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  • #81
What I meant by hovering over it I meant if you hover over the icon, the pin in this instance, a little window will pop-up telling you what that symbol stands for. For the pin icon the window will say 'Sticky'. The definition of a Sticky post is: a post that is pinned or "stuck" to the top of a page/area by a moderator, regardless of how old it is.
Thanks!
I only use a phone so I guess my hovering over the icon is useless :)
 
  • #82
Thanks!
I only use a phone so I guess my hovering over the icon is useless :)
Another reason I prefer using a computer! :) But you now know what those symbols mean. If you see any others you're curious about let us know here what they are and someone will check it out for you.
 
  • #83
Hello. I'm new here. I was scrolling TikTok and a young woman had posted about using Websleuths to hopefully locate her missing dad, which is why I'm here. I'm hoping to locate my own dad, James H Brohman Jr, who vanished 20 years ago. I have done everything I can possibly think of in tracking him down, but unsuccessful. I'm asking for advice and directions on how to post about him on this website...?
Hello! As you can tell by my join date, I'm new here! Quite a few true crime youtube videos mention websleuths and I want to do anything I can to help people, even if that's online.

Welcome @JBrohman and @peanutdreams - Nice to have you join WS!

Looks like @Gemmie has been busy answering questions, thanks Gem, and thanks to everyone for helping our new members.

Here you will find the newest posts on WS ... All from today ...
 
  • #84
Thank you so much Tricia
Help I'm new I wanted to start a conversation about my friend who went missing around the same time as the long Island serial killer and the bodies found on Gilgo Beach Long Island. My friend's name is Jennifer Poole. Please help me I'm really not to technically savvy.
 
  • #85
Help I'm new I wanted to start a conversation about my friend who went missing around the same time as the long Island serial killer and the bodies found on Gilgo Beach Long Island. My friend's name is Jennifer Poole. Please help me I'm really not to technically savvy.
Welcome findmyfriendjenniferpoole.
What you need to do is start a thread in the Missing Persons forum. The Missing Persons forum is located HERE
I will help you start one. You need a mainstream media article about Jennifer to start a thread. I found one HERE
By chance, do you know Jennifer's sister who has started this
Facebook page?
I'll check back here about the FB page. Then we will get started with your thread.
Thank you for coming to Websleuths to help with your friend.
Tricia
 
  • #86
Hello! Thank you for having me! I’ve only ‘deep dived’ into a couple cases (which lead me here) - I have a more general question I hope is okay. I want to collate and analyze the info I find here and on MSM/brainstorm/ organize my thoughts before posting, but am just using onenote at the moment and it gets messy quick. Is there a better way to get set up? Or a better app to use?
 
  • #87
Hello! Thank you for having me! I’ve only ‘deep dived’ into a couple cases (which lead me here) - I have a more general question I hope is okay. I want to collate and analyze the info I find here and on MSM/brainstorm/ organize my thoughts before posting, but am just using onenote at the moment and it gets messy quick. Is there a better way to get set up? Or a better app to use?
Hi Littlefish.
WELCOME
Websleuths members do you have an app you can recommend to littlefish?
 
  • #88
If I am fully understanding what you might be looking for I would suggest Notion or Evernote as possibilities you could look into. I use onenote at work and yes, it gets chaotic quickly. Hope that helps.
 
  • #89
Hello! Thank you for having me! I’ve only ‘deep dived’ into a couple cases (which lead me here) - I have a more general question I hope is okay. I want to collate and analyze the info I find here and on MSM/brainstorm/ organize my thoughts before posting, but am just using onenote at the moment and it gets messy quick. Is there a better way to get set up? Or a better app to use?

On Desktop
Google Sheets
to keep things sorted and organized with different labels and tabs, nothing overly fancy.(tip: use alternating color format when you have a bunch of rows!)
Google Docs - to "brain dump" notes. I copy/paste relevant info and images as I'm going down a rabbit hole.
Google Drive - When I've become super involved in a case, i break out a shiny new folder in Google Drive and put every bit of information in it, so it's easier to find in three months when I'm trying to find the source.
Obsidian- I've just recently heard about this, it is a free, open source note taking software that can be used offline, which is important to me in some instances!
Canva - Great way to make visuals and maps with text and icons. The "whiteboard" template is like your own personal red string, cork board evidence board.

