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DECISION – 'aristarchus':
Introduction:
Actions have consequences. This is not a matter of free speech or censorship.
Doxing "Doxing or doxxing is the act of publicly revealing previously private personal information about an individual or organization, usually via the internet." This is the definition upon which we are basing this decision. Legally, the term does not appear to be well-defined in the US but doxing is also covered by laws relating to harassment, threats, and abuse. Elsewhere in the world, the definitions are sometimes more clearly defined but might cover a broader interpretation than the US definitions. Which interpretation is applicable could depend on the location of the perpetrator.
Background:
We first noticed that something was amiss in late 2020. Submissions from 'aristarchus' would contain certain words, phrases and names which were apparently unconnected with the rest of the content. We were unable to understand their significance at that time, but they would be meaningful to the intended victim. (Story submissions by 'aristarchus' often contain additional material that he has inserted himself.) In almost all cases we removed them prior to posting the submission as a story because they had no bearing on the rest of the submission.
In late 2021 the doxing became more blatant both in comments that were made to stories and as well as on IRC. We also contacted the victim (by now it was obvious to us who it was) who responded and explained what had been published, where and when. We also discovered additional material that had not been seen by the victim. He had been suffering this abuse for a considerable time.
Please Note:
This investigation is not something that has been carried out purely on a whim by the admins on this site. During it we have consulted with and taken advice from a representative of the board of directors. (As an aside, SoylentNews PBC has never been 'run' by 'TheMightyBuzzard' or any of the current admin staff whose names you know well.) This is a serious matter and the investigation was conducted with utmost discretion by a very small team.
To ensure that 'aristarchus' is aware of this Decision he will receive an Admin-to-User message and an email to the address associated with his username drawing his attention to it.
Publishing Personal Information:
It is now apparent that 'aristarchus' has doxed at least one person in our community, and possibly others who may have left the site rather than suffer the harassment. This is not a single act, but has taken place repeatedly over a significant period of time.
'aristarchus' has published the victim's full name, where the victim lives, and the victim's employer. Presumably he believes this information to be accurate. We have seen additional comments that contain threats and state very personal information, such that posting them here would likely do further damage. We are trying to be discreet. If it were you, would you want us to air all the information that has been revealed? This action might also have placed other members of the victim's family at risk from abuse or embarrassment.
It is obvious that 'aristarchus' has conducted research away from this site. SoylentNews PBC does not hold such information nor has it been ever been declared in any comments.
We can only guess at the true reason behind these disclosures: at the very least it appears to be a smear campaign.
What We Have Done So Far:
- The victim has a full copy of all the evidence that we have been able to trace to date. The evidence was all publicly accessible. We are not aware of a compromise of any other community members' information. We are not going to indicate where this information might be found.
- We have made a separate backup of the database to ensure that evidence should not be lost.
- We have removed personal information from database comments and IRC logs where possible.
- It is entirely for the victim to decide whether to seek legal redress in this matter.
Options:
There are 2 options open to us.
(1) Permanent Ban
- 'aristarchus' will face a full and permanent ban from this community.
- His account(s) will be completely disabled.
- Any further posting he may make to the site will be treated as Spam.
(2) Temporary Ban
- 'aristarchus' will face a temporary ban of 3 months where his account(s) will be disabled. He will be able to restore his 'aristarchus' account when his ban ends. His conduct during this time will be taken into consideration before his account is reactivated.
- During the ban 'aristarchus' may still post on the site as an 'Anonymous Coward', with all the limitations that are associated with that i.e. no journal, no ability to moderate, etc. Whether he wishes to make his identity known in his AC posts is entirely up to him.
- During and subsequent to the ban he is to act as we would expect any other member of this community to act. He is not to disrupt other discussions nor is he to continue to complain about his treatment. The ban is entirely a consequence of his own actions. We will not discuss this matter publicly. If he has complaints he may contact us via email as usual.
- He is to refrain immediately and completely from harassing other members of this community.
- Any serious future abuses by 'aristarchus' can result in a permanent ban being imposed without further warning.
We acknowledge that 'aristarchus' regularly makes insightful and interesting observations and we recognize that he has many supporters on this site. That is why we have offered the option of a conditional Temporary ban.
Action/Conclusion:
'aristarchus' must now decide which ban he wishes to accept. This is not negotiable – there are no other options open to him. If he does not respond either by commenting here or by email within 48 hours of the release of this Decision then we will assume that he has chosen the Temporary Ban and he is bound by the conditions stated within it. He may elect to change to a Permanent ban at any time.
