Jean Louise Finch, I swear the browser (IE5) gave me an error message saying the server didn’t exist.
I’m going back to Netscape.
Sterling: Judging from the email I got today from one of the sock puppets in question, you most likely do not want to receive such.
Here be the whole of the text and you will note that I did not say exactly which SP sent it.
Perhaps someone with a loon=>reality translator can assist in deciphering that.
That’s how and why I am here. Every single post I have ever made has been from a Public Library. If we were unable to use free email, I could not be here at all. I suppose I could save my pennies and get WebTV, but that would take time. Besides, posting at the Library gets me out of the house.
>< DARWIN >
__L___L
While I couldn’t find a loon translator, I was able to try foreign languages.
From English to French and back again…
and from English to Portuguese and back…
This proves that sock puppets are on the verbal equal of the Fat Albert gang’s Mushmouth in any language.
The post below mine will most likely be occupied by LauraLee.
Onesheep said
Then how in the world do you get on to the LBBB?? They don’t take free email accounts.
I tend to agree. My assessment is of the persona presented. It is very difficult for an amateur profiler like myself to dig deeper (I am no DeBecker). I would LOVE to get a job for the CIA or FBI and learn what the experts really know about profiling, because I enjoy learning about it immensely.
However, it seems to me that there are a couple of possibilities:
-
The persona are the people, in which case we are dealing with two emotionally disturbed adults.
-
The persona are persona. In this case, my money is on one or two teens with some emotional difficulties.
I lean towards #2, simply because they persona do change slightly from iteration to iteration. The core underlying concept is the same (belonging to a top secret, powerful gov’t group, which as a former young male myself, is a popular fantasy. I used to like to pretend I was part of a top secret gov’t space agency with glitzy laser cannons and starships … then I grew up). If the persona was the true personality I don’t think we would see the slight shifts.
The question of how many is very difficult. It isn’t hard to imagine posting in two different styles, and there are some similarities between the two troll meta-groups, which could indicate a single person (note that the Phaedrus/Dannyboy now bears some similarity to formeragent/NewtonsApple); however, if I had to place money it would be on two and maybe three people. Why three? If these are kids, then they will like posting “hints” or “half-truths” so they gloat about their superior intellect at us not being able to figure it out. Phaedrus/Dannyboy made mention that MikeLikesIt/etc were only partially related to this whole affair. I don’t know why but that for some reason raises a flag in my brain (yes, I know it goes against Occam’s Razor… sue me). We could be seeing a FormerAgent/NewtonsApple, Phaedrus/DannyBoy/TheFinder, MikeLikesIt/???. I would still bet on two people.
You bes’ not be talkin’ about me, Mr. Big Stuff! Mundane and pointless I may be, but expendable? I think not!
You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be misquoted, then used against you.
Shhhhhhhhhhh, be vewwwy quiet. They may not know it. Actually, I know they don’t accept hotmail but they certainly accepted my mail address. And unless they say anything, I’m not going to mention it.
“Thanks for noticin’ me.”
I use hotmail as well, simply because I hate the email program they use at our university, and therefore don’t want to use that email address. If it is a problem however, I will use that address instead.
I wouldn’t leave y’alls for nuthin’!!!
“I celebrate myself, and sing myself, and what I assume you shall assume, for every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.” --Whitman
Which actually brings up another prong of the debate – sure, we could ban Hotmail, Yahoo, Deja, etc., but there will always be some new service out there who gives free e-mail accounts. Now, they may be a bit pickier or more difficult to sign up for than Hotmail (or a bit less known to your average troll), but in the end, once a troll finds it…
Gee, David, I hope that wasn’t in reference to me. After all, I did actually defend you somewhere in this thread, even though you didn’t need it. I use the free e-mail because I don’t think the lawyers I work for would be happy about me using their e-mail address. But then, that’s never stopped me before so I guess I chould change it if I have to.
Why would it be in reference to you? Are you a troll? If not, then it’s not. If you are, give yourself up now or we’ll have to beat it outta ya!
Actually, I’m a sock puppet. Care to guess which one?
Wow. This is insane. I would have very much liked to be around to tear that Danny guy a new one, but he seems to have left already, and that was two pages ago.
There’s only one pj0ster here that can make sense of something like that.
While I’m here (before three more pages are added to this monster), I’d like to vote against banning Hotmail accounts (as I would be cut as well). Let’s remember that for every troll/sock puppet (I don’t even know what a “sock puppet” is–I wasn’t around for that episode) that we find and vaporize, a decent poster with something worthwhile to share also joins up. We can’t go around making rules for the exceptions…
The IQ of a group is equal to the IQ of the dumbest member divided by the number of people in the group.
