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Comment by lawnchair_larry | Hacker News Reader

Oh man, not this girl again. Let's just say she is known for being at the center of drama wherever she goes. She has a very long history of libel and public feuds related to her "music project." In one of many incidents, her and her mother sent DMCA takedown requests to LiveJournal based on negative information being posted by another user (completely unrelated to copyright).

Please do not give her attention. At least, don't give kickstarter negative attention over her complaint.

[Edit: Removed comment regarding mental illness and links to other forums]

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> She is, by her own admission, mentally ill.[1]

I see that she says she was kicked out of her home when she was 16 and placed in a mental health facility[1]. But this is not the same as having a mental illness. Certainly it's been the case before that a perfectly healthful individual has ended up in such an institution. Especially people suffering from emotional trauma that they are unable to handle on their own.

[1] 'I am on disability because I was kicked out of this "mansion" at a young age and locked up in a mental institution.'

> She is, by her own admission, mentally ill.

"Mental illness" is a very broad term that can mean a lot of things, and the last thing people affected by it need is for people to perpetuate its stigmatization on the internet. That someone has suffered from some unspecified form of mental illness does not automatically make them untrustworthy.

I don't have an opinion on this case, but after reading the comments, I'm wondering if this case is possible:

1 She is a legitimate victim of cyberstalking, with a legitimate beef against Kickstarter

2 She is also an opportunist, using #1 to generate publicity for her project

3 Kickstarter could/should have handled this differently/better

For me, I get the impression from the responses here that some think that #1 and #2 above are mutually exclusive, when it's possible they may not be. If #2 is true, it doesn't in my mind invalidate #1 and #3, but it could make me less sympathetic to her cause.

I'm not sure we should draw any conclusions based on a blog post from only one side of the 'dispute' (Kickstarter hasn't stated their side), but it's interesting to me how polarizing her blog entry is in this thread.

Old drama is uninteresting. What's wrong with being mentally ill? I'm definitely not neurotypical, just like half of Silicon Valley geeks. Try raising VC money in Silicon Valley without projecting the image of irrationally exuberant hypomania. http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/160/bill-nguyen-startups

Your comment is exactly the kind that threatens to make this thread a trainwreck. Be nice! Rachel is a very real person that can't raise money on Kickstarter because Kickstarter can't deal with one asshole posting 400 spam comments.

I am not trying to pick on the mentally ill or be rude. Unfortunately in this case, I've seen her behavior be highly disruptive to the detriment of others for about 6 years now. I have friends in the music industry (where I thought her drama was confined to) and have been exposed to her in person. I felt that I had to post a warning, because the internet mob is already all over kickstarter for this.

I am actually somewhat annoyed that she is causing trouble in other social circles of mine and am going to refrain from posting about it further. I'm not a fan of drama and find her antics incredibly exhausting.

Right, so, no counterargument or evidence being provided from Kickstarter is OK in criticizing them, and any evidence that this person may have a history of causing similar types of drama is 'uninteresting'?

You're persistent in asking people to be civil towards Rachel, yet are completely fine with the bashing of Kickstarter without giving them a chance to make their case.

Sounds reasonable. Guess what? Kickstarter isn't just an institution outlined by a few hundred federal documents. They're run by real people!

I expect Kickstarter to have a sober, well reasoned response to this by Monday afternoon. Hopefully faster.

It would have been nice if Rachel was nicer to Kickstarter in her post, but she wasn't so here we are. It's not like I like this being #1 on Hacker News. This is sort of an awful story. I would have liked to have gone to sleep by now, but respect Rachel enough and have fond enough memories of the time when Hacker News didn't suck that I wanted to try and make this comment thread something resembling rational and reasonable.

> Rachel is a very real person that can't raise money on Kickstarter because Kickstarter can't deal with one asshole posting 400 spam comments.

And again, do you have anything to suppor that claim beside italicized text on a blog? If not, then you only have an accusation made.

It is always a fine line. It will be interesting and telling in how Kickstarter will respond to this. You remember the Air BnB set of events...

"She is, by her own admission, mentally ill"

Well, not really. From your link,

"I am on disability because I was kicked out of this "mansion" at a young age and locked up in a mental institution. Among other reasons that I don't feel like discussing with you."

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