Moderately Speaking

[John]

Testing 4

[Guest LON]

Taking a closer look at the activity on this forum, which is not hard to do, there is one IP from which a guest has made over 3,300 posts under various guest handles. There is a registered account associated with this IP that has been rarely used. Most of that activity is on this thread. Several months ago, I asked that guest to stick to one handle and he/she has not. That activity has been eliminated by blocking the IP on a temporary basis. Of course, it could resurface under a different IP and that will be dealt with on a post by post basis. There is not much other current guest activity. The second largest number of guest posts from any one IP is something like 500 over the 16 year life of this forum. It is likely that administering the guest system is an administrative function, which moderators don't have the ability to change. John gave a couple reasons for allowing guests, one of which was mentioned (guest anonymity from hostile regimes). The other, in his words as I can best recall was that, "Believe it or not, the collective knowledge about the world of registered users on this forum is not all that great."

If new registered handles appear, those will be monitored more carefully but keeping in mind that the recent discussion could result in new posters who have the desire to positively contribute to this forum. The huge majority of people who have posted on this board over time have done that. Activity generated by a very small number of posters should not crowd out the potential positive contributions of a large number. I've made additional temporary changes to ensure that does not continue. The end goal is for the forum and this thread in particular to deliver the greatest value to the greatest number of people.

An alternative explanation is that the IP is for a VPN service, or a particular ISP of the same locality. I have noticed that I share IP address with colleagues from work as our internet provider offers that feature to protect against cyber attacks.

[FullMoon]

An alternative explanation is that the IP is for a VPN service, or a particular ISP of the same locality. I have noticed that I share IP address with colleagues from work as our internet provider offers that feature to protect against cyber attacks

.

If it's a group coordinated activity then it brings up the fact that John said Chicom were regularly probing and causing mischief on this website. Disruption and spread of misinformation online is a serious part of their ongoing war against the West. Because it is a war and it's being waged in many areas short of kinetic. They are trying to win the war without firing a single shot. It's their game plan and it's working because few are able to take it seriously enough.

[Clarkmod]

Taking a closer look at the activity on this forum, which is not hard to do, there is one IP from which a guest has made over 3,300 posts under various guest handles. There is a registered account associated with this IP that has been rarely used. Most of that activity is on this thread. Several months ago, I asked that guest to stick to one handle and he/she has not. That activity has been eliminated by blocking the IP on a temporary basis. Of course, it could resurface under a different IP and that will be dealt with on a post by post basis. There is not much other current guest activity. The second largest number of guest posts from any one IP is something like 500 over the 16 year life of this forum. It is likely that administering the guest system is an administrative function, which moderators don't have the ability to change. John gave a couple reasons for allowing guests, one of which was mentioned (guest anonymity from hostile regimes). The other, in his words as I can best recall was that, "Believe it or not, the collective knowledge about the world of registered users on this forum is not all that great."

If new registered handles appear, those will be monitored more carefully but keeping in mind that the recent discussion could result in new posters who have the desire to positively contribute to this forum. The huge majority of people who have posted on this board over time have done that. Activity generated by a very small number of posters should not crowd out the potential positive contributions of a large number. I've made additional temporary changes to ensure that does not continue. The end goal is for the forum and this thread in particular to deliver the greatest value to the greatest number of people.

An alternative explanation is that the IP is for a VPN service, or a particular ISP of the same locality. I have noticed that I share IP address with colleagues from work as our internet provider offers that feature to protect against cyber attacks.

I'll grant that there are other possible explanations and I've thought of others beyond what is mentioned here. Also, I am not an expert on this topic and realize that can lead to problems. However, I read several hundred of those posts (the ones coming from the same IP and associated with the same registered account) before coming to a conclusion and the explanation I proposed fits better than any other.

[Clarkmod]

An alternative explanation is that the IP is for a VPN service, or a particular ISP of the same locality. I have noticed that I share IP address with colleagues from work as our internet provider offers that feature to protect against cyber attacks.

If it's a group coordinated activity then it brings up the fact that John said Chicom were regularly probing and causing mischief on this website. Disruption and spread of misinformation online is a serious part of their ongoing war against the West. Because it is a war and it's being waged in many areas short of kinetic. They are trying to win the war without firing a single shot. It's their game plan and it's working because few are able to take it seriously enough.

It seems highly probable to me that, recently, the forum more resembles a dysfunctional family than anything else. That dynamic has always existed here to some extent but John's presence and that of others overshadowed it. Like I've said, some temporary measures have been taken.

When I have more time, and it is going to take a fair amount of time I don't have right at the moment, I will go into this in more detail. For now, I just want to say that for the past 2 years, whenever John has been temporarily absent, my immediate goal has been to return the forum to John in the same condition it was in when he temporarily left. That would include having the same posters who were on it doing approximately the same things, taking into account natural fluctuations.

[Clarkmod]

However, I read several hundred of those posts (the ones coming from the same IP and associated with the same registered account) before coming to a conclusion and the explanation I proposed fits better than any other.

To respect the anonymity of the Guest, I will discuss this in general terms. The Guest has been contributing to this forum for many years. Some years ago, perhaps 4 or 5 years ago, this Guest mentioned that his location changed. The new location was mentioned, and the IP was at that time and still is the same and consistent with the stated location. This location is not a hostile regime and is a few time zones from the US. The posts have been consistent with waking hours in that time zone. The Guest has made positive contributions to the forum, with at least one current forum member thanking him for the contributions. The Guest has a habit of harshly criticizing some forum members who do not agree with his stances. Most, but not all, of these stances have to do with immigration, race, DEI, partisan politics and similar matters. The Guest has very strongly held views on these matters which appear to come from unique experiences that he has had in countries outside the US. Some posts refer to those experiences. There's enough uniqueness and commonality to this to believe that the Guest is one individual espousing his particular views. Of course, I could be wrong about this.

The Guest has been engaging in behaviors that are manipulating the GD World View News thread. One is to follow a post by a forum member with several posts from different Guest handles challenging the post. In some cases, taken in isolation, each post may be considered to be credible, with each having a unique well articulated idea. In other cases, the different guest handles engage in conversations with each other, "each other" being the Guest. Also, this same Guest has attempted to draw posters with extreme views into various threads and engage them. For example, recently, this Guest drew a poster into the news thread and engaged him in a conversation about white supremacists. The conversation was disruptive to the news thread and did not end well. The behavior described in this paragraph or anything similar needs to be curtailed.

[Clarkmod]

Finally, I mentioned several days ago that I had taken some temporary measures, including blocking the IP of the afore-mentioned Guest. The purpose of doing this was to reset the forum, particularly the GD World View News thread, to a condition that would be more hospitable to a greater variety of posters, especially those who don't carry extreme views. So far, that seems to be going well, and people who have said they were driven away from participating are doing so again. That needs to be allowed to continue.

At this time, the temporary measures have been reversed. Maybe temporarily. I'll watch the forum closely and see how it goes.