Banned From Kickstarter For Being Cyberstalked 382
An anonymous reader writes "Rachel Marone has been a victim of cyberstalking for over 10 years. In 2011, she had a project on Kickstarter shut down because of the high volume of spam posted by the stalker in the comment section of the project. Recently, Marone's manager spoke to Kickstarter again to see how she could avoid having a new project banned if the cyberstalker showed up again. They replied, 'If there is any chance that Rachel will receive spam from a stalker on her project, she should not create one. We simply cannot allow a project to become a forum for rampant spam, as her past project became. If this happens again, we will need to discard the project and permanently suspend Rachel's account.' On her website, Marone sums up the situation thus: 'I am being told that I cannot crowdfund because I am a stalking victim. ... With so many women being stalking targets this does not seem reasonable to me.'"
Re:First they came for the women (Score:3, Informative)
First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
--Martin Niemöller
Re:With all due respect... (Score:5, Informative)
There is a really long thread on reddit.
http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/s97g4/banned_from_kickstarter_for_being_a_stalking/
I was pretty mad at first. A little more reading and now I think they did the right thing.
Here is a relevant posting by the "victim" (Score:5, Informative)
I originally met "Frank" back in College, where we dated for a bit. I should point out that he's not an old man, as his username might imply, but rather someone who is simply obsessed with Frank Sinatra and my gorgeous rockin hard ass.
Anyway, when I broke up with him he took it pretty badly. It was our Sophomore year at Rice University and I had just discovered gravity bongs and going down on another girl while blazed out of my gord. As I've admitted, these were confusing albeit fun times for me.
Meanwhile, "Frank" was raised as a Mormon but had recently converted to Scientology. I guess you might say he was experimenting with his own hallucinogenic homoerotic drug. This drug/sex/cult cocktail, combined with my round pulchritudinous derriere, and the sudden shock of losing his ability to play his daily role of dressing up as Dr. Parnassus while gently fondling my perky nipples and supple breasts that he had affectionately named the Merry Mammary Sisters of Nippopolis, and Queens of the Breastiary - led to Frank's complete mental breakdown.
I don't blame Frank for my rockin body, just as I don't blame you for being attracted to my intelligence and funding my project on Kickstarter. However, what I do not like is being stalked. I hope you all do what I do when you see Frank's messages on any thread related to my project. Just lick your index finger, point it at Frank's username and then say, "Ooooooooooooo ICE COLD! Mama thinks you're a BAAAAD BOYYYY! OOOOOO Ice Cold..." then point the same finger back at your left nipple and make a sizzling sound "SSSSSssssssssssss" and sing this little rap
Thank you all again for funding my project on Kickstarter. You're clearly invested in a winner!
also relevant:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3840589 [ycombinator.com]
KickStarter is not the only player (Score:3, Informative)
KickStarter is not the only player - just saying.
In no particular order (actually, alphabetical, but in no order of preference.. except for that of the alphabet.. nnngh!)
boostive ckie crowdbackers crowdfunder eightbitfunding (games, not really applicable to your project) fundageek fundit fundry indiegogo investedin kickstarter peerbackers pleasefundus pledgie pozible quirky rockethub sponsorcraft sponsume ulule wefund
There's more, but most of them are very 'fund-my-life' or are platforms that are quite deadish.
And if you want to roll your own, give IgnitionDeck (wordpress plugin) a shot.
KickStarter may be the most popular, but IndieGoGo gets a good chunk of traffic as well. That would be my second choice.
I didn't find any information on your idea at your homepage, but if you'd still be interested in making it, make sure you put in shameless plugs in your comments.
No one is or has been stalking Rachel Mendelson (Score:5, Informative)
Rachel "Haywire" aka "Marone" aka "Mendelson" is a well known con artist, grifter and volcano of libel. She also collects an SSDI check for mental disability.
