Thinman

[B Dids]

I know we can't do IP bans, so I guess the best we can have is a "if it moves, shoot it, if it doesn't move, shoot it, it might move later" rule.

This guy is a repeated and exceptionally meanspirited troll in OOT. He's been banned upwards of 4 times. Each time coming back with an ID something like "itsThinmanidiots" or something.

If we can't prevent him from regging or creating more accounts, which we likely can't, it would be nice if folks at least kept an eye out for him and nuked him at first glance.

[Evan]

[ QUOTE ]
if it moves, shoot it, if it doesn't move, shoot it, it might move later

[/ QUOTE ]
I think this is a good rule in this case. I also think it's a hilarious phrase and I've never heard it before.

[B Dids]

I went back and scanned the new regs, just by going with the newest user and knocking one of their user namer, it looks like we had 100 new accounts created just yesterday. Crazy.

[B Dids]

FWIW- he came back again making idiotic threats. Is there anyway we can at least try an IP ban?

[AngryCola]

Why don't you guys just delete his posts along with banning him each time you see him under an obvious new account? Even if he's never IP banned, at least his posts wouldn't stay up very long.

[B Dids]

I have no idea why his posts aren't deleted. I would agree that's the logical course of action. I'd suggest nuking that thread as well.

[jason_t]

Please remove his posts and that thread from public view immediately.

[B Dids]

FWIW- it looks like he's on a static IP, or at least he's not attempting to change it.

[jason_t]

Can we please ban that ip address 71.135.54.210 right now. [censored] please delete that thread.

[AngryCola]

[ QUOTE ]
I have no idea why his posts aren't deleted. I would agree that's the logical course of action. I'd suggest nuking that thread as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

Leaving them up just says, "Hey, keep making new accounts. You'll always get your message out, so go for it!"

About the static IP...

If you're just judging this from his last two accounts, it doesn't tell you much. If anyone can, try to find an older account of his to see if the IP matches the one he has been using today.

[B Dids]

Jeremy- I know you're reading this. Delete the damn posts and thread already.

[AngryCola]

[ QUOTE ]
Can we please ban that ip address 71.135.54.210 right now. [censored] please delete that thread.

[/ QUOTE ]

No IP bans. That's what everyone has been told by Mat.

[jason_t]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Can we please ban that ip address 71.135.54.210 right now. [censored] please delete that thread.

[/ QUOTE ]

No IP bans. That's what everyone has been told by Mat.

[/ QUOTE ]

Look we need to find a solution to this problem. How did we get rid of the jesus guy?

[B Dids]

Cola,

I understand that that's what Mat has said, I think this is a pretty clear extreme case, and it would be nice as an exception.

[AngryCola]

[ QUOTE ]

Look we need to find a solution to this problem.

[/ QUOTE ]

We should do everything we are allowed to do. IP banning is not something user mods have permission to do, and I mean that literally.

If anyone does that, it will have to be Mat. In the meantime, I suggest you guys find out if his older account IPs match his most recent one.

[B Dids]

The thing is that most of his older accounts are just flat deleted.

I know an IP ban isn't likely to be effective, just seems like it's at least worth a shot.

[[censored]]

[ QUOTE ]
Jeremy- I know you're reading this. Delete the damn posts and thread already.

[/ QUOTE ]

guys relax, its not a ticking time bomb and no one is any real danger here.

[jason_t]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Jeremy- I know you're reading this. Delete the damn posts and thread already.

[/ QUOTE ]

guys relax, its not a ticking time bomb and no one is any real danger here.

[/ QUOTE ]

You're a horrible moderator.

[jason_t]

His three most recent IPs match.

[B Dids]

Jeremy,

It's not that it's urgent, it's that your logic in leaving the posts up seems really terrible. I'm not going to suggest the same thing as my emotional little friend here, but this isn't a a decision with which I agree.

Might a comprimise be to move the thread here, with a pointer explaining that it's a good thread ('cause parts of it I think are) but that it's just too much troll bait right now?

[jdl22]

[ QUOTE ]

His three most recent IPs match.

[/ QUOTE ]

If we can't do IP bans, we should at least be able to see the IP addresses in all forums so that we can ban new accounts by the lowest of trolls.

[AngryCola]

[ QUOTE ]
The thing is that most of his older accounts are just flat deleted.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow. No kidding. I tried my best to find a few older ones, but no dice.

