Forum Post: I'm Publicly Calling Out ModestCapitalist To Stop Spamming Or Get Off This Forum Immediately
Posted 12 years ago on Jan. 8, 2012, 5:18 a.m. EST by iRepresentOWS
(-20)
from Queens, NY
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Everyone made a big deal about the spam advertisment for free movies and tv shows, and really Modestcapitalist is just as bad.
His spam posts block others comments that are typed to answer a thread and bombs people with the same copy and paste 5 paragraphs.
It is a problem that too many have let slide, and now something is going to be done.
I am calling you out Modestcapitalist, you are either to stop posting SPAM and use this forum like everyone else or get off the forum.
Does anyone use the Like and Dislike flags attached to each post / comment?
I do. Sometimes I even use a bot of my own design to aggressively follow and down vote all the comments of a spammer.
How do you find out what the most Liked or Disliked post / comment is? I don't know what a "bot" is.
The number of points indicates how many times a comment was liked or disliked. A fresh comment starts out with 1 point. A like adds a point, and a dislike removes a point. Comments with higher points go up in the thread while those with lower points sink down. If a comment reaches -4 points, it is collapsed using Javascript. If you turn off Javascript in your browser, down voted comments won't be collapsed.
A bot is a computer program that can do things like login, logout, like, dislike, post comments, post articles, etc... all automatically.
Thanks for the information concerning points. I will try to be more aware of them in the future and I will start using these flags.
PS: You are a very good poster (clear, concise, and informative). Thanks.
hahahaha! big baby hahaha!
You just created this id - Joined Jan. 8, 2012. In order to know all this, you must have been posting under another id beforehand.
I was previously under another ID. Google chrome saved my password for the account but when I cleared my browser temp files it cleared all my saved passwords. I did not remember the password to that old account.
Then identify your old id so we know who you really are, don't play games.
99Unite
no results found under user id search.
Google is your friend. Use it. 99Unite did indeed exist and posted on this forum.
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=occupywallst+99Unite&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
I guess they do delete non-active accounts.
But without access to those comments or the reason they were all deleted, we still have nothing to go on but the word of a new user.
I don't see why one shouldn't trust a forum user unless they have a good reason not to. Ask the moderators if you doubt him, and gather some evidence before expressing that doubt. I believe in the old saying - innocent until proven guilty. You bear the burden of proof, not him.
Now, you're just being obvious. You ignored the first doubts posted by another user and immediately responded to mine with criticism.
C'mon already. You may as well hold up a sign.
"I feel threatened by ModestCapitalist."
Threatened? I haven't even read your long winded comments. I have no idea what they discuss. Your ideas might be great, the problem is you're limiting your audience size by being much too verbose. If you heeded my suggestion, your audience could be much larger.
I answered JadedCitizen's doubts.
I do see your brief response up there. The difference is obvious. But lets not involve the other user any further. Your problem is with me. Not them.
What is it you want from me?
No more long essays on pages created by other users?
Or no more at all?
I would like you to stop using forum comments to post essays. This is not what forum comments are for. I certainly want you to remain here, but I feel it would be better for everyone if you kept your essays on a blog or on your user profile and linked to them via your comments. This would also curb the repetitious nature of your postings. You can write a short synopsis in the comment then link to the full essay for those who want a more in-depth reading. Of course, you can go nuts when you post a new article. The problem is that comments aren't meant to be the length of an essay.
The answer is no.
Not at all. Complex issues explained with complex essays are more than welcomed on this forum. The problem is that these complex essays should be posted as articles and not comments and should not be copy pasted over and over again. The content of what you post is not necessarily spam, but repeatedly publishing this content in the form of copy pasted repeated long verbose comments is. You need to post your essays in the form of articles, or post in a blog or your user profile and link to them via short and concise comments.
Indeed. Your point being? I'm expressing my opinion. That's exactly what this forum is for.
Why not? We all have poster's we like and dislike. That's what the like and dislike links are for.
What's a true supporter of this cause? There are all kinds of people on this forum with all kinds of opinions. It's not an easy to define black and white dichotomy like you would have us believe.
That's fine. You'll just attract more down votes instead of more readers.
I'll be asking jart what she thinks. Perhaps she can limit the amount of characters in a comment or remove the possibility to copy past comments over and over again.
So you are hoping for new rules to limit the ability of all users worldwide to explain complex issues which effect the entire world in detail or explain those issues multiple times on a forum which is viewed by more users every day at a crucial point in time because you don't like my long essays.
Do what you want. I no longer question your motives.
I doubt them.
These are your words regarding me posted on the page of a die-hard critic of OWS. In fact, you posted these words TO that die-hard critic of OWS.
"He's the poster I despise the most on this forum."
