Cnote, that i agree with. 
Assuming that’s really her.
Shayna, I’m sure that somebody here could write you a little program to make it all a lot easier. Say, maybe store the pics in a database and have a little admin front-end to add/delete pics and information. Just a thought.
I bet I have an idea of what happened here.
To begin with, a little background-
I first ran into the poster known as Little Tassie yesterday as I was re-installing an old, backed-up, favorite folder. As part of cleaning out the dead links in that folder, I ran across the people pages link. Out of curiosity, I opened it and started looking around. I saw new people and updated people. I also saw Little Tassie in all her glory. And glory it is. The picture shows her hunched over a couch wearing only a bra.
Interesting, to say the least.
Intrigued, I then did a search on this message board for her username to see who, or what, she was. I hadn’t noticed that name before, or seen any of her posts, so I was curious. I also thought, “That’s an odd picture to have on the people pages, all sprawled out like that, I bet she’s flirting like a mad women on the board. I wonder who’s giving her the time. I also wonder who else thinks that picture is probably a fake. Who poses like that who wants to be taken seriously? You do that to get people interested in your story. You do that to sucker people.”
However, I digress.
I search the archive and come up with nothing ( I realized later that I was searching her name with a space between little and tassie, the engine wouldn’t recognize it and it came up blank). I then drop it like any other people page photo that shows up without the person being apart of this board.
Case dismissed.
Now comes today. I spot the ‘let’s feel bad for Little Tassie’ thread. I immediately think, “Feel bad for her, why? She’s never posted here. Who else knows her?” I read the intro and see that she emailed someone else who’s registered here and given them a sob story. It all could be true, at this point, who knows? Why would I care, anyway? I feel bad for her, but it means nothing to me.”
Then comes the cross-posting, the cries for sympathy, the outreach to another ‘known’ poster. “Feel for her. She begs you, help her!” If that doesn’t conjure up cynicism, I don’t know what does. Any unknown poster, given the photo, given the lack of recognition, given all of it, would to been taken with a grain of salt.
It’s spam.
But she fooled some serious regulars around here. Regulars that typically can spot this type of scam. She’s good, I’ll give her (or him) that.
Then comes this thread, and the outrage from Mr. Cynical. Mr. Cynical complains about her treatment, or the fact that she can’t be recognized across the forums, and becomes enraged. Most who come in here can’t see his perspective. Why? Because Mr. Cynical was under the blinding light of a crush that (used to be) Little Tassie.
And that, to boil it all down to the basics, is what happened. Of all the people here, Mr. Cynical was the most taken. He saw what he wanted to see and was defensive to anything and anyone trying to counter it.
It wasn’t Chronos’ terse comment, nor the deletion of the links, it was the attack on Mr Cynical’s girlfriend that roused all his ire.
Instead of yelling at him, and his complete lack of judgement, we should feel bad for him, for being taken that badly.
Ok, I wasn’t aware that was moderator policy. So sue me.
Well, actually I reread the “stoned?” thread and it was the threat of banning that set me off. This is what manhattan said:
…which seemed totally out of line. Dani later apologized and explained that he did not realize what he posted was against the rules. I don’t recall manhattan replying to Dani’s apology (although it might have been done by email.)
In fact, I was going to start my own Pit thread about this, but Pit threads about moderators are soooo cliche…so I decided to hijack another mod-bashing thread instead. 
OneChance, I appreciate the suggestion, but even an add/delete program wouldn’t help with the time it takes to simply retrieve and respond to all the emails I get, download all the pictures to my hard drive, edit them, upload them to the site, create the pages (even if all I have to do is copy and paste someone else’s and replace the names and links, I still spend time deciding on color schemes and checking that all the links work, etc.), and then edit all the linking pages and indexes.
And the editing of the images themselves can take quite a bit of time, considering that I get HUGE image files that have to be reduced and sharpened, or blurry or highly pixeled ones that have to be fixed (as much as possible), lots of red-eye reduction gets done, most of them have to be cropped and I put borders and shading on them.
Don’t get me wrong - I’m not complaining. I love doing this or I would’ve given it up a long time ago. But with all the time I do spend on it, it really chaps my hide when someone wastes my time making up a persona and having me treat them as if they were a real, contributing member of this community.
