Mods. Help. Please. The madness must stop

[pedaling squares]

I beg to differ Martin. Irritated_cycling_fan’s post expresses perfectly the EXACT tenor of this forum and to say otherwise is disingenuous indeed. Those points are exactly what this forum in it's current state supports.

Sorry but that is crap. This is the one and only forum I've ever joined and as a newbie I never thought that I had to think a certain way to be accepted around here. I've rarely received a flame response to my 1000+ posts, probably not because people don't disagree with me but because for the most part (unfortunate exceptions exist) I don't throw sticks of dynamite into crowded rooms. This place is like the real world in that if you seek a fight you will always find one but if you seek rational debate you will most often find that too. The few members who the mods and non-mods alike have trouble with are people who seek only to disrupt threads by baiting others into a few standard issue lines of "conversation".

 

[Benotti69]

I believe that during the ToC the trolls are conceived and during the TdF they are hatched...... let's hope the lifespan is over by Saturday

 

[L'arriviste]

Sorry but that is crap. This is the one and only forum I've ever joined and as a newbie I never thought that I had to think a certain way to be accepted around here. I've rarely received a flame response to my 1000+ posts, probably not because people don't disagree with me but because for the most part (unfortunate exceptions exist) I don't throw sticks of dynamite into crowded rooms. This place is like the real world in that if you seek a fight you will always find one but if you seek rational debate you will most often find that too. The few members who the mods and non-mods alike have trouble with are people who seek only to disrupt threads by baiting others into a few standard issue lines of "conversation".

Hear hear. It was a long time before I first dared to post here, not because I was afraid of being mauled but because some folks here know so much about cycling that I didn't want to say something foolish for lack of knowledge.

Seems to me that it's not so much a fundamental difference of opinion as the clash that occurs when the ill-informed weigh in on issues that have been discussed here peacefully outside of Tour-time. It's like the meeting of two pressure fronts: it creates a storm.

So whilst I don't agree with any sort of quarantine, I think a lot of new users here should study some more before they, as pedaling squares memorably puts it, "throw sticks of dynamite into crowded rooms".

 

[BroDeal]

There should be an iigore option that prevents you from seeing any post by a poster with fewer than twenty-five posts or maybe an option so you only see posts by senior members. That would get rid of 80% of the idiocy.

 

[Hugh Januss]

So whilst I don't agree with any sort of quarantine, I think a lot of new users here should study some more before they, as pedaling squares memorably puts it, "throw sticks of dynamite into crowded rooms".

That is assuming it is not the exact aim of the new user to throw the dynamite in order to limit the airing of ideas that make their idol (or in some cases, I suspect, employer) look bad, if not downright evil.
This is just about the only forum standing where open questioning of the myth that is Armstrong goes unpunished, and it almost seems like the word has gone out "Lance is in trouble, many people no longer believe, quickly get in there and muck it up".

 

[Anonymous]

The last week has seen the largest influx of new posters with an anti-Lemond, anti-Landis slant than I have ever seen. It is interesting that much of the rhetoric is extremely similar, and that many post a few posts and never post again. I cannot bring myself to wade in a serious manner with them. In another month, it will be back to normal, especially considering the fact that the Vuelta had the good taste to not invite The Slack.

I for one wish Armstrong had never started riding again. Fact is that he did because his ego couldn't take it. It will be delicious irony of it becomes his undoing. I hope that is the case.

 

[Benotti69]

The last week has seen the largest influx of new posters with an anti-Lemond, anti-Landis slant than I have ever seen. It is interesting that much of the rhetoric is extremely similar, and that many post a few posts and never post again. I cannot bring myself to wade in a serious manner with them. In another month, it will be back to normal, especially considering the fact that the Vuelta had the good taste to not invite The Slack.

I wish, i imagine they wont be gone unless the Landisgate thing disappears and it is to be hoped not so as long that is running and articles appear they will be on here trying to defend the indefensible.

I for one wish Armstrong had never started riding again. Fact is that he did because his ego couldn't take it. It will be delicious irony of it becomes his undoing. I hope that is the case.

I am glad he came back and that his reception has been less than he could have possibly wished for. He has shown that his personality is that of a bully, selfish, egotist bordering on psychopathic-al. If he did not come back maybe Landis would not have been looking for a ride at RodeoSmack and he would never have told all.

I also think his return had less to do with cycling and more to do with pushing his Liestrong campaign (and his enrichment via that) into the spotlight again as they probably found that it was not getting the exposure he wanted unless he was on a bike racing and that made his decision, although it does not appear he pushed it too much in the TdF except for the last day shenanigans which were a trite pathetic, but maybe stateside the exposure was greater than what we saw in europe.

