not tell where the person is, but looks like it is within some or many member's range. I other words, a personal "meeting" may occur. That is really dangerous. You do not see the staff shitting on their pants right now, I believe that is what you thinking, but those stuff do escalate, you know that.

The good news is that law enforcement is taking place apparently after all, nowadays, online harassment is a crime pretty much anywhere.
 

tabzer

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Nah, after X amount of death threats. A lot of slandering, a lot of trying to reason with the individual, getting the police involved atleast in one accuation, having other sites contact us about him etc.

But we gotten told by the police that they don't really care. At least just from one source doing the reporting. I've suggest methods how to block him, sadly all the ways is also extremely easy to bypass. We know for example previous offenders here, just registered a new account but have behaved. So we given a bit of leeway to it.

But this individual absolutely have something lost in the head. He wants to be seen as some "omnipotent" being. He been spamming disgusting things in the chat, on the boards etc. So people can now know we actually try to handle it.

I for one wasn't awake when this was posted, but I don't condem it. If he now wanted the attention, he have gotten it.

It seems like, as I have hinted before, the OP is requesting some sort of vigilante response. If you were afraid of the guy, would you publicly disclose that the police aren't interested in protecting you? (not saying that you, personally, are afraid or should be)
 

linuxares

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It seems like, as I have hinted before, the OP is requesting some sort of vigilante response. If you were afraid of the guy, would you publicly disclose that the police aren't interested in protecting you? (not saying that you, personally, are afraid or should be)
I'm on the other side of the world. I'm fine personally! I don't have anything to worry about at all. For me personally it's just a bug on the wall that refuse to go away. Always coming back. But hopefully this person now knows we know about him, where he is and we can escalate further if need be. It's not like we don't collect evidence or something ;P
 
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tabzer

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If he hasn't stopped by now, I don't think that he will stop because of this thread. If anything, he is probably feeling like a celebrity.

I think he wants to be caught, and for some reason your actions are failing to deliver. He'll probably escalate. For those who are genuinely afraid, don't meet up with him.
 

linuxares

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If he hasn't stopped by now, I don't think that he will stop because of this thread. If anything, he is probably feeling like a celebrity.

I think he wants to be caught, and for some reason your actions are failing to deliver. He'll probably escalate. For those who are genuinely afraid, don't meet up with him.
I guess I need to call his mommy then :3 (Yes, I do have that number)
 

Chary

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Is there some residual annoyance from this doofus throwing himself at the wall endlessly for over a year, and us having to clean up his tantrums? Yes, obviously.

I'm not a fan of giving him any attention. But after trying to attack our users, to the point where it requires a police report (that does nothing) does bring major concern. Above all else, this site values its community. If there's a threat to anyone, especially given how dangerous these types of isolated trolls can be--who knows what they might do--it's worth addressing, both by asking if anyone has any better ideas than we do, and for the sake of being transparent.
 

p1ngpong

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Ah. So this is just a subtle warning "to the rest of us".



"What do you think guys? He seems dangerous. Should we call the police? Let's roast him until someone says something no-one thought of before."
None of this applies to the 99.99% of decent members and even not so decent members out there. It applies to the nutjobs who go on year long vendettas against us and other members. They need to know they will not get away with it just because they are sitting behind a computer screen. I doubt you have any experience in this sort of thing, it shows from your comments. But naming and shaming and showing that you are onto someone in real life is a very affective tool that is reserved for the worst of the worst. It has worked in the past against this very sort of person and appears to be working in this instance also.

Looking at the rest of your posts here I am not sure what you are trying to achieve. You are accusing the site owner of trying to raise a vigilante response? Costello has been the site admin here for 20 years and I challenge anyone to find better ones than him or shaun. Quite frankly how dare you even suggest that, that is a very serious accusation to throw around here. You need to retract that comment and apologise.
 

guisadop

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sadly the law enforcement in most places can't/won't do anything about mentally ill people ever since asylums started being shut down, unless they commit a serious crime
 

Skelletonike

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Damn, that seriously sucks.

While I'm not very active in the forums, this is still one of my favourite websites and for the most part, people are pretty cool around here (except when political threads are involved).

Personally, I've never been harassed (well, there were some attempts, but it was in person and easily resolved), so I can only imagine how annoying it must be.

In a way I envy the free time that guy must have. :'(
 

Flame

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Ah. So this is just a subtle warning "to the rest of us".



"What do you think guys? He seems dangerous. Should we call the police? Let's roast him until someone says something no-one thought of before."

You do understand your "free speech" speech about somebody making peoples life hell on a forum where we(Mods) do this for a hobbie to teach one and another about what we know in the gaming scene takes the fun away.

this is not a subtle warning to rest of you. there is a difference between "free speech" and "free doing what the fuck you want, without thinking about another human being".