Ms. Jaeger:
It has come to my attention that Rachel Mendelson aka "Rachel Marone" aka "Rachel Haywire" aka "Transhuman X" may be allowed to use kickstarter again only 2 years after she took $3,000 with a fraudulent kickstarter effort. People are angrily posting on this page even as of a few months ago, and she has no plans to print the CD or to make any of the charitable contribution percentage she promised from this project. Please do not allow her to make any more kickstarter efforts, and defraud more people. Here is the page and the comments from people who never got their CD from her. By kickstarter's own rules, she should be required to return the donations at this point, not start a new fraudulent kickstarter campaign. She is very likely to start a new kickstarter account called 'Rachel Marone', be aware she is abusing kickstarter for financially fraudulent purposes.
Here is the link to the project that never did anything but take money:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/machinekuntrecords/sanity-is-slavery
where you can see comments of complaint from its backers:
"If you’re a backer of this project, please log in to read this post.
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Erik Roy Tomren on September 26, 2011
so when is this coming out? the hard copy version, not the download.
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Cat on February 24
It's a year after this posting, almost two years after this was funded, and I have yet to receive my hard copy of this album. Very displeased. :/
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Steve Cross on March 15
Is the hard copy ever going to appear. A further update would be nice. I am not very happy!!
"
Re:With all due respect... (Score:5, Informative)
Hm, you're right but "Machinekunt" is one of her projects/bands whatever ("My name is Rachel Haywire and I run the alternative record label/modeling agency/fashion company machineKUNT." Rachel Haywire being the alias of Rachel Marone) so it reflects badly on her that apparently there are unfulfilled commitments. You'd have to assume Kickstarter is aware of this.
The girl seems to attract drama :
Side-line-forums [side-line.com]:
"Congrats haywire, instead of sticking it to unter null, you have turned this into a lets all hate haywire thread again, so we wont even remember what all this other crap with unter was about.
Now its about you again, aren't you happy?
Congratulations. You are clueless. Nothing you say about anyone else ever sticks, you make them look like angels, even if they are in the wrong."
Accusing people of stealing her bands work [myspace.com] and even her autobiography:
"Soon this rip-off band (not just my musical themes and vocal style but my writings in "Generation Hex" and "Acidexia") was accusing me of "stalking them" simply because I requested a peaceful resolution. It appears that they hacked my record label website, impersonated my identity through a false mirror site, and stole money from my fans. They were finally given a cease and desist letter after they pulled all this bullshit. I figured this would be the end of their harassment but I was wrong. It's a well-known fact that many cease and desist letters do not work. They only further instigate the criminals."
More drama [vampirefreaks.com]:
"Recently, there has been a situation which has come to light here on VF, something that has created alot of for many, but, makes most of the people who comment on it look terrible, as well as the person who is the perpetrator to the whole situation. Of course, I am referring to Madam Haywire, aka, Rachel Haywire, and her assault on anything she feels is a slant towards her, including TerrorFakt, and such. Now, I don't have a beef with Rach, that's first and foremost, my only beef with her was that she put out that horrid attempt at a rap song, but, from what I've been hearing, and from what I've been reading (mostly from her posts), she isn't generally hated, but, she's also not well liked.
And this is, if you go based on what a majority of users here on VF would say, mostly her fault...I don't really agree with that, because I don't know the causes to her situation with all of these folks, I wasn't there, and I'm not gonna jump on the bandwagon, BUT, I am going to accuse her of enabling all of the ABUSE she has received here on VampireFreaks, simply because of the course of actions she has taken against whoever she's having a tif with. I feel that alot of what's going on, on both sides of the spectrum, is infact childish, there's no need for mudslinging, that isn't what VF was about in the first place, people need to stop...Rachel especially needs to stop!!"
Re:Blame Game (Score:4, Informative)
Going to make an assumption here, since she's made it clear that his identity is not known.
She has? Seems just the opposite from her own posts on kickstarter, actually.
"As you all know I have a rockin' tight ass, a successful project on Kickstarter that you've all funded, and a cyberstalker that goes by the name of FrankSinatraDirtyTalker1915@comcast.net.
I originally met "Frank" back in College, where we dated for a bit. I should point out that he's not an old man, as his username might imply, but rather someone who is simply obsessed with Frank Sinatra and my gorgeous rockin hard ass.
