if Arbiter is a troll, is he better than Vadar at ThePaceline?

[craig1985]

He was banned? Actually, that isn't cool. The reality is that he would have just showed up under another name. Maybe that is why he was banned though. Maybe they found out that he was just another sock puppet of someone who has done this numerous times here. You can go back and find countless times where a LA troll came along, incited a riot, got slammed to the ground, and never posted again. Either that or there is handbook you can get from Livestrong.com that tells you what to write.

Nah you can get this though

No doubt made by an employee with great working conditions in China.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

I'm wondering if the Arbiter was LA himself. Hear me out.

The guy started seriously posting just over a week ago or so (joined Aug 3), and made a slew of posts very rapidly.

His tag said he was from the UK, but he didn't post like he was, IMO.

He used many of the same words that we hear all the time, and the same arguments, but he used "troll" a lot when talking about others critical of LA. The same term LA himself uses.

He knew a lot about LA, and a lot about cycling, but would only lead on and hedge a lot. He was a classic at baiting as well, and leaving things to hang.

It's fairly well known that LA looks at, and has posted anonymously, on message boards.

What do you all think?

 

[flyor64]

I'm wondering if the Arbiter was LA himself. Hear me out.

The guy started seriously posting just over a week ago or so (joined Aug 3), and made a slew of posts very rapidly.

His tag said he was from the UK, but he didn't post like he was, IMO.

He used many of the same words that we hear all the time, and the same arguments, but he used "troll" a lot when talking about others critical of LA. The same term LA himself uses.

He knew a lot about LA, and a lot about cycling, but would only lead on and hedge a lot. He was a classic at baiting as well, and leaving things to hang.

It's fairly well known that LA looks at, and has posted anonymously, on message boards.

What do you all think?

I don't know that he was LA himself, but I didn't get the impression that he was from the UK. Short of the use of whilst in his posts, his english struck me as decidedly American style.

Could be that he's a US expat living there??? It's easy to fall in to the "I'm from ______" inserting wherever you live. I've done that, living in Norway and being from the US.

Perhaps Dim or someone can weigh in on his writing style.

FWIW I found him interesting from the perspective that things livened up but he didn't seem to "personally attack" anyone much, if at all. And often his posts brought excellent well-worded (and researched) counters. I think some of the afficianados will miss him...

my $.02

 

[Anonymous]

arbiter has been banned...?

talk about excessive.. is that the way this place is going...
yes he harper on, yes he was a minor troll, but he never offended anyone (apart from with poor taste), he didnt get personal and abusive as far as i saw.. there are people round here far worse than he was..

bit harsh if you ask me..

 

[flyor64]

arbiter has been banned...?

talk about excessive.. is that the way this place is going...
yes he harper on, yes he was a minor troll, but he never offended anyone (apart from with poor taste), he didnt get personal and abusive as far as i saw.. there are people round here far worse than he was..

bit harsh if you ask me..

Agreed. Someone's theory that he was already banned and just using another screenname and the mods figured it out seems to be the only viable possibility/reason to me...

 

[auscyclefan94]

arbiter has been banned...?

talk about excessive.. is that the way this place is going...
yes he harper on, yes he was a minor troll, but he never offended anyone (apart from with poor taste), he didnt get personal and abusive as far as i saw.. there are people round here far worse than he was..

bit harsh if you ask me..

Bit more than a minor troll but i do agree it was a bit harsh.i think the arbiter might be lance's mum and bigboat would be lance's dad as they didn't like each other and lance's dad wasn't on the scene for long. We could could starrt online counselling for them or even have an online cyclingnews marriage. Now that would be a first. LOL

 

[pmcg76]

I'm wondering if the Arbiter was LA himself. Hear me out.

The guy started seriously posting just over a week ago or so (joined Aug 3), and made a slew of posts very rapidly.

His tag said he was from the UK, but he didn't post like he was, IMO.

He used many of the same words that we hear all the time, and the same arguments, but he used "troll" a lot when talking about others critical of LA. The same term LA himself uses.

He knew a lot about LA, and a lot about cycling, but would only lead on and hedge a lot. He was a classic at baiting as well, and leaving things to hang.

It's fairly well known that LA looks at, and has posted anonymously, on message boards.

