[Imc-web-editor] Two Examples from the Loony Bin

[Mike Lehman]

I dealt with two examples of long-running abusive posting behaviors this 
morning.

The first was this article:
http://www.ucimc.org/node/3491

Anything that purports to be from "Nessie" is part of a pattern of 
abusive postings that stretches back some 7 years. I can discuss this 
more at our next meeting, but this was hidden as part of that behavior. 
We refer to this pattern as Dan Spam, due to the fact when this first 
happened, it occurred under the user name Dan. It is almost always an 
article and not a comment.

I also blocked posting privileges for this new user, 12345, and hid the 
most recent post:
http://www.ucimc.org/node/3452#comment-6034

This is part of a pattern of anonymous trolling that stretches back some 
6 years. It began as a user known as "Jack Ryan," was tolerated for 
almost 2 years until he was banned, then regenerated as anonymous 
comments that focus on trolling. Now that anonymous comments are turned 
off, it has turned into a series of brief, insulting comments under a 
usually freshly minted user name. It is almost always a comment, not an 
article.

In this case, you can read through the thread and see how the comment 
typically targets the top article on the Feature section, often targets 
Brian Dolinar's posts, pretends to be a new poster when called on this 
behavior, then continues with the trolling behavior. Lots more details 
of this can be discussed, but under the circumstances, we typically 
block the account so he has to come up with a new user name next time he 
returns. Typically, the poster doing this uses a throw-away email 
address that is obvious when you check the User account listing. Again, 
I'd be glad to discuss these patterns of
Mike Lehman