One things that is just a sidebar and that has just come to mind a bit more since we've all been chatting is that when I tried to tighten my privacy settings on Facebook, so that these people.... Many of us don't realize that we have an “other” inbox on Facebook. When you go onto your Facebook from your desktop or your laptop, you can actually see an “other” folder. In that folder were all of the people who were not my friends but had been able to link from this MyEx.com to me. I was unable, no matter what I did, to actually set my privacy such that those people could no longer message me.
So it was a free-for-all until the attention stopped, basically. There was absolutely nothing I could do, short of shutting my life down, which everybody recommended I not do, because when you have an active healthy social media presence, it actually helps push the garbage down. They encouraged me to stay active on Facebook and stay active on Twitter. It was hard for me to do that, knowing what was going on, but I felt exposed regardless, just because Facebook did not allow me to set the parameters so that I felt safe.
I'm all for freedom of speech. I think there is a very fine line between what we're trying to accomplish here and taking away people's rights to speak. There is a line between bullying and just being a jerk that is very grey. My biggest point here is about Facebook settings and having responsibility and awareness within these groups—online media companies, whatever. We shouldn't have to ask for those things. They should be there already. If we choose to have a tight ship, that should be our choice as citizens, and it's simply not like that.