yeah. what the hell?

Okay, did at some point I fall asleep and fall into an alternate dimension where we are all A-Okay with breaking privacy in the name of nothing more important than curiosity?

Seriously here. I need to know this, because either I'm insane or there are people out there who think it is *just fine* to *go into someone else's email program*, *read the email*, then *post excerpts in public*.

I'm actually boggled that this is, apparently, a point of *pride*.

You know. I'm not okay with the posting of locked LJ posts. I'm not. But I see why that happens. I'm really not okay with posting of private emails *you* have recieved from other people, but damn, it happens, and in the case of a flame? I find it pretty much justified, so hey, I have grey spots. But seriously, this is the first time that someone has stated, pretty much, that another person left her email program open on a computer, so that was total justificiation for this person to *read her email*, email sent to another person, then *post it*. This isn't even like getting an email that was sent to you by accident. This is deliberate. And fuck the entire the age of the internet means no privacy I keep hearing. That's bullshit. You either know that's a wrong act, period, or seriously, there is something very wrong where we, not just as fandom but as *people*, are okay with this.

Comments

[lyra-sena.livejournal.com]

Huh. It's against the law to open other people's snail mail. Perhaps we need something like that for email. This scene sort of boggles my mind. I mean, I understand if the thing was open and you just happened by and hey! You're curious! Let's read this person's email that they TOTALLY LEFT OPEN. But what would possess a person to post it? *scratches head*

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Some very less than complimentary comments, if the exerpts are any indication. Since we don't have the entire email, frankly, I--this just so does not work for me at all.

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

I think I'm probably glad that I have no idea what you're talking about.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I could have lived a long time and been glad not to have read any of that.

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

So I was not paying attn and don't know who did what, but I will point out that at my workplace (a university), if some student does that to another student and gets caught, they stand a fair chance of being expelled.

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

(PS. Standard "accepted" practice for this at my university is to take the email program, post to the big public university bboard "I AM A DUMBASS WHO LEFT MYSELF LOGGED IN" with it (or equivalent message) and then to log the person out.)

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I just can't imagine doing it. Tempting, yeah, but--I mean, it's email. That's, to me, tantamount ot opening their mail because it happens to be accidentally sent to me. Or something along those lines.

Heh. I stopped using school or work computers for my private email or LJ *early on*. I was bad, bad, bad about not completely logging off.

[nightsister.livejournal.com]

I think Person A stated that Person B left her email program open on Person A's computer, and that Person B's emailed comments about Person A and her friends were apparently less than complimentary.

Whatever. I'm not justifying ANYone's actions, because I wasn't there and I don't know the whole story/truth. The point is, the resulting mess is so convoluted and shitty that it actually makes the idea of reading and posting someone else's private emails sound tame by comparison to me.

And I'm tired of it.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I'm bothered most by the fact that almost no one twitched at the idea of opening someone else's email. Leaving the program open? Dumb. But on the toher hand, i can't talk on the subject of dumbness. At my last fannish gathering, we were violently laissez-faire about pretty much everything, including leaving money, our wallets, stuff out everywhere. I gave a friend my check card and my bank acct password so she could do some transactions for me and never even blinked, you know? So this? Bothers me. And what bothers me most is it *doesn't* bother that many people. I take my privacy pretty much for granted when it comes to my friends and friendslist and I'm twitching at the idea that an unknown end justifies the means here.

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

I appear to have missed some sort of drama, and yet, my life goes on unabated. Huh!

<3

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

P.S. Also I agree with you.

[mz-bstone.livejournal.com]

yeah

that's a bit icky. I don't open my husband's personal mail. Bills and insurance related stuff, yeah, with his agreement. But personal ... is personal.

B

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*nod* Yeah. It's--well. Personal.

Wow, that was eloquent of me for an answer. *grins*

[thistle90.livejournal.com]

Ah, so you found the QAF wank. It was a seriously fucked up thing to do.

That's bullshit. You either know that's a wrong act, period, or seriously, there is something very wrong where we, not just as fandom but as *people*, are okay with this.

Yup. My f-list is a bit shorter today because I'm not interested in having people around who can't figure that out.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*rubs forehead* That just--yeah. Just blew my mind. Cause the first thing I thought was--wait. You are *proud* of this? *Why*?

Yup. My f-list is a bit shorter today because I'm not interested in having people around who can't figure that out.

I'm getting a little freaked by that, too. i need to think about some trimming.

[moose74.livejournal.com]

Hi! Lurker who watches lots from a safe distance too. :)

The thing that really fried me is the person who posted the e-mail (which I totally agree was not right) had the unmitigated gall to act like they walked on water. Wow. O_o It must be nice to never make mistakes and be the only person with feelings to get hurt. *facepalm* x 1000

I'm starting to think that LJ is worse than High School was. :/

[seperis.livejournal.com]

The thing that really fried me is the person who posted the e-mail (which I totally agree was not right) had the unmitigated gall to act like they walked on water. Wow. O_o It must be nice to never make mistakes and be the only person with feelings to get hurt. *facepalm* x 1000

totally with you. Red face from the palming, too. *grins*

I'm starting to think that LJ is worse than High School was. :/

ooh, yeah. Someone wrote up a comparison once. It was interesting, too. I wonder where that is?

