[Imc] FYI re Larrabee (fwd):

Thu Feb 14 16:52:55 UTC 2002

I'm forwarding an e-mail that was sent to us this morning concerning the
spamming of the entire Global IMC network by Gary Larrabee.

--Sascha

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2002 01:44:24 -0800
From: Mark Demartini <mu_law256 at hotmail.com>
To: info at urbana.indymedia.org
Subject: [Imc-info] FYI re Larrabee

Dear Friends:

I just wanted to send you a copy of an email I sent to the support address
for ourchurch.com and to the site owner regarding Gary Larrabee's SPAMming
habits.

Seeing his latest spew on every IMC I read today was enough to inspire me to
spend three tedious hours gathering the URLs for every copy he cross-posted
on the IMC network, including the ones which had already been hidden. Would
you believe that he only missed three or four of all the IMCs in existence?

Anyway, the text of my letter follows this note. Sorry about the length, but
it wasn't written for your mailbox.

BTW, this is a throwaway account I set up for this specific purpose, so that
if the folks at ourchurch.com decide to get irrational or start spamming me,
it won't do any harm to my normal Net usage.

Regards,

Mark De Martini

(here's the letter):

Dear Friends:

As a regular reader of the Inedpendent Media Center network of Web sites,
I’m
writing to you to advise you of the continuing abuse of these open
publishing
sites by Gary Larrabee.

Before I detail his behavior, I need to introduce the concept of “excessive
cross-posting”, which derives from Usenet.

>From the High-tech Dictionary:

“Definition for: excessive cross posting

(ECP).Posting the same message to many Usenet groups, including those
where the subject is not relevant; also called spamming.”

>From the SPAM FAQ, located at:
http://clients.net2000.com.au/~johnf/spam.html#5 :

“3) WHAT IS 'EXCESSIVE CROSSPOSTING" TO NEWSGROUPS ?

Crossposting is the situation of the same message crossreferenced so that it
appears in multiple newsgroups. Using the same number as in our
previousexample the message still appears in 9 newsgroups but the server
onlydownloads one copy and copies it into the "other" newsgroups.
Each"newsgroup" line in each newsgroup shows all 9 newsgroups listed. Again,
it is highly unlikely a message would be "appropriate" in so many different
newsgroups.”

The relevance of these definitions stems from the similarity of the IMC
sites to
Usenet, in that they permit the user to post articles unassisted and,
generally,
unmoderated.

Larrabee has, for several months past, been engaging in a veritable orgy of
cross-posting material which appears to have as its purpose attracting
viewers to
the ourchurch.com Web site. Examining his activities will show that it is
very
unlikely that he will accomplish this purpose.

For example, his most recent scattershot blast, titled “Unknown War in the
U.S.”
has been posted to the following sites (URLs will lead to the article on
each site):

UNITED STATES:

http://austin.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=2526&group=webcast
http://austin.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=2527&group=webcast
(twoidentical posts in one minute)
http://boston.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=5004&group=webcast
http://cleveland.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=1424
http://hawaii.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=1215
http://houston.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=2482&group=webcast
http://la.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=14892
http://maine.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=1287
http://twincities.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=4133&group=webcast
http://newjersey.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=1685&group=webcast
http://nyc.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=19987&group=webcast
http://nycap.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=1756&group=webcast
http://portland.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=7364&group=webcast
http://richmond.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=1136&group=webcast
http://rockymountain.indymedia.org/front.php3 article_id=2087&group=webcast
http://sdimc.org/webcast/front.php3?article_id=560&group=webcast
http://www.stlimc.org/front.php3?article_id=1636&group=webcast
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2002/02/116070.php
http://urbana.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=4051&group=webcast
http://utah.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=2119&group=webcast

CANADA:

http://vancouver.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=9863&group=webcast
http://victoria.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=2834&group=webcast
http://windsor.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=1397&group=webcast
http://alberta.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=1682&group=webcast
http://maritimes.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=985&group=webcast
http://maritimes.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=986&group=webcast
(twoidentical posts in one minute)

AUSTRALIA AND ASIA:

http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/front.php3
article_id=22332&group=webcast
http://sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=10417&group=webcast
http://india.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=673&group=webcast

LATIN AMERICA:

http://mexico.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=1634&group=webcast
http://brasil.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=17516&group=webcast

EUROPE:

http://austria.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=6919&group=webcast
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=12449&group=webcast
http://bristol.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=239&group=webcast
http://colombia.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=2525
http://www.indymedia.ie/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=351 (Ireland)
http://prague.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=3330&group=webcast
http://russia.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=2019&group=webcast
http://sweden.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=16205&group=webcast
http://switzerland.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=8945
http://thessaloniki.indymedia.org/front.php3 article_id=1272&group=webcast
(Greece)

AFRICA:

http://nigeria.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=283&group=webcast
http://southafrica.indymedia.org/display.php?id=782

IMC sites which I initially thought he had missed, but where his SPAM was
routinely pushed to the “hidden” page by fed-up newswire clerks:

http://atlanta.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=3842&group=webcast
http://chicago.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=7921&group=webcast
http://dc.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=17761&group=webcast
http://buffalo.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=1284&group=webcast
http://madison.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=2985&group=webcast

http://uk.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=22496&group=webcast
http://hamilton.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=1030&group=webcast

http://adelaide.indymedia.org.au/front.php3article_id=1877&group=webcast
http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=4342&group=webcast
http://belgium.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=17177&group=webcast
http://france.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=10694&group=webcast
http://france.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=10695&group=webcast
http://italy.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=37753&group=webcast

Notice that Larabee doesn’t seem to care that many of his posts go to IMC
sites
in non-English speaking countries. He simply SPAMs his way down the list of
IMCs.

