# Who is the mysterious "system" poster? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [January 25, 2021, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mysterious-system-poster/931431 "2021-01-25T07:21:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mysterious-system-poster/931431/1 "2021-01-25T07:21:51Z")
[Here.](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system) [Here in 2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-believable-that-an-11-year-old-girl-looks-18/6021) [Here in 2020](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wanna-buy-an-s/913438/8) Double secret mod? Former double secret mod and a new double secret mod both using the same account? Jesus? Enquiring minds want to know. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mysterious-system-poster/931431/2 "2021-01-25T07:32:05Z")
See this topic I made shortly after the switch to Discourse: > [@The system user has taken ownership of some older posts](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-system-user-has-taken-ownership-of-some-older-posts/916080): > > Dear Straight Dope, I just wanted to bring to your attention that the system user appears to have gobbled up a number of posts in the thread, “[What will the UK do about Brexit?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-the-uk-do-wrt-brexit/829799/483)”. It appears that the user whose posts were gobbled up was named Andrew. It’s not just that thread either, if you look at [Straight Dope Message Board - Your direct line to thousands of the smartest, hippest people on the planet, plus a few total dipsticks.](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system/activity) you will see there are lots of posts being attributed to system, … The system user is part of the forum software itself, I’m not sure why it would take over any non-automated posts after the migration. The 2020 example might be the result of a mistake when banning a spammer - perhaps instead of having the spam deleted, due to a mistake perhaps it shows up as a system post. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mysterious-system-poster/931431/3 "2021-01-25T08:18:12Z")
It’s not limited to spammers, as I’ve seen it applied to past posters such as **Collounsbury** (miss the guy), with whom the only thing they would have in common is their posting privileges. Perhaps there are bannings and there are removal of users, and perhaps the second results in “system” being the poster if the posts aren’t disappeared. Just a guess, but from a database perspective, that would result in “orphaned” posts, which could easily be given a default user name. No clue why **Collounsbury** would warrant such extreme action, considering his value at times to the board. With that said, there was a massive data loss back in the early days of the board. Perhaps he was part of that. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mysterious-system-poster/931431/4 "2021-01-25T08:58:23Z")
The System account is not a normal user account. No one can log into it. It is part of the Discourse software. A lot of early poster’s names were lost during a software upgrade many years ago. IIRC under vBulletin these posts simply did not have a user name associated with them. Since there was no user associated with these posts, Discourse just displays the posts as belonging to the System account, like it does with any other post that no longer has a valid user associated with it. The 2020 example was a spammer. That post should have been in the cornfield (and now is). The System account also does a lot of other things, like automatically silencing spammers, for example. But if you see at as a post author, it means that the real post author’s account no longer exists. If you quote the entirety of the post directly before yours, Discourse deletes that quote from your post (which some folks complain about, but that’s a topic for a different thread). Automatic post edits like this also show up as being done by System. System is a busy guy for someone who doesn’t really exist. I have no idea what happened to **Collounsbury**. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mysterious-system-poster/931431/5 "2021-01-25T13:53:19Z")
> [@DMC](#): > > No clue why **Collounsbury** would warrant such extreme action, considering his value at times to the board. With that said, there was a massive data loss back in the early days of the board. Perhaps he was part of that. **Collounsbury** was a valuable poster, but he simply couldn’t keep himself from insulting other posters. [He was banned](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collounsbury-6-3-2000-to-11-28-2002/140027) in 2002, back before we imposed suspensions before going to a permanent ban. Several months later he wrote an extremely eloquent and penitent request for reinstatement, promising that he would be good in the future. Within a few months he was back to insulting people again, and was banned once more in 2003. This and other similar instances has colored our opinion about requests to reinstate banned posters. I do not know why exactly **Collounsbury’s** name has been stripped from all his posts, since other posts made at the time of his banning still have names. ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mysterious-system-poster/931431/6 "2021-01-25T16:59:21Z")
