CEASE AND DESIST
Like a lot of geeks, and non-geeks, I've gotten to like my daily dose of postings from Fake Steve Jobs (FSJ) over the past few months.
The site has been so successful, that in recent months, there's been a concerted effort by both online and mainstream media to try and unmask the real identity of FSJ.
In recent days, some of these folks have apparently gotten pretty aggressive, going as far as sending FSJ email with hidden tracking codes, in an attempt to unearth his (or her) location and identity (see the detailed thread of events here on Techmeme).
It's gotten so bad that FSJ put up an out-of-character post outlining the latest attempts, and asking for these folks to stop:
"Sorry I was out of the loop a bit the last few days. Life is tough when you're on the lam. I've been holed up with lawyers and private eyes and computer security consultants after discovering a few invasions of privacy that may or may not have crossed over the line of legality but definitely fall outside the boundaries of what most decent civilized human beings consider to be appropriate behavior...
This was fun, up to a point. You've gone past that point. Stop."
This may be one of the first instances of virtual Paparazzi stalking of a popular blogger.
Reading through the comment trail on many of the posts, it's clear that most FSJ fans would prefer NOT to know the identity of FSJ. Spoils the fun as it were, permanently.
Much of the appeal of a site like this, is the suspension of disbelief that allows us to imagine the Real Steve Jobs saying some of the things FSJ says in his name.
Some commenters have suggested that this may just a ploy by FSJ to get more publicity and sympathy for his/her site.
That may be, or not.
I do know that I'd prefer not to know FSJ's real identity.
And I do think some of these media efforts can get out of hand, as they do off-line all the time.
It's easy to chalk this whole thing up as "media will be media". But it does seem that the media in this instance, while trying to get a scoop, will spoil the fun for a LOT of people.
Hope they're listening, even for a minute.
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