Thread by @Hach_eh

#DropKiwifarms is trending, so I want to talk about my experiences in their crosshairs. I don't often talk about it because compared to many others, I got off easy. But also, I was terrified of associating with my old name, lest they start up on me again. I'm not scared anymore.

Before the site went down, the thread about me had been considered "inactive" for almost two years, their last update coming from speculations about a new profile pic my wife adopted that happened to include me in it.

Because of Kiwifarms, my wife and I have had to maintain the strictest of privacy settings on our Facebook accounts, but certain changes can never be private. They were still monitoring us for whatever info they could find.

The Farms targeted me because I showed support for another one of their targets; literally the first post in the thread about me says, as if speaking to me directly, "that's right we're coming for you now". They've doxxed me a few times, only some of which were right.

There is literally a second person in my city with the same first and last name I used to have. I played on a baseball team with him once. I'm pretty sure one of the addresses they "found" for me was one of his.

I'm lucky that I was never SWATed by them, because the one time I tried to warn local police that I might be SWATed by Gamergate fucks, they were fucking useless.

Here's what I did get: a few months of physical bibles delivered to my mailbox. A call from the recruiting arms of the Loyal White Knights (literally the Canadian KKK) and the local Church of Scientology. Disturbing, but ultimately minor nuisances.

I'm certain that I avoided worse because I had to completely change how I lived online. I scrubbed as much of my online presence that I could. My Linkedin, my industry blog posts, anywhere I used my name in a professional capacity, gone.

I haven't mentioned the name of any of my employers since the last one that was public record, lest they get targeted. Ultimately I deleted my Twitter account, one I had active for a decade. Even tried starting over on Mastodon, but they found me there too.

I used to be known as David S Gallant. That's still a name on my legal ID, I still have emails and accounts under that name, but thanks to the Farms, the professional identity of David S Gallant had to disappear for my own safety.

Obviously a lot about me has changed since then that have nothing to do with being stalked; just look at my bio. It's taken me literal years to feel safe enough to use Twitter under a different name, let alone come out about the name I used to use.

And I've never stopped monitoring the thread about me on the Farms. These people shared pictures of my grandfather, made jokes about calling him, weeks before he died. They noticed pics of my mother with a shaved head and speculated that we both might have cancer.

I've been lucky, but I had to burn a lot of my life to be as safe as possible against Kiwifarms. No one should ever have to go through this. No company should feel safe protecting people like this.

Obviously I know a thread like this is gonna put me back on their radar, but I no longer care. Get fucked, scum. #DropKiwifarms