I had intended to take a few days off, spend time with my nursing-student daughter during her precious few days’ holiday. Read. Write fiction. Do some more packing in anticipation of moving house in the near future. Join a local association. Fill out some more articles on vaxfax.me. Watch some Doctor Who with my best friend.
Fun stuff.
About a week ago, there was a bit of unexpected excitement on Twitter when some guy talking like a Grade-A delusional started infesting the site and bad-mouthing some respected medical bloggers. When I say “bad-mouthing”, I of course mean posting vicious, ill-spelt libel and insults. Needless to say, while his victims started blocking him several of us reacted to this sudden and unprovoked übercuntery (my SO just smacked me over the head for that word, but I stand by it. Ow) defaming perfectly reputable scientists and medics. We took a look at his company website, since he claimed to be an inventor with hundreds of products to his name – good going for a guy with an MSc in Biology and Chemistry – running a rapidly growing company producing medicines that save lives.
Out-licensed vitamin supplements. Our howls of collective laughter must have been audible to any advanced civilisation with their own SETI programme between here and the Large Magellanic Cloud. EpiRen published a brief article on his blog exposing this idiot and his outrageous assertions, incidentally making a temporary exception to his own rigid principles by calling him a “douchebag”. I’m not quite sure how strong an insult that word is considered in its native country (it certainly doesn’t exist here), but I’m pretty sure it’s nowhere near as bad as the pyrotechnical profanity the creep deserved.
Naturally, he didn’t like this and started to bluster. Things hadn’t exactly been funny ha-ha up to then, but we’d considered him relatively harmless, if unpleasant and completely devoid of any respect for the truth. Then he started Twatting EpiRen’s personal info: real name, address, telephone number. Where he works. He also emailed all of EpiRen’s colleagues, his employer and anyone else he could find who might be remotely connected with the department, with allegations of image-stealing, libel and having a political agenda (promoting vaccines, FFS).
It was now clear that this weirdo was so venomous even a box jellyfish would come off second-best in an encounter. After several complaints, Twitter deleted his account quickly the same evening. Or else he changed his handle and made the profile private to avoid facing the consequences of his actions, and I wouldn’t rule out a combination of both.
As for EpiRen, his employer was supportive, he kept his job, but the consequences… Well, read this on lizditz’s blog (opens in new tab).
If ever there was proof of the need for anonymity to protect the innocent from on- and offline harassment, this is it. Are you listening, Google+ and Scienceblogs?
EpiRen’s profile is now private, his blog has disappeared from public view, thereby depriving the world of much useful information. A great shame. PoisonTwat’s (not his alias; possibly not his real name) blog has also been deleted, thereby depriving the world of a swathe of toxic bullshit. It will not be missed.
I don’t do #FF, since I’m usually hard at work slacking off when everyone starts posting. However, here are some people to follow on Twitter, many of them insulted by PoisonTwat and therefore highly recommended as sane and reasonable people:
Some testimonials from people who need to use pseudonyms or aliases on Internet:
My Name Is Me
