All tweets going forward will be "I'm home. Yup, definitely home."

February 17, 2010 9:24 AM

PleaseRobMe.com tells you when people on Twitter are advertising that they are not at home.

"The goal of this website is to raise some awareness on this issue and have people think about how they use services like Foursquare, Brightkite, Google Buzz etc"......."Our intention is not, and never has been, to have people burglarized."

posted by ThePinkSuperhero (84 comments total)

This is probably a bad idea, even though the intentions are good.
posted by ardgedee at 9:26 AM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

This will come in handy for when I want to throw surprise parties in the future.
posted by mccarty.tim at 9:27 AM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

It should really be called 'MyHomeCurrentlyHasOneFewerOccupants.com', shouildn't it?
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 9:28 AM on February 17, 2010 [35 favorites]

Okay, that is kind of creepy.
Then again, I'd like to imagine someone using this to break into a house just to find out that the wife had left but the husband was still there. Ass-beating hilarity ensues.
posted by cimbrog at 9:28 AM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

Next up: PleaseHomeInvadeMe.com to tell us when twitter users are home.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:31 AM on February 17, 2010 [3 favorites]

See also PleasePleaseMe.com, which tells you who does all the pleasing with you, how it's so hard to reason with you, and whoa yeah why you make them blue.
posted by cortex at 9:31 AM on February 17, 2010 [41 favorites]

Should I not be using the #leftmydoorunlocked and #hidemycashunderthemattress tags so much?
posted by Horace Rumpole at 9:32 AM on February 17, 2010 [6 favorites]

Eh...this isn't a bad resource for a burglar like me, but I will wait for 2.0, which will advise of the presence of dogs, security systems, etc.
posted by mreleganza at 9:33 AM on February 17, 2010 [2 favorites]

This site doesn't change anything, but merely demonstrates a problem. Burglars are apparently taking advantage of people's willingness to friend random strangers on Facebook and/or blurt details of new purchases, holidays, &c., to Twitter.

It wouldn't surprise me if this evolved into an entire ecosystem, much as ATM skimming, botnet building and phishing have, with a sophisticated criminal economy with separation of labour between scouts (who friend suckers on social services and dig up dossiers on address info, upcoming holidays, new purchases) and burglars, and possibly a black market of information between the two.
posted by acb at 9:33 AM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

Fortunately, I only use foursquare to check in at my own apartment. I'm currently the mayor, but my cats keep trying to catch up.
posted by Greg Nog at 9:33 AM on February 17, 2010 [9 favorites]

Good stuff. Lots of people don't think about this at all. Needs a Facebook version that gets its information from the profiles of all the friends of people with weak passwords.
posted by gurple at 9:34 AM on February 17, 2010

Then again, I'd like to imagine someone using this to break into a house just to find out that the wife had left but the husband was still there. Ass-beating hilarity ensues.

I am not sure I get this. Are you imagining some kind of adulterous gay BDSM sitcom? 'cause I say bring it on!
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:34 AM on February 17, 2010 [3 favorites]

My new iPhone App, 1STamndmentNOW!, screams "Fire!" in crowded theaters.
posted by applemeat at 9:35 AM on February 17, 2010 [14 favorites]

Eh, I'll be worried when they come out with PleaseHumpMe.com, which will announce to everyone when I Twitter that I'm standing out in the woods with my pants down.
posted by orme at 9:35 AM on February 17, 2010

It isn't enough to know someone isn't home. I also have to know where their home is. And I have to be nearish to that home. I guess if I were hoping to rob a specific person this would work, because I'd already know where they live. But if I'm hoping to rob a specific person, I don't really need twitter, I just need to stalk them. Although this would cut down on how much time I'd need to spend huddled in a car with a donut, cold coffee and binoculars _{hypothetically}
posted by DU at 9:39 AM on February 17, 2010 [3 favorites]

This site doesn't change anything, but merely demonstrates a problem. Burglars are apparently taking advantage of people's willingness to friend random strangers on Facebook and/or blurt details of new purchases, holidays, &c., to Twitter.

