I didn’t disbelieve her. Of course, I didn’t really read the thread in full, either, so had no idea about her abilities (sky-diving, etc) so I didn’t have a reason to be suspicious.
I figured she was a bit full of shit from the beginning, although more along the ‘exaggerating my fabulousness’ sort of way, as opposed to ‘this whole story is bullshit’ kind of way. I was predicting (in my head) a ‘Oh my god, umkay is dead!!!’ post after she was gone for a few days.
I wasn’t disappointed.
I wasn’t really aware of her at all until the whole matter was coming to a boil.
“You can’t bluff a man who isn’t paying attention.” I wish I could say I saw at once what was going on, but I didn’t read any of the threads closely enough to notice anything.
Regards,
Shodan
Other. Didn’t know a damn thing about it all.
Other: I believed her, but only read about 20 - 30 posts of the Should I date a devotee thread, and none of the Ask the girl in a wheelchair thread, until I was looking to see why they were closed (and none of the other related threads).
Not much to go on, at that point.
I was taken in and read every word of the first 500-odd posts in the Ask the Girl thread. It was compelling reading and I posted a few times. After that I found it hard to read every post. I also glanced at her Date the Devotee thread a few times, as it was referenced in the first thread.
Lesson learned, and I won’t be as fully accepting at face value, but also won’t “punish” others for my umkay experience and be super-skeptical.
Like Capt Kirk, I was ready to help him string up Notokay.
Maybe it’s was just me, but I saw the first 2 threads, thought “don’t care”, and moved on.
Yep, me too. Bought it hook, line and sinker because I just can’t wrap my head around why that would be interesting to anyone to do. (Trolling for attention, I mean.) I still learned stuff from that thread, though, so there.
I clicked yes because I did believe her when I read the “ask the girl…” thread. I didn’t follow it closely, then saw the umkay is dead thread and that bothered me because I recently had a neighbor killed and that was the first ‘death’ that I’d been exposed to in many, many years. (I wasn’t close the the neighbor and we were not friends at all, it was just the concept of ‘oh, she’s not there any more, ever’).
I am amazed at the anger that her trolling has caused. Worse, now I’m figuring that someday I going to be accused of trolling because I did believe Frosty’s story, then when I found a reply I’d made to one of his earlier posts, I was devastated that I might have posted such a thing on the day his family was killed. And THEN, add to it that I had asked about something related to my neighbor’s death… well, right about now, I guess that I’m looking like a total troll just waiting to pounce. (For the record, I will PM anyone who wants links to articles about my neighbor’s death and the people who held them hostage in that house. I don’t want to post publicly because then you’d know where I live.)
All I can say is that REALLY weird things have happened to me in my life and I am no one extraordinary. So, I don’t find it hard to believe that weird things can happen to other people as well.
Well I have a nice hanging tree close to mi casa, plenty of parking and a street closure permit is readily available from the COH. A public hanging is counter indicated at this time but, fellow dopers, anytime we do need it just send me a PM and I will do the rest. Bring your own lawn chairs.
CAPT
I have a backhoe and a lot of remote acreage… only a small fee for deposits, no questions asked.
I voted “other,” because I had not been following the two threads that he/she starred in. I read the first couple of posts, and that was about it. So, I bought it at face value. So, when the news from NotOkay was posted, I bought it on face value until he/she never returned to post funeral details. Then when umkay returned, I started smelling fish.
I might have been alerted–and, possibly, maybe not–a little sooner had I read on down and seen all the gushing, crushing, adoring, fawning fanboys. It reminded me a lot of another board member from some years back who was witty, chatty, gregarious, verbose, and extremely well-informed about his/her purported profession–and this person also had one after another adoring fan constantly beckoning for his/her opinion.
Completely believed it.
I was suspicious from the first time she mentioned her cord was severed, as I used to work with SCI patients, and had never heard of a severed cord. I googled it, and couldn’t find out if that was impossible, so decided to assume I just didn’t know about that aspect; as a psychologist, I know a lot about SCI, but not everything.
