I have another post in the writing, but I want so share my discovery that my experiment on Craigslist is no unique. At least two other people have done it before: Simon Owens, whose results were "tame" like mine, and Jason Fortuny, who posted all the replies he got on Encyclopedia Dramatica (both of these are definitely NSFW). I believe several people lost their job over the Fortuny case, and more had to deal with problems in their family.
On the ethics over Fortuny's case, I happen to think he should not be punished. Legal considerations aside, I think the fault lies mostly on the people who replied to his ad for giving personal information to a stranger on the Internet. Without evidence otherwise, the worst case assumption should always be made.
That said, I don't think Fortuny is a shining example of how humans should act, either.
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