So does law enforcement, there's a dude in Philly's First Judicial District's Warrant Unit whose job is solely to connect with out of county fugitives over social networking sites with the object of obtaining their address so officers can be dispatched to go get them. Apparently his ice breaker line that supposedly works really well is, "Remember me from the bar?"
posted by The Straightener at 9:39 AM on February 17, 2010 [38 favorites]

I disabled Buzz, because it sucked, and because it had no way to turn off the default broadcast my location function.
posted by fixedgear at 9:41 AM on February 17, 2010

I'm working on an iPhone app that is a picture of a dog and when you click it nothing happens
posted by Damn That Television at 9:43 AM on February 17, 2010 [32 favorites]

Needs a Facebook version that gets its information from the profiles of all the friends of people with weak passwords.

That could work better, as people usually use their real names and identifying details on Facebook, making it easier to get a home address.

I wonder how long until botnet trojans start carrying payloads which scrape people's Facebook friends' details and feed them to a burglars' blackmarket site somewhere like Russia or China? The site could pay the trojan makers, burglars could pay the site for details matching search queries, and the economics could work out. (Businesses are always willing to pay for precise customer data that will improve their bottom line, and it's undoubtedly no different in the criminal world.)
posted by acb at 9:43 AM on February 17, 2010

damn that television I'll buy three!
posted by ExitPursuedByBear at 9:45 AM on February 17, 2010

So does law enforcement, there's a dude in Philly's First Judicial District's Warrant Unit whose job is solely to connect with out of county fugitives over social networking sites with the object of obtaining their address so officers can be dispatched to go get them. Apparently his ice breaker line that supposedly works really well is, "Remember me from the bar?"

I wonder how long until the first search warrant is issued on the grounds that the suspect didn't friend a stranger claiming to have met them in a bar, and thus is probably hiding something.
posted by acb at 9:46 AM on February 17, 2010

Why does everything think this is about theft and robbery?

What actually happens is after you post that you are not home, Rob Huebel breaks into your house and hangs out for awhile. Sure, he might make a sandwich or something, but he's usually pretty good about putting a fresh six in the fridge. If he's still there when you get home, he'll be happy to help out with some household chores.

That's how I finally got that old bedframe packed into the attic. Thanks, Rob! This site is so much better than it's previous incarnation where Rob Schneider would break into your home and replace all your pictures with pictures of himself and all your movies with his own. He would then stay in the house, often crying, until you sat down and watched one of his movies and let him provide "live commentary." Once you drifted off to sleep out of boredom, he would then remove all trace of his presence (including your TV) and disappear into the night.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 9:47 AM on February 17, 2010 [10 favorites]

I'm working on an iPhone app that is a picture of a dog and when you click it nothing happens

A Chinese company has already churned out five hundred versions of this app, one per dog breed, and localized for use in every language region in which the phone is sold.
posted by killdevil at 9:49 AM on February 17, 2010 [2 favorites]

> Fortunately, I only use foursquare to check in at my own apartment. I'm currently the mayor, but my cats keep trying to catch up.

Or use foursquare to check into many places simultaneously, including the Eiffel Tower, Japanese train stations, the North Pole, and four hundred Starbucks cafes.
posted by ardgedee at 9:49 AM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

Burglars are apparently taking advantage of people's willingness to friend random strangers on Facebook

That article is 100% bullshit. It's local TV news "Is your washing machine a ticking timebomb? Tune in after the game!" fact-free fearmongering in print form. Nowhere in that article is there even the slightest hint that this has ever occurred in reality.

The closest it comes is quoting "Reformed burglar Michael Fraser, who appears in BBC's Beat The Burglar series" as saying "There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that burglars are using social networks to develop relationships with people to identify likely targets." Oh, good, the reformed burglar promoting his TV show has "absolutely no doubt". Case closed, then.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 9:52 AM on February 17, 2010 [11 favorites]

This is where I ask people to explain the utility of foursquare in the first place. Why do I care where you are? If you want me to meet you someplace, DM me. I find this app as annoying as FarmVille and I've unfollowed people because of it.

/cranky
posted by desjardins at 10:01 AM on February 17, 2010 [3 favorites]

The first time I heard of somebody's online updates facilitating a burglary was in 1994, so I don't think it's a stretch to say that some enterprising people, here and there, have been using the Internet to help plan their robberies for quite a while.

