When a fan becomes a fanatic

Hello loves and happy Monday.

Today I want to talk about the down side of sharing your life online - specifically when we attract someone with sinister motives into our orbit.

Bloggers want 'fans' - we want people to connect with - because after a time talking into the ether can get really boring. I know this because I blogged for a long time with just a few readers. ;) Building an audience is a really wonderful and humbling thing, because you find all these amazing people who get what you're about, like what you write or your general vibe, and they become your clan. Every blogger who's being writing for a while has loyal supporters or 'fans', and it's a beautiful feeling.

But sometimes we attract people who want something more of us. On the next level up there are people who feel they are entitled to our time, and they might ask things of us we don't have the time to do. They want something from us but they come across as genuine fans who just have no idea of the amount of time blogging takes up. (It's very nearly a full time job). I try to be as 'available' as possible on social media, replying to as many things as I can, but I have over 4000 connections and it's getting to the point where sometimes I feel like I need a PA. :) (I have no idea how more popular bloggers with loads more followers than me cope). Still, these people are lovely, and the onus is upon me to learn to manage my time better whilst still being as friendly and open as I can.

Then we get to the cyber-stalkers. Right now myself and several other plus size bloggers are being constantly harangued by a man who won't take blocked for an answer. He creates dozens of back up accounts so he can keep following us all against our wishes. This has been going on for months. If you block him he simply creates another account and refollows. Over this weekend he followed me (and was blocked) on GFC, Bloglovin', Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, my blog Facebook page, Google+ and he even tracked me down to my personal Facebook page. When he was blocked he tried again. My weekend was marred by the constant ping of notifications which are intrusions into my life. His persistence is extremely troublesome. Where does he get the time to harass so many women in this way? Why won't he take the hint? Is he developmentally challenged, mentally ill or plain evil? What we know so far is he has a thing for plus size women (particularly in skirts) and a fetish for watching women with long hair brushing it. He shares photos of bloggers on his social media rather than blog posts which leads me to believe he's not a fan of our blogs, but our bodies. His detachment is creepy. He won't take no for an answer and either doesn't realise or doesn't care that he is veering fast towards criminal behaviour.

If you're reading this WH then realise if you persist it will become a matter for the police. I don't want you to follow me anywhere. How would you feel about your mother or other female family member being harrassed by someone they don't want to know? You'd want them to stop it, right? I want YOU to stop. Every blogger has the right to choose who interacts with them and who can follow them. Blocking you is not cat and mouse. I don't want anything to do with you. If you constantly go against my wishes you are cyber stalking me. That is what you are doing. You are harassing women. You are an unwanted intrusion into my life. I'm not scared of you, but if you don't leave me alone you better be scared of me. Take the hint mate. DO ONE.

Ladies who are also being cyber stalked by WH, feel free to contact me privately so we can collate information and present it to the police. Don't comment on this post about it. I don't want to give him the satisfaction.

Thanks for reading.
Leah xoxo