Anyway, when I broke up with him he took it pretty badly. It was our Sophomore year at Rice University and I had just discovered gravity bongs and going down on another girl while blazed out of my gord. As I've admitted, these were confusing albeit fun times for me."
It goes on, and only gets weirder. Apparently a significant fraction of the bizarre posts on her kickstarter page were her own. I was as indignant as everyone else when I read the misleading /. summary, but after a couple minutes of digging I think kickstarter was right to ban her... (and that's not even getting into the fact that many "supporters" seem to have complained that she is just taking their money for her own personal use...)
Re:First they came for the women (Score:5, Informative)
Unfortunately, she's lying.
On her website, she makes 2 contradictory claims on the same page [experimenthaywire.net]:
and
So, the police can't track him down even though she has his address to try to serve him with restraining orders for 10 years? (never mind that you can't "duck" being served a restraining order for 10 years - you just go back to court, convince the judge that the person is actively seeking to not being served, they publish the notice in the paper that an order affecting them has been deposited with the court, end of story).
This is so obviously a complete fake ... but let's now throw in this - from the same page
She used a new sock-puppet account to post this on reddit, and simultaneously submitted it anonymously here, as her latest self-promotion campaign, and/or to try to get kickstarter to let her do another project despite not delivering on her last one, even though it was funded.
The problem of cyber-stalking is real enough. Just not in this phony case.
Re:First they came for the women (Score:5, Informative)
Not just likely. She's been doing it for years and years ...
http://www.side-line.com/side-line-forum/topic/beware-mentally-challenged-person-on-gothindustrial-messageboards#post-19422 [side-line.com]She accuses a band of being Nazi white supremists, starts up an online petition against them, and on the petition, deletes comments that point out one of the band members is black.
And then this current round of self-promotion, spammed to reddit (the original post was a sock-puppet account, quickly deleted) and here (anon submission at the same time), with some lies about being cyber-stalked, which she describes here: http://experimenthaywire.net/is-there-a-solution-to-cyberstalking/ [experimenthaywire.net]
On the one hand, she claims that the guy has been sitting in his basement for a decade ducking restraining orders (which isn't how it works); a few paragraphs down, she says the cops can't locate him. I'm sure the police have access to a street map.
She got funded by kickstarter a few years ago, didn't deliver what was promised, and now claims that she was banned because she's been cyber-stalked. It's more likely that her history of over-the-top behaviour directed at so many people brought all the negative comments, and her "don't believe them, it's all from one crazy cyber-stalker using multiple identities and impersonating everyone in the music industry" was her way of trying to avoid the consequences.
Re:Interesting: marketing. (Score:4, Informative)
It never happened. She's mentally ill (her mother had her committed at 16), is homeless, lives off SSI, scams a few bucks whenever she can, has a history of harassing people and groups online, etc.
For a better understanding, go back a few years to this thread: http://www.side-line.com/side-line-forum/topic/beware-mentally-challenged-person-on-gothindustrial-messageboards [side-line.com]
This thread was started when one organizer finally got fed up with her online harassment (cyberstalking, false accusations) tactics and threatened to sue.
She has a LONNNG history of craziness and being banned from online forums. This is just another public melt-down by someone who needs professional help - but as she wrote, she won't go for it until everyone who has "wronged" her pays up. A real nutcase.
Re:Interesting: marketing. (Score:5, Informative)
One example - she started a petition against a competitor in the music biz, claiming they were nazi white supremists, and blog-spammed it on a bunch of forums. When people started posting comments in the petition about how one of the band members is black, she deleted them, then finally deleted the petition, all the while continuing the harassment.
She doesn't have a cyber-stalker. The whole thing was made up because she didn't produce what she promised when she got kickstarter funding a few years ago, and now that she wants to scam them again, she thinks that this will work. The real name for what she is trying to do is extortion, with kickstarter as the victim.
Judging by how many people are so "OMG this is terrible shame on kickstarter" without doing any sort of reality check - not even seeing the obvious contradictions in the story she put out on her "I'm being cyber-stalked" page, it makes me wonder.