I hate the stranger danger fearmongering that whips up around things like this, but there are sensible balances to be found in the broad territory between openly advertising your status and schedule, and keeping your personal life entirely offline.
posted by ardgedee at 10:01 AM on February 17, 2010

has anyone said this is stupid yet?? nope, OK.. This is stupid.
posted by HuronBob at 10:04 AM on February 17, 2010

I recently got Twitter thinking it would have less useless blather than Facebook, and was immediately amazed at how many people's feeds were just their FourSquare updates.

I DONT CARE WHERE YOU ARE. REALLY.
posted by dunkadunc at 10:05 AM on February 17, 2010 [4 favorites]

If you want me to meet you someplace, DM me

Dungeon Master?
posted by mr_roboto at 10:06 AM on February 17, 2010 [2 favorites]

This is where I ask people to explain the utility of foursquare in the first place. Why do I care where you are?

I've used it to catch up with folks who were in the midst of a bar crawl. Things could get noisy, so calling was out, plus I didn't want to make them text me over and over with 'Now we're at Lower Depths' / 'Now we're at Eastern Standard' etc until I could catch up.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 10:07 AM on February 17, 2010

They're also assuming that these Tweeters live alone--that their nests are empty when the twits leave home, no? ...though judging by the navel-gazing tedium of these tweets that's a safe bet, amirite??
posted by applemeat at 10:16 AM on February 17, 2010

Now if they would build an auto unfollow into this site it would rule. Nothing I hate more than foursquare updates, well, except for mafia wars crap.
posted by cjorgensen at 10:16 AM on February 17, 2010

I could see certain nuts getting into this to take advantage of that "castle" doctrine I read so much about in gun control threads. You know, repeatedly Twitter the fact that you're not home in your house chock full of valuables, wait for someone to break in and...*BANG* You're the envy of your law-and-order message board!
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:16 AM on February 17, 2010

Well, I think it is a very handy tool for those fooling around with a married person to see when that pesky spouse has finally gotten out of the house so they come over for some fun...
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 10:26 AM on February 17, 2010

So I can tweet that I'm not home. Unlock the front door. And stand there waiting with my 40 pound Halligan tool for whichever idiot that decides to drop by?

Weekend entertainment? Check.
posted by Splunge at 10:37 AM on February 17, 2010

has anyone said this is stupid yet?? nope, OK.. This is stupid.

Although spoken aloud, it would have the effect of poetry:

I'm at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport w/ 5 others
I'm at Distroy.com
I'm at Founding Farmers
I'm at Sak's 5th avenue
I'm at Copeland's
I'm at The Bellevue
I'm at Rudy's Country Store & Bar-B-Q
I'm at Collins Hill Branch - Gwinnett County Public Library
I'm at Golden Rule Crestline
I'm at California Pizza Kitchen
I'm at Mosaic Yarn Shop
I'm at Urban Flats

... spoken in a detached tone, at slowly descending volume.
posted by philip-random at 10:39 AM on February 17, 2010 [4 favorites]

I want to join up just so I can get robbed by a cat wearing skinny jeans, a mask AND a Kangol. Use foursquare or leave Röyksopp playing when you step out - your choice.
posted by cashman at 10:40 AM on February 17, 2010

Umm... do criminals really need social networking to figure out if someone isn't home?

Did the guy who broke into my spouse's car last week need to wait for him to tweet "Goin' to bed now! Won't be watchin' out for car thieves for awhile! Too bad I never turn on my car alarm!" Of course not - he went through the parking lot, saw a car with a new stereo and no alarm in a dark corner, and broke the window.
posted by muddgirl at 10:42 AM on February 17, 2010

I'm at California Pizza Kitchen
I'm at Mosaic Yarn Shop
I'm at Urban Flats

I'm at the combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 10:44 AM on February 17, 2010 [12 favorites]

The rich kids who burgled (heh. burgled) all those celebrity homes used the power of the computer internets to determine the address of celebrities and to determine when they were out of town shooting on location.

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2010/03/billionaire-girls-201003

(Of course the fact that most of these celebs didn't keep their doors locked is a different subject altogether)

So yeah. There's that.
posted by device55 at 10:46 AM on February 17, 2010 [4 favorites]

Umm... do criminals really need social networking to figure out if someone isn't home?

