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Important: False/embellished stories posted: users Steve966 and lb41974

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by Chip, Dec 13, 2014.

  1. Chip

    Board Member Admin Team Advisor Full Member

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    The Empty Closets staff team recently had to make the difficult decision to permanently ban two members of the EC community (entirely separate incidents, with no known connection to each other) for posting false/embellished stories to EC, apparently with the intent to gain attention and/or sympathy. In both cases, the claims were of physical violence, rape, or unwanted/inappropriate sexual activity. As a nonprofit public charity, EC takes such reports very seriously.

    ***************

    In the first case, the member in question, lb41974, made a string of postings in the forums, on his wall, and in the chat area making very serious claims of being a victim of rape and physical violence. Many members had become engaged and drawn into the various discussion threads and chat room discussion.

    Unfortunately, in this case, the more we looked into the situation, the more discrepancies, disparities, inconsistencies and unlikely scenarios surfaced. Attempts to sensitively and thoughtfully communicate with the member to better understand the circumstances and verify even the most peripheral aspects of the story were rebuffed.

    The staff was placed in the difficult situation of deciding whether or not to continue to allow a member to make these claims, with increasingly elaborate and far-fetched details that ultimately sounded embellished for dramatic effect rather than a representation of the actual traumatic events.

    While it's quite possible that some aspects of the story may be true, we are confident that, at the very least, there was significant embellishment and fabrication, and it is possible that none of the story is true. Unable to verify any aspects of the story, we made the difficult decision to terminate the member's privileges at EC and remove some of the relevant posts.

    *************

    In the second case, the member in question, Steve966, created a profile in which he claimed to be 18, and started a thread and asking for advice about being propositioned for sex by a group of 4 mid-40s men who wanted to have group sex with him. After receiving near-unanimous advice against it from a dozen members, Steve966 posted with an overly graphic story about how he "couldn't control himself" and went to meet these men. The post made detailed, graphic, war-story like claims of sexual violation.

    As part of our normal security procedures, the thread caught the staff's attention, and after further investigation, we determined that there were a number of inconsistencies (age, sex, other factors) about the individual and who he claimed to be. There were serious questions about whether any aspect of the story was true, or even whether the individual was who he claimed to be.

    Ultimately, we made a determination that the thread did not represent the real-life events of a real person, and we made the difficult decision to terminate the member's privileges at EC and remove the thread.

    ****************

    In both cases, we apologize to the community, and especially to those who took the time to post and make suggestions and share concern for this member's well being.

    We believe that one of the strengths of EmptyClosets is the authenticity and integrity of the experiences and information people share here. While many sites may turn a blind eye to or even allow or encourage embellishment of stories, the staff, admins, and Board of Directors at EC find such behavior despicable, as it devalues the authentic challenges and struggles that many of our members experience on a day-to-day basis.

    Accordingly, one of the many roles that our staff members take on is identifying and rooting out false stories. And when we find such a situation, we also believe it is important to be transparent with the community, and share what we've found. By so doing, we hope that we can further cultivate a sense of safety and integrity among our community members.

    We regret that these actions was necessary, but trust that you, our served community, share our beliefs in the importance of authenticity and integrity in information shared here.

    On behalf of the entire staff team,

    Empty Closets Community Services
    a nonprofit 501(c)(3) public charity
     
  2. NotSureWhatIam

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    Did this just happen today? I just posted on a thread of a straight man claiming to be raped and it seems to have disappeared. :/
     
  3. Chip

    Board Member Admin Team Advisor Full Member

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    Unfortunately we've had several such incidents recently. However, they are still pretty rare. I'm not familiar with the particular thread you referred to, but you are likely correct.
     
  4. The Virgo

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    I remember seeing the second one and as stated it did start to seem like a false tale after almost everyone said don't go.. But claps to the team of taking matter like this down :eusa_clap
     
  5. QueerTransEnby

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    That rape thread really freaked me out. I was quite traumatized as the details seemed very vivid. Thanks for removing this.
     
  6. East

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    I think you made the right call. He has done the same thing elsewhere and I was trying to help him but I had some doubts. It IS very awkward... and a very difficult call to make.
     
  7. NingyoBroken

    NingyoBroken Guest

    I've seen them, and reported them.

    Freaking spammers