Yeah, basically this. There’s other solutions to the issue, like forwarding mail from the sender’s address to the trash, that achieve the goal of stopping the intrusion of email into an inbox. It also achieves it politely, without causing people distress, wasting your own time, cyberstalking people, nor does it involve being a dick. There was a day when folks seemed to try to have Netiquette, they would find friendly ways to behave towards each other, and interactions with people of the Internet did not not feel like a race to the bottom of common courtesy. HN still maintains some of that vibe, else I wouldn’t even waste my digital breath writing this.

Quite creepy that part. Actually by doing that he annihilated any sympathy I had for him doing this in the first place.

He didn't make a accusation, he pointed out a set of data everyone else on the list had access to.

The people actually involved (and with more information to assess the reality of the situation) can make the judgement call.

See something, say something?

> I found one father who was interacting with his son’s girlfriend a lot. Not just “I hope you enjoyed the game!” but Liking many pictures, commenting on numerous posts, etc.

Do you feel like that's a problem?

I'd say that an adult over engaged with a child on social media is a potentially concerning data point.

Side note, are you down voting my comments because you feel like they don't add any value to the conversation or because you disagree with my viewpoint?

I'm not voting.

I find what is described as typical socialization observed by someone who knows nothing of these people as something to be concerned about to be fairly absurd.

The author spent a non-trivial amount of time researching the social media profiles and interactions in this group, and noted a pattern of interaction that was atypical between an adult and a minor.

If it was typical socialization within that community, then I find it unlikely he would have only found a single instance.

*edit to fix autocorrect typos

I think it is just sexual paranoia.

I mean here we are and someone somewhere happened upon a mailing list they didn't want to be on... looked folks up on facebook. Wrote a couple sentances on a blog and we're at "see something say something" and "The author spent a non-trivial amount of time researching the social media profiles and interactions in this group".

That all seems like a huge stretch that could create a situation where all sorts of normal behavior is scrutinized / fingers pointed, etc.