What do you all think?

No way, Arbiter once argued about Stephen Roche doping and he admitted he go this info from wikipedia. He even said a team-mate saw Roche dope. I think he was referring to Paul kimmage which was funny, he didnt seem to have a good level of comprehension judging what he took from the Wikipedia article. He knows very little about cycling beyond Lance.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Good point.

I agree that there must be a not-obvious reason the guy was banned.

I know why Jackhammer was banned. I have a good idea why WBT was. But I never could figure out why A Moron was banned.

 

[bianchigirl]

WBT was banned? Shame

 

[Anonymous]

Good point.

I agree that there must be a not-obvious reason the guy was banned.

I know why Jackhammer was banned. I have a good idea why WBT was. But I never could figure out why A Moron was banned.

Was it the stuff he posted about the LAF accounting? I kind of cringed when he wrote that post because he was masterful at posting things that looked like quoted articles, and were purely fictional accounts written by him. Brilliant stuff in many instances, but when I read that post I thought that I hoped he could back it up because if true, it was pretty unethical behavior on the part of Mr Armstrong. If not, it was fairly libelous.

I do miss his posts though, he was one of a kind.

 

[bianchigirl]

There's quite a lot of stuff out there on the supposedly dubious accounting at the LAF

 

[Anonymous]

There's quite a lot of stuff out there on the supposedly dubious accounting at the LAF

Yea, but WBT said that he actually looked at the books as part of his job and gave specific details that go well beyond anything posted that I have ever seen.

 

[Anonymous]

WBT was banned? Shame

WBT has been banned too....?

he just talked a load of crap, but nothing that got in the way too much, most of it was solved by the creation of the "clinic"...

actually no, he was an @rse, but i dont like this banning thing..

anyone else been thrown out..

 

[Dr. Maserati]

WBT has been banned too....?

he just talked a load of crap, but nothing that got in the way too much, most of it was solved by the creation of the "clinic"...

actually no, he was an @rse, but i dont like this banning thing..

anyone else been thrown out..

There was a poster called Nobody - he got eliminated during the Tour, I rechecked some of his old post's and could not see anything in there to warrant a ban.

Iceaxe was another - but they were trolling the whole time with racist remarks imo- a day after they got banned someone with the same style started posting but quickly met the same fate.

I would be interested to know what the rules are guidelines are - as many of us (including myself) can be fast and loose at times - is it how you say something or the content of the post that get's people banned?

 

[Anonymous]

i think the ones that troll complete nonsense are worse than the so called trolls, wbt etc...

Yes WBT talked a load of crap, but on the whole he was clearly intelligent and you could enter discussion with him, it never got over abusive, and to be honest, since the clinic was created, i had barely noticed him and his kind unless i came in here...

I find that fellow who started ten lance posts a day during the tour, grenville dumwotsitmerriweather or whatever his name was far more worthy of a ban..

when it gets personal, or abusive, or agressive etc then yes, but when its just mindless trolling we have the ignore function..

theres too many oversensitive whining ***** around here..

i almost feel i should become the new WBT to fill the gaping hole left by him..

 

[Anonymous]

merrydrivel.. that was the fellow..

 

[Anonymous]

merrydrivel.. that was the fellow..

"Bobby Drivel" is the name that was finally settled upon.

As for trolling, well, all I can say is that...well.........um..I think..............maybe I will just shut up now.

 

[BroDeal]

I'm wondering if the Arbiter was LA himself. Hear me out.

The guy started seriously posting just over a week ago or so (joined Aug 3), and made a slew of posts very rapidly.

His tag said he was from the UK, but he didn't post like he was, IMO.

He used many of the same words that we hear all the time, and the same arguments, but he used "troll" a lot when talking about others critical of LA. The same term LA himself uses.

He knew a lot about LA, and a lot about cycling, but would only lead on and hedge a lot. He was a classic at baiting as well, and leaving things to hang.

It's fairly well known that LA looks at, and has posted anonymously, on message boards.

What do you all think?

Uh, no. I know who the TheArbiter was. He is a member on another board who occasionally registers under new names and sucks people in with troll posts. Usually his troll posts range from pretty funny to hilarious. This time he was playing it almost straight. He went over the top when writing about Dr. Ferrari, which should have been a big clue that he was yanking people's chain.