Loose-lipped teenagers who brag to their friends they are going on vacation is still the most reliable way to get your house robbed...
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 10:48 AM on February 17, 2010

cite?
posted by muddgirl at 11:01 AM on February 17, 2010

I'm probably away from home an average of ten or so hours a day, but I don't much care who knows that. For one thing, I don't have shit for valuable goods, and what I do have can be replaced fairly easily.

Plus, my 50-lb mongrel is there 98% of the time, and she's crazy scary. She'd maul anyone that dared to enter

with kisses and love
posted by Ufez Jones at 11:05 AM on February 17, 2010 [3 favorites]

"I recently got Twitter thinking it would have less useless blather than Facebook"

You're kidding, right?
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 11:23 AM on February 17, 2010

This, at long last, is what I have been waiting for.

All these years.

Hoping.

Waiting.

Long nights spent hunched, obsequious, by my back door on the cold linoleum, fingers cramping from the constant white-knuckle grip. Once I heard scratching against the door and thought at last!.

Then nothing.

A squirrel.

I know you're out there somewhere. Everything is carefully arranged, tempting you through the windows.

Tempting me.

I shift my grip.

And wait.
posted by aramaic at 11:27 AM on February 17, 2010 [3 favorites]

I give it a year before disclosing memberships to social media sites (not account access) will be required for homeowners insurace, and becomes one of the many factors in setting premium rates.
posted by chambers at 11:28 AM on February 17, 2010

cite?

I don't do reference sections for jokes...
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 11:31 AM on February 17, 2010 [4 favorites]

Ah. I didn't realize it was a joke, since it's making the exact same claim as the creators of PleaseRobMe.com...
posted by muddgirl at 11:33 AM on February 17, 2010

> If you want me to meet you someplace, DM me

Dungeon Master?

I once cast Drawmij's Instant Hookup on a blind date, but she made her saving throw.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 11:34 AM on February 17, 2010 [8 favorites]

See also PleasePleaseMe.com, which tells you who does all the pleasing with you, how it's so hard to reason with you, and whoa yeah why you make them blue.

am i the only one that was sad to see this site didn't actually exist?
posted by nadawi at 11:40 AM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

Drawmij's Instant Hookup

Yeah that spell has a number of ..flaws. Chief among them being it only works on Drawmij himself.
posted by The Whelk at 11:49 AM on February 17, 2010 [6 favorites]

This does demonstrate a problem, but it's a little more than surface deep. The potential burglar would need to geographically target and twitter-stalk victims, not to mention determine home location and other details.

If you followed me on Twitter, you might assume I live alone or with my boyfriend (thus my home would be empty if I advertised that we were both out somewhere). In fact, I live with four people.
posted by asciident at 11:57 AM on February 17, 2010

My next few tweets:

> This new pistol is sweet! I can't wait to get to the range.

> Damn it, range closed. Bad economy. Crap. Now what am I going to do.

> Bored. Really want to try my gun.

> Just bought a new HD TV and Expensive Game Console. Pity I have to leave town for a couple of days, and I won't even have time to hook them up. [location attached]
posted by quin at 12:06 PM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

My favorite is a friend who works at a hospital and anytime he posts his location at work from FourSquare someone on FaceBook FREAKS OUT and asks if he's ok.

Good times.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 12:11 PM on February 17, 2010 [3 favorites]

I disabled Buzz, because it sucked, and because it had no way to turn off the default broadcast my location function.

Disabling it doesn't get rid of it or prevent it from accessing your public profile and what you subscribe to on Google Reader unless those settings are also disabled.
posted by blucevalo at 12:26 PM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

I only use FB and Twitter to update folks on:

bad Lean Cuisine choices
tooting

Yep. That's it.
posted by stormpooper at 12:56 PM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

I would like to subscribe to that newsletter.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 1:16 PM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

Are there statistics anywhere that separate burglaries that result from having a plan to rob the house at 485 Mapleton Drive versus someone wandering around looking for a house where no one is there?

A couple years ago we had a burglar. Technology has given this guy all sorts of new tools that weren't available 20 years ago. He could, for example, plugged my address into Google, used my name to look up my phone number and then call the number to see if anyone answered. He didn't. Or he could have also looked in the window that was three feet away from the door he used to enter the house to see my wife and I, both sitting there doing our things on our respective computers. He didn't do that either.