For legal reasons we do not intend to comment further. The community can now see why several of the site admins have been putting in long working days, sometimes in excess of 12 hours since just before Christmas. We are exhausted and need to have a period of normal activity so that we can recover. We urge the community to be circumspect and restrained in the discussions to this Decision – there is little to be gained from inflaming the current situation any further. We ask you not to speculate about the identity of the victim.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @03:01PM (32 children)
So all this is publicly available information, none of it is protected personal information, and there's no legal grounds for suing.
Got it. Seriously, who cares?
aristarchus is a drama queen; and if you had just ignored it there would be no big deal, as you have admitted most people wouldn't have even noticed it, or just dismissed it as more noise from the noisy one.
Of course now that you've drawn attention to it .. (Streisand effect much? Actually, not really, because NOBODY CARES).
This could have been mitigated by users if metamods worked. Nover gonna happen, as janrinok has admitted.
So you take action on obfuscated publishing of non-protected publicly available information, but not racist or other hate speech. Because THAT would be censorship. (scratches head).
Suggestion for the next poll:
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ikanreed on Thursday February 03 2022, @03:27PM (5 children)
On the other hand it's a thing that happens with every small-approaching-moderate sized community online, where one person just constantly pushes some boundary, usually directly at the expense of someone else in the community, until the heretofor adequate community standard of "in the name of free expression, we can all collectively tolerate anything problematic" gets tested.
And every time it shatters into 3 camps
1. The directly aggrieved and those sympathetic to what happened to them
2. The "can't we just go back to how things were" crowd
3. The "Why don't we just let anything go" crowd
If group 1 becomes the most annoying to the community(by way of constantly demanding concessions for their concerns), group 2 joins group 3 and you get 8chan. If group 3 gets most annoying(by way of intentionally poking at people in group 1), you tend to get increasingly specific, increasingly strict policies, often oriented around whatever obnoxious thing started the issue, and constant debates about whether X or Y "counts" as breaking the rules.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by zocalo on Thursday February 03 2022, @04:13PM (4 children)
Also, I'd add another important camp to your list; those who decide "enough is enough" and just go elsewhere, never to return. In my experience this group is more often and not some of the forum members who tend to be the most valuable in terms of providing quality posts, but expect a high signal to noise ratio in return, and as that bar gets lowered as a result the remainder have less and less incentive to remain either.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Thursday February 03 2022, @06:16PM (2 children)
Bad money drives out good. Bad posters drive out good posters. Sometimes you will hear why they are leaving but only if you are lucky and have kept lines of communication open.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @06:39PM (1 child)
Absolutely, I stopped posting under my name because I got tired of wading through his troll posts to find legitimate responses. His posts were pretty ml much just indicators of how dumb he is.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Friday February 04 2022, @01:22PM
Goodness, post under your moniker. If he responds, so what? The instant you see his username, skip it and read the next reply.
I have occasionally been targeted by trolls. I don't even waste one nanosecond on their existence.
It's super easy to do, and only takes a little practice to become muscle memory.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Saturday February 05 2022, @07:11PM
We all did that to slashdot after all.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DannyB on Thursday February 03 2022, @03:35PM (23 children)
There are crazy people in the world.
Some who cannot control their emotions.
Even some who cannot distinguish online from real life. Others cannot distinguish facts from fantasy.
The phenomena of Swatting should enlighten us as to how some are detached from reality, as if it is a video game, and unable to foresee possible consequences or outcomes of actions.
Young people won't believe you if you say you used to get Netflix by US Postal Mail.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @03:46PM (22 children)
Indeed. And ari has threatened that very thing. Repeatedly.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by mhajicek on Thursday February 03 2022, @05:47PM
If true, that should warrant a permaban.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Thursday February 03 2022, @07:15PM (13 children)
I'd like to see some citations for that allegation...
(Score: 3, Informative) by khallow on Friday February 04 2022, @12:21AM (6 children)
Example 2 [soylentnews.org]:
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @06:15AM (4 children)
Garbage like that is why I've never had an account here.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday February 04 2022, @01:25PM (3 children)
That is weak. Sure, stay anonymous if you want, but staying anonymous because meanies like aristarchus might say mean things to you is pitiful. Especially since using a registered account is still anonymous unless you use your real name.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday February 04 2022, @05:28PM (2 children)
Pseudonymous != anonymous. They're two very different concepts with only modest overlap.
Most obvious modern example is Bitcoin - the fan club likes to pretend it's anonymous, and nobody can track your transactions, which is obvious bullshit to anyone that stops to think a moment. It's a completely public pseudonymous ledger that keeps a permanent record of every transaction you ever made, with your dubious anonymity protected only by most people's lack of interest or assets to identify the person behind the pseudonym.
