I'm pretty sure what the answer is going to be, but I'll ask you guys, anyway.

Should I disclose the indentity of Letter Writer?

I really don't care either way, but I don't want people to think that I'm doing it to get back at her. It's just that, well, inquiring minds want to know, according to the e-mails in my Inbox.

I probably wouldn't link her, because that would be giving her hits. I'm not about to reward the girl for trying to fuck my life up. I'd just say, "Letter Writer is: ________."

Or, I could turn this into something interesting, and see how many people can guess correctly. All I'd really have to do is tell you who the "third party" from my May 5th entry was, and you'd be able to figure it out, I'm sure.

That's a big old hint, if you didn't notice. :P

-- Anonymous, May 06, 2000

Answers

Is it that Laura chick you were fighting over Eric with a while ago?

No really, is it?

-- Anonymous, May 06, 2000

That was my guess too.

-- Anonymous, May 06, 2000

Laura would be my guess as well.

-dan

-- Anonymous, May 06, 2000

I can't decide between Laura or Anna, quite frankly.

You're right, if you mentioned the name of the "third party", it'd be pretty easy to guess.

-- Anonymous, May 07, 2000

I was gonna say Laura too. Why not link her though?

-- Anonymous, May 07, 2000

I'm confused - who was Anna?

Surely not *that* Anna?!

-- Anonymous, May 07, 2000

Laura seems most likely to me, but I really wouldn't know. I'd like to, though.

I'm not going to say any more in case Tim gets heavy on me again.

-- Anonymous, May 07, 2000

I'm not too sure if I should come out and say who it is, or not.

-- Anonymous, May 07, 2000

why not? they practically slapped you... atleast put our little minds at rest. ;-P

-- Anonymous, May 07, 2000

i'm mostly a reader (not a poster) but i felt compelled to answer this question. if someone had the balls (so to speak) to write such a nasty letter to a public institution, then sure, smear their sorry arse all over the internet. i surely want to know, and i think others would to. you don't have to give a URL or email address-- if someone REALLY wanted to harass him/her they could figure that out. i'm just totally confused as to why someone would do that to you (spite? anger? jealousy?) and i think revealing the person's identity would be an okay move. when you make your bed, you have to lie in it, and this person did something that would have reprecussions, one of which is being publically flogged :-)

-- Anonymous, May 07, 2000

ooooh.. juicy. even though i'm entirely out of the online journal loop, i'd like to know who this scheming bastard is, as well as their motivation and cruel intentions.

-- Anonymous, May 07, 2000

Wow, this is a difficult question to answer. I positively dying with curiosity as to who this person is, and it would be nice to know, even though I highly doubt I would do anything about my knowledge.

But then, (though I don't know all the details), maybe this person just wants the attention, and would be glad to know that she getting publicity somewhere?

I dunno. *shrug* I'm not too great at these sorts of things.

-- Anonymous, May 07, 2000

Yeah, sure - disclose the damn person. But do it quickly because this whole ordeal is getting quite old.

-- Anonymous, May 07, 2000

My guess was Laura too, I just forgot her name. But that's who I thought it was right away. Are we right??

-- Anonymous, May 07, 2000

The evil side of me has REALLY been wanting to know... but I figured I should keep my mouth shut and not be such a dork... but, now that I see so many other people want to know, too, I just REALLY have to. Heh. I like that clue-ish thing you mentioned... seeing how many people can guess it. That'd actually be fun. hee hee.

-- Anonymous, May 07, 2000

I must admit that I want to know as well, but it's not really important to me. As to whether you should reveal the person's name, Katie, I think that you should if you want to. After the lengths this person went through to reveal your problems to everyone, I don't see why they should expect any privacy. If they are so sure that people should know abouy you and that what they did is right, they should take responsibility for what they did. It's not as if they contacted you, making it a personal matter between the two of you. If they think everyone should know about your journal, then they shouldn't try and hide what they did. As for what actions might be taken by other people towards this person, you can't take responsibility for that. If people want to be idiots and attack this person for what they did in an irresponsible manner, that is their choice. By releasing the name, you're not advocating any action towards the person. I'm glad that you were able to clear things up with regards to the letter and that thing's are all right now.

