Okay, it’s time for me to act, and be damned to the risk of being termed a spelling troll:
ACERBIC!!!
Of course truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.
Mark Twain
See? How can I possibly be acerbic if I can’t even spell it?!
Okay, my money is on Dannyboy being Phaedrus. He was the (only) one who took Formeragent and The Finder seriously, he’s the one with the predilection for weaving magnificent tales out of thin air, and he has substantially better grasp of standard English grammar and spelling than Mikey/Former/Finder/Newton et al.
So I think we have two different trolls here, one backing the other one up (for no readily apparent reason) but both of whom seem to have a grudge out against poor David B.
Felice
“There’s always a bigger fish.”
NTG begged:
Huh. Not a chance, hon. Ever read the “Earth is flat” thread? Not only did I forgive Phaedrus repeatedly, I encouraged him and occasionally defended him.
Being nice to Newtie is nothin’ after that.
-andros-
Well, looks like we found a motto for the meeting, guys…
We interrupt this thread to increase
dramatic tension.
Andros said:
Yes… We’ve been meaning to talk to you about that. It’s been suggested to us that you perhaps haven’t been taking all of your medication…
You know, I haven’t been around long, and am, at times, somewhat dense. However, this has become just confusing enough for me to finally work up the courage to ask:
Is this “normal” for around here or is this just kind of a wierd, otherworldly, strange aberration visitation kinda thing that is a frightening, yet oddly intriguing, “first” for the board?
PS - If the above description didn’t make sense, I guess the best way to describe it would be “gapers block”…
It’s not normal. It’s mostly the work of one or two severely deranged children. Possibly with a severely deranged adult thrown in.
Okay, Danny’s a Sock Puppet, I agree. But does anyone really think SIN is? I don’t; I think she just got caught up in this and was wrongly tarred with the same brush. But add me to the list of people resolving to ignore sock puppets and crazy people – if we don’t feed them, maybe they’ll go away.
Jodi
Fiat Justitia
Nope, they keep coming back with new, more ingenious names and identities. Maybe next time they’ll at least be interesting.
For those looking for aspirin, I have some great barbituates that do the trick.
I would argue, however, that this sort of thing will increase in frequency.
There are 4200 registered members on the board, and the number of casual 'net surfers worldwide continues to increase dramatically.
As a friend of mine used to put it, “When the internet is idiot-proof, you can’t avoid proof of idiots.”
-andros-
Sorry, the above is in response to
So how do you stop it? Do you ban all “Hotmail” type addresses? John C. has indicated that would mean the end of him, among others. I’ve seen some MBs that have banned free e-mail accounts like Hotmail. I’ve seen others that encourage Hotmail-type accounts to provide anonymity! Certainly in this case it would have made it more difficult for the troll if he would not have been allowed to use Hotmail accounts.
Please, Jean Louise Finch don’t ban the free-mail accounts. I like posting to this board.
The only access you have/can get is thru a Hotmail type of account?
Hmmmm. See, that’s the problem… Those accounts make it possible for some people who otherwise couldn’t to access the MB. On the other hand, they make it possible for trolls to do it as well. 
andros:
I’m not sure that we will see a dramatic increase. I strongly suspect that most of our really weird trolls, recently, have been just a couple of twits. They may hang around, but I don’t think that they will proliferate. We had ongoing troll activity in the relatively closed arena of AOL and we’ve had ongoing troll activity, here.
The Sacramento MPD is a special case, but I don’t see him “spreading.” Phaedrus is a bit of a loon, but I don’t think he is going to split into multiple posters. (It would take a lot of time and energy for someone as prolific as Phaedrus to post the same amount for each of several personalities. I never figured that SuzyQ/KGB was a sock puppet (although I think Phaedrus posted from that computer, once or twice).)
Overall, I would think that periodic appearances by Captain Ed wannabes is the price we pay for an open door policy, but those guys get tired quickly and leave. The Sacramento Multiples appear to be a different sort of guy, but I don’t think he is spawning copycat trolls. Phaedrus was a single poster that most folks found irritating. We aren’t going to get multiples of him, either.
The AOL/SDMB had Ben, Shawn, the whole “Gang That Could Not Tolerate Sheeesh”, Chevy55SS, and at least one other who posts with more civility, now. All of those posters were generally disliked, although there were always some folks who enjoyed sparring with them. The board didn’t die. This one won’t either.
Tom~
How do you get a hotmail account without a real network logon, anyway? I have a real email account with my own ISP, I also have a real network account through my office, for that matter. I choose not to use either of those for SDMB, for personal privacy reasons.
I guess you could have a homtail account as your sole email address if you use libraries and other public access servers. Is that it?
Felice
“There’s always a bigger fish.”
I have a mail.com account because my only access, for now, is at work. I don’t use my work address because they would object. I do, however, have access to the internet and I therefore use a free account not related to work.
Don’t forget about free-internet accounts.
I can’t forget NOW…