Not really questioning his second banning (even if he was most insulting to our resident scientific racists that seemed to swarm around back then), but do miss the other side of him. As for the issue, I’m guessing you can both suspend indefinitely as well as delete accounts. I’m also guessing that you typically delete spammers and suspend posters. That would fit with my “orphaned record” theory, which is typical in the database world. If that’s the case, his user probably got deleted during that mass deletion that happened back then, as opposed to suspended. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mysterious-system-poster/931431/7 "2021-01-25T17:04:33Z")
He’s Discobot’s evil twin. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mysterious-system-poster/931431/8 "2021-01-25T18:05:17Z")
His motto is “I don’t wield a ban-hammer. I _ **am** _ the ban-hammer!” ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mysterious-system-poster/931431/9 "2021-01-25T18:17:15Z")
vBulletin and Discourse handle bannings and suspensions somewhat differently. In vBulletin you could either ban someone (forever) or suspend them for up to two years. In Discourse there is no separate banning option; instead it is a suspension “forever.” In vBulletin we almost never deleted users entirely, even spammers. However, in Discourse we’ve been deleting spammers. As I said, I have no idea why **Collounsbury’s** username seems to have been treated differently from other contemporary posters. ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mysterious-system-poster/931431/10 "2021-01-25T20:51:54Z")
Thanks for the explanation. It makes for some weird threads like [this](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abraham-lincoln-was-gay/2907) one, where he argues against himself about whether Lincoln was gay. Classic sock behavior, mods should keep an eye on that. Also, looking back at some of these old threads you find stuff you don’t remember(or didn’t know) like **Sam Stone** used to have a different user name. ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mysterious-system-poster/931431/11 "2021-01-25T21:33:15Z")
> [@mordecaiB](#): > > Also, looking back at some of these old threads you find stuff you don’t remember(or didn’t know) like **Sam Stone** used to have a different user name I’m one of those ancient people here and I don’t remember Sam having a different name. What was it? ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mysterious-system-poster/931431/12 "2021-01-25T21:39:18Z")
**dHanson** I believe. ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mysterious-system-poster/931431/13 "2021-01-25T22:17:35Z")
That was a new one for me. Looks like he got that straightened out the month before I joined. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/codinghorror/32/4242_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/codinghorror)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2021, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mysterious-system-poster/931431/14 "2021-01-26T21:48:54Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > Discourse just displays the posts as belonging to the System account, like it does with any other post that no longer has a valid user associated with it. If it’s problematic, you can change ownership of a post manually using the admin wrench on the post. It is one of the admin menu options. You can also select a number of posts via the topic-level admin wrench and change ownership on them all at once, too. > [@Colibri](#): > > back before we imposed suspensions before going to a permanent ban. Several months later he wrote an extremely eloquent and penitent request for reinstatement, promising that he would be good in the future. Within a few months he was back to insulting people again, and was banned once more in 2003. This and other similar instances has colored our opinion about requests to reinstate banned posters. This is an interesting bit of moderation history! I always say try to err on the side of _over_ moderating because [the dangers of _under_ moderating are so incredibly severe](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/katienotopoulos/moderation-by-capitalism), whereas I’ve never seen a site collapse under the weight of “too much moderation”. (OK fine, technically I have but it’s sooooo, _sooooo_ rare, and the under-moderation problem is a global epidemic in comparison!) ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2021, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mysterious-system-poster/931431/15 "2021-01-26T21:51:00Z")
> [@codinghorror](#): > > If it’s problematic, you can change ownership of a post manually using the admin wrench on the post. It is one of the admin menu options. You can also select a number of posts via the topic-level admin wrench and change ownership on them all at once, too. It’s not a problem. We lost a bunch of user names when we upgraded software many many years ago. Most of the missing names are on posts from around the 1999-2000 or so time frame. They were missing under vBulletin as well so we’re used to them being gone. ---
**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/codinghorror/32/4242_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/codinghorror)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2021, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mysterious-system-poster/931431/16 "2021-01-26T21:54:38Z")
Right, that’s all fine, only taking the opportunity to point out tools in the toolbox. I didn’t want System to get a bad reputation or anything… [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/4XTkt5riFqs/maxresdefault.jpg "Bad Reputation") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XTkt5riFqs)