Crime & Safety

Listserv Explodes With Comments After Cross-Posting

Resident cross-posts information from one listserv to another.

A Hyattsville resident said that her privacy was violated when another neighbor posted her story on the H.O.P.E. in Hyattsville listserv.

The resident – Patch decided not to publish her name – said that her purse and wallet were stolen out of the passenger's side of her car while she was pumping gas at the Shell station at the intersection of Hamilton Street and Queens Chapel Road about 9:45 a.m. on Sept. 14.

But the resident intended the information to be only posted on the Hyattsville Nurturing Moms listserv, a Yahoo! Group that prohibits cross posting to other sites without permission from the writer, she said in a later post on the H.O.P.E. listserv.

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"Frankly, I find the copying and pasting of my message an invasion of my privacy, completely inappropriate, and I am appalled that you thought it was okay to do so," she stated. "You had no right whatsoever to do this."

Hyattsville resident and active H.O.P.E. poster Rumi Matsuyama cross-posted the initial robbery alert, but after being castigated for it, apologized to the victim.

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Since then, posts on the H.O.P.E. listerv – which serves Hyattsville residents and the surrounding communities – have largely supported Matsuyama, who said she will be careful not to cross-post again.

But the initial poster said Matsuyama has done so before to her, and previously promised it would not again happen.

Patch wants to know what you think about public information and how it gets out to people. Would it have been different if Matsuyama had simply re-worded the initial posting and then posted it onto the H.O.P.E.?


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