I tend to think that if you can hack out some kind of script that follows a bunch of twitter feeds to let you know who to rob when, you're also going to realize that given the amount of time you spend stealing and fencing the stuff and the pennies on the dollar payment you're likely to get for it, burglary is probably not much better than a job at McDonalds.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 1:19 PM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

Disabling it doesn't get rid of it or prevent it from accessing your public profile and what you subscribe to on Google Reader unless those settings are also disabled.

Yes, I knew that, but thanks.
posted by fixedgear at 1:28 PM on February 17, 2010

I guess http://myroommateisanangryunemployedguncollector.com was taken.
posted by mecran01 at 1:45 PM on February 17, 2010

I only use FB and Twitter to update folks on:

bad Lean Cuisine choices

Tell me more.
posted by grubi at 1:48 PM on February 17, 2010

Hint for Twitter/FB stalkers: In my particular case, you'll have better luck if you consider all of my location-specific information to be either past or future tense, as it is rarely literally present tense.
posted by desuetude at 2:03 PM on February 17, 2010

bad Lean Cuisine choices

Tell me more.

All of them. PleaserobmeofLeanCuisines.com.
posted by sallybrown at 2:04 PM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

My company was recently solicited to try a new app for the I Phone called Genielux. This app would allow anyone to search uploaded databases of a Entertainment equipment companies rental stock for audio visual gear, Video broadcast, sound and lighting companies. ( AV rentals is the business we are in ) At first it sounded wonderful, you are on a gig and need a specific piece of gear because yours got busted in transport or you need more. Simple! Just search the DB. Anyone could type in a specific item and it would tell you based on your geographic location where the nearest item was, and it was free to the end user! The best part was they would only charge two dollars a month for companies to keep theirentire gear list active. How amazingly cheap! I can't tell you how cool this concept is. Think of it! All the people who had never heard of us could now find us! It's a total win win! But then I started thinking, if I were a thief who specialized in high end video gear or expensive audio or lighting equipment, this would be nothing but a high tech treasure map. We have so far opted to not participate.
posted by HappyHippo at 2:12 PM on February 17, 2010

I wonder how good their parser is.

"I'm at a loss about this site"

"I'm AT AT, and I just stumbled on an ewok rope."
posted by qvantamon at 2:21 PM on February 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

I wonder how good their parser is.

"I'm at wit's end."
"I'm at a crossroads."
"I'm at the end of my rope."
"We're at an impasse."
"We're at sixes and sevens." (In fairness, no one has ever tweeted this.)
posted by Horace Rumpole at 2:29 PM on February 17, 2010

Let's start a trend.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 2:37 PM on February 17, 2010 [2 favorites]

I'm not home. Landladies will probably let you in. Good luck disabling the webcams.
posted by jessamyn at 2:39 PM on February 17, 2010

Checking out my local results:

@c4workspace left home and checked in about 1 hours ago:

I'm at C4 Workspace (108 King William, S. St. Mary's, San Antonio).

Quick! Let's rob the C4 Workspace!
posted by muddgirl at 2:51 PM on February 17, 2010

Let's start a trend.

I'm in.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 3:08 PM on February 17, 2010

“He gave us $5,000 for, like, 10 Rolexes,” Prugo said, “which is I guess a ripoff now that I think of it.”

Ha. device55's Vanity Fair link is totally awesome slumming in Hollywood lowlife land.
posted by mediareport at 3:21 PM on February 17, 2010

No seriously:

They picked Paris Hilton as their first victim, Prugo said, because they figured she was “dumb.” “Like, who would leave a door unlocked? Who would leave a lot of money lying around?”
posted by mediareport at 3:25 PM on February 17, 2010

The more useful one is the Facebook app that alerts you the instant a woman changes her relationship to 'single'
posted by HTuttle at 3:42 PM on February 17, 2010

My favorite is a friend who works at a hospital and anytime he posts his location at work from FourSquare someone on FaceBook FREAKS OUT and asks if he's ok.

Good times.

What? Oh, no! You broke your leg! Bill, that's terrible! How did it happen?
posted by chambers at 3:52 PM on February 17, 2010

I tend to think that if you can hack out some kind of script that follows a bunch of twitter feeds to let you know who to rob when, you're also going to realize that given the amount of time you spend stealing and fencing the stuff and the pennies on the dollar payment you're likely to get for it, burglary is probably not much better than a job at McDonalds.