 

[BroDeal]

There was a poster called Nobody - he got eliminated during the Tour, I rechecked some of his old post's and could not see anything in there to warrant a ban.

Iceaxe was another - but they were trolling the whole time with racist remarks imo- a day after they got banned someone with the same style started posting but quickly met the same fate.

That is too bad about nobody. I am pretty sure I know who he was. He is French and his English is not that good. He posts on CF under another name. He is not a troll, but his posts mainly concern doping.

Iceaxe was a either a racist or a racist troll. He was posting some nasty stuff.

WBT, who posts on CF also, is hard to pin down. He hates Americans and Australians. He can be reasonable. He frequently finds good articles.

 

[elapid]

WBT, who posts on CF also, is hard to pin down. He hates Americans and Australians. He can be reasonable. He frequently finds good articles.

He was hard to pin down. Funny thing is though that some of his language was pretty specific to southeastern Australia. I personally doubt it, but some think he has reincarnated as The Hog.

 

[BroDeal]

I find that fellow who started ten lance posts a day during the tour, grenville dumwotsitmerriweather or whatever his name was far more worthy of a ban..

when it gets personal, or abusive, or agressive etc then yes, but when its just mindless trolling we have the ignore function..

I think there is a problem with people who truly are trolling because it is disruptive to the forum and it tends to start fights, which is often the purpose of the troll. We already have enough issues with members battling over Armsrong. We don't need members deliberately pouring gasoline on the situation.

In TheArbiters case, members were spending a lot of their time arguing with him. I know for a fact that TheArbiter does not even believe any of the stuff he was posting. He just wanted to get a rise out of people. If one person is doing it then that can be annoying, but what if there are half a dozen? How many of these members who pop in, post for a week, and disappear are really the same person?

In many cases it does look like the mods have banned people too quickly. I think that might be because they are not keeping track of what is going on. They have probably banned people based on just a few posts. Since they don't follow what is going on, they cannot decide whether the member is a net plus for the forum despite a few bad posts.

 

[BroDeal]

He was hard to pin down. Funny thing is though that some of his language was pretty specific to southeastern Australia. I personally doubt it, but some think he has reincarnated as The Hog.

I already accused him of being The Hog. I think he is, but I am not sure. He started out as pro Armstrong but has slowly drifted toward his usual stance.

WBT was from England.

Bagster could also be The Hog, which would explain the aussie language.

 

[usedtobefast]

There was a poster called Nobody - he got eliminated during the Tour, I rechecked some of his old post's and could not see anything in there to warrant a ban.

Iceaxe was another - but they were trolling the whole time with racist remarks imo- a day after they got banned someone with the same style started posting but quickly met the same fate.

I would be interested to know what the rules are guidelines are - as many of us (including myself) can be fast and loose at times - is it how you say something or the content of the post that get's people banned?

yes it would be nice to know why someone gets banned. personal attacks
and the like seem like obvious reasons. after that, my skin is pretty thick.i like getting others point of view, however wacky they may be at times. when i first started reading this forum in june, there seemed to be a lot of non/inexperienced riders posting. they seem to be gone, for whatever reason. the folks that are left, i respect what they say.

 

[Anonymous]

WBT was definately english..

This is another problem with forums and moderations of them, from nationality to nationality what is deemed acceptable is very different, what is considered humurous in one area is offensive in another, for instance the brits are incredibly dry and sarcastic, the americans indulge in toilet humour and the aussies and the germans have no sense of humour.. But WBT was most definatey a brit..

So who banned these people.. i dont stick up for idiots, but i think a couple of those instances where not really banworthy..

 

[Anonymous]

WBT was definately english..

This is another problem with forums and moderations of them, from nationality to nationality what is deemed acceptable is very different, what is considered humurous in one area is offensive in another, for instance the brits are incredibly dry and sarcastic, the americans indulge in toilet humour and the aussies and the germans have no sense of humour.. But WBT was most definatey a brit..

So who banned these people.. i dont stick up for idiots, but i think a couple of those instances where not really banworthy..

And every one could ask the question (except for jackhammer) "You banned me and not Thoughtforfood?" and have a point. I blow people, that's my secret, shhhh....