I kept reading, hoping she would slip up, but didn’t see anything else suspicious, which is why I think she is a pretender (someone who wants to have an injury).
I was smart enough to mention my suspicions to two other dopers, so I can verify that I questioned her veracity on June 7. 
I’m too new to this forum to know this story in any detail, but in another forum I would post on there was recently someone who (after many years of posting) fooled tons of people that he had cancer, was going through chemotherapy with a hard-ass-soft-on-the-inside eccentric named Fred, and was given a blog (by the administrators of that forum) to talk about his experiences with him.
I caught a whiff of it through a thread concerning the blog itself and the newest entry that pointed out he had about a year left to live. That was the first post I read, so I wished him well and offered anything that some stranger on the internet can by way of “advice” (or best wishes, anyway). Following that, I read the rest of the blog. It was obviously fictional, poorly written, and highly cinematic. Nothing about it spoke to any fraction of reality. Another poster brought up the inconsistencies and was promptly banned. I followed suit and asked for simple information: does anyone know him personally? does anyone know anyone who knows anyone who has been with him in recent days/months? does anyone have any specific information about where he works so that anything can be verified?
These questions were very insulting to people and so I didn’t post anything else. Less than a week later, and now with a fund set up to donate money (which he asked to go to charity), he’s apparently dead. So this time I private message people to ask for specific information: what’s his last name? when/if there is an obituary, can someone post it to me? what school (he apparently was a teacher at a school in the “Dallas area”) did he work at and is there anything written by that school/his former students? The same kinds of questions. People started posting anonymously that this person was a fraud and were immediately banned and had their posts deleted by the administrators. I came along and offered the same questions and was banned.
Less than a week later, it was revealed that this person was a fraud. Everything they wrote was a lie: no Fred, no chemo, no cancer, not a teacher, not even the age they represented as. People were still so offended by my questions that they were indignant enough to be happy that I was banned rather than offer anything by way of apology or otherwise.
I don’t make friends with people on the internet and I don’t reveal any personal information about my life. I’m still relatively young (27 years old) but feel “old” in the respect of not following through with people’s comfort with the internet and disclosure (I have no Facebook profile, no Twitter, no blog, no cell phone, etc.). I don’t think it’s smart to reveal things about yourself online and, though I won’t necessarily be mean to people, I don’t think it’s good policy to “befriend” people on an internet forum/other internet site that you don’t (and can’t) know. People like the person I spoke about and Umkay definitely exist in scores and their illnesses perpetuate through anonymity. I am a proponent of anonymity but within the conditions of not giving oneself away within it. That means mediating what you’re willing to give and receive in these kinds of environment. You should give respect and thoughtful response and some empathy, but that’s about it.
The fact that this happened on this forum isn’t even a surprise to me anymore. I’ve seen it so many times. I just hope people learn something from it.
Called bullshit on 19 May, which I think was the day she first popped up.
Honestly? Didn’t really think about it. I remember seeing the “ask a woman in a wheelchair” thread but I didn’t read it. So umkay didn’t really register with me as true or false. I’ll admit that when I saw NotOkay’s post about her “death”, my initial response was to try to figure out who umkay was. So not really knowing her, I didn’t participate in the eulogy thread.
Then when umkay immediately came back and claimed that NotOkay was a troll, I thought that this seemed to be an awful lot of drama. I won’t say I believed she was a troll at that point but I wouldn’t have been surprised either.
Liar! 
I voted other because I didn’t pay attention until it all came out, but I think “extraordinary claims…” If someone claims to be in a wheelchair, and is able to type to a messageboard, that to me is a pretty ordinary claim, and I accept it. As opposed to some other claims I’ve seen (“I’m an alien abductee,” “I’m from the future,” etc.)
But I don’t get too emotionally involved in boards, although I do spend a lot of time perusing the different threads.