On Mobile
Google Keep-
Pretty darn versatile, I love to use the checkmark option to remember bullet points.
Gmail - I prefer to research cases on my two screen desktop setup, but let's be real, sometimes I have to leave my office and enter the real world 😭. So when I am out and about and start catching up on cases, I'll email myself reminders and links of things to look into.

I swear I'm not trying to promote Google, it's just they have a lot of great free resources (and by "free" I mean I pay for it by giving my personal data to marketing AI overlords)
 
  • #90
Thank you so much! I’m also happy to pay the AI overlords my delicious personal data, so will check those apps out.
 
  • #91
Thank you so much! I’m also happy to pay the AI overlords my delicious personal data, so will check those apps out.
Ps I tried to make this a ‘reply’ to your message, but it said my message looked like spam so couldn’t be posted?
 
  • #92
Ps I tried to make this a ‘reply’ to your message, but it said my message looked like spam so couldn’t be posted?
That’s weird!

If you ever see this behavior again, screenshot it and DM me.
 
  • #93
Hello! I would like to make a post on a case that went away quickly but in 2017 had just a small amount of news coverage. I am not sure where to make the first post. I searched on a few words and there were far too many results. This case involved Jessica Johnson found deceased and tied to a mailbox with a shoestring. Tks!
 
  • #94
was it this one?
 
  • #95
Welcome to Websleuths.
Get ready for an amazing experience in the world of true crime discussion.
If you have a question on how to navigate Websleuths, how to use the search engine, or any other question about the site, please post it on this thread.
Our wonderful Websleuths Guide, Cool Cats, will be glad to help you find your way.
You don't have to be a new user to ask a question. Any member can join in.
Your opinions matter, but remember our number one rule:
Don't Be A Jerk!
Thank you, and see you on the forum.

Tricia
Hi, new here. My first post. Hopefully I'm doing it right. Just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Leerene. So glad there is a forum like this. Looking forward to being a part of this forum that unfortunately we need
 
  • #96
Hi, new here. My first post. Hopefully I'm doing it right. Just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Leerene. So glad there is a forum like this. Looking forward to being a part of this forum that unfortunately we need
Welcome LeeRene. We are very happy to have you on board. Don't hesitate to ask questions. There is a lot to read on Websleuths. Also don't be shy about posting. We would love to hear your thoughts on cases.
 
  • #97
Hi, new here. My first post. Hopefully I'm doing it right. Just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Leerene. So glad there is a forum like this. Looking forward to being a part of this forum that unfortunately we need

Hi @LeeRene!

Glad to see you. Your posting is just right.

Please feel free to share your sleuthing interests, WS has a variety of forums. I believe you will really enjoy WS and thanks for sharing!
 
  • #98
Hi - just joined and not certain if this is OK - I'm excited to have joined either way and am happy to contribute in whatever way I can regardless of if this is OK or not.

I'm sorry if this is vague or confusing - to be upfront, I'm strategically omitting some things and altering a few details here and there if they don't change the actual "ask" or "issue" for some safety purposes, etc. I've been dealing with someone who's been stalking and harassing me (over social media, though the stalking did include some break-ins) for over two years at this point. It's a person I know who does have a high level of tech experience and expertise. I've reported to the police several times and they won't do anything; the last time I did so, the guy literally laughed and asked me what I expected him to do.

I work in data analytics (and would be happy to try and help with anything in that realm) and have created a few different monitoring jobs that run in the background on the devices that this person seems to have managed to mess with and amassed a frankly overwhelming amount of technical data, timestamped, etc - some quick examples:
  1. one time where I was having a bunch of issues with my laptop and after it crashed, I checked and found that - among other things - during the short time period I was noticing the most issues, the laptop's firewall had been deactivated without my knowledge
  2. monitoring data shows another display being picked up by the laptop despite the fact that it was right next to me and I don't have any external displays - I haven't been able to find any legitimate reason for this to happen, and I have tried
  3. the monitoring jobs are zipped, hashed, and backed up immediately after running - at one point, all of the zip and hash files associated with a monitoring job more than a month earlier had the "ctime" attribute updated to that date - when I compared against backups and metadata backups, literally nothing else had changed - not extended attributes, not # hard links, not inode #, etc
All of those examples have kind of a lot more to them and those are just the parts I'm able to explain properly - this is not an area of tech I'm familiar with at all. I've created some visualizations, etc, but since I'm kind of learning about this stuff as I go - I'm having a really hard time interpreting some of it or figuring out what to prioritize.

