Just days after a woman was bashed to death in a Melbourne park, a guide to picking up women in public places in the city has surfaced online, with tips on approaching 'targets' outside libraries and supermarkets.

The guide was posted on the 'Roosh V forum' in 2017 and then popped up again this week on a private Facebook group about women's safety.

It was widely tweeted and shared on Thursday, with many reacting with disgust.

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The anonymous user who posted the guide identifies himself in his profile as a New Zealander living in Australia. The profile links to a webpage with more guides to picking up girls - the most recent of them was posted in September 2018. He last visited the forum two Saturdays ago.

The guide describes women as "targets" and "jailbait" and discusses strategies for "nightgame" and "daygame" - including approaching women by bike racks and on public benches.

It goes into detail about the ways to approach women, including using supermarket aisles as "natural bottlenecks" and recommends "the section with the highest quality is the toiletries section."

It also gives an average rating out of 10 for women typically seen in different types of university libraries and retail stores such as Big W and The Reject Shop.

"Be mentally prepared to approach anywhere, as there will be times when random hot girls appear in random places that I didn't list in this datasheet," the guide says.

"This post will become too long if I go into street and public transport game."

Since being posted, the 2,000-word guide has been commented on two dozen times by others sharing their own experiences, including picking up "latinas" through language exchange nights, as well as "asians", "country girls", and other travellers and foreigners.

Writer Clementine Ford, who also posted about the guide, told Hack it was an insight into the twisted psychology of misogynist groups.

"Yes pick up artists trying to come to Australia to tour their workshops was more of a thing a few years ago, but I don't think those communities have changed or gone away," she said.

"But there are still men who feel - incorrectly - disenfranchised by the fact women don't pay them attention and are somehow emasculated by this.

I doubt the people who subscribe to these views have really changed much.

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'This is real. This is what happens to women'

Roosh V is a notorious misogynist who has made a career out of teaching men how to pick up women. He's publicly stated that rape should be legalised.

In 2016, a petition to stop him visiting Australia to give workshops received 60,000 signatures. In the end, the American didn't apply for a visa.

Last week, he announced to followers he had found God after a psychedelic mushroom trip and proceeded to ban forum participants from discussing casual sex and hooking up.

All up, the global forum has more than 40,000 registered members and just under two million posts. In January 2018, it had 8,000 members online at once.

On Thursday, there were dozens of comments across posts including "how to significantly increase sex drive" and "good restart texts to send".

At least for the Melbourne sub-group, however, the number of posts appears to have declined from a peak in 2017 and 2018.

Clementine Ford told Hack she found the posts "disgusting" but it was unsurprising there were groups out there that seek to dehumanise women.

To have it laid out like that and placed out in such forensic detail - personally not only does it make me feel sick but it also makes me feel validated," she said.

"This is real. This is what happens to women."

"This actually provides a means for women to have that conversation and point to the practical reality of it."

"I don't think they view women as human beings or people who deserve respect."

Change.org executive director Sally Rugg tweeted a link to the list, saying "this is why so many women get scared when men approach them in public".

University of Melbourne said it had referred the list to police for monitoring and its security team was paying attention to locations named in the post.

Hack approached Victoria Police for comment.