ASCII by Jason Scott

Jason Scott's Weblog

Earning their $9.95 a Month —

Date: Thu, 9 Oct 2008 17:07:22 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dan Strawser 
To: jason@textfiles.com
Subject: Website Request

Hi Jason,

My name is Daniel Strawser from Reputation Defender Inc.  I am writing you
representing my client, Christoph Vaessen.  He has asked us to contact you
and politely inquire whether it were possible to remove his name from a
certain text file on your website.  This text file can be found at the

http://www.textfiles.com/sex/abbs9302.txt

In this context, we would like to introduce ourselves. Our company,
Reputation Defender Inc., has made it its goal to watch over our clients'
good names on the Internet.

While Christoph appreciates your effort to achive text files and document
a unique period of computer history, he would prefer if his name were not
publicly associated with this document.  Additionally, the file appears on
search engines and he fears that it may affect him professionally.

Would you be willing to remove Christoph's name for us?  It would mean
very much to him and to us.

We would like to thank you for your understanding and for your time.

Please let us know if you have made steps toward the removal of the
information from the above mentioned website. You can also send any
questions that you might have to dstrawser@reputationdefender.com.

Thank you,
Daniel Strawser
Reputation Defender Service Team


--
Daniel Strawser
Reputation Defender, Inc.

This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the
individual(s) named. If you are not the named addressee, you are hereby
notified that disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in
reliance on the contents of this e-mail is strictly prohibited.  Please
notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have  received this e-mail
by mistake, and delete this material from any computer.
ReputationDefender,Inc. accepts no liability for errors or omissions in
the contents of this message, which arise as a result of e-mail
transmission. This email does not constitute an offer of services.

Categorised as: textfiles.com

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12 Comments

  1. Chris says:

    I feel for this guy, but I wouldn’t remove it. The textfile in question is now a part of history, like the Declaration of Independence, the August 10th 1952 edition of The New York Times, or the pilot episode of Gilligan’s Island. Scrubbing it from history is something that Stalin would do (did do, as a matter of fact).

  2. Jeff says:

    I’m guessing the answer is “no”.

    Though I have to admire the professionalism of the request. Not a bunch of punk-ass “media” lawyers flinging DMCA takedowns and C&D requests that come off like you’re dealing directly with the mob.

  3. Sebastian says:

    I am amused that this page is now the top hit for Christoph Vaessen on google.

  4. Ryan Russell says:

    Well, that was a mighty quick jump to Google Rank #1 for this page on his name. (Dr. Phil voice) How’s that workin out for ya?

  5. Daphne B says:

    It looks like textfiles isn’t the only site with that file anyway.

    (PS: Jason, if I click “preview”, I cannot then afterwards click “post”, or your site thinks I’m posting too close together and wants me to wait. That’s kind of against the point of “preview”, isn’t it?)

  6. Sorry, what?

    Christoph Vaessen Christoph Vaessen Christoph Vaessen Christoph Vaessen Christoph Vaessen (and once more because it’s fun) Christoph Vaessen once ran a Fidonet Point and BBS (PC tech brownie points) which carried info on HIV/AIDS (“the other” PC brownie points), and he finds that part of his online history offensive or potentially damaging to his reputation?

    I don’t get it.

    It’s not like he wrote anything remotely perverse like “broomstick death” (part of the “Kaka Sutra” @ http://home.arcor.de/hmvh/2004/273.htm) which I was asked to remove the original poster’s name from (I relented because of the included email addresses).

    In fact, I honestly fear we’ll be seeing more requests of the sort as “people search engines” start gaining ground and distorting facts. After all, even http://www.123people.de/s/jason+scott/United+States is into gay porn 😉

    “Free speech only goes as far as nobody is being exposed by any embarrassing truths.”

    http://hmvh.blogspot.com/2008/01/uncomfortable-past-or-inconvenient.html

  7. mark says:

    Kind of crazy — you would think that someone with the least bit of concern about their name online would at least buy the .com domain of their name:

    No match for domain “CHRISTOPHVAESSEN.COM”.

  8. jas says:

    boy that really backfired, didnt it. 😀

    why didnt the guy just write jason personally? i’m sure he would have atleast edited out his name from the file

  9. jason says:

    boy that really backfired, didnt it. 😀

    why didnt the guy just write jason personally? i’m sure he would have atleast edited out his name from the file

  10. jas says:

    okay, this comment script is borked 😀

  11. sigflup says:

    It’s funny that by them asking that you remove their name that document has probably been bumped up in searches quite a bit. Perhaps they should invest more time in having search engines report positive things about them instead of attempting to change the past.

  12. Christoph says:

    Well, I simply wanted my name removed from the site because its completely outdated. I know my name is just listed here because I ran a bulletin board system about 20 years ago, but the phone number listed here as as well as the forums that my BBS – users once subscribed to are of no relevance anymore; simply dont exist any more.
    And I dont “[…]fears that it may affect him professionally.”, as that guy from RepDefender wrote, I simply dont like my name in a text-file (among many others) that is shown in a
    “something/s e x/*” directory, god knows why you put it there. I think this is quite a reasonable request.
    Btw, I did write Jason and/or the webmaster about this topic before going over RepDef. but didn’t get any answer from him.

    So it would be quite nice if you’d remove my name from your site for the reasons listed above. I really dont see any reason why you insist on keeping it there… ;-/