Cut throat crafting

I felt like i needed to get this out of my head, its been brewing for a while and having gone through a bit of a scenario myself with a very popular crafter i felt its an issue most of us have had to deal with at some point.
The crafting community can be a warm fuzzy place full of support, ideas and friends , but on the flip side it can be a highly stressful place to be sometimes. Venomous crafters out to rip people apart from jealousy, competative rage, who knows?
I have met literally hundreds of lovely crafters who support, inspire and are genuine lovely people, in fact id say the majority of the craft world are lovely and i wouldnt change them for the world, they have a shared sense of what i do, same love and passions and who else would listen to me in detail about my craft stash or latest bargains on eBay lol.
Unfortunately there are those in the world that despite being an individual with there own thought process style and ideas who just cant adopt that camaraderie. The ones like i recently dealt with who pounce on any small thing to rage a war on an innocent crafter, whose jealousy at either there skill, ideas or success cause them to be vile, hateful. Creating fake accounts to bully or spread bad rumours about this poor crafter, Who will turn the crafters friends on them with lies.
Now i myself am a fiery person and i don't insult easily, so when this very popular crafter raged her insane vendetta on me i took it in my stride, I don't get overwhelmed or stressed, and when i have aggro i normally with a smile on my face sort it out. I saw the inner working of this devious mind and it has no rhyme or reason! The assault was relentless, a person obsessed. Fake accounts to give me abuse (we traced the IP and all came from one person) Sharing my page to encourage her followers to pick on me...only one genuine person made a comment lol.
The result was in my favour, not only did this person spend every waking moment obsessing how to 'destroy' me but she let her page go unloved, got herself in such a tizzy and sent new likers and new sales my way- everyone loves a bit of drama!
In the end it was resolved by a mutual friend who had the girl apologise to me and promise to leave me alone. I hadn't heard anything else just murmurs of how she was claiming to be the victim and it was I who had been relentlessly assaulting her. Hmmmmm OK then! But i am the bigger person and i've let her gossip slip past me unscathed.
What did i do you ask? the answer was simply -nothing! To begin this assault had been such an innocent comment offering a buyer a page which sold a certain thing, the popular crafter felt i was 'stealing ' her customers and so it began. I was accused of saying outlandish things (none were true) i was accused of harassing and bullying the crafter, hmmmmmm all i did was respond to each and every insult she left on my pages while she stalked me.
Why you ask do i now bring this up?
I want you to open your eyes as i know this person is now assaulting another innocent victim... (actually since my own episode there was another very respected facebooker who has suffered at her hands also)
When you see someone with excessive popularity as a crafter and seller and shes abusing someone with obvious talent, instead of jumping on that band wagon to go abuse or insult based on her preaching , stop and think what did that person actually do?
Is that person talented? becoming successful? Is she competition to this crafter? If you can answer yes to any one of these questions then just refrain from comment as this is not isolated, in the craft groups i hear of dozens a week who suffer in this way from people who are so insecure about there own skills all they have is bullying.
Haters who will rip a page to pieces with there vile onslaught of lies and abuse to keep there customers. These people can be hidden in the most popular pages, they are not always the 'little' people. Be aware next time you see slanderous accusations that there are 2 sides to a story and dont jump in. Unless you have the maturity to go ask that person there version in an unbiased way please refrain from adding your 2p worth. Usually the accuser screaming the loudest about 'copying, stealing ideas, undercutting etc etc' are the ones most guilty of it!
Now on the flip side i have seen crafters like me make a stand, tell the fans whats happening. I don't encourage naming and shaming, but i do think you have a right to tell your followers someone is slowly trying to ruin you, this can be done in a sensitive way, it helps to crush any bad rumours they may have heard if they know your being targeted.
If this happens to you, don't stress, don't cry, Block if you can, report these vile people, stand tall knowing that your work has intimidated them so much they have a hatred for it. That your skills have made them jealous. take pride from the fact, Be proud you earned your stalker, and smile while you report there ass to facebook, blogger, etsy, or wherever they raise there ugly heads.