It's gotten very clear that this person has no intention of stopping, even after this has completely disrupted every area of my life; there isn't anyone I can go to anymore. I moved after I captured an audio recording of someone breaking into my apartment while I was in the hospital, but then they just started breaking into the house I'm renting now; I have audio recordings of that as well (the police are aware).

I have no idea what to do. But I do have a fairly extensive amount of technical data accumulated at this point and I've been working on putting something together that maybe someone will take seriously so I can try to get away from this person. They've also logged into accounts of mine multiple times and at one point, logged into my email and deleted a bunch of stuff including the email chain where I'd submitted the police report and sent copies of some of the audio + video evidence I have, as well as photos of things like when I came home to the house I'd just started renting - and hadn't had anyone over yet - to find a random currency note of a country I've never been to on a continent I've never been to on the floor in front of my TV, etc - (I'd downloaded a full "copy" of the inbox less than a week prior so it wasn't a huge loss, but concerning).

I'm a very annoying person and managed to annoy one of the platforms until they sent me a really comprehensive dataset about my account + account activity and from the structure of what they sent me and kind of reading between the lines on what it means they store and for how long, I essentially know for a fact that the data on who this is literally exists in their database. There is proof of this in their data. I do have several of the IP addresses they logged in from - in several cases, in a completely different city than where I was at the time and not associated with a VPN - but I can't really do anything with an IP address if nobody will subpoena anything.

I'm so sorry if this isn't OK and am happy to take this down if needed - is it OK for me to ask for help from anyone on here to help interpret some of the data I've been gathering or to ask questions on interpreting what I've found? Among other things, I specifically have pretty technical questions about computer networking and the functionality of some specific Linux commands - as well as questions on audio forensics and audio metadata + metadata forensics.

Is this allowed? Or does anyone have advice on anything I could even do here to try and keep myself safe? I've tried contacting a few different victims' advocacy groups, etc, and (sorry - trying to give enough detail without too much) a few different people and mostly only heard back from people saying they couldn't help or (mostly) never heard back at all; I'm realizing lately that it's very possible that some of those people/organizations did actually respond, and this person was just deleting responses before I saw them. I bought the cheapest Chromebook I could find as I'm not wanting to do anything important on any of my other devices, and am submitting this from the Chromebook.

Thank you so much either way.
 
  • #99
Hi - just joined and not certain if this is OK - I'm excited to have joined either way and am happy to contribute in whatever way I can regardless of if this is OK or not.

I'm sorry if this is vague or confusing - to be upfront, I'm strategically omitting some things and altering a few details here and there if they don't change the actual "ask" or "issue" for some safety purposes, etc. I've been dealing with someone who's been stalking and harassing me (over social media, though the stalking did include some break-ins) for over two years at this point. It's a person I know who does have a high level of tech experience and expertise. I've reported to the police several times and they won't do anything; the last time I did so, the guy literally laughed and asked me what I expected him to do.

I work in data analytics (and would be happy to try and help with anything in that realm) and have created a few different monitoring jobs that run in the background on the devices that this person seems to have managed to mess with and amassed a frankly overwhelming amount of technical data, timestamped, etc - some quick examples:
  1. one time where I was having a bunch of issues with my laptop and after it crashed, I checked and found that - among other things - during the short time period I was noticing the most issues, the laptop's firewall had been deactivated without my knowledge
  2. monitoring data shows another display being picked up by the laptop despite the fact that it was right next to me and I don't have any external displays - I haven't been able to find any legitimate reason for this to happen, and I have tried
  3. the monitoring jobs are zipped, hashed, and backed up immediately after running - at one point, all of the zip and hash files associated with a monitoring job more than a month earlier had the "ctime" attribute updated to that date - when I compared against backups and metadata backups, literally nothing else had changed - not extended attributes, not # hard links, not inode #, etc
All of those examples have kind of a lot more to them and those are just the parts I'm able to explain properly - this is not an area of tech I'm familiar with at all. I've created some visualizations, etc, but since I'm kind of learning about this stuff as I go - I'm having a really hard time interpreting some of it or figuring out what to prioritize.