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

1st) now on the matter on it self. about "Clancy". I think his a ill person who needs treatment but the system is so broken he cant get the treatment which he needs. but is it mods problem to deal with a ill person who keeps harassing them or the mod team?

2nd) i know personally mentally ill people and they are 99% the victims not the other way round. the one's i meet either dont even use internet or keep to themselves on the web. so im like confused if he needs ill or what.

3rd) i mean Clancy was fine, was what i even call a good member in the 360 section. but one day its like he snapped. again which leads to its not our problem or is he even ill or what.
 
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The Catboy

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2nd) i know personally mentally ill people and they are 99% the victims not the other way round. the one's i meet either dont even use internet or keep to themselves on the web. so im like confused if he needs ill or what.

3rd) i mean Clancy was fine, was what i even call a good member in the 360 section. but one day its like he snapped. again which leads to its not our problem or is he even ill or what.
Same here, considering I spend much of my time with mentally ill people. Most of them are just doing their best to get through life with what's been handed to them. It's rare for me to meet anyone who's actually a threat to others, intentionally or unintentionally.
Clancy and I actually used to help each other in the DS and 3DS scenes and I recently ran into those old posts showing he wasn't always like this. Something happened in his life and it's alarming how quickly his mental health has spiraled out of control.
 

tabzer

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They need to know they will not get away with it just because they are sitting behind a computer screen.

You say that, but it looks like this thread is evidence of the contrary.

You are accusing the site owner of trying to raise a vigilante response?

The intention is unclear. Maybe it's just to vent/air the laundry, or seek emotional support. Maybe it's to communicate an ambiguous threat. It doesn't seem like there is consensus on a particular goal. If you are trying to resolve an issue by naming and shaming, good luck. If you want to call his mom, I recommend. If you are scared, you should know that the real dangerous people are the ones that hide their intentions. Don't open your home, family, or person to the internet.

I don't envy mods.

1st) now on the matter on it self. about "Clancy". I think his a ill person who needs treatment but the system is so broken he cant get the treatment which he needs. but is it mods problem to deal with a ill person who keeps harassing them or the mod team?

Yes. If there is nothing else that you can do, and he still bothers you, it is your problem. If you want to treat him like spam mail, or try to personally help him, it's your decision and "your problem". I don't get what you are saying. It's unfair?

I can relate to the rest of what you say.
 

godreborn

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I have bipolar as well, which is why I'm on disability. It's really easy to get yourself agitated. I sometimes wake up agitated actually. Lost lots of friends because of it. It does sound like that's what this guy has.
 

linuxares

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I have bipolar as well, which is why I'm on disability. It's really easy to get yourself agitated. I sometimes wake up agitated actually. Lost lots of friends because of it. It does sound like that's what this guy has.
He doesn't have bipolar. He is just full of Chem X and LSD Y
 

JuanMena

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I was right then... I think?

By saying that this sounds more like a "Trolling got too far" scenario rather than an actual threat that could potentially escalate into some serious crimes.

I haven't seen the fuckhead around anymore in the Chatbox nor in the Memenox or this thread (thanks Master, that's a nice adjective) and I don't think we will in a while.

Has he harassed you (mods/staff/users) recently?
 
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linuxares

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I think I was right then... I think?

By saying that this sounds more like a "Trolling got too far" scenario rather than an actual threat that could potentially escalate into some serious crimes.

I haven't seen the fuckhead around anymore in the Chatbox nor in the Memenox or this thread (thanks Master, that's a nice adjective) and I don't think we will in a while.

Has he harassed you (mods/staff/users) recently?
Last week I think?
 

JuanMena

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Last week I think?
When this thread was brought up, right?
Unless you're referring to harassment in other places other than GBAtemp.

Again, I'll repeat myself: If you guys has contact info, tell his parents/tutors about his behavior.
Since police hasn't done anything, fill an accusation separatedly against him. Accumulated charges (from different persons) against him will speak louder than "GBATEMP vs one guy".

Or take him to the nearest school and it'll get solved in a more effective way?
(just kidding with this last one, please don't ban me)
 

linuxares

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When this thread was brought up, right?
Unless you're referring to harassment in other places other than GBAtemp.

Again, I'll repeat myself: If you guys has contact info, tell his parents/tutors about his behavior.
Since police hasn't done anything, fill an accusation separatedly against him. Accumulated charges (from different persons) against him will speak louder than "GBATEMP vs one guy".

Or take him to the nearest school and it'll get solved in a more effective way?
(just kidding with this last one, please don't ban me)
The guy is believe it or not in is 20s...
 
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