Landlord said:
Anybody else ever have an issue with being 'outed' in real-life from information posted on a board like this?
I've heard a few tales, but almost exclusively from guys who left their Internet browsers open and a nosy girl went through their histories and got upset.
I think in my situation it's a little bit trickier, because I'm running a website with my face on it where I'm obviously "the" guy here, and I had a nasty person in my life who had too many private details about me and was reaching for anything he could to try and hurt me. I can deal with people "outing" me if necessary - I've had girls go through my computer when I was silly enough to leave it unlocked and in the open, and had them flip out after reading GC articles saved on my hard disk - I just wanted to circle the wagons and minimize any potential messes to clean up.
As for the belligerent here, when he kept escalating threats I made it clear that a) he'd committed felony blackmail against me, which carried a several thousand-dollar fine and a several-year prison sentence, not to mention a permanent felony conviction on his criminal record, and b) if he wanted to go around slinging dirt to try and extort money out of me, I could deal with whatever dirt he had to sling, but he probably couldn't deal with the dirt *I* had on *him* to sling - his attacks would've caused a mild upset for me, but mine would've meant permanent damage to his ability to run cons and scams. Needless to say, he backed down.
There's the old saying "it's better to be loved than feared." I find that in fact you need to communicate with people in the language they respond to (and usually you can figure out what language this is by looking at the language they use - do they use love as their primary means of communication and persuasion, or fear?). Most people will respond to love, but some simply do not - some only really respond to fear. Those people you want to avoid - but when they get in your muzzle and won't leave you alone, you use fear and force to bully them back the way they're used to bullying others... it's the only thing they truly understand and respect (sadly).
Chase