Bear411 Silliness

[bjarvis]

I was in Crate & Barrel yesterday afternoon when co-trailer trash jearbear65oh calls my cell phone.

"Are you near a computer?" he asked.

"Um, nope. But there's some lovely pie plates to my left if you're interested."

"Maybe another time. When you get a chance, go to Bear411 and look up the profile of bear511."

"Why are you on Bear411 at 2:30 in the afternoon on a Saturday? Go outside and get some exercise. Come back to it at 2 AM like everyone else."

"Never mind why I'm on right now. Just go look as soon as you can." *click*

When Jeff and I returned to his place, we looked up the profile in question:
"Bear511 - San francisco | CALIFORNIA | USA
Hi! My Name is Mark. I am a Bottom.
I Can Speak: -English-"

Fine & unexceptional, except the photo is that of my dear husband, kent4str circa 1996. He's a little greyer now than he was then --10 years with me will do that to a person-- but that's him.

I'm so tempted to mess with Mark... "Great photo! Got any more? No? That's a shame, but hey look, I have photos of at our campsite! At our thanksgiving party! At our wedding!"

kent4str is still trying to decide if he's amused, angry or just annoyed. I'm choosing the amused option, but then again, it's not my photo. I wonder if anyone has ever used one of mine. And I wonder what this Mark actually looks like.

Comments

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

joebearsandiego gets impersonated all the time. I'd take it as a form of flattery. :) it's funny when "Mark" 's profile showed up yesterday in the "new" profiles - I recognized the photo. but - - now I know why. (giggle)

Bear411 is a truly strange little microcyberenvironment. :)

[annoyinghandle.livejournal.com]

Email joebehrsandiego (tell 'em I sent ya), if ya wanna talk bear identity theft -- he had a straight guy do this to him!

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

I've seen that on several sites, like gay.com for example and it would not surprise me that it's happening on bear 411 too.

It can be a sincere form of flattery, but it's also fraudulant and not being honest/truthful about who the person is when you go to the great lengths to find a pic of someone else to use as your main profile pic.

Then there are guys who insist they aren't bitter or angry but their posts indicate otherwise, like the profile I found on 411 yesterday while chatting with a fella from Portland.

Of course I had to post about it too. :-)

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

Oooh, handsome guy. Maybe I'll chat him up! [not fully reading post]

[excessor.livejournal.com]

I think I would be annoyed. The guy is getting chatted up (understandably so) by people who should, by all rights, be chatting up kent4str.

[beldamon.livejournal.com]

I've actually had a picture of mine highjacked that way... I was obscurely flattered, not particularly annoyed...just mystified... wondering what this guy would do, should he get dates from that profile. Say it was an 'old' pic?

[allanh.livejournal.com]

I'd be more than annoyed, and would report the profile to Bear411, and get his fraudulent ass bounced off the system.

This is still identity theft, even if it "only" involves pictures rather than legal information.

[trawnapanda.livejournal.com]

I'm so tempted to mess with Mark... "Great photo! Got any more? No? That's a shame, but hey look, I have photos of at our campsite! At our thanksgiving party! At our wedding!"

I say, go for it. maybe adding "if you're going to impersonate my husband, the least you can do is take out the garbage and do the laundry at our house".

DO keep a copy of the offending page.

maybe even send a copy of your letter to mark to the site officials at bear411.

and ask him to send you a real photo, too.

[trawnapanda.livejournal.com]

on further thought, how about taking out a profile on bear411. call yourself - oh, I dunno, "bear512". use the same photo of Kent, and add a photo that has the two of you in it.

then in the blurb, say does he look familiar? I'm not "bear511" living in san francisco, neither is my name "mark". we live in silver spring, and have sometimes been the object of photo identity theft. But we're a fun couple and... [whatever else you want to say, possibly commenting on bottom-tude, but that may be oversharing in this instance]

leave the quotation marks in.

alternatively, you could ask the "mark" who shares your bed to take you to san francisco - I mean, if he lives there, the least he can do is show you around.

[paigemom.livejournal.com]

Um, last I checked, Kent was a top. Or at least a switch.

Explain THAT, Markeypoo!

[bearfuz.livejournal.com]

I confess... I wrote a 411 message to "Mark" and called him on his deception. So if he disappears prematurely you can blame it on me. (I also used the word "loser.")

[bearfaced.livejournal.com]

"Mark" obviously does not realise that everyone knows everyone else these days... My profile is Bearfaced on 411 and on most things but someone imaginitively called himself "Bearfaced1" ... Luckily for him he didn't use my picture or he'd have no responses! I do get his email sometimes for some reason.

the first image this morning

[redbearmark.livejournal.com]

The offending bear511 was the first profile this morning on bear411.

I just had to comment about this being a photo of my friend on the east coast. How possibly could it be you on the west coast.

Maybe you could make him be your slave and do windows and corners!

A good week ahead to you both - it is gonna be hot, so keep cool!

[kent4str.livejournal.com]

And the really fun thing is that picture is copyrighted, so he's really breaking a law, not just being extremely stupid.

I'm going to see about contacting him tonight, if he's still on Bear411. I'm still torn between being pissed off that he's putting out false information about me, flattered, amused, and curious about what he really looks like.

I'll let everyone know if anything happens.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Apparently this happens fairly often. Or else I just have uncommonly handsome friends who are more likely than the general bear population to experience identity theft. Anyway, the profile has vanished.

[stormecho.livejournal.com]

A few years ago we attended a dance in Gaithersburg and you guys came by to check it out. Lynette and Takeuchi were calling. Our friends Robert and Chuck were dancing and we introduced you. Some days later Robert sends me that picture of Kent that he received via a yahoo group that he subscribes to. "Is this your friend?", he says. Yup. I just figured your floating your pics around for others to enjoy. Who knew it was stolen goods?