Nope i am glad as it has started the ball rolling to exposing the real Lance Armstrong, a tremendous dedicated egotistical athlete with no morals whatsoever who would do everything and anything to win and ensure his enrichment using whatever means he could and bullying those who got in his way.

 

[SirLes]

I often feel there should be an ignore function for any posts or threads mentioning particular cyclists.

I am getting very bored with the fixation on a small group of American ex pro cyclists.

I do my best to avoid them but like a moth to a flame find myself drawn to them in the hope that maybe there'll be something new or interesting. Occasionally there is but you have to wade through countless posts of the same stuff repeated over and over again.

Perhaps we could have a forum devoted to Ex pros.

 

[Benotti69]

...
Perhaps we could have a forum devoted to Ex pros.

lots of them are on TV commentating without too much interesting to say and never straying outside the official lines...

 

[shawnrohrbach]

To go back to filtering users by IP address, I am not sure how this can be done effectively. Yes, many posters post only from home and probably have one IP address associated with their activity. However, to go back to one poaster (name???) who claims to be able to change IP addresses at will, this is possible through a variety of means. Within a one mile radius of my home, I can use fifteen free internet access points, some commercial some private, and each one gives me at least one new IP address when ever I log in. There are software apps that I use to narrow down the city and even the neighborhood associated with these IP addresses and we can isolate the user to within a well defined geographical area near their residence. This is a time consuming effort. The MAC address on the computer does not change, no matter what IP/subnet the user is on. The propeller heads at CN can easily filter by that. Now, there is more than one exception to this; the most popular is if someone is so depserate to hide from detection, they can buy a box of Network Interface Cards, and become very adept at changing them at will. Each card has a unique MAC address and if they are smart, they buy from different manufacturers so the MAC addresses are not sequential. This is a well known practice among terrorists and child pornographers. And maybe a few trolls.

 

[JPM London]

There should be an iigore option that prevents you from seeing any post by a poster with fewer than twenty-five posts or maybe an option so you only see posts by senior members. That would get rid of 80% of the idiocy.

Personally I have almost stopped reading the forum lately because of the mad amounts of spam... Sad thing, definitely. I think the most brilliant proof of the situation is the fact that apparently a (so far) twelve page thread is needed to just start discussing the problem - again personally I haven't bothered to read most of the pages - I feel I can't be bothered.

When somebody has a point it can easily drown in the sea. The above quote represents a very, very great idea indeed (in my view at least). This way you could actually easily tailor the threads into something you like to read and respond to...

So by quoting Bro I hope this one gets a bit more attention

 

[L29205]

To go back to filtering users by IP address, I am not sure how this can be done effectively. Yes, many posters post only from home and probably have one IP address associated with their activity. However, to go back to one poaster (name???) who claims to be able to change IP addresses at will, this is possible through a variety of means. Within a one mile radius of my home, I can use fifteen free internet access points, some commercial some private, and each one gives me at least one new IP address when ever I log in. There are software apps that I use to narrow down the city and even the neighborhood associated with these IP addresses and we can isolate the user to within a well defined geographical area near their residence. This is a time consuming effort. The MAC address on the computer does not change, no matter what IP/subnet the user is on. The propeller heads at CN can easily filter by that. Now, there is more than one exception to this; the most popular is if someone is so depserate to hide from detection, they can buy a box of Network Interface Cards, and become very adept at changing them at will. Each card has a unique MAC address and if they are smart, they buy from different manufacturers so the MAC addresses are not sequential. This is a well known practice among terrorists and child pornographers. And maybe a few trolls.

Easier to use one of the multiple anonymous proxy programs out there. There are thousands of servers out there that let you hide behind their IP addresses. People have been using them to download music, movies and related content for years without having to worry about someone figuring who they were via an IP address. I would speculate that is what BPC has been doing.

 

[Race Radio]

Personally I have almost stopped reading the forum lately because of the mad amounts of spam... Sad thing, definitely. I think the most brilliant proof of the situation is the fact that apparently a (so far) twelve page thread is needed to just start discussing the problem - again personally I haven't bothered to read most of the pages - I feel I can't be bothered.

When somebody has a point it can easily drown in the sea. The above quote represents a very, very great idea indeed (in my view at least). This way you could actually easily tailor the threads into something you like to read and respond to...

So by quoting Bro I hope this one gets a bit more attention

That is the goal.

 

[Benotti69]

how many trolls are creating multiple accounts over a short period of time and then reverting to them to try and create a wave of 'fanboyishness' in a short period of time, i see some stuff being posted by low (less than 10, 20) posters but they joined before the june/july madness started and yet are now starting feverishly to up their ante...

it is getting to look like a real concerted effort by an 'organised'* group of fanboys to try and undermine LeMond and the clinic, thankfully failing miserably and providing some entertainment value at the same time.

