April 8, 2006
10:15HRS IST
Yahoo! Chat Window
A member from the MouthShut community informs me that he received an offensive e-mail from me. I receive a reply that he had sent without a clue of what it was all about. I have not sent him any e-mail at all. The last recorded sent e-mail to him through M2M was fifteen days ago. His Inbox shows an M2M from ’Juggernaut’ on the 7th/8th of April. Foulplay is immediately suspected.
Afternoon, Same Day
Another female member from the MouthShut community replies to such an ’M2M’ sent by ’me’ to her. I have no record of such a sent Message in my Sent Messages folder. I have not sent her any message. In fact, I don’t even know this member! She replies to an M2M titled ’’Hey Sexy’’. I have not sent her any e-mail myself.
And then the third and a fourth incident. Again, two other female members report offensive/suggestive e-mails sent to them by ’me’. I have sent nobody any M2M whatsoever. Foulplay is now proven.
What had really happened?
A miscreant had gained access to my account without any consent whatsoever. I don’t even know who it was. On gaining access to my account, the miscreant drafted and posted insane e-mails to several people, some of whom reported it to me while many of those probably did not even report it to me. Apparently, some of them wrote to the Management complaining against such e-mails received by them. The Management, which is in contact with me throughout and is informed by me of what is going on, asks me to hold my breath, change my password and leave the rest to them. There is little else I can do, I followed their advice.
But things were beyond normal control. Just when the Management had begun receiving reports from others and me about the illegal activities being conducted through my person Account, a review is posted by this miscreant through my ID. It is a matter of timing that I could not read it myself. It is said that the review was aimed at disturbing the peace and sanctity of this forum. The added benefit of it was that it maligned me.
I have been a member of this forum for 3 years now. I have 197 reviews to my credit before this one. I enjoy some sort of a reputation here. Several people are my friends and the general impression carried by my name in this website is that of a respectable individual, reasonable reviewer and long-standing patron of this website. By using my ID in such a fashion, not only do these vile and pointless miscreants succeed in hurting others and creating turbulence. They also succeed in maligning my reputation and creating permanent suspicion over what I write or do from now on. It is a direct attack at my peace, my sanity, my privacy and my accountability. It is an attack on my integrity. It is an attack on me.
But that doesn’t impress me much.
== Cowardice is Not a Weapon ==
I do not wish to know the name of the wrongdoer. It is not important for me to know who he or she was. It is not worthwhile worrying myself about why whoever it was did whatever they did. I will not waste my time trying to wonder why I was targetted. I will not bow down and plead to them to leave me alone. I take them as a challenge. And I wish to point out to them that they are an unworthy and cowardly challenge. And I cannot be intimidated the least by such cowardice. Cowardice is not a weapon.
I know that these wrongdoers have personal grudges against the MouthShut community in general and the Management in specific. They have had their conflicts in the past and according to their side of the story, they were victims. I do not wish to pass any judgment over the issue nor do I want to concern myself with who was right. I see their cause in a neutral fashion, as a revolt they wish to exact and a transformation they wish to impose on the way things are carried about here.
I cannot claim to have had a smooth sailing over the past 3 years. At separate points of time, I have had separate conflicts with the management myself. I resolved them myself. I never resorted to using fake identities nor did I ever shy away from speaking out myself. You can take a look at my review on the Community Center. I have taken on the website management and my rivals frankly. I challenge them openly and I am not ashamed.
And therefore to someone who believes in being open, frank and honest, the sort of malicious foolishness these ’wrongdoers’ resort to appears to be nothing more than cowardice. What do you seek to prove by breaking into my account and posting horrible reviews under my name? What do you seek to show by sending abusive e-mails to my friends and acquaintances by hacking into my account? Do you claim to have influence enough to shatter their trust in me? Do you believe that I have made such weak friendships that those friends of mine who you wished to turn against me would do so? How did you, even for a second, think that they would blindly believe all is normal and fine with the expletives that were contained in the e-mails you drafted through my account and sent them?
Do you think I have not made my friends aware of the enemies I have?
And it is your lack of thinking, your lack of respect for the strength and thinking of your enemy that makes me pity you. I know you wish to attack me, malign me and turn the tables against my favor. But, may I point out that the way you choose will yeild no result! Do you think that just the fact that I do not write as often as earlier means that I am not aware of what is going on? Or that my friends will cease to trust me because of my inactivity? Then, I am afraid, you are being foolish. Because my friends are not like you. They are friends.
You do not anger me. You do not disturb me. You do not frighten me. You do not make me panic. You do not make me rethink my stance. You do not come even a hair’s width close to making me accept your side. You do not succeed in disrupting things for me.
You only disgust me. Pathetically.
You have lost your battle before you began fighting it, my friend. Because you chose the wrong weapon. You chose cowardice.
== The review flows on to the Comments Section-- Coment # 1 and # 2==