Well, the only IP ban you could do is for the one found on the most recent accounts. There's not enough evidence that suggests it's a static IP, so there's no way of knowing if the IP ban would do any good.

Also, since there is a fair chance it isn't static, I'm not sure how willing Mat would be to ban it. I believe his main problem with it is that it could affect other users.

So, here's what I think you should do:

Record the IP from tonight. Then compare it to the IP he is using the next time he pops up after tonight. If they match, there's a lot more evidence to suggest he is using a static IP. If it's found to be static, it seems to me that Mat will probably be more willing to think about an IP ban.

[jason_t]

He uses the same Internet provider as me (SBC). I think that my IP address is static. Even if it's not, most people that have SBC as their provider use DSL modems which are fairly static since they rarely get turned off.

[AngryCola]

[ QUOTE ]
His three most recent IPs match.

[/ QUOTE ]

What is the date on the oldest of the three?

[[censored]]

[ QUOTE ]
Jeremy,

It's not that it's urgent, it's that your logic in leaving the posts up seems really terrible. I'm not going to suggest the same thing as my emotional little friend here, but this isn't a a decision with which I agree.

Might a comprimise be to move the thread here, with a pointer explaining that it's a good thread ('cause parts of it I think are) but that it's just too much troll bait right now?

[/ QUOTE ]

what horrible logic. I deleted them once I saw you asking. I didn't have some grand plan to not delete them. Here's what happened. I saw it was thinman, I thought oh I need to ban him, did so and moved onto reading the rest of this stuff. I'm just not in the habit of deleting posts and if you check my history you will see that holds out in almost everycase, even where i've banned the poster. If that makes me a horrible moderator so be it. But bannings can be undone, deleting a post cannot. The post didn't violate any of the T&C's so it seemed like letting astroglide handle it was best as I have told him I would leave the bulk of OOT moderating to him so as not to cause confusion.

[astroglide]

ok i'm around now. i don't know anything about thinman or what his other accounts were. so if somebody wants an oot mod to do something, try to get me up to speed without imparting too much emotion heh.

i'll sign onto #2p2 on irc now if that makes it easier

[B Dids]

That makes sense, thanks. I've been in the habit of deleting first banning/warning later. I'm just more aware of the effect these posts have on the people involved, so I wanted them gone as quick as I could.

Sorry if I came off a little harsh, emotions run high and what not.

[AngryCola]

[ QUOTE ]
ok i'm around now. i don't know anything about thinman or what his other accounts were. so if somebody wants an oot mod to do something, try to get me up to speed without imparting too much emotion heh.

[/ QUOTE ]

I believe the current plan should be to immediately delete his posts and ban him on sight. If Mat thinks an IP ban is the right action, he will probably do it.

[Mat Sklansky]

When I have determined that a poster should be permabanned in any and all incarnations I delete everything about them. Give me the accounts and they will all be deleted.

[[censored]]

[ QUOTE ]
When I have determined that a poster should be permabanned in any and all incarnations I delete everything about them. Give me the accounts and they will all be deleted.

[/ QUOTE ]

ok will do from here on out

[Mat Sklansky]

I can actually delete users. Can you guys do that?

[AngryCola]

[ QUOTE ]
I can actually delete users. Can you guys do that?

[/ QUOTE ]

Nope.

I suspect we can't do nearly as much as you can.

[astroglide]

[ QUOTE ]
I can actually delete users. Can you guys do that?

[/ QUOTE ]

stop showing off man

[B Dids]

We can't.

The issue with deleting a user is that you can't see their past history. There's some merit to keeping them around so we can do the exact research we're doing right now.

[Mat Sklansky]

In that case, can someone give me a list of thinman's latest handles. I'll review the ips, possibly ban the ip, but I will also delete all the ids. I do this because it takes away the pleasure a user may gain from reading his old posts and the latest replies. It also takes away their ability to search for said posts.

[B Dids]

His last three are from this IP 71.135.54.210.

The ID's are something like "this_IS_thinman" "ummmm_thinman" and "itsthinmanyouidiots". I'm pretty sure none of those are exact though. Jason might have more info- as he's looked them up.

[Mat Sklansky]

done, for now. that ip matched four names and is banned

[AngryCola]

[ QUOTE ]
His last three are from this IP 71.135.54.210.

