I know a lot of people would have you believe that the Clinic has changed, and now it's capable to compete in the cut-throat world of the forum clean, but if you aren't so utopian a quick glance at the recent posting history would tell you otherwise. The same names keep cropping up, many of whom have served suspensions yet continue to post at the same rate they did pre-ban, sometimes even more prolifically. I ask you, is that really normal? A super-peaker like Galic Ho will come in, obliterate everybody with a series of 500-word posts in a span of a few hours, then disappear offline for weeks at a time. If that's not super-peaking, then I ask you what is? A guy like TFF can take a suspension, then return with some second-tier lower-rated post count, and nobody bats an eyelid, but young clean posters like Airstream coming in aren't entering the dream world of professional sport forums that they might imagine, instead they find themselves drawn into a tangled web of deceit and posting-enhancing drugs foisted upon them by unrepentant posters like Mrs John Murphy and corrupt doctors like Dr Maserati (I mean, he's even been suspended from Clinic activity himself, so association with him is a pretty clear red flag for any poster indulging in lengthy or inflammatory posts). A guy like The Hog somehow manages to get himself embroiled into nearly every scandal in the book, but somehow he always finds himself back in the fold where his enhanced posting that excites and infuriates so many with its dramatic, explosive sarcasm can influence the development of naïve, impressionable posters, and before you know it, their post counts are soaring whilst engaging in endless aggressive back and forth in the Clinic. And people will shake their heads in disbelief and know that things haven't changed at all, and as long as the CNM (Cycling News Mods) are in charge here, will things change? That's what the CCN (Change the Clinic Now) movement was for, but it appears to have stumbled against the heavyweight onslaught of Clinicians. Of course, it doesn't help that you have new posters such as Joachim claiming to be part of the new clean revolution, yet putting in marathon hours at the forum, trading attack after attack and going toe to toe even with known clinically-enhanced posters like BroDeal and thehog. I mean, really, we're supposed to believe that's clean? Give me a break.
That's notwithstanding a number of posters who keep on going without suspension, and it's pretty unbelievable that some of them are posting with nigh on nothing against their name. How the hell guys like The Hitch can have evaded capture for so long I'll never know. Of course with others like hrotha and Zam_Olyas, it's more obvious, as it falls to the national posting authorities to sanction the posters, and we all know the southern Europeans go soft on enhanced posters (and of course, Zam is on a second-tier postcount after retiring the zamasailo account, so is not subject to as many stringent tests under the Posting Passport). But look at the amount of Clinic posts they have, some of them of the kind of length, detail and smackdownery that surely nobody could believe are plausible clean. But there they are, 5,99P/day, regular as clockwork, within the boundaries of human achievement, so you know, maybe they are clean... but the performances sure don't look it. And with many characters readily associating themselves with known enhanced posters, there is a reputational risk to be had.
But let's not kid ourselves that this is just a problem for the Clinic. The problem is everywhere. A guy like Ryo Hazuki only crops up in Clinic discussions from time to time, but he's been caught in more mod stings than most, from within the confines of the PRR forum. A guy like DAOTEC racked up the wins (of the internet) seldom ever venturing into the Clinic, but was still found to be one of the most enhanced posters the forum had ever seen, and the last we saw he was forced down to a third tier postcount trying gamely to compete in short, unfriendly threads in PRR, a far cry from his enhanced glory days. And what of a guy like Frank Day? I mean, it's one thing for a poster to be taking something to help them not get dropped by the amped-up specialists in the Clinic, but doping to crank out hundreds of posts beating up on part-timers in the Form & Fitness board is a whole other level.
No, the Clinic may profess to be improving with regards to cracking down on the dirty posting and posters, but I'll believe it when I see it.
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