Update: The Original Oolon is Not the Culprit!

Update on the #mencallmethings: “whining, annoying, cunt.” post:

The “oolon” who wrote the “whining, annoying, cunt” comment cited in this post is not the usual “oolon” who comments on FTB. The writer of this comment sockpuppetted the existing blogger’s ‘nym.

I am distressed — although hardly surprised — to learn that the misogynist element has sunk to the low of smearing other commenters’ reputations with their own toxic waste.

I am. however, delighted to see the good name of Oolon restored.

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Update: The Original Oolon is Not the Culprit!
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25 thoughts on “Update: The Original Oolon is Not the Culprit!

  1. 3

    Hehe myself and RagingBee don’t get on well 🙂 Glad you think I’m capable of extreme misogyny just because I don’t agree with you though!

    Anyway…

    Dunno if this is news to you — but there seem to be some clear links between the ‘Tim’ that originally threatened Greta, the rape threat on Thunderf00ts blog against Sally Strange, ‘Hate-fapping’ to Gretas picture mentioned on TFs blog and now this. Might be a bit of a stretch but in other comment threads I suggested Sally complain to WordPress about the threat on TFs blog… Does not seem too much of a leap to assume that is why I was chosen to make this threat.

    I also suggested that the ‘Tim’ in question was the one who created ‘Girlyban Bingo’ to try and tempt you all to ban him.

    I’m starting to sound like a conspiracy nut now… But if it is the same one then he has an unhealthy obsession with Greta.

  2. 4

    Glad you think I’m capable of extreme misogyny just because I don’t agree with you though!

    Who are you talking to — me, or a voice in your head that kinda sounds like me?

    Also, I’ve seen a “42Oolon” or “420Oolon” somewhere on FTB. Any relation?

  3. 5

    @RagingBee, oh sorry I thought you were still miffed that I was on the side of bluharmony in some small amount… You seemed quite annoyed but then that might be a cognitive error induced by your nym.

  4. 7

    I appreciate the clarification. I would not want to be unfair to “oolon” based on the actions of an impostor. I had the real “oolon” pegged as “someone I disagree with, but not always”. That put him in the camp of people I’m willing to talk to. The other guy – whoa, no.

  5. 9

    @illuminata,

    The Oolon I’ve dealt with isn’t much better

    Yeah I should be jumping with joy for being damned by such faint praise… I am a little better I spose.

    It was fun reading the article where I was transformed into a misogynist. Hunt is my best friend now –

    Hunt says:
    You know, I’m beginning to wonder what role alcohol plays in these meltdowns, since oolon appeared to be rational elsewhere and at other times.

    [sniff] that is the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me – apart from the me being an alchoholic bit.

  6. 12

    On topic, one thing does occur why is it possible for people to register with the same nym? I know FtBs are not known for their security *cough* listserv *cough* but this seems a pretty obvious thing to fix?

    Otherwise surely now the cat is out of the bag we will get a rash of slime-types trolling the comments for lulz?

  7. 13

    I’m surprised this issue of duplicate nyms doesn’t come up more often. [I know I’m not the only “hotshoe” in the world – although I’ve never seen a post by another “hotshoe” I did try to register with some site (forgot which) and was told “hotshoe” was already taken.]

    One of the “Oolons” could be the WordPress “Oolon”, one could be the Yahoo “Oolon” or could be the whatever “Oolon”, and how would any onlooker know or even guess except by differences in the commenter’s submitted words. We don’t personally have access to IP account info, and we can’t (usually) ask the forum owners to compare IPs to satisfy our concern as to whether there are two separate persons behind one nym.

    Maybe this case is a deliberate attempt to get one “Oolon” in trouble by a sockpuppet account used to post inflammatory misogyny. Seems like that’s true in this case. But as I already said, I’m surprised it doesn’t come up more often, just by coincidence. Your name doesn’t have to be “John Smith” or “Lars Anderson” to be shared by many more than one other person. Your nym doesn’t, either.

  8. 15

    I’m a bit confused here, and I do not quibble about terminology to belittle the crime, but this is not what’s (used to be) meant by ‘sockpuppet’. Sockpuppeting is when somebody agrees with themself using a different nym. This is much worse–impersonation or webidentity-theft, it sounds like.
    (if not an unintentional duplicate nym)

  9. 16

    It’s a very good idea to register your chosen ‘nym in as many places as possible, in order to avoid people sockpuppeting you.

    That being said, this is a test– I am attempting to post as Oolong even though my actual username is Homa Sapiens. All I had to do was change the text in the name required field.

  10. 18

    ‘Nyms here are freely “forgeable” because we are all, ultimately, commenting anonymously… Mandatory registration is a barrier to entry that most of the FtBloggers have declined to impose because a certain percentage of our valued contributors are shy of it. C’est la vie.

    One thing you can do to deal with accidental duplications, at least, is get a distinctive gravatar (like Mr. Happy there across from my name.)

  11. 19

    Gravatar has an option (for the blog owner, not the commenter) where it displays a geometric pattern or some sort of odd monster, different for each email address, rather than just an anonymous silhouette, for people without registered gravatars. Maybe that would help discourage the fakers?

    (It’s not all that secure, since if you can guess someone’s email address you can fake the avatar, but that applies to all gravatar uses.)

  12. 20

    @Andrew G
    It would also be trivial to just copy the gravatar image and associate that picture with another e-mail address. No e-mail address guessing required. I haven’t checked the Gravatar registration since 2006 or 2007, but I’m guessing it could still be done in two minutes or less.

  13. 21

    I’m glad to hear that wasn’t the “real” Oolon spouting that crap – it seemed out-of-character for him given how I’ve seen him behave elsewhere. Glad to know it was a case of nym-theft.

    I agree it’s an unfortunate danger of the loose-commenting rules here at FTB and there’s not much that can be done to fix it, but I definitely have some sympathy for people who worry about the damage to a person’s reputation. Thanks for setting the record straight Greta.

    Oh, and in case I haven’t said it yet: it really sucks that you need to deal with various shitbags on a daily basis. Thanks for always speaking up – you’re a valuable voice in the online community.

  14. 24

    Illuminata, my reading is that Oolon was not attributing that quote to you, but rather reminding you of it, to show that zie had good reason to be somewhat miffed at Raging Bee. I don’t know the story behind any “feud” between the two of them, and am not interested in it. I’m posting this only because you seem to have misunderstood what Oolon was saying, and I thought it possible I could help to clarify.

    TRiG.

  15. 25

    Just to go back on topic, the person who impersonated me (Chas is right – sockpuppet is not the correct term) did so on the assumption I am a FtBs mouthpiece as I was being annoying over at Thunderf00ts blog ridiculing them likening Carrier to Hitler. Quite clear it made a massive error from the weird belief many seem to have that FtBs is some sort of group-think central and anyone that is ‘on message’ gets an easy ride here. Tuvok thinks I’m ‘privileged’ over here 🙂

    I’m ‘on message’ in terms of feminism and elevators I think but I’m also relatively new and contrarian so posters are mostly suspicious of my motives. I’ve seen regulars that say daft things being slapped down as well. Doubt they’ll ever get it but just because they were banned and slapped down at some point doesn’t mean everyone who disagrees is – all over FtBs! I think I’ve managed to disagree quite a lot, even on Pharyngula, without being banned. Although I registered over at the Slymepit to make sure I had the ‘oolon’ nym there and they are convinced ‘PeeZus’ is going to ban me now as all you need to do is post there to be persona non grata.

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