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[–]magnora7 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

I did not write that message, and I have not banned anyone for that. AmericanMuskrat is fabricating evidence against me and this site and I've just banned him for it.

I also got another faked message from another new account trying to frame fschmidt for being associated with ironleft: https://s01.geekpic.net/di-DIB3B6.png

Same image host as Muskrat. Proving muskrat is one of the troll accounts, and has always been. Wish I could say I'm surprised.

[–]Zapped 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

So why is banning the Muskrat account helping? If that is a troll account, even playing a straight account, they'll keep up with the "game" with other accounts, and if they've carried it this far, surely there are other regular user accounts here under their control. I am not well educated on IP's and such (so I don't know but I guess there is a way to fool readings on your end), but why would they jeopardize the AmericanMuskrat account in this way? Why would they slip up so easily by using the same image host (and I'm not sure how that's proof even if it seems suspicious)? Looking in, it seems to me that this is one of the troll set-ups. All this confusion on my end is maybe part of the game, though.

On another note, I usually look at comment posting times and some of the regular accounts on here have strange and even staggered active hours. AmericanMuskrat fell into this pattern. I figured he had a night-time security job (or another situation keeping him up at night) and had lots of time to play on his phone. If you want to put some time into it, you may want to to look at some of the comment interactions that different accounts are having with each other in relation to the time of day/night. If they are posting within minutes of each other at times all over the clock, I think that is suspicious. Suspicion is not proof, though.

The troll accounts are definitely using misdirection, pretending to be extremist or "not a native speaker" at times. Maybe there are multiple people taking turns using the same account. Again, I think they are using normie accounts, too. I have entertained the thought that an admin is in on this ruse.

Just some of my thoughts looking in. I don't know if it helps or muddies the water more.

[–]magnora7 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I mean what's the alternative, take no action when a person is caught red-handed?

[–]Zapped 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Thank you for the other comment upstream, explaining it better. I didn't know of those other working parts to this story. So do you think he was part of the troll group or that he was the troll(s)? Looking back from now, what do you think was the purpose?

[–]magnora7 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah I think it was one of those high profile, technically following the rules but constantly on the edge of breaking all of them, types of accounts. Enough of them and the genuine culture gets diluted and destroyed. This is a different tactic of ruing the signal to noise ratio, rather than just openly breaking the rules, which they know will be removed by mods or admins. It's a slowplay attack, to try and steer the website culture in a bad direction, which alienates real users and drives them away permanently