ICOT, we have always enjoyed your posts. You have always been very helpful, informative, and funny. Although you may at times have done a little bit of “prying” it was nothing that would set off an alarm of “possible stalker”.
AYC’s case was a bit different. Although he was always a nice, helpful, thoughtful poster there were other things going on. I had hoped that this would turn out better but it is with a very broken and heavy heart that we must come to this conclusion.
The thing that tipped us off to him being a possible stalker was his vehement arguing against caution. It seemed to us, that he was deliberatly trying to quiet people like Jothar who were trying to warn the oilam about stalkers. We couldn’t understand how he could argue against it and the only explanation seemed to be that he himself was a stalker and was therefore trying to cover up for himself by saying that the dangers are exaggerated. If you recall, I called him Joseph during that argument which perhaps was going too far at the time. Believe me, it wasn’t just that one argument that caused me to make that accusation. Things had been slowly building up and there were a number of things pointing to it which I will not go into at the moment. After many posters pointed out all his good qualities I retracted and issued an apology. I had hoped that he was indeed not Joseph and not a stalker and that the CR would continue as usual.
Then the following exchange took place 2 weeks ago:
Jothar:
Just to make it clear again:
I have nothing personal against anybody. I’m just trying to stop cybercrime. As a father, the death of Leiby kletzky hit me hard. So when I spotted what looked like cybercrime, I had to react. The innocent kids (and adults) of the CR deserve nothing less.
AYC’s response:
And LEIBY a”h had Nothing to do with the internet. I AM a Kletzky. I’ve been affected by this summer in a very personal way and am still reeling from the loss. As well as other losses. (Btw, his great-grandfather whom he was named after used to say quite often that the only regret he has from surviving the war was that he was unable to die al kiddush Hashem…)
And I still believe that one should be cautious but not paranoid.
The hypervigilance is not healthy for anyone.
Am Yisrael Chai , who was already under suspicion previously, assured people that they need not fear giving away personal information because he/she was a Kletzky. He used the Kletzky name to try to manipulate people into agreeing with him. This is a known tactic in the world of manipulation and deceit.
When he claimed to be a Kletzky in order to back up his argument against caution, that was sort of the final straw. I didn’t notice that post at the time but another user did and took the initiative to look into it and then reported their findings to us. A Kletzky was shown AYC’s, post, and raised alarms.
AYC has been given a few days to establish his/her innocence once and for all. I had emailed him explaining the situation and asking for some sort of confirmation that he is who he claims to be. We were all hoping that he would acquit himself.
Sadly, he did not. Instead of cooperating, ayc did nothing but hurl invective and abuse at us for doing our jobs. It seems apparent that AYC was nothing but a fraud, as we suspected for a while. And we, like many of you, feel shocked, outraged, and violated. We trusted someone and our trust was abused.
The Coffee Room has lost its innocence and the cozy sense of trust it used to have, and for this we are all saddened. The rules of the Coffee Room state not to pry information yet in the course of conversations it is very hard not to divulge things here and there. Often we let things through such as ICOT’s examples above. Our goal is to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for all. Unfortunately we live in a crazy world where that is not as easy as it sounds.
There are those out there who will, puzzlingly, disagree with this course of action. If you do not feel comfortable with the mods enforcing safety, feel free to leave. We have a job to do, and you are under no obligation to use this website. Thank you very much for your understanding.
And ayc, if you are who you claim to be and you out there reading this, please reply to my email so that we can have this resolved once and for all.