Why I quit

[Maxiton]

I admit I was sucked in. I don't have an excuse because I had heard stuff about Papp before he tested positive. Lots of people who raced with him hated the guy. This was like ten years ago. Still it was easy to think that his anti-doping stance was sincere.

Funny thing is that when I heard that someone here had sold RR's info to Armstrong, I immediately guessed it was Papp.

You mentioned he has a well known nickname. What is it?

 

[Maxiton]

I think they're going to delete this thread. The sockpuppet speculation thread has already been redacted.

 

[kielbasa]

Could Armstrong have any pull in Cuba?... Naaaah. Wiki says JP considered working for the CIA though.

 

[pedaling squares]

I'm not certain how, when, or why this came to light, but I'm glad that Papp's dirty little secret has finally been exposed. Whether or not RR wanted anything to be done at the time, it was and is wrong that Papp was not banned once his other issues were resolved. His actions started within the forum and were directed against a member of the forum; he has no place here. The admins do a lot of things well, but they dropped the ball on a critical issue.

 

[BroDeal]

Could Armstrong have any pull in Cuba?... Naaaah. Wiki says JP considered working for the CIA though.

It would have been a great money making opportunity for him. He could have sold data to al-Qaeda while giving quotes to the press as an anti-terrorism expert.

 

[MarkvW]

I think they're going to delete this thread. The sockpuppet speculation thread has already been redacted.

Wow. All the really bad stuff that I've been saying about Papp all these years . . .. I had no idea that he was infinitely more disgusting than my vilest imaginings.

Revulsion is the best thing I can come up with.

 

[Maxiton]

It would have been a great money making opportunity for him. He could have sold data to al-Qaeda while giving quotes to the press as an anti-terrorism expert.

Could have been an asset in W's Whitehouse.

Wow. All the really bad stuff that I've been saying about Papp all these years . . .. I had no idea that he was infinitely more disgusting than my vilest imaginings.

Revulsion is the best thing I can come up with.

Yep. Same here. (Although I was wrong about the sockpuppet thread (had it confused with another thread) which is why I deleted my comment.)

 

[I Watch Cycling In July]

The RR incident might have been a few years ago, but from the pro reactions thread, I'm gonna say that I also believe he is still trying to play both sides.

I'm not best pleased that CN refused to act on this when RR contacted them about it recently. Waiting until the case was closed made sense, but keeping on doing nothing doesn't.

A few months ago, Joe wrote a post that really struck a nerve of mine, I sent him a PM about it. He replied, inviting me to email him, but said it might be a while till he cleared his message.....I replied to him by email only a week or two ago. More than 3 years on this forum and the first time I email someone it had to be Joe Papp. Erm...Doh! I took advantage of the complete-stranger-on-the-other-side-of-the-world thing to discuss some very personal stuff. It makes me feel icky that he has my name and email address.

When CN learns that the forum is being used to befriend people in order to fraudulently obtain their personal details (and falsely claiming he needed help in order to initiate an email conversation to obtain information IS fraud IMO), they REALLY should act. Not cool guys.

Oh well, giving people chances and the benefit of the doubt is the right thing to do and ALMOST always works.

How is velorooms going people, would they like a clinic? What about cyclismas, could they start a forum, or NY velocity or inrng? I'm really not happy with CN at the moment. Benson has done such great reporting of the whole Armstrong fiasco in the last couple of years, but I think this decision was a massive mistake. Hope he comes to explain himself.

 

[Maxiton]

http://www.businessinsider.com/joe-papp-comments-on-lance-armstrong-doping-case-2012-6

Interesting to see what Joe really thinks of Lance.

Interesting link.

Now wondering if the "Reactions from the Pro Peloton to #USPSConspiracy (USADA)" thread - started by Joe - was an attempt to use the forum to track all pro reactions so he can report back to Lance.

He's on the payroll. You think that check from Herman was a one-off? Papp's hoping it isn't. Or he knows it isn't.

First it was Race Radio. Then, it was ChewbaccaD. I wonder who else?

EDIT: No sooner had I asked than I saw the post from I Watch Cycling in July. Next!

I don't think any explanations from CN staff, at this point, will amount to much, or mean much.

 

[knewcleardaze]

I can't believe the shyte I read on here!
Aren't the interwebs and tweeting grand??
And just what is the point of twittering tweets?
I am old and square.
Uhhhhhh...... where's JoePapp??

 

[Afrank]

Seems like Joe Papp has used the forum to get the emails, names, and personal details of many people on the forum. Hopefully because of this thread people will make sure not to email him anymore. But in case people don't read this thread, shouldn't something be done to make sure he can not do this again?

 

[MarkvW]

Could Armstrong have any pull in Cuba?... Naaaah. Wiki says JP considered working for the CIA though.

Read the wiki closely. Doesn't it look like the scumbag wrote lots of it himself?

 

[I Watch Cycling In July]

Maybe we should update that wiki, Joe was keen to Levi's updated, perhaps we should return the favor?

 

[Tinman]

Interesting link.

He's on the payroll. You think that check from Herman was a one-off? Papp's hoping it isn't. Or he knows it isn't.

First it was Race Radio. Then, it was ChewbaccaD. I wonder who else?

EDIT: No sooner had I asked than I saw the post from I Watch Cycling in July. Next!