No! We can’t lose Rousseau!
(And thanks, shantih!)
I agree with Rousseau; for every wacko we get, we also seem to get one or two (or more) good members- the LBMB jyhad also brought us Navigator, Lauralee, and several others; this current bizzareness has brought SINsApple out as an intelligent, rational poster.
In reference to both this thread and the “Open Letter” thread, I think we may want to set up some sort of “Troll Watch” thread, where people can post links to other threads where certain people act trolly. Coventry is, as has been stated before, the best response to a troll, but it’s hard to designate someone as a troll with so many threads to keep on top of…
The best part of a “Coventry as a response” policy is that it’s entirely voluntary on the part of the posters: to wit, even though Scylla and others felt from right off that DannyBoy was a troll/sock puppet, I was willing to give the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise (which I most certainly was. Yeesh. Sorry if I encouraged him). Since it isn’t a “wrath of the moderators” response like banning, it doesn’t come across as so arbitrary or vindictive (caveat- I do not think that anyone has been banned arbitrarily; but given how much these/this troll(s) thinks David B. has pursued some sort of vendetta against him/her/them, I think that the less the appearance of possible improprieties, the better).
JMCJ
I would never amend my sig line as a way of reminding people to nominate or vote for me in any way. That would be just tacky.
(laughing evil villain laugh)
Yes. He/she is right! The last troll to post is my hero! Yes. They are the persecuted ones. Yes. DavidB its all your fault for whatever ails them!
-WINK!
I have a problem with the initial proposition (of he present discussion, not the OP. Well, of the OP too, but that issue has already been dealt with.) I do not feel we should take any steps to make it more dificult for trolls to post. One of the consequences of encouraging a free exchange of ideas is that you must not only tolerate byt encourage ideas with which you disagree. Inflamatory ideas are also part of the mix. Now, the board already has rules governing where such ideas should be expressed and what boundaries exist in the exressing (take it to the PIT, no outright threats, etc).
Are trolls annoying? Absolutely.
Is out intellectual community rpbust enough to deal with some annoyance? I damn well hope so.
So – if a troll offends thee, take it to the PIT. The best resonse to a bad idea is a better idea, but a scathing flame job has been known to work, too.
The best lack all conviction
The worst are full of passionate intensity.
*
If I may digress about two or three pages for a moment, did some of you actually buy that “house-sitter” crapola??? Have you taken leave of your senses? That’s the most transparent teenage attempt at lying one’s way out of a situation that I have ever heard. Wait, let me get the chronology straight…
1)Somebody (presumably a functional member of society) joins the board with the screen name Newton’sApple.
2)Newton’sApple makes next to no posts (I am basing this on the assumption that the “real” NA would post only messages of a functional and adjusted nature)
3)NA hires some goon to “house-sit.”
4)Goon goes on an SDMB rampage, pissing off everybody because he is trying to play some kind of joke on NA.
5)Goon takes offense at the slightest hint of disagreement, then stalks off in anger to the Pit where he demands DavidB’s resignation.
6)Goon makes personal threats, gets NA kicked off.
7)Goon makes new name, signs his first post as -N (a la NA).
8)Goon reveals his brilliant plot to the SDMB. We all admire his cunning genius.
Hey, it could happen.
The IQ of a group is equal to the IQ of the dumbest member divided by the number of people in the group.
I would also vote for not totally excluding free e-mail accounts.
I am curious about options available to limit posting activity.
When I went & lurked at the LBBB, they have a “rookie” designation.
When you first enter a forum (screen with the subjects listed) it has 2 statements:
- New Topics: All registered users may post new topics in this forum.
- Replies: All registered users may post replies in this forum.
I would guess this means that there is some way to discriminate between users who may reply to existing topics & users who may open new topics.
The thought occurs to me then, that persons with less than 50 posts and/or 10 days as a registered user (or some other definition of “rookie”) could be prohibited from opening new subjects. If the bulk of their “rookie” replies made it clear that they were replacements for a banned poster with no intention of repenting, the registration info states that all of their posts can be deleted with the push of a button.
I realize this might temporarily inconvenience new posters, and would not have prevented NA from initiating this thread if the above post #s & days were adopted. But it would have prevented Danny Boy’s paranoid narrative from being posted.
Sue from El Paso
Does being married to another poster make me part of a clique?
Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
Onesheep said:
Don’t make us beat it out of you, now. We’re already cranky!