-- Anonymous, May 07, 2000

for God's sake Katie, tell us their name all-fucking-ready!!!!! and their URL ;)

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2000

Katie, they obviously didn't give a flying cluck about your privacy or self respect, so why give a rats hoot about theirs?

I say reveal their identity. With an email address.

mwahahahaha.

Nah, just tell me. This is killing me!

Em

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2000

Y'all (yes, I'm from Virginia - get over it. You has always needed a second person plural), having already figured out who the Letter Writer is, I think she's probably just loving every minute of this. She'd probably relish the attention. But then, at the same time, her actions deserve repercussions, I think. Katie, if you want to tell everyone who it was, go right ahead. I'm not sure the URL would even be helpful - I've been there, it's just a bunch of juvenile piddling. But certainly an email link - there seem to be quite a lot of people here who would like to speak their minds TO the immature little twit.

Whoopsie - did I just say all that?

Sorry if this is unintelligable - I'm typing this lefthanded due to a freak accident with a laundry basket, a hair clip and a journal (of the offline varitey - I had to keep it for class)

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2000

Okay, I'm going to play the bad guy here and give you the advice that you should NOT reveal this person's identity. First of all, the very thing she did to you was reveal your identity without your permission, and you doing the same to her would make you no better of a person than she is. I know the temptation, but I really think in this case you'd be the better person if you didn't smear her name all around.

Unfortunately, by opening up this thread, everyone has already speculated about who it is, and that's not really fair to the people who are being speculated about, especially if it wasn't Laura or Anna who did this.

So my advice? No reason to stoop to this person's level. Be stronger than that. Just let it go. You're right about not wanting to give her a link, but you never know if her whole purpose was to get attention in your journal in the first place--- revealing her identity just might be giving her what she really wanted in the first place. Especially since you know that her motive was not to protect you because she was worried about you. Why give her the satisfaction?

--stasi

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2000

Forget maturity. Let's flame the bitch.

As I told Eric -- she can fuck with me; she can fuck with him; she better not fuck with you.

From one who was also slapped.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2000

laura is my guess. if you don't post it, you should at least tell us if we were right or wrong! ~kat

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2000

There's my e-mail address. Have at it, kids.

Before everyone defends her (too late, I guess), "everyone" should know she's omitting very important details:

1) I exchanged many a personal correspondance with Katie concerning her upcoming visit with Eric Egolf (why she wrote in her online diary about a letter sent from me and left out being "in love" for the first time I don't know. My only guess is out of shame). She shrugged off my many warnings as typical jealous ex-girlfriend behavior.

2) I took such "drastic action" only after seeking advice from two people. Both parties are familiar with what happened in November- February. It may seem like common sense to some of you, but just so you know, I know both people in "real life."

3) She tries to come off as mature, yes? In the past week, she has sent me an average of 13 e-mails a day. The first e-mail of the day usually says something like, "just tell me why you sent it," and the last is usually sent out of frustration and reads something like, "honey, you're a crazy bitch. I don't know what to tell you except that you need some psychiatric help for your obsession problems." The next day, of course, Katie sends me another please-tell-me e- mail.

5) I finally did tell Katie, but only after permission was given for me to do so by Eric Egolf. I needed permission, else I would be sued for libel.

6) None of you are ever going to know why I sent the letter. It is in the best interest of both Eric Egolf and myself for the three of us (including Katie) to keep the information confidential. Hopefully, Katie too realizes what libel is.

7) It's about time someone confronted the attention-seeking "suicidal" teenyboppers on the Internet.

I doubt my words will have any effect on the target demographic of Digital Ink, which seems to be sheep whose collective solution to all problems involves profanity. Just don't say I never gave an explanation.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2000

For somebody who has said a total of 25 times (in the past week) that she's so concerned about being "sued for libel," she sure is throwing a lot of bullshit around.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2000

Hehe, I knew it was Laura all along.

It's pretty obvious (to me at least) why Laura wrote the letter. Laura is jealous that Eric is coming to visit you. Sure, she'll claim that Eric only came to Northern California to visit one of his ol' college buddies, but he did after all manage to stop by Laura's vagina while he was in the area. Her motives are simple jealousy; she realizes that her "love" (oh, I'm sorry, he was just a friend, right?) used her for what amounted to nothing more than a trans- continental booty call. I think Eric is as stupid as Laura. I don't know why you'd want to be involved with either of them. This makes for quite the entertaining feud, though.