*when i say organised they could be anything from facebook buddies to the pubic stratalies and everything in between.

 

[Deagol]

how many trolls are creating multiple accounts over a short period of time and then reverting to them to try and create a wave of 'fanboyishness' in a short period of time, i see some stuff being posted by low (less than 10, 20) posters but they joined before the june/july madness started and yet are now starting feverishly to up their ante...

it is getting to look like a real concerted effort by an 'organised'* group of fanboys to try and undermine LeMond and the clinic, thankfully failing miserably and providing some entertainment value at the same time.

*when i say organised they could be anything from facebook buddies to the pubic stratalies and everything in between.

I brought this up in another thread, that BPC bragged about creating several sock puppets a while back (I thought he claimed April)

 

[usedtobefast]

did anyone else get PM from BPC yesterday? just wondering how i rated such
privilege.

 

[MacRoadie]

did anyone else get PM from BPC yesterday? just wondering how i rated such
privilege.

Yep, and made absolutely no sense....

 

[Big GMaC]

Yep, and agree with Mac, no sense

 

[shawnrohrbach]

Easier to use one of the multiple anonymous proxy programs out there. There are thousands of servers out there that let you hide behind their IP addresses. People have been using them to download music, movies and related content for years without having to worry about someone figuring who they were via an IP address. I would speculate that is what BPC has been doing.

Easier to catch than advertised, even in Sweden.

 

[Race Radio]

did anyone else get PM from BPC yesterday? just wondering how i rated such
privilege.

Yup, non sense. He is losing it.

 

[Martin318is]

Why don't you enlighten us on how you know people have multiple accounts, in all cases? It has been admitted by mods that IP addresses cannot be tracked on CN forums, or at least in the past they have not.

I don't recall anyone saying that IP addresses cannot be tracked.
What we cannot do at the moment is effectively block a user because they can so easily switch IP addresses.

Just so you are aware, I can see an icon on your post that tells me the IP you used to post it.

Also, in the moderators panel, I can search on your username to get every IP address you have ever used here AND then I can search on any OTHER usernames that share the same address. THAT is how we know that people are using sockpuppets. The only exception to that is if we are pretty sure there are other people in the same household that are distinct members.

Different name, same IP and same style = suspension of all accounts involved

 

[Martin318is]

I beg to differ Martin. Irritated_cycling_fan’s post expresses perfectly the EXACT tenor of this forum and to say otherwise is disingenuous indeed. Those points are exactly what this forum in it's current state supports.

As has been raised: If that IS the case then WHY is his account not banned, why are his posts not deleted and why are you getting no more reaction from the supposed controllers of the situation than this post from me?

The fact is that this thread does not intentionally support any of those statements.

 

[BroDeal]

Yup, non sense. He is losing it.

His SOP is now to PM a few people with his first few posts in case his account quickly gets banned and the posts deleted.

 

[MacRoadie]

His SOP is now to PM a few people with his first few posts in case his account quickly gets banned and the posts deleted.

Like this steaming load:

Wow, there couldn't be a better example of forum omerta.

Not one single user in the rest of the thread condemns this post that basically tells someone to clear off the site because he doesn't agree with the general view about LA. Not one of these guys who is so pious about "trolls" had the courage to speak up and say that this is not the right approach to have on a cycling forum, or even condemn the grossly offensive comparison to the Nazis.

They stay silent. Instead Dr Maserati does his usual thing of looking for some irrelevant nuance to to pick holes in what he said (like the guy is not going to get confused when arguing with ten different people), and we have Hugh Janus telling him that we're not debating him because we've heard it all before (well why respond at all then!)

Seriously, what are you people like? How are you not cringing at your shameless hypocrisy? Surely a little brain cell somewhere must have thought "well there is another current thread we're we are pretending that we only have a problem with "trolls" and not people we disagree with, so maybe it's not a good idea to blow our cover so quickly?"

But no, not one of you stepped up. Wow. Brilliant

The irony is, I don't even read them and they're little more than a slight nuissance. I just forward them to the mods and move on.

 

[Forum Omerta]

The irony is I've been pretty busy this week so was a little taken back to come back from work yesterday and see a big thread about me.

Had to set the record straight on that one. You must admit I have become a smear word used to attack people that have nothing to do with me.

Though I've said to the mods if there is a moderation issue they need to look at, the one post anti Lemond threads is something to look at. But to make banning and removing my posts is utterly bizarre.

Then tonight I came up trumps when I come back from work and see you guys have dropped yourselves in it. Not one of you spoke out against this shameless post telling something to clear off for taking a different view. Fantastic.