Harassment on yahoo 360?

Question

has anyone on 360 been harassed by another group of people on yahoo 360? I have an ex and her friends who have been harassing me for almost 2 years and Yahoo won't put a stop to it or do anything about it. Is anyone else having this problem?

Moving to a new page or blog site doesn't help, they just hunt us down and start it all over again.

Answer 1

UPDATE (8/25/08):

If they are able to find all of you, then there is something on your Y!360 spaces that's leading them right back to you. If all your friends have not created totally different 360 spaces, then they can probably still find you. In other words, if any of you are using the same names/nicknames/icons/avatars/background... page information, then you will be found. If you and your friends are not discerning about who they accept invitations from, then that is a loophole for these gangs. If your friends are not all trustworthy and could possibly be a member of these gangs, then that is another "in". You may have to do the same for other services on the account.

So, you and your connected friends have to get totally new identities that are not breachable. Where the 360 spaces have only the most minimal public access. Where you know exactly who you are adding and that you know that there are no betrayers.

If the above isn't feasible, then you should move to another social-networking service or stop interacting online altogether.

Lastly, it sounds like you and/or your friends have interacted with the harassers. That's what they want. You should ignore, delete and report.

Clones are easy to spot as their page creation date shown on their Top Page will be newer. But clones will have nothing to clone, if you hardly give them anything to see.

______________________________________...

No, but I know people who have been harassed. There are certain ways to do things that are more effective. Yahoo certainly still deletes 360 spaces and content. Yahoo will not block IP addresses (or derivatives of that) because it can cause unintentional blockage and more problems than it is worth. So harassers can create new Yahoo accounts, unless they break civil/criminal laws that can get them arrested. Yet again, you can protect yourself in many ways from even dealing with such people.

I'll start from the minor methods to more extensive ones:

1) Ignore the person (see http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/360/fri... for how to use that feature) or delete them as contact (if they are a connected friend - by clicking the remove link next to their name in your "My Friends" area). See instructions: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/360/gui... .

2) Ignoring someone doesn't stop them from commenting on the page. However, this is why you have permissions to stop such action.

If the ignored person IS NOT a connected friend:

if you want someone to not be able to comment and they are not connected to you, then you will have to change your Top Page and Blog comments from "Public" permissions to "Friends" permissions.

TOP PAGE:

- In your "My Page," click on the "Settings" link for the comment module (in lower left corner of the page).

- In the "Allow comments by:" drop down, set it to "Just Me (Private)."

- Uncheck the "enable quick comments box" as well. NOTE: Unchecking this prevents everyone from commenting. Checking it allows everyone to comment. There's no separating into categories here.

- Click the "Save" button.

BLOG:

Click "Edit Blog Settings" link on your "My Blog" page. Change the permission for "Who can post comments to your blog" to Friends. Click the "Save" button.

If the ignored person IS a connected friend, you can either remove them as a friend (as stated here http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/360/fri... ) and then set your permissions as above OR avoid deleting the person by limiting access to comment areas even further than the standard permission group:

- Click on your "My Friends" link at the top of the 360 space. To the right is an area where you can create a new category. For example, type in "Block this mug" in the empty field and press the button next to it. You now have a new category called "Block this mug".

- Now, click the box next to the friends name that you want block and click the "Add to Category" button to put them in the "Block this mug" category.

- Go back to "My Friends" to make sure everyone else is in other categories.

- Click on the "My Blog" link at the top of the 360 space. Click "Edit Blog Settings." For every setting there, choose for it to only be viewable by "Friends." The menu will expand and you should choose "Friends by Category." Check all the categories that you want to view the blog, but don't check the "Block this mug" category. Click the "Save" button.

This is how to exclude someone from seeing or commenting to your "My Blog." You can exclude them from other areas of the 360 space in basically the same way once the exclusion category has been created.

EXCEPTION: The "Quick Comments" setting in your Top Page Comments module- you either have to uncheck the setting, thereby disabling it for everyone or you check the setting enabling it for everyone.

3) If somehow the person STILL harasses you AFTER doing the above, while logged in, go to the Abuse form at

http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/360/for... . Make sure that you are going back to your country's version of the abuse form. I find reporting through the US form is most effective.

Please provide the following information:

* Web address of the Yahoo! 360° page (e.g., http://360.yahoo.com/profile-group of numbers and letters).

* What exactly happened. Be specific. Do not type in all capitals. But stay on topic - point out the exact violation of Y!360 guidelines or Yahoo! Terms of Service.

*The Yahoo! ID and/or email address of the person who is harassing you. Find out any information you can on the person.

NOTE: If somehow the person is getting to you via other means besides 360 (like IM, e-mail, etc), see those services' help pages for how to block them.

4) Your last resort: Close the old 360 space and start a new 360 space.

Make sure that they have completely cleared the old page. And do let "TRUSTED" contacts know about the impending move. If you really want a smooth move, then everyone will do the same thing that you do. But if not, record in a text file all their 360 web page addresses, so that it will be easy to find them and invite again.

On this new 360, make sure that personal information is kept off the top page that the harasser can use to find you. Don't post a 360 image of yourself in the personal profile pic area. The safest option is to confine anything personal to the blog area and make the blog only visible to connected friends via permissions. Use a new nickname, of course.

Also, be aware of safe computing practices:

http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/360/gui...

Lastly, feel free to contact the police about any potential Internet crimes.