I like how Laura implies she wanted to help Katie, but also calls her a "sucidal teenybopper" who needed to be taught a lesson. I also enjoy how Laura argues that she is the mature one in the argument, when she was the one who sent a letter to someone's school because she was jealous over someone's penis. Unless the letter was sent out of genuine concern for Katie's safety (which we all can see it was not), this is one of the most immature things that could have possibly been done, ever. And if you and Eric were so concerned about libel (that is to say, to create an unflattering portrait of someone with the attempt to ruin a reputation), perhaps you two twits shouldn't have done something so unflattering to begin with.

However, I must say that I do feel a little bit bad for Laura. It must suck to be sitting on a genetic time bomb that will eventually explode, catapulting you into the depths of substance abuse and mental instability (it's already showing quite visibly, if you ask me). Here is a tip for your future reference, Laura: you can carry two large jugs of Wild Irish Rose "wine" back to your street corner with the greatest of ease if you first tie the two jugs together with rope and then sling the rope over your shoulder.

-dan

P.S. Fuck you.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2000

Oh, by the way Katie, in this passage:

Now, you might say that this person was just trying to help. I would probably agree with you except for one thing: The person said something in the letter that's just one big fucking tip-off. No one else would have even thought of bringing that subject up in a "concerned" letter. Not too smooth.

Now that we know who wrote it, what was the tip off?

-dan

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2000

You know, just FYI... Wouldn't it be standard (and sensible) practice to NOT incite someone already "suicidal"? I'm not saying Katie was, but for the sake of arguement, if she were, wouldn't this sort of "concerned" action just give her (or anyone else in that sort of situation) yet another reason to off themselves? It just seems like a really ignorant thing to do. I'm sure that everyone isn't seeing this from either party's standpoint, but the basic facts still remain. Sure, putting up a journal leaves you vulnerable to some degree, but by the same token that doesn't give just anyone the right to go tromping around your life because they feel like it. It's not an open invitation to butt in. I don't know Laura and I don't know Katie, but it's just common sense. I thought the haughty tone of Laura's post warranted at least one "fuck you" in this forum, so don't go the "blah blah profanity" route. That was just rude to come in here and play the holier-than-thou part and pretend you're so mature when really you have probably echoed the sentiments of Katie and other kids your age. Don't be such a shithead, karma is a bitch.

It's so irritating when teenagers act like they know everything. You really don't. Just accept that fact of life and move on, go alphabetize your rare Hanson bootleg collection.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2000

Laura,

That was an explanation? Uh, OK.

Get a clue. A defamatory written statement can only be considered libel if it *isn't true*.

And Katie is so the antithesis of a teenybopper. Duh.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2000

Wow.. I was going to be like "Nah, it's not Laura.. Why would she do something that extreme to someone she knows only via the internet?" But.. nevermind I guess..

My first inclination was Anna.. Guess I was wrong.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2000

HA. I am sitting here laughing my ass off. I knew it'd be that chick. She's so jealous of you it's pathetic. That's the kind of chick that is in every school. The one that thinks shes the shit when she really is just nothing. Ha. What a dumb bitch. Laura, chickyYo, I never took sides before but that little thing you just wrote up there just showed how stupid you were in sooooo many ways. You insecurities reek and basically you're pretty pathetic. Katie, I wouldn't worry about her site getting too many hits if you linked her. I seen it before and it sucks so bad I almost felt sorry for her.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000

Wait wait wait.

"6) None of you are ever going to know why I sent the letter. " then.. "Just don't say I never gave an explanation."

Uhhh, did I miss something here? I think you did though. See, you may call us sheep, or whatever else you like, but you crossed the line. I won't pretend to know the whole story between yourself and Eric, or between yourself and Katie, because I don't. But what you did was take something that was between the three of you, and make it something between you three, AND her school, AND her parents. Without asking her permission, or anyone elses. The only valid reason for doing something even remotely similar to this would be out of concern, not "7) It's about time someone confronted the attention-seeking "suicidal" teenyboppers on the Internet." You haven't once said that you did this out of concern for Katie's well-being.