On forums the price of psuedonymity instead of anonymity is dealing with trolls and the like rather than the the DEA breaking in your door for selling drugs/weapons/slaves online - but there's still a price to be paid, and it sometimes sucks. No shame in not wanting to deal with that. Especially if you don't have enough to say to be worth building up a pseudonymous reputation.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday February 05 2022, @03:36PM (1 child)
I agree that anonymity better suits people who fear discovery. I believe we should live with courage in our convictions.
It's a lifestyle choice, a question of character.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 06 2022, @03:26AM
If you really felt that strongly, then dox yourself. Live with the courage in your convictions.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Sunday February 13 2022, @05:15PM
I regard that sort of thing as mere spewy nonsense, bordering on comedy. It's just words.
Unless and until it becomes actions.
Which has happened; I remember some of the Usenet flame wars that spilled over into Real Life. One guy ended up in jail (no idea if for legit charges, was the sort of life-ruining accusation that can be faked) and another lost his job because Big Company wearied of the harassment.
Stupid spew is meh, whatever. I don't have to read it. But from the actions described, our Ari did take it out into Real Life, and that crosses the line.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @12:28AM (5 children)
He (jokingly?) threatened to dox Runaway on IRC at least once, IIRC. Not sure if he posted any of that on the site though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @03:52AM (3 children)
> Just a prank bro
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @04:23PM (2 children)
The real question is why his account was never perma-banned. And this question has been asked before. His behaviour was worse than ari's.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Sunday February 13 2022, @05:26PM (1 child)
Speech is not action.
Speech is not violence.
Hate speech (hate against whom?) is not violence.
Ari being a silly repetitive cunt with his words in a public forum is not violence.
Saying "I want you to die in a fire and I'm gonna burn you" in a public forum is not violence. (Meh. Be more creative.)
Ari actually doing shit to harm another out in Real Life is an ACTION.
If you come to my house and set it on fire, that's an ACTION.
See the difference??
But some folks equate "speech we don't like" to "violence" because it gives them an excuse to be violent.
"He was gonna hit me, so I hit him back first."
-- Billy Martin
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 14 2022, @10:41AM
Wow, nice, sane post, Reziac!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 06 2022, @01:19AM
Perhaps it was just one Soylentil warning another, in friendly fashion, that they were leaking a lot of personal information? But the advisee took it wrong, and panicked, and went to admin?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @12:49AM (6 children)
Wonder what liability this site would have if there is evidence of a dickhead calling for swatting and the site knows it and does nothing?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday February 04 2022, @04:39AM (5 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @06:20AM (4 children)
If someone on the site incites violence against another, even anonymously, and the victim is harmed because of it, SN could be sued as an accessory if the admins knew and did nothing about it.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @04:40PM (3 children)
SN has a lot of decisions to make.
First, since "buck feta" is a failure (not even metamods will be implemented because the model of volunteers working on open source code as a way to burnish their cred with employers is long dead. plus PERL?? GTFO), what is possible going forward? Should have been encouraging debate on this instead of hand wringing over a right wing nutbar who leaked his personal info himself).
If nothing else as viable, what is the end game? Become a subreddit (would save on hosting costs and software maintenance).
Maybe dump irc? Multiple paths of communication is a time waster. Gotta monitor all of them. What a waste of energy. Nostalgia for nostalgia's sake is a problem when it wastes time and energy.
And as a subreddit you're likely to get more people submitting stories, so you can require they be properly edited, etc., to avoid volunteers wasting their time. Someone submits a poorly formatted story, refer them to submission guidelines wand maybe explain where they got it wrong.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @04:55PM
You're right! You should start a subreddit!
Let us all know, thanks.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday February 04 2022, @11:52PM (1 child)
Wow. I guess you just don't get the point of SN. It's not to efficiently use your time. IRC is a well-used extension of that.
Really, what's the point of all this advice? It's a shitstorm in a teacup, right? There's no real problem in the first place.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 14 2022, @10:46AM
We could dump khallow. Just a suggestion. Would clear up a lot of things.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @03:46PM
The plot was thin. It was full of bad acting. I couldn't relate to any of the characters. The writing was trite and the drama was contrived. Everybody in the theater kept cat-calling at the screen - and that was the more entertaining than movie itself. There were no heroes.
I left early.
I check back now and then to see if anyone is left watching. I pity them.
True. Story.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @04:04PM
As long as aristarchus were just drama-queening it up, complete with jazz hands, nobody much would have cared.
Drama queening in someone else's personal space might be expected to fetch him an elbow in the nose - oh, look.
I agree that the moderation system here is fucked up, but they're clearly never fixing that, more's the pity.
If someone wants to air a bigoted view, or "hate speech" (whatever that means this week), that's not particular to an individual, so the case isn't comparable.