And speaking of which…
Cnote, I, too, was skeptical when I received that picture and even sent it to a moderator for their opinion before posting it. I also always check the person’s profile, if for no other reason than to make sure they’re really registered and get the proper capitalization/spelling of their username (you’d be surprised how many folks don’t capitalize it the same in their emails as they registered on the boards). The moderator felt that because they seemed to be (at the time) a legitimate poster here, that if that’s the way they want to portray themselves, oh well. So I went ahead and created a page for her. That’ll teach me to second guess myself, huh?
A hint for next time you get curious about someone on the People Pages. I link everyone’s profile right to their picture on their page, so all you have to do is click the picture, go straight to the profile and click the “search all posts by this registered user” near the top and you’ll find all the posts they’ve made.
Apparently I’ve become addicted to a soap opera… Alphagene’s rant made this thread worthwhile though. It works both straight up and as irony. Way to go, pal. I’m still grinning.
jm
Certainly, but “e-venues”? For shame, Alphagene.
Makes Chronos look like a hero by comparison, rather than the kitten-stomping sociopath he obviously is.
Shayna-
You do an admirable job on a site that most of us take for granted. If I’ve never mentioned it before, I’ll mention it now- People that go above and beyond the norm to do something cool for others, simply because they like doing it, is one of the best attributes a person can have.
Hold on to that, it’s a frighteningly rare attribute to find these days, and it sets you apart from the crowd.
Don’t let the Little tassies’ out there taint your view.
[12 step program]
::stands::
My name is RTFirefly, and I too was taken in by Tassie.*
::sits::
[/12 step program]
OK, now that we know she (assuming she was a she) made the whole thing up, what was her previous username? And can you link us to where she’s done this before?
BTW, I’m not asking ‘do you have a cite for this?’ When Lynn says someone’s been here before, and pulled the same trick, I believe her; ditto from any of the other admins and mods. This is more for my learning curve: if I see more examples of this sort of thing, the more I’m likely to recognize more subtle forms of the same scam, the next time.
I’m asking this in a post, rather than an email, since I figure I’m probably not the only one who’d like to turn this into a learning opportunity.
*[sub]Over on Fathom, in case you’re wondering.[/sub]
RTFirefly, the secret to *Little Tassies’s * other name is here http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=65246 In Lynn’s second post she let us know.
Do I feel like an idiot ? Nope. I feel like a caring, honest person which is something she will never be.
And now you are aware of it. Chronos made you aware in no uncertain terms. You, and maybe someone else who didn’t know the rules.
I really don’t get it. I don’t see his comments as being jerky. At all! You were supposed to read the rules when you sign up. Maybe you did, and simply forgot. OK. If you’re upset about that very mild admonition, I would suggest growing a spine.
I didnt take time to read all the posts because basically I cant believe this has been opened in the pit, so if I repeat what anyone has said I appologise.
Have you ever heard of the saying “mountain out of a molehill”? It seems if the thread had been closed and it haden’t been such a sensitive subject matter, no matter how it had been phrased more than likely that would have been it. But because omni just so happened to be doing what he thought was a nice thing, people get riled up. IMO, the thread should never have been started regardless of the cross posting. Get over it and play nice, jeez!
So in I stroll this morning, and see that the little*tassie character was played by a troll.
That really sucks.
What sucks worse is that there are little kids out there who are sick, and potentially dying. I’m friends with a family like that. And, for that matter, I’ve been in that boat myself.
Did a troll get the best of me? Yes. And, it’s happened to most of us at one time or another in our lives, so I have no shame for it. It pleases me that I’ve enough trust left to allow myself to be taken in on occasion.
Should the threads we’ve spoken of here been closed? Absolutely. I’ve never denied that. I can still even agree with them having had the links deleted.
Does all of the above excuse Chronos’ behavior? Not on your life. Not on MY life, because I value mine, but on, say, fatherjohn’s life, since I don’t value it one red cent.
(Yes, there’s a time for levity, and this is one of them)
If everything that’s needed to be said has been said, and I think that it has, this thread should be closed, and allowed to drop off the page, banished to the farthest reaches of the boards’ disk drives. Dead Horse cleanup, forum 5.
It’s going to be a beautiful day, isn’t it?
