# Now, why would someone DO this to me? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 4, 2005, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-why-would-someone-do-this-to-me/282930 "2005-01-04T01:20:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-why-would-someone-do-this-to-me/282930/1 "2005-01-04T01:20:18Z")
I was ego-surfing, looking for reviews of my books, so it serve me right. And I came across [this](http://ztrain2.tripod.com/). I’m too baffled to even be angry. Why would someone go to the time, trouble and expense to post something like this, especially when I have never lied about or tried to hide my past? Utterly bizarre. The only thing I can think of is one of two fellow authors who hate my insides, or a particularly spiteful Doper–but since I’m “out” on the SDMB . . . again, I’m more stunned than angry. It’s like taking out a web site to say, “Don Cheadle is a negro!” Of course, it does me no harm, it only makes the anonymous web-site creator look like smacked ass he or she is. ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-why-would-someone-do-this-to-me/282930/2 "2005-01-04T01:27:46Z")
Someone did it because they’re an asshole. As the years pass, I am learning to never underestimate people’s ability to be assholes, just for the sake of being assholes. And sure, there _are_ assholes here at the SDMB, who would be quite capable, I am sure, of making that page. Because they’re pathetic losers who have nothing better to do, or have accomplished nothing of note themselves so they derive pleasure taking pot-shots at those who have. Or whatever. It’s upsetting on many levels, but to me, one of the more upsetting things is being reminded, _once again_, people are assholes, and that they’re capable of sinking _that_ low. And it’s upsetting to know that you can’t automatically tell which people are the bottom-feeding assholes just by looking at them. This sort of thing just depresses the hell out of me. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-why-would-someone-do-this-to-me/282930/3 "2005-01-04T01:28:40Z")
How bizarre. On the bright side, it’s some measure of success that someone would bother. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-why-would-someone-do-this-to-me/282930/4 "2005-01-04T01:31:34Z")
WTF? I’d suggest a letter to the nice people at Lycos’ abuse center (Lycos owns tripod): [http://help.lycos.com/watchdog/wd\_form.asp](http://help.lycos.com/watchdog/wd_form.asp) Better still, have your agent or lawyer or publisher get in touch with them and suggest they give up the owner of the site so you can have words with him personally. ---
**Author:** ![LilyoftheValley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@LilyoftheValley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilyoftheValley)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-why-would-someone-do-this-to-me/282930/5 "2005-01-04T01:31:36Z")
Well that’s just bizarre. And poor web design, to boot. I’ll have you know I just googled your name and I found the quote “one of the world’s best film historians, Eve Golden”, and I didn’t get the page you linked as of page 7 (when I gave up). By the way, how annoying is it to have a name that leads you to vanity searches resulting in New Year’s Eve events? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-why-would-someone-do-this-to-me/282930/6 "2005-01-04T01:32:46Z")
I suppose you can’t find out (or, more likely, it isn’t worth what effort it would involve) who owns the site? Is it one of those “any old yahoo can get webspace” things? Fortunately there’s fuckall in the way of any attempt at proof on the site. It might as well continue “And the moon is made of green cheese. Do not believe scientists who say otherwise.” ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-why-would-someone-do-this-to-me/282930/7 "2005-01-04T01:32:55Z")
How petty and completely juvenile. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-why-would-someone-do-this-to-me/282930/8 "2005-01-04T01:34:53Z")
> [@](#): > > Why would someone go to the time, trouble and expense to post something like this, especially when I have never lied about or tried to hide my past? Utterly bizarre. Firstly, my sympathies for being subjected to such an idiotic, assholeish prank, but I should point out that it probably took about five minutes to post that and it’s a free Tripod site, so the time and expense were basically nothing. Don’t know if that makes you feel better or not. Also, I’m pretty sure if you complain to Tripod about this, they’ll take it down. And if anyone ever gets the idea to do something similar to me, yes, I am a small, angry rodent and everyone I might conceivably care about already knows that. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-why-would-someone-do-this-to-me/282930/9 "2005-01-04T01:34:58Z")
How uncouth. It calls for a face-slap and them being handed my card. This does leave one question, though: Who on Earth would be so obsessive as to post a whole web page dedicated to this fact, and yet leave it at only one sentence? (Off-topic, but, since you’re here: What’s Gus Visser saying in the “He’s…like jelly” line besides the three deciperable words?) ---
**Author:** ![minty\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-why-would-someone-do-this-to-me/282930/10 "2005-01-04T01:35:20Z")
Hey, since when is a simple verb tense error grounds for Pitting random Internet douchebags? [sub]Don’t let the douchebags get you down, **Eve**. [/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-why-would-someone-do-this-to-me/282930/11 "2005-01-04T01:50:30Z")
