Okay ladies and gentlemen, here's the facts: 1) We've seen a number of 'trolls' show up over our history, particuarlly recently with Lieutenant Fatman, who felt the need to tell us why we should not ban people, flame people, or even tell them what they cannot post on our community. These people, professed newbies, certainly know enough about us to tell us to change our culture, and they appeared with alarming frequency after flamewars and political discussions. 2) We've seen a number of identity fraud cases collaborating and working together over the years. Danskin/Kelly being the most famous and iconic, Dolmen being a confessed 'downvoter', and Lieutenant Fatman/Death. being only the most recent known example. 3) In the three above examples, we saw a common modus operandi: an effort to subvert board policy and practice, presumably for revenge in most cases. Now, I won't go into recounting the specifics of Prettybutterfly and Dr Viagra, but neither of these identities were 'ideal newbies'. When Dr Viagra showed up on these new boards, he was immediately outspoken against many community decisions and was in at least a few cases immediately (within minutes) supported by Prettybutterfly who agreed wholeheartedly with him. It transpires that Prettybutterfly and Dr Viagra have a cable broadband connection, which commonly use a static IP address. They share the same IP address, have never posted under another IP address, and no one else has used it but them. Following from my examples of shared IP numbers I gave in another thread, I submit this as highly questionable, if not damning evidence. Prettybutterfly and Dr Viagra are not posting currently, so I do not know if they will be able to offer any explaination for this, but I do not believe that this is an innocent case of using the same ISP. If that were true, there would be at least SOME instance of different IP numbers, and despite that the other evidence should be sufficient to remove any doubt. This is a childish and manipulative stunt which should be treated with zero tollerance. Still, we must be fair, and I would like to open this to the community to comment on, and to allow Prettybutterfly/Dr Viagra to say anything in their own defense. If we haven't heard from them in a few days, I think we should waste no time in voting for an IP ban.
Two things, 1. Good work 2. Turn this thread into a poll if possible to make the process more efficient. If it comes to a case of letting them state their case first just word the poll in a way that like this "Unless there is a good explanation...bah...bah... I vote to ban so and so".
Wow - Drviagra is no surprise. Prettybutterfly is. She seemed to be genuine. I'd love to hear an explanation...
Wow...well, this was certainly not something I expected. Prettybutterfly made some mistakes, but I thought she was OK. Dr Viagra, on the other hand, was a twat. If it does look like it's the same person, I say ban. I'd be interested to hear any explanation, but I can't for the life of me think of anything that would make me think that posting as Dr V wasn't pointless and annoying.
Pepster, despite being an australian, is a genius. I shall use that qualifier to create a poll post haste.
We are soooooooooooo stupid. Prettybutterfly's avatar is hosted on Drviagra's website. http://www.entmoot.co.uk/magrat/puccaav.jpg (Prettybutterfly) http://www.entmoot.co.uk/magrat/lol.jpg (Dr Viagra) Edited to say: A couple?
Well done, Hsing!! I've added the poll, haven't voted myself yet. If the poll needs editing, lemme know.
gah hysing...got there before me Said by drviagra in the intro thread: [quote:995aaded86]5) Girlfriend reads it a lot. Some of it is funny. [/quote:995aaded86] it seems possible they are a couple...i suggest a friendly email or the fact they do not appear to be posting, we could just ignore it. edit to add: the only thing i would be curious about is his blog doesn't mention a girlfriend...in fact goes on about being lonely...then again they could have broken up...we dont know the whole story.
Didn't vote because I'm thick on IP address allocation. I do know from good ol' IRC days that IP banning could cause a lot of collateral damage, but perhaps that has changed. My suggestion (because I don;t like fakes either) - de-activate the usernames and ask Mal about the IP thingy and follow his wise words...
we don't know the whole story, this is true. However, Dr. viagra was, as has been pointed out, a complete twat. there were similarities to other problem posters occuring at the same time on the old boards. Prettybutterfly was not a perfect newbie, but she did apologize for her one idiotic outburst that I recall. I do find it a bit dubious, to say the least, if you're going to speak up to support your boyfriend's posts criticising community policies and hide the fact that you're romanticly involved. (before anyone even thinks it, how many times have you seen buzzfloyd call me out on something boneheaded in public? eh? she speaks HER mind) Yet, there's a lot of doubt. if Dr Viagra could be refering to a past girlfriend who turned him onto discworld. Who knows. If anyone wants to email them to ask for an explaination, be my guest, I'm quite curious what they'd say. But I don't think we're talking about amputating great contributors to the community, so if no one does, I'm not fussed.
crossposted. I think we should wait a little while before voting, actually, but I don't want to take down the poll in case anyone's already voted (can't tell until I vote myself) If need be, we can make a new poll after we've heard everything on this.
I'll prolong voting, too. Although I do admit, I fell a little tempted to go back and take a look at what caused her one outburst. I just don't have any more time until tonight...
Good lord Holmes! How did you discover the avatar thing? She's not even using that one anymore. I suppose we could see what she says, or see what happens if she shows up again in the future and we ask her about it.
I agree that if a person abuses the rules there should be consequences but a window should be available for explanations. If that person wants to be part of the community they will not mind being asked to explain a query. I do not feel I could vote on this issue until I understand better what removal of a pl means
ok, just had IPaddresses explained to me by my tekkie little brother, he`s 43 and will hate that :evil: still would like an explaination of why posters want to undermine our board. united unto terry. Not voted until i`ve heard more and hope the culprits will explain themselves. Keep the poles open till something else developes. if it stays quiet at the front, all well and good. If it continues we have the means in place to stop it.
Tabbatha, the reason why people want to undermine this community is the same as any other... People run the full spectrum from good to bad to ugly, and we've had a lot of the bad and ugly ones over time. The roots are typically simple, people joined a community that was already established, and one which they did not fit into. Rather than accept this, move on, and find another, they sought to destroy what they could not have. There's probably psychological reasons for it, but 'they're just bad people' seems to be sufficient a summation.
I will keep the thundersporks on standby. If prettybutterfly is a girlfriend or a sister, I'd hate to have her banned just because she is related to a twat. If no good explanation is offered within the week, I'll fire them up.
Indeed. I guess we can't know anything til we here from them. Dr V has the markings of a little brother (and i can see why PB wouldn't want to announce the relation to him) but on the other hand we do have trolls who love mutilple IDS.
