MEMESPAM: Prove who what, now?

Aside from the terrific fanfiction, I keep an eye on seperis's journal for a glimpse into the fascinating world of fanwank. I gather there was a largish kerfuffle recently, which has lead to a meme of Proving One Exists.

(aside: you should probably pop over to seperis's flist at some point and skim a few entries. Some of them are earnest, some hysterical, some hysterically earnest.)

I am immediately guilt-stricken, as I have no fewer than four identities on Livejournal. In my defense, I only use two of them (waves to orange852, the personality who does not talk to herself in public,) with the others meant as Sooper Sekrit Idents in the unlikely event I ever actually write something.

Anyway.

The following people have actually seen me in all my gawky, red-headed glory and can vouch for me or at least vouch that I exist :

nialla42 Cons in Denver, Dallas, Tulsa & Atlanta
socio_path OMG I actually worked for his candy ass! That he's nigh single-handedly responsible for restoring my health and sanity is beside the point, of course.
rachelcaine Actually signed one of her books for me at Dragon*con & Writercon. Different books, of course.
mrshamill Guest in her home on more than one occasion, but she keeps answering the door, so it's not my fault.
darthfox Saw me at a Hallowe'en party.
darthrami Same party that year, then dinner a couple of years later following her marriage to:
strange_selkie who isn't strange at all, sorry.
twistedchick spotted at a Hallowe'en party, and fangirled over her Sentinel fanfiction.

People who have actually received things in the mail from me:
vamysteryfan Stuff wot fell off the Internet Truck, officer. No idea how it landed on my hard drive.
city_sparrow Uh, I did mail that book up, right?

Proving one is for real

I still haven't been brave enough to dig into whatever wank triggered the rash of people proving they aren't sockpuppets, but I did find a post with a really valid point:

Proving One's Fandom Bona Fides

From this perspective, only socio_path came close to fitting the bill, and he's hiding somewhere in the Louisiana swamps these days. Not, mind you, that this would stop him from driving up here to help with the "emergency," kicking my ass when it turned out to be fake, then mocking me at considerable length and in artistic detail on his own blog.



darthfox has, in the past, demonstrated an almost scary gift for connecting an online identity with real life. Even if she didn't know my real name and where my parents live to check up on me, I have a feeling she'd get there. ;)

nialla42 has my (phone) number, address, knows where my mama and daddy live and is a librarian, to boot, so I'd have no chance whatsoever.

mrshamill is a mama, in addition to knowing a great deal of personal information about me and mine, so there really would be no point to screwing with her sense of reality. Moms see right through that shit.

Most of the rest of the folks on my "seen by" or "mailed to" list (and several members of my flists on both active LJ IDs) have such finely honed bullshit detectors, it contributes to the same effect as being a mom or librarian.

So, I'd say I'm pretty much out of the LJ scam game.