It's gotten very clear that this person has no intention of stopping, even after this has completely disrupted every area of my life; there isn't anyone I can go to anymore. I moved after I captured an audio recording of someone breaking into my apartment while I was in the hospital, but then they just started breaking into the house I'm renting now; I have audio recordings of that as well (the police are aware).

I have no idea what to do. But I do have a fairly extensive amount of technical data accumulated at this point and I've been working on putting something together that maybe someone will take seriously so I can try to get away from this person. They've also logged into accounts of mine multiple times and at one point, logged into my email and deleted a bunch of stuff including the email chain where I'd submitted the police report and sent copies of some of the audio + video evidence I have, as well as photos of things like when I came home to the house I'd just started renting - and hadn't had anyone over yet - to find a random currency note of a country I've never been to on a continent I've never been to on the floor in front of my TV, etc - (I'd downloaded a full "copy" of the inbox less than a week prior so it wasn't a huge loss, but concerning).

I'm a very annoying person and managed to annoy one of the platforms until they sent me a really comprehensive dataset about my account + account activity and from the structure of what they sent me and kind of reading between the lines on what it means they store and for how long, I essentially know for a fact that the data on who this is literally exists in their database. There is proof of this in their data. I do have several of the IP addresses they logged in from - in several cases, in a completely different city than where I was at the time and not associated with a VPN - but I can't really do anything with an IP address if nobody will subpoena anything.

I'm so sorry if this isn't OK and am happy to take this down if needed - is it OK for me to ask for help from anyone on here to help interpret some of the data I've been gathering or to ask questions on interpreting what I've found? Among other things, I specifically have pretty technical questions about computer networking and the functionality of some specific Linux commands - as well as questions on audio forensics and audio metadata + metadata forensics.

Is this allowed? Or does anyone have advice on anything I could even do here to try and keep myself safe? I've tried contacting a few different victims' advocacy groups, etc, and (sorry - trying to give enough detail without too much) a few different people and mostly only heard back from people saying they couldn't help or (mostly) never heard back at all; I'm realizing lately that it's very possible that some of those people/organizations did actually respond, and this person was just deleting responses before I saw them. I bought the cheapest Chromebook I could find as I'm not wanting to do anything important on any of my other devices, and am submitting this from the Chromebook.

Thank you so much either way.
Welcome to Websleuths @stalking_question_8254. You’re having a horrifying experience. I’m so sorry. As far as staying safe, I will suggest reading “The Gift of Fear” by Gavin DeBecker. If you Google you will find a lot of information about his writing. He does talk about being stalked in the book, but I think you need some hands-on help to give you a specific solution to the stalking. I’m not that person, but someone here may be. Our official leader @Tricia may be able to point you in the right direction.

Just a thought, but have you considered running this by the IT department at a local university? There may be an expert who can help you.

Wishing you well! 💜

P.S. Please be aware that this stalker may be able to find your posts here on Websleuths, so be very careful what you write.
 
  • #100
Welcome to Websleuths @stalking_question_8254. You’re having a horrifying experience. I’m so sorry. As far as staying safe, I will suggest reading “The Gift of Fear” by Gavin DeBecker. If you Google you will find a lot of information about his writing. He does talk about being stalked in the book, but I think you need some hands-on help to give you a specific solution to the stalking. I’m not that person, but someone here may be. Our official leader @Tricia may be able to point you in the right direction.

Just a thought, but have you considered running this by the IT department at a local university? There may be an expert who can help you.

Wishing you well! 💜

P.S. Please be aware that this stalker may be able to find your posts here on Websleuths, so be very careful what you write.
Thank you so much! I really, really appreciate it. Yeah - at this point I've kind of just accepted that it's safest/most reasonable to assume that this person is likely gonna read any attempts for help; I'm hoping the cheap Chromebook throws a bit of a wrench in that, but also - not the most optimistic. They've gotten into my email a ton and several accounts that were a lot more personally invasive and by now, it seems that my options are either to not ask for help at all, or to ask for help knowing that there's a good chance this person will see it.
 

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