Abuse reported–thanks, **Manny**. As I said, it makes the poster, not me, look bad, so I am more gob-smacked than furious at their total misunderstanding of matters transgender or their desire to–what? hurt my book sales? ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-why-would-someone-do-this-to-me/282930/12 "2005-01-04T01:59:22Z")
It looks like the website has already been removed. ---
**Author:** ![Metacom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecae2f/32.png) [@Metacom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Metacom)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-why-would-someone-do-this-to-me/282930/13 "2005-01-04T02:03:25Z")
Could the persons motives perhaps be religious? When I load the page, there are the following four adds in a banner along the top: ```auto The Genesis Story More people are learning the real meaning of the Genesis account. www.genesis-story.com Biblical Costumes Your one stop costume headquarters. For Biblical & Religious Costumes http://www.starcostumes.com Free Passion Christ DVD Get a Free Passion of Christ DVD. We have 10,000 copies to share. www.freepassiondvd.com BibleOne Study Software Study the Bible on your PC Over 40 texts and translations www.bibleone.org ``` Does tripod let the author select which advertisements would be most apropriate (perhaps based on a selected category), or do they use some kind of heuristic or something? If the former, I hope I picked the right religion and Jesus gives that page’s author a verbal bitch-slap at some point. And if the Catholics are right, I hope he or she gets an extra day in purgatory. There’s nothing wrong with your sexual identity, and there’s a lot wrong with anonymously attacking someone. ---
**Author:** ![High\_Cheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8797f3/32.png) [@High\_Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/High_Cheese)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-why-would-someone-do-this-to-me/282930/14 "2005-01-04T02:21:47Z")
Eve: I hate to hijack; but, from the text, I assume your writings are universally available. Could you please provide a link, or links, not for critique but for enjoyment purposes? ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-why-would-someone-do-this-to-me/282930/15 "2005-01-04T02:24:41Z")
Dunno if anyone has seen this: > [@](#): > > I’m scum. I tried to hurt someone for living. I realize this is disgusting, and I am small and wretched for it. And I am deserving of hurt for this, not that person. That person deserves strength and privacy. An anonymous apology means little, and I don’t deserve the chance to publish this message but I will. I know this does not fix anything. I am sorry. I have no idea what the site originally said, but that’s what it says now. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-why-would-someone-do-this-to-me/282930/16 "2005-01-04T02:29:58Z")
**TellMeI’mNotCrazy,** that was all I saw, as of about 7 pm. So maybe the complaint worked? ---
**Author:** ![stegon66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee59a6/32.png) [@stegon66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stegon66)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-why-would-someone-do-this-to-me/282930/17 "2005-01-04T02:31:03Z")
Wow, Eve, those are some impressive credentials - I didn’t know you were a film historian/author. Very cool. The book on Theda Bara looks particularly interesting - I’ll try to get a copy. BTW, don’t you post on the Home Theater Forum as well? Checked out the offending site as well and whatever it said, it’s gone. Good. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-why-would-someone-do-this-to-me/282930/18 "2005-01-04T02:34:14Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > Dunno if anyone has seen this: > > I have no idea what the site originally said, but that’s what it says now. Oh, now I get it. Before this it had said something terribly rude I guess. I hadn’t seen the “before” page so I was wondering why **Eve** was all worked up over somebody’s apparent groveling. ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-why-would-someone-do-this-to-me/282930/19 "2005-01-04T02:39:06Z")
Is it just me, or does anyone else suspect that perhaps a member of this board was behind that? Or perhaps I don’t know how things at Tripod work—but it seems like pretty fast timing, however it happened, anyway. I can believe that Tripod yanked the original page that fast (well, actually, I am surprised by that, because in my experience it’s never that fast—but hey, it’s possible), but I’m surprised that the “author” of the page wrote this new message so fast. Of course, they could have gotten an email from Tripod and gotten right on changing the page—I don’t know . . . ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-why-would-someone-do-this-to-me/282930/20 "2005-01-04T02:40:21Z")
How odd. (I was able to see the original one-sentence thing in Google’s cached version). Truly bizarre. FWIW, I work with plenty of indie musicians and other pseudo celebrities. So on occasion I’ve seen some equally weird crap. Stuff that usually just makes you go: 😕 We even have an email folder labelled “FreakMail” where we store the more unusual stuff, just in case an actual pattern of harassment turns up, since we get some pretty weird email sometimes too via “fans” and whatnot. I agree. That little one-liner was plain Weird. Like someone jumping to their feet in a crowded restaurant, pointing at me and yelling “She’s a Canadian!” _Points at TellMeI’mNotCrazy_ …She’s a brunette! A brunette!!! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-why-would-someone-do-this-to-me/282930.md?page=2)