S
sshannon
Guest
I run a professional wrestling Website called Rantsylvania, and have been active in the online wrestling fan community since 1994. Now, I realize wrestling fans don't exactly have a reputation for being the most cultured people on the face of the planet, but there is a market for intelligent wrestling discussion, and I try to fill that market with Rantsylvania.
That being said, there are some people who are not appreciative of my work. Namely, there is a writer on a competing site, ScoopThis, named Chris Hyatte, who has had issues with me since 1998. Hyatte's problem with me originally stemmed from the fact that he had problems with someone who was writing on one of my Websites, although eventually he began bring more personal issues into the mix.
Hyatte is a very popular writer who essentially molded himself after Howard Stern. As a result, his writing style is obscene to an unbelievable degree. He often goes into graphic detail about the sexual escapades he would like to go into with the various females in wrestling (most of which involve non-consentual activities), and has even gone so far as to claim he has raped my mother. He also makes racist, sexist and homophobic "jokes" on a weekly basis.
However, like Stern, this has resulted in Hyatte garnering a very large, very devout following of people who get off on such material. And not only is Hyatte aware of this, he also uses this to his advantage.
One of the things Hyatte likes to do is to sic his fanbase on anyone who has any problem with him. Usually this takes the form of Hyatte printing someone's e-mail to him, then posting that person's e-mail address so his fans can then flame that person to bits. I should know, because that's exactly what he did in the early stages of our "feud," and it basically rendered that e-mail account unusable.
However, for people who Hyatte particularly dislikes, he will go a step further. A while back, he was able to find my private, unlisted ICQ number, and his fans managed to jam up my ICQ to the point where I couldn't use it for a period of several days. He has found out the private e-mail addresses of wrestling personalities he doesn't like, and posted them in his column. More recently, he discovered the home phone number of another columnist he has issues with, and posted that number in a public forum just long enough for some of his fans to harass that person, but not long enough so he'd get caught and face legal trouble.
This past Sunday I received a phone call from someone claiming to be "Rick." I know a Rick, but the voice on the other end was far deeper than Rick's, and had the undertones of a heavy tobacco chewer. When I asked who the person on the other end was, the voice replied, "This is your worst nightmare. Now I have your phone number ..."
At that point I hung up, but I had a feeling I knew who it was. Wednesday, Hyatte posted a message at the beginning of his weekly column essentially confirming that he had called me, and that he now had both my phone number and address. That column is available at the following URL:
http://www.scoopthis.com/pages/article.cgi?file=mopups/000417_mopups_raw.htm
The tone of his message reeks of blackmail, to say the least. This is actually now the second thing he is "holding over my head," the first being a post I made to a semi-private bulletin board regarding a medical condition I had been suffering from.
To be blunt, I am sick and tired of dealing with this ingrate, and I want to put an end to everything right now. I'm not familiar with the laws governing blackmail, threats and stalking, but I'm certain he hasn't done anything yet that I can sue or have him arrested over. So what I'd like to have happen is the next best thing, which I believe would be to scare him into not even thinking about me again, much less mentioning my name in a public forum.
I believe that what he is threatening to do is against the law, and so what I'd like to be able to do is to send him an e-mail detailing exactly what laws he would be breaking, what the penalties for breaking those laws would be and making my intent to pursue those remedies to the fullest extent of the law known.
It is for that reason that I am posting here now. I need help in determining what courses of action I can take to prevent Hyatte from taking any further action against me, as well as assistance in taking these courses of action. If anyone can help me, I would be most appreciative.
Sean Shannon
Webmaster, Rantsylvania.com
That being said, there are some people who are not appreciative of my work. Namely, there is a writer on a competing site, ScoopThis, named Chris Hyatte, who has had issues with me since 1998. Hyatte's problem with me originally stemmed from the fact that he had problems with someone who was writing on one of my Websites, although eventually he began bring more personal issues into the mix.
Hyatte is a very popular writer who essentially molded himself after Howard Stern. As a result, his writing style is obscene to an unbelievable degree. He often goes into graphic detail about the sexual escapades he would like to go into with the various females in wrestling (most of which involve non-consentual activities), and has even gone so far as to claim he has raped my mother. He also makes racist, sexist and homophobic "jokes" on a weekly basis.
However, like Stern, this has resulted in Hyatte garnering a very large, very devout following of people who get off on such material. And not only is Hyatte aware of this, he also uses this to his advantage.
One of the things Hyatte likes to do is to sic his fanbase on anyone who has any problem with him. Usually this takes the form of Hyatte printing someone's e-mail to him, then posting that person's e-mail address so his fans can then flame that person to bits. I should know, because that's exactly what he did in the early stages of our "feud," and it basically rendered that e-mail account unusable.
However, for people who Hyatte particularly dislikes, he will go a step further. A while back, he was able to find my private, unlisted ICQ number, and his fans managed to jam up my ICQ to the point where I couldn't use it for a period of several days. He has found out the private e-mail addresses of wrestling personalities he doesn't like, and posted them in his column. More recently, he discovered the home phone number of another columnist he has issues with, and posted that number in a public forum just long enough for some of his fans to harass that person, but not long enough so he'd get caught and face legal trouble.
This past Sunday I received a phone call from someone claiming to be "Rick." I know a Rick, but the voice on the other end was far deeper than Rick's, and had the undertones of a heavy tobacco chewer. When I asked who the person on the other end was, the voice replied, "This is your worst nightmare. Now I have your phone number ..."
At that point I hung up, but I had a feeling I knew who it was. Wednesday, Hyatte posted a message at the beginning of his weekly column essentially confirming that he had called me, and that he now had both my phone number and address. That column is available at the following URL:
http://www.scoopthis.com/pages/article.cgi?file=mopups/000417_mopups_raw.htm
The tone of his message reeks of blackmail, to say the least. This is actually now the second thing he is "holding over my head," the first being a post I made to a semi-private bulletin board regarding a medical condition I had been suffering from.
To be blunt, I am sick and tired of dealing with this ingrate, and I want to put an end to everything right now. I'm not familiar with the laws governing blackmail, threats and stalking, but I'm certain he hasn't done anything yet that I can sue or have him arrested over. So what I'd like to have happen is the next best thing, which I believe would be to scare him into not even thinking about me again, much less mentioning my name in a public forum.
I believe that what he is threatening to do is against the law, and so what I'd like to be able to do is to send him an e-mail detailing exactly what laws he would be breaking, what the penalties for breaking those laws would be and making my intent to pursue those remedies to the fullest extent of the law known.
It is for that reason that I am posting here now. I need help in determining what courses of action I can take to prevent Hyatte from taking any further action against me, as well as assistance in taking these courses of action. If anyone can help me, I would be most appreciative.
Sean Shannon
Webmaster, Rantsylvania.com