No true supporter of this cause would ever say that.
I no longer doubt your motives. Its clear now that they suck.
I read them, I don't always agree with them, but sometimes words are necessary to convey an idea. Personally I'm not psychic.
I have not been on that account for a while, does this website delete non-active accounts?
Im not lying, how else would I have known that ModestCapitalist constintaly spams forums from only being on here for a couple hours.
I don't know if they delete non-active accounts. I'm just trying to figure out who's who on this anonymous site. I'm tired of dealing with disingenuous people.
I completely understand, but I have been on here before.
I'll keep my skepticism high concerning your authentic voice. Way to many posers on here.
I personally have no problem with MC and think he is well within the rules to use the forum the way he has. It's a little strange to equate his activity to the relentless tv spams. imo
Please do keep your skepticism high, I would be insulted if you didn't.
I do not mean to equate him with the tv spam, simply point out that the using the same technique is bad even though the intentions may be different. Yes, he is abiding by the rules but that does not necessarily make it right. Alot of things ows are protesting are within the rules and laws, yet people still strive to change them, mainly because they are not right.
I do respect your oppinion and I do understand some will not agree. But that is why I created this thread, to debate, and raise awareness to it.
The TV spammers are creating new pages every few minutes. I create new pages every few days. On rare occasion several weeks ago, two in one day.
When I paste my essays, its usually on my own page, on an obvious spam page, or on a page regarding the same issues. The latter has been reduced significantly because I'm aware that most OWSers have already read my essays.
Regarding my pasted comments on slammersworld's 'challenge' page, you know damn well that I was challenged to post sources for my assertions. I not only posted sources. I responded to the claim that I never had by pasting previous entries which included those sources to begin with.
The only other comments I have pasted in the last 24-48 hours were on my own page created last night. You must know that.
One of my die-hard conservative head-in-the-sand partisan puppet critics has been creating multiple IDs and making it very obvious. So obvious that I created my own 'call out' page two days ago on which I accurately predicted that none of them would show up while this particular die-hard conservative head-in-the-sand partisan puppet critic was away until late evening when they usually post.
I nailed it.
These circumstances shed your 'call out' in a very suspicious light.
Look, this is not about sources, or trying to silence you. It's nothing personal, it's just not fair to the people who type a comment to answer a specific thread and get pushed to the bottom by your long essays. I have read your essays, there is nothing wrong with them, the problem is I read the same ones on almost every thread.
"The only other comments I have pasted in the last 24-48 hours were on my own page created last night. You must know that." I did not know that, and I thank you for keeping your long posts on your own thread, and If you are reducing your spam posts on other pages I thank you for that too.
It's nothing against you or your beliefs, if it was someone else doing it I would be calling them out all the same. All I am asking is for you too post in relation to the thread and not copy and paste previous comments and put them on every thread.
Look at the situation if you were in the other persons shoes who just commented on a post to share their oppinion or belief and then had it pushed to the bottom by a 5 paragraph copy and paste post.
I joined in late October. I was on a blitz for the first few weeks because I wanted to get the message out. I have drastically reduced my pasting over the last two weeks or so. Now, I paste mostly on my own pages except for the 'challenge' page where I pasted several to prove a point.
I have considered the view expressed in your last paragraph. I have tried to balance my desire to inform with that of others and with the importance of the cause in general. I'm not here for Kudos. I'm here for the cause.
The problem is what he is saying is true. Your comments are long winded and take far too much forum space. This might be a revenge on his part, I don't know, but it's true. What you are doing is a logical fallacy: appeal to motive. Instead of fighting the legitimacy of the proposer, you should fight his argument which, in this case, has a lot of worth.
Fair enough. My two cents is there really isn't a problem with people having different styles. Diversity is valued on my part. I would hate for everybody to have to conform to the standards of a couple of critics. But I see where you're coming from. Thanks for the explanation.
FYI, FriendlyObserverA was banned by jart a few hours ago. He was using a proxy server and had logged in with over 130 different IPs. He seems to be gone for now, but I'm sure he'll be back. Of course, there might be a bunch of others like him lurking around so it's indeed important to be careful.
That is - a hell of a lot and makes me believe he was a paid troll; I can't imagine anyone setting up all those IPs for kicks and grins. Anyway, I'm glad he's gone...for however long it lasts. Got what he deserved.
thanks to you i read his post and i learned somthing. Thank you
Modestcapitalist is not posting SPAM.
What are you talking about?
Apparently You don't - iRepresentOWS (-15) last comment 4 minutes ago
Represent (-15).
You might want to rethink your stance (-15).
Motion seconded.
