katy,
"It’s beyond me why you would suggest I stop being an active participant."
This is why:
"3 PMs that I'm afraid to open."
"I was freaked out"
"I'm afraid he will track me down and murder me."
You also said.
"the suggestion that I was even remotely to blame for any of this weird [censored]."
Of course you are not to blame and of course it is wrong. However, the more active you get in a forum like this, the more you should expect to receive messages like that. I have received multiple sick messages wishing all sorts of harm on me. I am positive those messages would have really freaked you out. I'll see if I have any stored, for the most part I just laugh and delete. My friend Clarkmeister received many messages that were even worse. I actually talked to one guy who had been a semi-regular poster here to ask what compelled him to post his venomous tirade against Clark. His response "but when i saw how little and blond and puny and stupid and cocky and smug he was in person,
i just wanted to crack his head open and piss on his brain"
Your posts here made it sound like you would be really troubled by some guy writing you with all sort of crazy, violent, sexual stuff. And that's a perfectly natural reaction. However, I think you need to be aware of the fact that the more active you become in these forums, the higher the chance receiving messages like that is. That's an unfortunate part of anonymous forums, and an especially unfortunate part of being female on such forums. Add on top of that a forum that has an unusually high percentage of socially maladjusted young men.
Coincidentally, this topic is currently perhaps the most active discussion going on in the blog world.
http://headrush.typepad.com/creating...ype_this_.html