Discouraging/Blocking a Stalker or Stalkers?

  • Unknown's avatar
    pavelryana · Member ·

    How do I remove or otherwise discourage someone from following my blog? I have reason to believe one or more individuals are cyber-stalking/lurking. Both have a history of legal problems, including those come from abuse of the Internet and online media — and I don´t want them contributing comments to my blog or otherwise disturbing the peace of material shared in a semi-private zone. While I am thinking seriously about making my blog private, I have the impression these individuals would seek means with which to violate further my privacy as well as the privacy enjoyed by other readers. Please advise.

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • Unknown's avatar
    doncharisma · Member ·

    A blog @ wordpress.com is by default a public blog, and accessible by anyone with an internet connection. So blocking/banning etc wont help. They could setup a new account in minutes and be back on your blog. Or they could simply read your blog without following you, via an RSS feed or simply visiting your blog.

    Basically if you have private information OR suspect you’re being stalked, then your only option with a wordpress.com blog is to set it private. And this is what you SHOULD do.

    Also I understanding stalking is a criminal matter, which you should contact your local law enforcement about.

    Cheers

    Don Charisma

  • Unknown's avatar
    timethief · Member ·

    As was indicated above re: blocking or deleting subscribers
    we cannot block or delete subscribers from public blogs. Anyone and everyone can access public blogs and that’s indeed what the public designation means. However, please read this about public blogs that become private blogs > Blog Privacy and Subscribers > http://wpcommaven.wordpress.com/2011/09/05/blog-privacy-and-subscribers/

    To change blog visibility to Private go to Dashboard > Settings > Reading scroll to Site Visibility and choose option 3
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/privacy-settings/

    You don’t need an upgrade of any kind at all to invite multiple people to contribute to a private blog. See:
    adding users http://en.support.wordpress.com/adding-users/
    user roles http://en.support.wordpress.com/user-roles/
    Note that you have complete control over everything that’s posted to your blog via comment moderation
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/discussion-settings/#comment-moderation

    For trolls, you can “blacklist” them at Settings > Discussion toward the bottom of that page. Enter their email address, their username, and if they included it, their website URL. That will automatically send them to moderation so that their comments do not appear on the blog. Do note though that if they are determined, they can use a different email address or username to get around that.

    Also, do not put their IP address in the blacklist. IP addresses are no longer unique, and you might end up blocking legitimate visitors. In fact for over a decade only about 30% of us have IPs that trace back to any individual computer. Also, all they would have to do is go to a wi-fi hot spot, or connect via a different ISP and they could get around that.

    Our reality is that if the ability to remove or followers existed our time would be squandered on removing unwanted followers because anyone can get a new email address and or a new IP in seconds flat and then they can subscribe again to any public blog they were removed from.

    If someone has an inappropriate rating for a Gravatar image, please log into to Gravatar and use the “Report Abuse” link on their Gravatar profile bottom right hand corner to let Staff know.

    Also note that on this page > Settings > Discussion if you scroll down you will find you can set a Maximum Rating for gravatar display on your blog.

    G — Suitable for all audiences
    PG — Possibly offensive, usually for audiences 13 and above
    R — Intended for adult audiences above 17
    X — Even more mature than above

    If the follower has an inappropriate blog hosted here at WordPress.com, you can also report that to us so we can deal with that: Report Mature or Spam Blogs http://en.support.wordpress.com/report-blogs/

    Please see this Staff reply concerning spam followers:
    https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/a-follower-who-just-linked-my-blog?replies=31#post-2183095

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