Modestcapitalist's comments are nothing but annoying verbiage that are posted to disrupt the flow of serious discussions. He's always copy pasting the same texts and has been doing so for weeks. If he is unable to express himself in a concise manner, at the very least he should create a blog or publish his texts on his user profile. He could then link to these via comments. This would show that he is an honest user who wants to help us keep the forum clean so that every legitimate user can have an equal voice. Until he does this, I have to assume his goal is to overtake posts with his longish rants.
If you think my goal is to 'take over' anything you're blind. My goal is to inform as many people as possible before its too late (global depression).
I have received far too many supporting comments from OWSers to be set off by the very few who are annoyed with me.
I believe this page was created by one of my die-hard critics in an attempt to shut me up. It won't work.
I don't how many issues you and I agree on but I do know that you went out of your way to visit the page that I created last night. You were there 3 minutes after I created it. The same goes for other pages created by me. That sheds your criticism of me in a new light.
Hmmm... nope. That wasn't me. I always skip your comments because I find them much too long. I never bothered reading them.
You just said "Hmmm... nope. That wasn't me. I always skip your comments because I find them much too long. I never bothered reading them."
You have a poor memory. Let me refresh it for you:
"[-] 1 points by Thrasymaque (2798) 9 hours ago
I only ever criticize you for your long winded posts. Like most people here, I don't read their content. Too much verbiage. ↥like ↧dislike reply permalink
[-] 1 points by ModestCapitalist (1887) 9 hours ago
These issues are too big and complex to cover in a few short lines. ↥like ↧dislike reply edit delete permalink"
From the page I just created last night. You were the first visitor to post a comment. Immediately after I created the page.
Question: What would explain such a lack of knowledge regarding one's own entries just a few hours old?
It's a misunderstanding. I thought you meant that I had visited one of your pages on another site. I did indeed post a comment in the posting you created on this site. It's still there for all to see.
You visited the page immediately after I created it and posted a comment that referred to a portion of the content on that page.
Then you swore again here that you never read my comments.
Fishy.
It's very simple. I saw the post, went in, then saw that you had published four extremely long and verbose comments before anyone else had written a thing. To me this is spam, so I replied and said that your comments are too long.
Whether you or others think this is fishy is absolutely beside the point. That's a logical fallacy: appeal to motive. It's not a counter-argument. My argument remains standing tall. Your posts are too long and do constitute a form of spam. You're posting articles and essays as if they were comments. You don't wait for others to reply, and you keep bumping your own articles with more articles. You copy past the same material over and over again. You're wasting everyone's time and precious forum real estate. Good luck with that. Honestly, you should heed my advice if you care about reaching more readers. I have to assume this is not on the list of your priorities.
Why don't you publish your long copy pasted comments on a blog and link to them via your comments here. This would show us that you really care about keeping this forum clean. Your comments are disruptive because they hijack postings by taking up far too much space. I also suggest you learn the art of concise writing. This would help your important message reach a bigger audience. I know many people are lazy and don't want to read long winded comments.
You are grossly misrepresenting and exaggerating my tactics.
When I paste my essays, its usually on my own page, on an obvious spam page, or on a page regarding the same issues. The latter has been reduced significantly because I'm aware that most OWSers have already read my essays.
Regarding my pasted comments on slammersworld's 'challenge' page, you know damn well that I was challenged to post sources for my assertions. I not only posted sources. I responded to the claim that I never had by pasting previous entries which included those sources to begin with.
The only other comments I have pasted in the last 24-48 hours were on my own page created last night. You must know that. You showed up immediately to criticize me.
These circumstances shed your criticism in a suspicious light.
I understand the complaint against his style, but where in the rules does it say you can't paste and copy your own words instead of retyping the same argument over and over again. MC is predictable, but why should that be considered spamming.
Perhaps it's not against the forum rules, but it's not always possible for the moderators to cover each and every situation that might arise to disrupt the forum. This is a good indication that the rules need to be revised. iRepresentOWS's posting is a call for that.
Modestcapitalist's copy pasted repetitious comments are spam because they take up a huge amount of forum real estate for no purpose other than to disrupt. He could simply publish them once in his user profile and link to them via his comments. This would be the appropriate and polite way to go about his business. Unfortunately, I fear his goal is only to disrupt. I invite him to prove otherwise.
ZenDog uses a similar technique to gain attention. He uses formatting and repetition to make his comments standout. This makes them much bigger than they need to be thereby forcing users to scroll more than they should have to. It's not against the forum rules, but it's a very invasive, narcissistic, and rude tactic in my opinion.
I really appreciate all your work in ferreting out disingenuous trolls and fighting the spam-bots, so if you want to call for a rules change to the forum, I'm fine with that. I see where you're coming from now. Thanks for the explanation.
Thank You