I don't think any explanations from CN staff, at this point, will amount to much, or mean much.

2 issues for me:
1. the clinic is a scary place for LA, UCI and others. The very publically visible virtual interactions that take place here among people really in the know who are able to put one and one together do not take place anywhere else. It's not too hard to see the law/PR firms working for LA or UCI A. trying to work out who the ring leaders here are and put some "negation tactics in place if required B. trying to mess with the threads. For these guys there is simply too much at stake, they want to keep things flying under the radar as much as possible
2. CN clearly does not realize the inherent value of its forum (particularly the clinic), how to safeguard this (eg better moderation), how to leverage it much more strongly (commercially), AND how to look after its key contributors. And this plays into the hands of LA/UCI... Indeed maybe some other party will be more "aware".

 

[BroDeal]

Read the wiki closely. Doesn't it look like the scumbag wrote lots of it himself?

I am pretty sure Papp has something like Google alerts set up to inform him when he is mentioned. He responds everywhere, forum posts, comments to blog entries, etc. It is common to find a forum thread on an obscure cycling board where he is mentioned that contains a response by him as the first post of a new account. He is a shameless self-promoter. There are good odds that he wrote the wiki stuff.

 

[I Watch Cycling In July]

tinman, I admit that sometimes in the past I've wondered if CN has allowed a few livestrong interns to troll the **** out of the forum, just so they could say they were being impartial.

I was never sure, but this recent news really does back up the claims that some of the fanbois get paid for their trouble. Trolls kinda seemed like the price to pay for being able to say whatever we thought about LA, and I decided not to let them put me off spending time here.

This puts me off though. It's not because Joe took advantage, that's a known risk. It's that CN did nothing about it.

 

[the big ring]

I am thinking the "Annual Troll Awards" for CN - a new ceremony - should be instigated, with voting accomplished via polls and a summary of the awarded poster's posts and overall behaviour summarised in a sticky somewhere.



sittingbison I nominated you to design the trophy avatar, replete with trollstrong yellow wrist bracelet.

 

[Maxiton]

tinman, I admit that sometimes in the past I've wondered if CN has allowed a few livestrong interns to troll the **** out of the forum, just so they could say they were being impartial.

I was never sure, but this recent news really does back up the claims that some of the fanbois get paid for their trouble. Trolls kinda seemed like the price to pay for being able to say whatever we thought about LA, and I decided not to let them put me off spending time here.

This puts me off though. It's not because Joe took advantage, that's a known risk. It's that CN did nothing about it.

There's money involved with Papp, apparently. How do we know there isn't money involved elsewhere? I mean, what if it isn't only incompetence we're talking about? It bears asking.

Not that it matters in the end. What kind of future does the Clinic have, when a known predator was allowed to prey on unsuspecting participants? That's something else that bears asking.

 

[I Watch Cycling In July]

You can invent the Velo D'or for trolls, but BPC will always be the eddy merckxs of his discipline.

 

[thirteen]

Interesting link.

He's on the payroll. You think that check from Herman was a one-off? Papp's hoping it isn't. Or he knows it isn't.

First it was Race Radio. Then, it was ChewbaccaD. I wonder who else?

EDIT: No sooner had I asked than I saw the post from I Watch Cycling in July. Next!

possibly me

****!

 

[Maxiton]

possibly me

****!

Sorry to hear that.

Edit: Some people have told me I'm paranoid for not sharing more openly on the Web, or through it. I can see from this fiasco that I'm not paranoid enough.

 

[Oldman]

Super duper uncool that cyclingnews.com might have allowed that to happen again without warning us it happened the first time(I'd heard an ugly rumor, but never heard anything else, so I figured it was blown out of proportion or something. I mean, I have defended Joe MANY times here. I even wrote a letter to the judge in his case a couple of years ago before he was sentenced telling the judge he as a nice guy...I figured I would be able to trust him), or banning him before it could happen again...really uncool...

there was a reach-out to me to write the same recommendation. My reservations are, surprisingly; based on actual experience. If I have no direct (non-virtual...you know-real life)experience with a person my opinion and recommendation would be worthlesss so I try to steer clear of character endorsements. I have little character of my own so why would I expect someone I met to have more?

About the same time RR got assaulted a direct message contact claiming to be Floyd wanted some friendly interaction and details on relevant events. He did request an email address for direct correspondence as the messages were not via the open forum. Most of the topics I discussed didn't involve Floyd so a quick detail quiz of his/Floyd's recollection of early details seemed like a good idea before I responded. The responses clearly indicated a fisherman and a Mod on the forum confirmed Floyd would not be contacting forum folks. He also did suggest some security precautions which turned out to be prudent as my IT dude said there had been some hacking attempts.

 

[Maxiton]

You can invent the Velo D'or for trolls, but BPC will always be the eddy merckxs of his discipline.

BPC has won seven troll awards, consecutively.

 

[BroDeal]

As a reminder. Armstrong "hacked" into the email accounts of critics who used the same password for their email account and for the old Paceline forum. Using different passwds and throwaway email addresses is a good idea.

 

[I Watch Cycling In July]

Oh man, LAs lazerlike focus on what everyone else is saying about him is NOT NORMAL. It does explain how he managed to keep the myth alive so long.

I have ever increasing respect for those who stood up to him.