That’s a total of 56 identical posts to different locations. Anyone who
behaved
that way on Usenet, and did it as regularly and often as Larrabee, could
expect
to be TOSed by their ISP in very short order. Surely Web sites which allow
users
to publish articles deserve as much consideration as newsgroups.

There are other reasons why Larrabee’s behavior should be of concern to you:

1.  Simply by SPAMming Indymedia so egregiously, with the ourchurch.com URL
featured in every one of his posts, he is engendering considerable hostility
towards you among frustrated readers who are seeking news of interest to
their
locale and not advertising.

2. He is making you into a laughingstock.

Larrabee appears to be completely devoid of basic critical thinking skills.
Rather
than create discussions of issues which would be expected to be within his
area
of expertise, such as Christian theology and ethics, his normal M.O. is to
cut and
paste anything, from any source irrespective of credibility, which conforms
to his
own paranoiac preconceptions, and to burden every IMC on the planet with it.

His latest favorite is to repeat unthinkingly the rants sent out by a person
calling
him/herself the”Dove of Oneness”, who is obsessed with an obscure economic
reform agenda called the National Economic Stabilization and Recovery Act.
“Dove” spins delusional fantasies about a shooting war over this
not-yet-introduced bill happening here and now, complete with mass
assassinations which somehow have escaped the notice of the other 5 billion
inhabitants of Earth.

You can read what the sponsors of NESARA have to say about “Dove”’s
activities at http://nesara.org/news/rumors2.htm

If you read the article at any of the URLs I’ve cited, you will see what I
mean.
You might also want to note the introduction, which appears to be written by
Larrabee, and the clearly implied death threat which it contains.

You might also find some of his other SPAMs interesting, for example

http://urbana.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=3754 “Leaderless
Resistance
To the NWO”, which is a reprint of an essay by Louis Beam, one of the
leaders
of the Aryan Nations, which was one of the influences which inspired Timothy
McVeigh et al to plot and commit mass murder.

Or, try http://urbana.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=3293 “Planet X due
in
2003?”, a repackaging of misinterpreted Sumerian myth which reveals an
ignorance of basic astronomy and orbital mechanics which would be laughable
in a high school student.

Or http://urbana.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=3647 , in which
Larrabee
strongly hints at the notion that the Earth is in the process of being
invaded by
aliens.

The traditional “man from Mars”, trying to make deductions from Larrabee’s
SPAMs, could quite logically conclude that ourchurch.com is an organization
of
mentally ill neo-Nazis.

Then there’s http://urbana.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=4003 “Time to
Sell Your Stocks and Buy Gold”. What’s most unfortunate about this is that
in
presuming to predict economic conditions and give advice about them,
Larrabee
manages to raise a whiff of that familiar American tragedy, the
pocket-lining
preacher.

(Although I've cited postings to the Urbana-Champaign IMC here, all of these
articles were cross-posted to as many IMC sites as Larrabee could manage.)

Many of the his articles have had comments from readers attached. If you
take
the time to find these, you’ll see that they are uniformly negative, ranging
from
anger at his wasting of IMC resources to mockery of his credulousness, with
comparisons to Jim Jones thrown in.

His Netabuse is gaining you no friends.

3. Larrabee does not deal honestly with those he SPAMs. Examine the
comments attached to some of the posts on the Urbana IMC site, which come
from their staffers. They reveal that Larrabee had made an agreement with
the
U-C IMC to restrict his posting there to once per week, and that he has
consistently been violating this agreement.

A preacher who makes a promise and refuses to keep faith is a sorry critter
indeed.

Just as computer “crackers” choose Web sites to deface or DOS simply because
they are vulnerable, Larrabee is taking advantage of the vulnerability of
the open
publishing model to treat the IMC network as his own personal rant page.

Several of the IMC sites are so out of patience with this Netabuser that
they
simply dump his posts off the newswire and onto the “hidden” page as soon as
one of the volunteers who operate the sites discover them.  Others are on
the
point of declaring him persona non grata.

We all have a moral obligation to respect others and not to abuse their
hospitality. There is no religious exemption from this. Consider Larrabee’s
behavior in the light of how you would respond to a persistent violator of
your
own message boards.

If you care about the face which you present to the world and about the
behavior
of those you host, I hope that you will see that this boy needs a serious
talking-to.

Sincerely,

Mark De Martini
Los Angeles, CA

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