So commenter Andy X threatened to flatten Rev Sensing’s nose. I gave him a shot at explaining, and he declined, so I went to ban his ip – which, it turns out, was also used by Andy L, Cheshire Cat, j vanderroy, J.G. Paul and Carol Rodriguez.
So either it’s a dynamic IP, or he’s got a lot of friends who comment from his computer. For now, I’m banning the IP. Joe and I will discuss and see what the best course of action may be.
Don’t threaten people on the Winds premises. Period. Full stop. And never comment under a name not readily identifiable by casual readers as you.
Update: There are posts from Andy X on different IP’s,so the charge of sock puppetry – although suggestive – can’t be proved and should be dropped. it’s worth noting, however that everyone posting from AndyX’s IP- Andy, Andy L, Andy X, Carol Rodriguez, Cheshire Dog, Greengrass Liberal, j vanderroy , J.G. Paul , Murrow , Over and out , Palumbo , The Mountaintop , Walter’s Ridge , Wizener – share a certain – point of view and tone.
It’s not terribly relevant, because Andy’s banned regardless for threatening to punch Rev. Sensing. Andy, I’ll unban your IP (since others appear to use it), but will kill any further posts you put up.
I find it odd, that so many of the leftward pursuasion, feel the need to utilize sock puppetry on such a grand scale.
It’s just we’re so outnumbered here otherwise.
AJL
a/k/a
PaulLuka
HypocrisyRules
HypocrasyRules
Andy L
Andy X
Andy Y
Andy Z
[well, not really…]
Hmmm. Might be a fun exercise crosstabulating IP addresses against unique names used, and vice-versa. (My unique name would probably show up under a lot of IP addresses, since I’ve commented from home, work, and multiple countries over the past few years….)
I was curious as to what Andy X (nee Andy L, et al.) said under the guise of his various Greenwalds, and the most repulsive example was in the Following the Votes in Georgia thread :
followed by
and
at which point Andy L bows out of the thread, and in pops Carol Rodriguez:
I guess Andy was just testing out his theory about how trivial it would be to hide his anti-semitism at WoC. Looks like it worked pretty well for the last several months.
I find it odd, that so many of the leftward pursuasion, feel the need to utilize sock puppetry on such a grand scale.
I wonder if it’s because sometimes people who ordinarily can communicate in a civil way feel the need to really “let loose” and say things that they wouldn’t want associated with the “blog name” they’ve built up. It seems to me that there are people who probably take advantage of the pseudo-anonymity of the Internet and say things that they really wouldn’t say in real life. Some of those may be perfectly “civil” people who just get pushed to the point where they want to return “in kind” abuse that they’ve received or think they’ve received.
(No I’m not being autobiographical. My name is the only one I use. So when I feel the need to be a d***, it’s “really me” being the d*** you’ve all grown to know and at least tolerate 😉 )
As far as “sock puppetry” on the left, it may in part be because they’ve been out of power for the better part of 6 years which lead to a lot of frustration and an echo chamber that feeds a “persecution complex.” Should we have a Democrat President (particularly one with the initials “HRC”) and Congress in 2008, I would not be surprised if we start the same phenomena on the right of the blogosphere. Although I’d hope we’d be better than that.
Thorley Winston:
“Should we have a Democrat President (particularly one with the initials “HRC”) and Congress in 2008, I would not be surprised if we start the same phenomena on the right of the blogosphere. Although I’d hope we’d be better than that.”
I don’t think so. The prevalence of “two left feet” sock puppets comes more from the idea that since they speak for the People, Progressives feel justified in speaking as several people.
Whereas the real analogy for Religious Right would be to post under the name “God” or “The Nazarene” or “Yahweh”….
Perhaps true Thorley, but to me its a sign that the person doesn’t have the courage of their convictions. It’s also a sign of a weak intellect, IMO and a classic sign of insecurity.
Excuse me for asking, but is there ever sock puppetry from the right?
As I was looking into this matter for myself, something strange just happened to the whole “Moral Case for a Surge” Sensing post and thread (the one associated with this matter). It’s not presently in evidence on the WoC “front door” URL.
I’ve notified the appropriate people, who will try to figure out what happened. If I somehow contributed to this mysterious event, please accept my profound, non-sock-puppet apology.
Wikipedia’s entry on Sockpuppetry lists two guys who would be considered “right wing”, John Lott and Cyrus Nowrasteh. So non-Progressive sock puppets have been sighted.
I wonder what the odds are that the sole post from “J.G. Paul” (at 1:25 pm on Aug 12, 2006) here on Winds of Change just happens to have the same IP address as Andy L’s, appears sandwiched in between two comments by Andy L (at 1:11 pm on Aug 12, 2006 and 1:35 pm on Aug 12, 2006), follows the same formatting used by Andy L, agrees with Andy L, and is insultingly dismissive of contrary viewpoints like Andy L.
What an unfortunate series of coincidences!
Another unfortunate coincidence I noticed in that thread is this final comment by Andy L:
The “prominent blogger” he extensively quotes but doesn’t name? Well, I had to do a quick search engine check to confirm, but it is — as suspected — the sockpuppetmaster himself.
Hey, A.L., I don’t suppose that IP address resolves to somewhere in Brazil, does it?
Nortius, no conspiracy, it’s just been pushed off the main list. It’s the post immediately before “Taking the P**s.”
Damn these WoC’ers and their prolific ways!
Given the awkward wording, I can’t tell whether Andy X was actually making a threat. It’s clear that he was at least intentionally seeking to provoke an insult. Earlier in the thread he refers to the troops as murders, and challenges the Reverends on their Christianity. In short, he is a troll and if that’s indicative of his posts here, then Winds would be better off without him. I get all of these Andy’s confused though . . .
The pernicious thing about sock puppetry is that it makes any comment by an unrecognized voice suddenly suspect, especially if the comment is in agreement with an otherwise unpopular sentiment.
But yeah, as ludicrous as the threat would be, Andy L. was threatening to punch Rev. Sensing in the face. At least that was how I read it. Still no walkback on it from any of the incarnations, either.
I wouldn’t consider it true sock puppetry unless the perp has a known internet identity, and invents another one in order to deceptively bolster his “real” identity. Concern trolling and posting pseudonymous comments for self-promotion purposes are not good things to do, but they are not by themselves sock puppetry.
[buh-bye, now…thank you for visiting, now go away forever.]
Glen, I’ll disagree, at least as far as playing at Winds goes.
I don’t care (much) if people invent pseuds to comment here. But I expect that people will participate in this community under one readily identifiable identity.
I participate in mailing lists and will sometimes post from my Treo – which shows me as lists@XXXXXX.XXXX instead of ‘Marc Danziger’ but it’s pretty clear who I am at all times.
I kinda expect the same thing from people here.
A.L.
Identity is a very fluid thing on the internet. You have to hang on tightly to it or it will run out right through your fingers.
To quote Guildenstern from _R&G Are Dead_:
bq. We can’t afford anything quite so arbitrary. Nor did we come all this way for a christening. All that–preceded us. But we are comparatively fortunate; we might have been left to sift the whole field of human nomenclature, like two blind men looting a bazaar of their own portraits….At least we are presented with alternatives.
The irony is that Andy X effectively pulled a Fumento, IF the sock puppetry charge bears out and is not the result of ISP IP assignments (still, a few of the examples are hard to see as that circumstance). You’ll recall Fumento being dinged for sock puppetry reviews of this type re: his books over on Amazon – which speaks to AJL’s question…
(For the unfamiliar: This is doubly funny given Andy’s role as Fumento’s nemesis here – his one very valuable contribution, whatever his other faults).