The alt.support.chronic-pain
Kook FAQ
 

Notice

This Kook Faq once served a useful purpose in identifying and documenting net abusers, but now that USENET is mostly abandoned, this FAQ has outlived its usefulness. If you're looking for missing pages on specific individuals, they will always be available via the "Wayback Machine" at archive.org: https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://kook.us

Background

Until 2002, the alt.support.chronic-pain newsgroup was dominated by a cabal of very abusive people who controlled everything that went on. They made up a bunch of rules and anyone who didn't follow the rules or otherwise challenged their authority was subject to constant personal attacks, the researching and posting of personal information, bogus complaints to their internet service providers; and in some cases, local police or their employer. The attacks were coordinated among the cabal and would always continue until their victim finally left the group.

The cabal had been at this for several years. Most people were afraid to do anything that might incur their wrath, but a small group eventually formed to oppose them and after a relatively short battle the worst abusers were run off.

But that was not the end of it. Attempts were made to establish a cease-fire, but the abusers and their allies spent several years trying to "get even" against those who had deposed them. They used multiple sockpuppets and multiple internet accounts to carry on their attacks. They recruited other newsgroup nutcases who are notorious for abusive behavior to join with them in their attempts to retake control of the group or (as one said) to "burn it to the ground." The abuses during this period were far worse than anything that had ever come before. Both sides were guilty of excesses, but the original cabal and their allies went to extremes that have rarely been equaled in the entire history of newsgroups.

Peace came only after the cabal and their allies finally gave up trying to run off the small group who originally opposed them. There were no winners because those who stood up to the abusers paid the price of having their names, addresses and much personal information attached to outrageous lies being posted literally thousands of times in order to pollute any Google search on their names. I originally wrote the "Kook Faq" as a reply to those thousands of posts and to document the actions of the abusers. 

Links within this site that still work: 

What is Cyberstalking in Newsgroups?  

A sample Cease and Desist letter