Forum Post: This line of communication has been severed
Posted 12 years ago on Aug. 26, 2012, 1:07 a.m. EST by richardkentgates
(3269)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Really really love this forum. Some cool folks on here. Unfortunately, there are two or three individuals, offices, who the fuck knows what kind of people but they are here under an infinite number of user names, background stories, genders, and what the fuck ever else. You know you're always talking to one of them but which one? Is this a legitimate new user? Other than the three I regularly respond to (don't know who the fuck they are either) I am at the point that attempting to talk to them is absolutely pointless. They obviously are a blend of crazy and dedicated. There are few things that would motivate someone to spend so much time and effort to think of ways to make this forum useless. Regular people that do not support Occupy at least take time to have a beer and get laid, not these guys. They are married to fucking up this forum. It could only be a combination of money and youaresuchapieceofshitandyouhavenolife complex. I don't know if this site even matters to one fucking user on here. Any of you trolls reading this and not getting paid, you need some fucking meds and a life. Those who are effected by inequity that is the story behind the 99% slogan, is talking about that issue. No idea what the fuck the rest of you are doing or talking about, none.
Am I going to stop using the site? Only if forced.
But that's because I'm impoverished, this is my fight.
I'm more bothered about how off message this forum is. 50% of it resembles a pro DNC/Obama forum and has nothing to do with OWS or trying to change away from the same D/R establishments that precipitated protest.
Also too much debate is wasted on the same paper tigers and distractions thrown at the masses by the MSM. The same conundrum topics of God, Guns and Gays that TPTB divide and conquer the population with are wrangled over here. These topics are designed never to be settled and are a waste of valuable effort.
People need to look through the smoke and mirrors. The puppet masters that own our govt dictate core policies that our officials are not allowed to change. Globalization, Central banks/Fiat money, Wall st, Money in politics, the MIC, Shadow govt/CFR, Energy policies, Corporatism, Corporate journalism, One world govt ambitions,etc, etc. These are the things people should be discussing here, not the three G's or Bushbamney.
Read the thread, glory grabber.
What action should we take to change from the D/R establishment?
This is a prime example. How many other user names do you have? You have this much information about the website but only 50 points? You are part of the problem, you have no place replying to this thread. 7 points, my ass.
Yes I do have this much information about this website. Points aren't everything Richard. Do you know why? I was here months before you Gates ! I was on this website since Aug, 2011, but since it was tiny back then, I didn't sign up until Sep 30, 2011, You didn't sign up until Nov 13.
If you must know why I have only 50 points it's because my Laptop was out for months. My Blackberry was my only access to viewing this forum and I could read it well but not respond to posts. That doesn't mean I wasn't here most days and long before you came along.
FYI, The users on this forum who think they're hot shit with their mega points showed up long after me.
P.S. I also think the most prolific users here contribute the most crap!
I actually signed up in October 2011, but the trolls didn't like my ambition and began a misinformation campaign. After how much of my time you have wasted, the massive amounts of names you use, I don't care. None of these people will stand behind this with even their name. They are not on the ground. They offer nothing but hate and ignorance. You claim the high road, I see no difference.
You have delusions of grandeur and you're paranoid as Hell too. Everybody is NOT "Out To Get You", stop tripping about "Trolls". You are NOT that important. You are NOT going to save the world all by yourself. Maybe you should welcome support instead of chasing everyone away. Listen to yourself, you sound like Captain Queeg. .
My personal information on this forum, a phone call to my house, and a wiki page dedicated to calling me a troll. You're so full of shit. I don't need your support. Either you are protesting inequality or you're not. Obviously you're not. I don't mind you being a piece of shit, but don't expect me to buy your shit either.
Seriously, that is bullshit. Nobody should be doing crap like that to you. That is beyond low.
What's your opinion of our new journalist who wants to do a story on #ows forum users?
Sandra has no links to any of her work, and there's no mention of her publication anywhere online. The only info on her name points to a former beauty queen now ensconced in a retirement home.
My name is Sandy, not Sandra. If investigative journalism interests you, I suggest you call a Boston university and ask them about Boston Politician, our magazine. Just pick up a telephone. I also suggest you search Google again, this time, with the correct name.
What's the phone number for the editor of your magazine?
617-929-7129 Ask for Mark. He works as an editor for several publications around the Boston area.