Let me share with you my first thought of the day:
FUCK!!!
Let me share with you my second thought of the day:
*I HAVE BEEN SUPREMELY HAD!!![/i}
:::takes a gulp of orange juice with a slice of toast:::
Feeling better now.
My behaviour yesterday evening was, to put it mildly, uncharacteristic of me. If any of you ever bothered to read some or any of my posts in the past, you’d have to agree that I’m generally a ‘mild-mannered’ guy, usually trying to steer away from confrontation. Somehow, I got pretty riled up this time and, with the benefit of a three to four-hours sleep, I, this morning, realize that I went overboard. Plain and simple. And for this, I offer anyone concerned my fullest and sincerest apologies. I do maintain that Chronos’, a moderator which I very much respect, should have been a bit more tactful, but let’s leave it at that.
I think what ‘got’ to me was the context in which all this had occurred. I truly cared for what that imposter was supposedly going true and felt that a few additional words of encouragement would have helped. Leaving every poster free to participate or not, needless to say.
Fucking joke’s on me (and all the other who genuinely took this whole matter to heart). As one who isn’t necessarily a newbie anymore, I probably should have checked and double checked. I obviously didn’t. I acted spontaneously and posted my message in two other forums. Clearly this was contrary to protocol and a mistake on my part.
But as I posted previously, I honestly wasn’t aware of it at the time I did it. I think I’ve always abided by the rules, without having the impression of them being forced down my throat. And, naive as I am, I thought – until last evening – that ‘spamming’ and ‘solicitation’ were much more in the commercial realm (click here and get a 50% rebate coupon); I guess I’ll have to revise my definitions.
In conclusion, if this needs to be said, I have only the utmost contempt for the scum who prey on the good intentions of others.
And for this, I will never apologize.
CnoteChris: How far up your ass can you fit your head? Far enough to speak out of it, apparently. I find it amusing that you had a picture of this person, whereas I didn’t know it existed.
You are a moron. There is no simile there.
**Shayna **
I suggest that you leave her page up. Just replace the picture with a cow, troll or gargoyle.
Am I the only one around here waiting for Chronos to GET an apology?
C’mon…maybe the MPSIMS people are a little sheltered in their forum, but his response is standard fare for the other forums. Shit, that’s the reason I love this place.
I love watching other people step on the clearly marked landmines:)[sub]and occasionaly stepping on one myself[/sub]
Now that the whole thing has been exposed as a hoax, I can’t see that Mr. C and omni have ANY legs to stand on.
You guys got suckered. That sucks, but you don’t get to pin all the blame on Chronos.
I just have one comment for the niggling fusspots here. You guys are claiming, truthfully I will add, that the SDMB registration agreement does not specifically proscribe crossposting. However, all of you should be aware that crossposting is a reviled breach of etiquette (I refuse to use the word “netiquette”) 'net wide. To claim ignorance of this simple fact is duplicitous, at best. And to cavil at the staff here for not including the entire spectrum of internet etiqutte in the damned registration agreement is preposterous; indeed, it borders on farcical.
Can you read?
Did you read?
Which of the two questions I’ve posed to you there can only be answered with a no?
MY GAWD, you’re stupid. Scroll back. Read.
Put your head between your legs. Say “POP”. That will simulate the sound of you pulling your head out.
Please refrain from ascribing me sinister motives that I did not have in the first place. My last post seemed fairly clear and straightforward. At least to me.
Listen you stupid fucking moron. If you actually had a life you wouldn’t have been so easily suckered by an internet romance. I can only guess that sitting in front of the computer with your dick in your hand makes one’s brain shut down.
Then to come bitching and moaning about it in the Pit is the height of idiocy.
Everyone look at me!!! I’m an asshole!!! Everyone look at me!!! I’m special and think I should be able to do whatever I want!!! Everyone look at me!!! Someone was mean to some bitch who was playing me like a fucking fiddle!!!
Go fuck yourself.
Since you have trouble understanding the basics of the board, like not cross posting, then I can’t be surprised that you don’t understand that 2 page threads don’t show previous replies in preview.
Had you understood something like that, you would have looked at the times of our posts and concluded I started my post before yours was up.
Don’t try to turn your angst at being rejected by an internet scam bitch from Chronos to me.