[ranalore.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's. Wow. Not regretting my decision to step away from the QaF fandom any. And yeah, it could be argued it could happen in any fandom, but it always does happen in that one.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*sighs* I just want everyone to *think* about the stand they are taking on this one. Seriously. Becuase wow, does that just come down in a really bad place, you know?

[suzvoy.livejournal.com]

What the fuck?? *boggles*

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Heh. That was almost my first reaction. *grins*

[rose7.livejournal.com]

This is totally disgusting, but I get the impression almost daily that a lot of people have lost the feeling for privacy. They ask and answer the most indiscreet and intrusive questions and are amazed when someone dares to decline playing the "I-bare-it-all-game". People go through an elaborate screening process to participate in shows where they will be filmed and watched constantly. It is unconceivable to me and I speak up for the right to privacy and intimacy and personal secrets wherever I deem it necessary.

By the way, that has been a big problem for me with Smallville, the TV series, the constant harping of characters that in the name of friendship you are obliged to divulge your personal secrets. A ridiculous concept IMO. Not even lovers should tell each other everything IMO. Everything is just too much. And to come back to the email reading and posting, even lovers should not read their mail, and the posting is never, ever, under no circumstances o.k.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I'm beginning to wonder why it is that the attitude is going toward a world without privacy. I just. I really don't get that at all. And you're right, it's everywhere. Gah.

[punkdoc.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, I think a lot of us in the QAF fandom have learned to be kerfluffle avoidant over the past few years. Which means it's hard to tell what actions people approve or diapprove, because mostly they are just trying to stay the hell away from messy situations and enjoy the pleasant aspects of the fandom.

[punkdoc.livejournal.com]

Ugh...early morning commenting = bad spelling

I meant "disapprove" of course. :)

[nebulist.livejournal.com]

I am having horrible flashbacks to my freshman-year roommate now. The one who went through my email and showed it to the guy I was dating. Yeah.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*shudders and cuddles* Yeah. That's. Okay, do you need to lie down? I think about that and I get some serious heebies.

*shudders more* I'm so sorry. Man.

[cleverpoison.livejournal.com]

So. I find this appalling. Really. Maybe I'm just young and idealistic, but I think mail is mail, whether it's e-mail or snail mail. Envelopes are sealed for a reason and accounts have passwords for a reason. I think this really bothers me because a friend's mother opens here mail. She justifies it by saying that she needs to know what's going on with my friend. I think if she stopped opening my friend's mail she might,you know, actually be told what's going on. Heh.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Whoa. I'm trying to imagine being that comfy with anyone reading my email. That's a big no.

*shivers*

[luthorienne.livejournal.com]

People do amazing things. A friend of mine in a different fandom told me someone in a private group who decided another group member was Evol PUBLICLY POSTED THE GROUP PASSWORD so the world at large could get in, read Evol's posts, and agree that she was, indeed Evol. Mostly, the world at large condemned this behaviour, but, as you say, the damage was done.

Non-electronically, I work in an office where every piece of paper is ultra-confidential. Yet an acquaintance of mine, now working in a different unit, never hesitates to pick up paper lying on my desk and read it. She just laughs when I snatch it out of her hand, and I can't quite bring myself to lodge a formal complaint with her supervisor, so...

Used to be, some things Just Weren't Done. Those days are gone, apparently.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*blinks slowly* Oh wow. That *happens*? I don't even have words.

Non-electronically, I work in an office where every piece of paper is ultra-confidential. Yet an acquaintance of mine, now working in a different unit, never hesitates to pick up paper lying on my desk and read it. She just laughs when I snatch it out of her hand, and I can't quite bring myself to lodge a formal complaint with her supervisor, so...

Damn. My office is really strict on confidentiality, due to what we see adn what we can access every day. We can get reprimanded for not shredding something soon enough, according to work rules.

Used to be, some things Just Weren't Done. Those days are gone, apparently.

I'm beginning to wonder. I really am.

[mi-nion.livejournal.com]

Hey Jenn can you email me offlist. I need to ask you something. My addy's in userinfo.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

sent.

[capnzebbie.livejournal.com]

Amen.

And I really don't know anything about the incident, but that is just WRONG.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*twitches* I'm still feeling twitchy. Thank God the internet, as a rule, has a short memory.

[allisgood.livejournal.com]

de-lurking
Privacy is perhaps one of the dearest things we have to call our own. Invasion of privacy is just plain theft the kind of theft that leaves you feeling personally violated.

Posting the email is an act of hostility that goes way beyond the rules of warfare if there is such a thing.

back to lurk mode

[twistinside82.livejournal.com]

A-fucking-men.