Now, I'm done trying to prove myself. If you're interested in investigative journalism, I hope you take the time to call a Boston university, or Mark. I have to concentrate on finishing the article which I will post here tomorrow. My deadline is approaching. The theme will be about the lack of trust in this community. It's the number one prevailing theme.
Make sure you dwell upon the relentless troll attacks that have nurtured that feeling of mistrust, Sandy.
I will, but every forum gets attacked by trolls. That's the Internet. What's important is how the users and the admins deal with it. I have never been on a forum that doesn't have a troll or two or three.
On the subject, may I ask a question? What's the purpose of preemptive attacks on new comers? Why assume they are trolls instead of genuine and interested users? Why not wait until they troll, then you can report and ban them? I only see disadvantage in distrusting every new user. It makes it very hard to build a strong growing community. No?
i hear you.
A basic info page with the top 10 points of ows might help.
This place may intimidate those wandering, in looking for info: queries treated patronizingly, or with vtriol.
Many lost homes, or feel personally betrayed by the elected, who have let Wall Street have a free pass. http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7406240n&tag=cbsnewsMainColumnArea.2 or the wealth of the country disappear, house values and our AAA debt rating.
Hopes for national health care, health debt is a major cause of bankruptcy, have been traded in and the pharma/HC industry, which extols a 31 percent administrative fee, and conservatives, while disparaging "obamacare", they offer no real alternative.
Obama has reneged promises to prosecute war criminals and halt wiretapping, and end war in Afghanistan.
People are kind of concerned, and the public yawns
those used to duking it out verbally, might want to ponder hospitality, occasionally too, if they want to win some more over.
most are gracious
Actually, the place has mellowed in tone, with time.
only my opinion again.
"What's the purpose of preemptive attacks on new comers? "
Good question. Maybe the attackers are an "only child" or were picked last for teams on the playground. Also, there is a tight clique here of about a dozen high point users. It seems they want this little social club all to themselves. They seem to like to team up on any "newcomers" or anyone else not in the "club". Also they like boosting each other's fragile egos. Weird or Sad, take your pick. Freud would know.
In my opinion alot of the most interesting posts come from new or low point users. I usually pass on the posts by the big point users. It's mostly yada, yada stale mainstream subject matter anyway.
It's funny you mention a clique of high point users. I wrote a paragraph about that. It's one of the first things I noticed here! When I first arrived, a bunch of them suddenly jumped on me like they were a team of police officers. Lol
people that post often receive the most points by being present
thus they know each other
thus they are the most likely to respond to a post
I don't understand what there is to hide? It is an open forum after all.
Besides it would make sense to attract more people to the group, not chase them away. There's power in numbers. Unless they have some master plan for the dozen of them to save the world. All by themselves.
It's not about that... it's about the online persona. Most want to take center stage, to dominate is to have a voice. And some take that very seriously.
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The natural pecking order... what's funny is that it's very obvious to all observing children, especially male children... but little thought to the fact that it continues throughout their lives.
why 1971 for a name?
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Hemi? One could only wish, eh?
No. Big Block convertible though 1 of 87. Like on the 90's TV show Nash Bridges. Only that one was fake and painted some ugly non-factory school bus yellow color. I don't know what they were thinking.
One of 87, really? Impressive. I was always more of a GM guy (dream car: '66 Goat, ragtop of course) but have always been impressed with Mopar's love of one-offs and rare combos, and they never shied away from cubic inches. Unlike those fuckers over at Chevrolet, that seemed to hoard their performance parts.
I think housing started ballooning round that time
Also it started weaker fiat money and a future course of ballooning debt to the FED.
I've been here from the start. Thrasy was actually quite the activist in the beginning. There's a core crew here, and I think my moniker (being so simple, like me) is the only one that hasn't had some form of duplication by a troll.
Many people have talked about this Thrasy character. Some said they loved him, but many said he was a major troll. What do you mean he was quite the activist? What did he do to deserve such a reputation? I read some of his material posted under the username Thrasymaque. A lot was repetitive banter, but I found some interesting comments and postings. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to search for material he posted under other usernames as I don't now what they are. Shooz told me he had more than a hundred usernames!
I'm often away for work, (building, duh ;-) ) so I missed a lot of the troll/thrasy stuff. I'm guessing (lay psychology minor) that he/she got completely bored with the fact that there was a lot of information that was damning of the establishment, but absolutely nothing was happening to stop the criminal elements of the political and banking sphere.