The ID's are something like "this_IS_thinman" "ummmm_thinman" and "itsthinmanyouidiots".

[/ QUOTE ]

If his most recent IP matches the one found on the bolded name, you're probably looking at a static IP. I remember that account, and it was from at least a few days ago (I think).

EDIT-

Mat:
[ QUOTE ]
done, for now. that ip matched four names and is banned

[/ QUOTE ]

Good stuff.

[astroglide]

people basically don't have static ips unless they pay extra for them. those kind of people are few and far between. some isps are really slack on how often they change them. i've had my cable ip for several months, for example. the odds of affecting an innocent cable/dsl user by doing an ip ban is basically slim to none though.

if the dude's truly nuts this might draw his ire and cause him to dial in or post through a proxy or whatever. pretty much can't stop somebody from expressing something here if they want to.

[jason_t]

[ QUOTE ]
done, for now. that ip matched four names and is banned

[/ QUOTE ]

Thank you.

[AngryCola]

[ QUOTE ]
people basically don't have static ips unless they pay extra for them. those kind of people are few and far between. some isps are really slack on how often they change them, though.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is true. But I have a (bad) habit of referring to those that rarely change as static.
Mine has been the same for a very long time, and I don't pay extra or anything like that.

[ QUOTE ]
the odds of affecting an innocent cable/dsl user by doing an ip ban is basically slim to none though.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've always agreed with this, but Chuck has voiced some concerns about it.

[ QUOTE ]
if the dude's truly nuts this might draw his ire and cause him to dial in or post through a proxy or whatever. pretty much can't stop somebody from expressing something here if they want to.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, but I think the IP ban is worth trying. I'm glad Mat did it.

[nolanfan34]

[ QUOTE ]
done, for now. that ip matched four names and is banned

[/ QUOTE ]

Awesome. I didn't see the original posts, but if he was making threats of some sort, then I totally agree with giving him the boot. People like that get less slack, not more.

[Entity]

Apparently he is threatening to come back and is effectively extorting mslif, saying that if she doesn't post that he's a nice guy (??) he's going to post again. I have no idea what this means since I'm not really wrapped up in the whole Thinman drama but it reeks.

Mat, in the past doing moderation for another forum (120k users so we've had our fair share of trolls), we have actually contacted the ISPs of recurring trolls and either had their services disconnected (all ISPs but AOL will work with us on this) or contacted their work if they're stupid enough to be posting from work. Every major network provider has an abuse department or someone who handles stuff like this. Unfortunately, in the past, it's only been the administrator of the forum that has had the authority to talk directly to their ISPs etc.

I know you're a busy guy, but is this something you might be able to look into?

Rob

[Mat Sklansky]

I'm not sure where i would begin. Can you tell me what I need to do?

[B Dids]

If you just go to www.samspage.org (http://www.samspage.org) and throw in that IP address, you'll get a list of the ISP's connected to his account and the abuse addresses. Then you'd just fire off an email to those addresses explaining what happened. I would imagine including (if we still have) specific dates and times of posts would be helpful.

[Entity]

Link to his ISP's info. (http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=!%20NET-71-128-0-0-1)

He's a Pacbell South user. Normally we would call their abuse department and let them know that one of their users was repeatedly violating our terms of service. From there, I'm not sure what has happened but the contact people, it appears, would be here:

[ QUOTE ]
OrgAbuseHandle: ABUSE6-ARIN
OrgAbuseName: Abuse - Southwestern Bell Internet
OrgAbusePhone: +1-800-648-1626
OrgAbuseEmail: abuse@sbcglobal.net<br />
[/ QUOTE ]

Rob

[B Dids]

FWIW he struck again as "its_me_brat" but Commodus and I hit him with the 2p2 version of the Doomsday Device and he's overwith. Looks like he's posting from a dynamic IP, but based on the tone of the now deleted message, this might be the end of it.

[[censored]]

what do you mean tone?

[[censored]]

interesting hopefully he will tire of the whole thing and it will all go away

[jason_t]

It's possible he has returned as johnsmith5545.

He made the following post in OOT replying to mslif:

Damn! You have good timing. I was just going to ask when we were going to get a new forum whore.

He sent the following pm to mslif:

From: johnsmith5545

I hope you had a rotten christmas

He is posting from 71.135.48.220 and is using yet another pacbell email address johnsmith5545@pacbell.net.