background

http://waxy.org/

His experiment kind of sucks.  I don't see the point.  There are weirdos on the internet.  oooo, big news.

Other than that, is there anything we should be reading about?

Does it suck or does it go beyond sucking into cruel?

http://www.citypages.com/databank/27/1346/article14723.asp

He's a moron for making his own information so publicly available. This is one social experimenter who is unaware of his subjects' wrath (perhaps, a sufficiently robust test harness should have been constructed first).

Hmm. You really think any harm will come to him?  Some spam, some prank calls to his cell phone (already changed I'll bet) & the some unsolicity home delivery but genunine harm?

I can't believe nobody's said it - he obviously need to have his full life published openly and often. I was kind of impressed at first that he was playing by his own rules - posting his own info as well. As soon as he started taking it down, everyone should be reposting it on their own blogs.

There was a research group at the MIT media lab that did this same thing - only they didn't publish all the replies on the web. They would post hundreds of fake personal ads to craig's list and online dating sites, and then compile and analyze the results. I'm not sure what the point of it was, but...

The people in the group now work for online dating sites, ebay, and the US government.

Wow, there sure are some incriminating photos there.  Several of them used their work emails (microsoft.com!)

I think it was an interesting experiment, but then the guy had to be a jerk and publish the details.  What he should have done is just published a summary.

I can't say I'll feel too bad when this guy comes in with the tide.  Button pushers generally get what they have coming to them.  Of course, if you're dumb enough to be handing out your personal info to a bait ad, I can't feel too bad for you either.

I'm not sure there was any way to guess it was a bait ad.  If you're into that kink and you send out your info, well, how does that make you stupid? I guess trust on the internet is for stupid people, but the vast majority of craiglist replies don't end up in the hands of a sociopath who posts them in full.

Here's a longish biography of Fortuny.  Agree with Steel it's telling that he's trying to scrub his personal information from the web.

http://www.10zenmonkeys.com/2006/09/12/the-secret-life-of-jason-fortuny/

- sexually molested by his grandfather.

- “I haven’t talked to my parents or the rest of the family in 11 years"

- “[I]f you had a family where four different members molested you, your mother tended to the prime molestor instead of you, and your stepfather utterly failed to provide for a future, you’d be pretty pissed, too.”

- Eight weeks ago he split with his fiancee.

- He apparently once claimed to have put pictures of someone’s children on a child rape site.

So, when's that tide due in?