That's due to a lack of economies of scale, as Adam Smith would tell you. If you trawl Twitter for promising targets, research their identities/addresses, figure out when they're not home and burgle their homes one by one in the hope that they have something easily fenceable, then that is indeed a lot of work (and risk) for little expected reward.

However, if you act as a middle-man, you could make a fair amount more. You build an aggregator which sucks data from Buzz, Foursquare, Twitter, Flickr (good for geocoded, time-coded holiday snaps; if someone's address is in New York and they just uploaded a fresh photo from Gran Canaria, they're probably not home), and so on, and applies various algorithms to match it up (and there are a lot of smart coders of, shall we say, above-average moral flexibility on the black market; witness the botnet race, for example), before hitting public databases to get address info. If you want Facebook details, you can send out ads (spam, Google ads, whatever) reading "MAKE MONEY SURFING THE WEB", and pay suckers a pittance to read Facebook with your spyware "toolbar" installed, which slurps all their friends' personal details into your master database. Pay them bonuses to friend certain people on a hit list (i.e., people you have some details on, or whom your algorithm predicts would be profitable targets; things like postcodes, credit ratings, &c., could help with that).

In the middle, you aggregate this data into nice bundles, and sell them through the website: ("Here is 'John Doe #55361 (Cincinatti, OH; $60-70k/year, going to Cancun in a fortnight with wife and kids)'. For his address details, pay $200"). Potential burglars wanting to maximise opportunities and minimise risks of following dud leads/getting arrested/getting shot would log into the site, search by location and criteria, and pay for the tips. Meanwhile, you, the middleman, would be laughing all the way to the bank.

I'll be surprised if someone doesn't do this sometime soon, or hasn't done this already.
posted by acb at 4:38 PM on February 17, 2010 [2 favorites]

Upcoming Meetups: tells you when people on Metafilter are advertising that they are not at home.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 5:21 PM on February 17, 2010 [2 favorites]

If someone wanted to rob me, couldn't they just as easily ring my doorbell? If my blinds are closed, lights are off, and I don't answer the door, I'm not at home. Take off your shoes, and give my dogs some biscuits while you rummage threw my home, only to discover the only thing worth stealing is a TV, computer, and neither are worth as much as the risk of going to JAIL.
posted by Arcade at 5:31 PM on February 17, 2010

If you manage to get INTO my apartment you are totally welcome to my books and dried beans and anicent X-Files VHS tapes that I can't play.
posted by The Whelk at 5:45 PM on February 17, 2010

Upcoming Meetups: tells you when people on Metafilter are advertising that they are not at home.

What will the potential burglar do, wander around Philly attempting to pronounce my username to see if I turn around so that they can...follow me home, note my address, then wait for the next meetup? Anyone who goes to that trouble would learn that my SO is not a Mefite and thus wouldn't be at a Meetup.
posted by desuetude at 6:28 PM on February 17, 2010

note my address, then wait for the next meetup?

Or get your location off your profile page. I'm going to go move mine right now.
posted by LionIndex at 7:24 PM on February 17, 2010

desuetude, another dastardly use of the Upcoming Meetups function is alerting stalkers to your whereabouts. Which would of course prevent you from ever attending or planning another one... and if you DO attend one, it'll give the stalker a chance to do evil things like wait for you to come home from said meetup, block any cars in your driveway and scream threats while repeatedly banging on your door, demanding that you "come outside to talk."

Of course, you can call the police at that point because it's trespassing. But yeah, all this Twitter-whoring your whereabouts, posting your real phone number on Facebook and shit like that is dangerous. Cached pages can hang around forever. You don't have to break into someone's home to steal from them, and you don't have to be physically near someone to cause serious, lasting harm.

Being cavalier with your whereabouts may engender a false sense of community and the occasional spontaneous hangout session, but it's totally not worth it. Hell, I don't even give out business cards anymore.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 8:22 PM on February 17, 2010

THE TWEET IS COMING FROM OUTSIDE THE HOUSE
posted by Rhaomi at 12:48 AM on February 18, 2010

I have actually gotten exactly that message, Rhaomi, when I was hosting a MeFite in my guestroom once.
posted by jessamyn at 2:21 AM on February 18, 2010