If you truely cared an ounce for Katie, you would have addressed her, and her alone. Something along the lines of "Katie, I'm really concerned about you, etc etc etc, I need to know you're okay or I'm going to do something about it."

And if you had done something like this to me, 13 e-mails a day would seem like a minor irritation. You owe it to her to give her a reason why. I would go into a "How would you like it if.." etc thing here, but I have a feeling that you don't care an ounce about Katie, or the situation. You're just loving the controversy and attention. Its sad, really.

Hopefully someday you'll grow up and realize why you did what you did was wrong. Until then, hopefully you'll leave Katie alone.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000

i was going to say that you probably shouldn't reveal the letter- writer, that you would emerge the bigger person. then she revealed *herself*. other people guessed it was laura, but she gave the confirmation. i somehow can't see that as libel--not to mention it's all true.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000

I just have one thing to say:

"I doubt my words will have any effect on the target demographic of Digital Ink,"

Too damn right, because we all think Katie rocks and we always will, and we all think you're an immature interfering idiot and we always will.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000

The tip-off was that she mentioned Eric. :)

If you want to see the letter, you can e-mail me for it, I don't care.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000

Damn... not only does Laura owe it to Katie to give her a REASONABLE and real explanation, but Katie also deserves an apology.

Laura has said many things on her site before about being mature and smart and blah blah blah... it just cracks me up to see her do this. People are so hypocritical.

I have to agree with the person who said karma is a bitch. Boy, is it ever.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2000

Dan,

In the future, please refrain from referring to me and Laura as a single unit (i.e., "If you and Eric were..."). I have spoken exactly four words to Laura in the past few weeks. When she asked if she could send Katie an e-mail, I said, "Shoot." When she asked again, I said, "I said, 'shoot.'"

Everyone,

I'll be the first to admit that my actions in November were very, very, VERY stupid. I feel horrible about what I did to Katie because of them, and I've apologized to her for it more times than I think she cared to hear about it. She's told me that she's gotten over it, and I hope that means we'll be able to put it all behind us and move on, provided that an "anonymous" little twit on the other side of the continent will let us.

I was going through a self-esteem crisis in November. I went through two tearful breakups. I had to drop out of school. I put my web site on hiatus. I lost my two jobs at the college. I had made plans to drive up to see Katie, but then I started writing to Laura and she somehow convinced me that it would be so much better if I went to see her instead. My mom also chimed in, saying that my car would never make the drive to Illinois and back. I don't pretend to understand my rationale for choosing to go to CA. I recall telling myself that if things didn't work out with Katie, I'd be stuck up there, whereas if things didn't work out with Laura, I'd at least have Jesse to hang out with. Flimsy rationale, to be sure, but I was operating on shaky ground to begin with. I was going through a period where I literally didn't give a damn what anybody thought about me. I thought that doing so would make me a stronger person. In reality, it only meant I was trying to be someone I wasn't.

I am terribly embarrassed by the events of November, and I wish there was something I could do to make it all go away. In the end though, I've gotten forgiveness from the one person I needed it from, and I can settle for that.

Eric

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2000

I was just saying what I thought based on the information given by Laura, although apparently I should take anything she says with a rather large grain of salt.

-dan

-- Anonymous, May 11, 2000

Dan -- That's an understatement. :)

-- Anonymous, May 11, 2000

What kind of a dumbass would write a letter to someone she doesn't even know to say some stupid stuff that everyone (or a persona with common sense) would know to be not true. Come on! If you're so scared for being liable, then why the hell would you write the damn letter in the first place, Laura? Gimme a break. First, it's none of your business because it's not your life. If she said that she';s gonna jump off a building, then you should not interfear with it. It's her life, and if she wants to say or do stupid things, then let her. She will learn on her own!!!

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2000

i'm a teenager and i'm really amused about how teenagers think they know everything.

this has nothing to do with digital ink at all, but i can't wait until laura realizes that 1) she doesn't know everything, 2) she's not a great writer, and 3) she is terminally boring. i'm just saying that as someone who used to read her journal.

i'm only eighteen years old, but i have to say that i sincerely can't relate to sour little fifteen year olds writing about their eighth grade dance and how cuter girls stole their internet boyfriends. i hope i was never that silly.

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2000