Update (1:28 p.m. July 30): Kansas City blogger Shea Sylvia is taking some lumps for her blog/Guardian article about being stalked on Foursquare. More than lumps, really. Yesterday, she blogged that she'd received "a graphic, detailed account of how this
person would like to brutally rape and then kill me." Scary stuff. She wrote that she filed a police report.
Not that anyone here needs a reminder, but the Internet is cruel and vile place.
Original Story (7 a.m. July 28): Internet pervs can ruin
everything so it was just a matter of time before Foursquare got stalkery. Unfortunately
for Kansas City blogger Shea Sylvia, she found that out herself (shared
in a blog post
that ended up as a
bylined article on the Guardian's website and later on
sharp-clawed Jezebel).
Sylvia
was at a restaurant having dinner with friends with the manager stopped
over and told her that she had a phone call. She thought it was a joke.
It wasn't. The creep's name was "Brian," and he started off with the
subtle, "I saw that you checked in there on Foursquare, Shea." Freaky.
It gets worse.
"I like to
hang out with people from the internet too. Maybe we should hang out
sometime. What do you think about that?" Brian asked.
And then he offered to "ride bikes together." Let's back up here, who calls restaurants and asks for people in 2010?
At least Brian was a self-aware creeper. "Is this getting creepy?" he
asked. "You probably shouldn't be telling people where you are on
Foursquare, should you, Shea?"
Smooth, Brian ... you creepy douche lord.
As for Sylvia, she was left feeling "angry" and "terrified." But it's not like she's hiding. Her Twitter, blog, website (that's where the picture came from) and other social networking sites are still public.
Guess dealing with the Brians of the Internet is just a creepy cost of business.
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