Too much time spent on any forum can be detrimental to your mental health, in my book.
"Too much time spent on any forum can be detrimental to your mental health, in my book."
I agree. 100%.
What I find interesting is that most users who talked about Thrasymaque's trolling, and there are a few that did, shooz even asked me that it be the centerpiece of my story, most of them did not really remember what he did. They couldn't remember his usernames or point to any specific postings or comments that were trollish. From what I got so far, it seems more like he's a sort of legend around here? I'm not too sure what to make of it. I'm getting a lot of second hand information of the type - "This user told me that Thrasymaque did this." I'll probably just mention him in passing when I talk about the site's attacks.
Initially banned for posting a dozen or more images on any thread that was posted by a troll, repeatedly. It was thrasy's way of getting back at the trolls, I guess. Got to be even more painful than the troll's posts.
Think of any Roman or Greek legendary name, and thrasy tried it on for a while. It's been a while now, and we move on.
A sort of vigilante? Sounds like he was occupying the postings of the trolls. Perhaps he's an anarchist? In any case, I'll try to find a bit more about him by searching for some greek names. Thrasymaque is from Plato, so I'll start from there. Thanks for your point of view, and good luck with your buildings.
Thrasy's actions were actually one of the reasons I hung around at that point in the life of this forum. Vigilante is probably not the term I would have selected, but I certainly wasn't certain if he was on the team, or slipping into the realm of undecided. That's what kept me here.
Sites like this, based on the issues it is based upon, are interesting in, and of, themselves. The characters are what make the controversy that keeps the regulars coming back for more.
You could ask shadz66 or gnomunny. They both have a list of Thrasymaque's monikers.
So you work for the Boston Globe?
Mark Morrow Deputy Managing Editor for Projects 617-929-7129
Lots of different search engines out there, Sandra. Nothing showing up on any search. Not sure what a call from the east coast of Australia to Boston would cost, but I don't have cell signal here in the mountains anyways.
Seems to me if you are whom you say, it would be no problem to identify yourself. Our troll issue has been described to you in detail by other regulars here, so I don't need to justify anything.
BTW, how's the article coming along for you? Interesting research material?
The article is half done. I will post a copy here tomorrow before publishing. There's nothing about our small magazine online. If you can't make the effort to distinguish between Sandra and Sandy there is little I can to to help. I gave you info you can check, but you and the others refuse to take that into account. Even if I gave you a thousand links you would still doubt and insult me. I have wasted enough time proving myself, I'm working on finishing the article now and it will be primarily about the lack of trust this community has for new comers.
I can understand your feelings Sandy, but IMO, even if true, the 'lack of trust' angle is boring.
What's important to see here is a new kind of conversation. I'm not saying this kind of conversation is better, just different. But we're not outside the hardware store, or sitting around coffee in the diner. Conversations have genres like novels, rules, styles and conventions. Make your readers think how every time they open their mouths they're not as free as they think.
Have you ever watched a grouplet of 3-5 Americans yakking close enough to see them, but not close enough to hear? There's a rhythm of talk, talk, talk, laugh. Step away from the politics and watch the forms - and visit occupy raleigh. Thanks.
I won't only be talking about the mistrust, but I find it interesting because it greatly affects how the community on the forum can hope to grow.
What is the switch in conversation that you have observed? From what I've read, it seems the forum went from anarchist type conversations to a more political conversation in preparation for the upcoming elections. Essentially, from activism to politics. Some have told me the forum is now mostly made up of democrats.
I wasn't so much talking about the political content, but about 'literary form' -if that's the right term for such an open evolving genre. I would set some basic parameters like depth (how deep do these interactions go?), number (how many back and forths?), and range (how widely do the exchanges roam?). Could you write a novel in forum form?
On content, I agree, I'm a little disappointed by the democrats here, probably a reflection of Occupy's downward spiral. In Raleigh, the more right wing members, the ones concerned with fixing specific abuses like corporate personhood, have fallen away.
So you're sorry the good right wing members have fallen away.? And you're disappointed with the democrats? Do you also feel bad that the right wing attacks OWS relentlessly? Whether, the right wing parties, news sources, orgs, and people they all attack OWS!
Wow.! Maybe you should make an extra effort to recruit more right wing people.?
Where can we find them?
That was a very interesting comment. I certainly have to look at the literary forms being used here. Very interesting.
Looking forward to it.
Never meant to insult you, but I'll apologise for the crossed wires.
I gave the number to my editor here: http://occupywallst.org/forum/this-line-of-communication-has-been-severed/#comment-815752
Call him.
Might help if you read my posts, Sandy.
I'm out of cell range, and living in Australia. I'll not be calling, in other words. Thanks anyways. Happy writing, and include a huge section on our forum being continually attacked by relentless trolls, most of whom appear to be only slightly educated. Thanks in advance.
Alright. Maybe someone else can call.
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You misunderstand. My article will not only focus on negative aspects. It's an all around survey of the website. I'm trying to stay as objective as possible. Of course, one thing that I'll stress is that readers need to come here and use the site to really get a feel for it, especially since forums change constantly. Who knows if things will be the same here in one month. But, I can't hide the truth. 80% of the comments that were intended for me were about mistrust, not about Occupy.
I gave my real name, the name of my magazine, I asked that you call a Boston university to confirm the magazine's existence, and I have also offered my editor's phone number: Mark at 617-929-7129. I understand the users here are not journalists and, as such, are not used to checking facts. But, you just need to pick up a telephone.
[Deleted]
Call Mark. My editor. Please. 617-929-7129. My name is Sandy Sterling, I write part time for the Boston Politician.
"You'll base you article on the site or the comments you'll get? "
My article is about the site overall and what one can expect when coming here to participate. You'll be able to read it tomorrow.
[Deleted]
People have lives. Journalists often have to wait to gather their information. Call on Monday. Meanwhile, perhaps you can tell me about this site, why you are here, what are your hopes for Occupy in the upcoming year. What's your real name? Should I trust you?
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I can't read all the postings on this forum. I read many, but not all. I would hope that if you were treated well as a new comer you would do the same to others. That's all I can say. I only judge people by what they write on a forum, not by what others think or say. Your real name does not interest me in the least, only your ideas matter.
[Deleted]
"So now I'm careful with whom I exchange, If i sense something wrong, my instinct it to test."
That is indeed the instinct that forms when trust is lost. I'll talk about that in my article. A lot of users here seem to have been wounded by the trolls.
No idea
Message from an Upstate NY Trash Heap:Republicans&Democrats-Together Forever-IN HELL!
troll traffic is preferred to banning people
Neither are necessary.
every troll is a person
and therefor can be influenced
This may be hard for you to believe, but there are people who's beliefs are openly for sale. Unless you have the money to change that, it doesn't matter what you think you have convinced them of.
hmm
Yup, half of the dip-shts are just that, foolish people with too much time on their hands and not enough critical thinking skills,. they fight against logic like it is and physical foe,. the other half would be the paid government operatives, assigned here to post distraction and pointless drivel, in the hopes of rendering the forum too noisy, and frustrating to be of any use. History shows us that both of these have always been problems in social movements,. exposing them for what they are, is always a good step in undermining their intent and restoring the forums utility for people who are working to see change come about.
Part of the intent is to add this painful level of paranoia when we encounter silly posts from people that are simply confused and posting dumb sht,. these poor individual quickly get attacked as being "trolls", and quickly leave thinking us all a bit nuts,. so the tactic does work, to a degree, but most committed people just deal with this shty situation best we can,. and do well to remember to give the benefit of doubt to strange comments till they become repetitive.
I really don't understand why y'all are so afraid of her. Who cares who she is or what she says? She's proven she's a literate person capable of expressing herself quickly and effectively.
Don't waste energy chasing trolls. I wish we, in Raleigh, had our troll back. He would post video clips from right wing libertarian type propaganda and generate intense push back.
Well, you may not always know who the trolls are Richard, but certainly, by now, you do know who the true OWS supporters are. I know it is frustrating here a lot of the time but I think it is worth it in the end. It wouldn't be this way if the message of Occupy wasn't so scary to so many people. That is the point. This will never be an easy place because the changes we want to make are so sweeping. Your posts bother people because you point out how sick our economy and society is. Keep up the good work. Who cares what this person writes in her article? We know why we are here.
Occupy the Mind...
Funny, my mind is always Occupied.
Mine too.
It's tough not arguing on the internet about politics. And it only takes a few clueless, relentless clowns to mess up a good thing.
That being said, I think we can still find some good stuff here and other places if you can withstand the sheep's trample :)