Is that clear enough for you. We only record the information that people give us when they modify their personal pages, their comments, moderations, journals and submission. Everything else comes from what they say.
-- I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
It disappeared because the system crashed several times in Oct/Nov and early Dec 2022. For some reason that statement had not been integrated into the master copy of the site. You would have to ask a maintainer why that had not been done.
When the site was recovered the statement was missing. It will be returned but, although the site may appear to be working from the user's point of view, we are running at an estimated 60% of what we had before the site was updated and secured. It is not the most important task on NCommander's list, and I still do not know when he will be able to return to continue his update work.
There has been no change in policy. We do not track anybody on this site. We have records of every account ever created because they have unique user id numbers. They only contain information provided by the creators of those accounts.
One person is complaining that he is having difficulty creating new sock puppet accounts to add to his over 600 previous sock puppet accounts. I have told him that his security is abysmal. His attempts are often easily identified as his accounts frequently have unique characteristics. He ought to look at his own actions and software before accusing us of 'tracking' users. Nevertheless, he still has working accounts on this site which he can use providing he follows the behaviour expected of people in a public place. In essence: "Don't be a dick!"
There are hundreds of new accounts being created every week. Unfortunately most of them are fake accounts or Spam. Regardless of their content, they are having no problem creating those accounts. We are also getting new members albeit at a much lower rate. They too seem not to have any problems.
-- I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 10 2023, @04:46PM
(9 children)
by Anonymous Coward
on Monday April 10 2023, @04:46PM (#1300765)
So many lies.
Not aristarchus here, but frequently accused of it by you janrinok. Why do you always leave out the IP tracking like it doesn't matter? The excuses are lame and only show SN as laxy with respect to privacy.
FYI: IP addresses are hashed, with the same hash since site launch, so rebuilding actual IPs is trivial. Suppisedly true AC comments not posted from a logged in account are stored forever. So every logged in user is tracked and IP history stored forever. Maybe that was the main reason so many users left, that info becoming public really showed how little care SN truly has for user privacy.
Yes you need IP history to enforce some rules, but you could rotate the hash at the very least. Also, I've seen commentary guessing at the manufacturer of user devices and AC identity which reveals that staff are leaking privileged information and your public protests against admin abuse are totally hollow. Maybe it is not you precusely, but that just points to an even worse problem of bad management.
The lack of technical staff to support the site is a real problem, but you're "community building" is beyond hopeless.
Not aristarchus here, but frequently accused of it by you janrinok
No, you are AC, we can all see that. I haven't accused you of being aristarchus in this thread and you can claim whatever you wish. You cannot prove it nor can I disprove it.
Why do you always leave out the IP tracking like it doesn't matter
I don't mention it because we are not doing it. You are stupid if you think that we can crack both IPv4 and IPv6 hashes without an exceptional amount of storage - far more than we have access to. And if we did use it then I suspect that all it would give us in most cases is the IP of a VPN or TOR node. How would we 'track' you through them? We have hashes. We stopped using them several years ago for anything other linking comments and moderations to stories and accounts. I have said this before. If you don't believe me or you think that the staff are tracking you then your alternative option is quite obvious. However, demanding that we stop doing something that we are not doing is another sign that you do not know what you are talking about.
but you could rotate the hash at the very least
Look at the code, changes to the hashing is built in - it is part of slashd. Nevertheless, we have to ensure that we can link every story, comment and moderation going back to 2014 - otherwise we cannot refer to previous stories or quote material posted 9 years ago. So we have to keep the old hashing method in addition to each new one. As far as anyone here is concerned the hashes are merely random numbers allocated to a connection.
but you're [sic] "community building" is beyond hopeless.
Fine, we have already discussed the alternative options open to you. I hope you find a site that doesn't use IP addresses to maintain connections.
Not only does blocking sock puppets not rely on IP addresses or hashes - we don't even use them. We don't need them. Idiots compromise themselves by what they say and how they behave.
-- I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
They were used to link lots of bits of data for which we no longer use them because they provide nothing of any value but require access to the Perl code more than is necessary.
We stopped using them several years ago for anything other linking comments and moderations to stories and accounts.
-- I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 11 2023, @09:36AM
by Anonymous Coward
on Tuesday April 11 2023, @09:36AM (#1300931)
FatPhil is an IT professional, used to work for Nokia, in Finnsland! He would never help janrinok dox a AC, because that would be wrong. As he has asserted many times to janrinok, who refused to listen.
Not aristarchus here, but frequently accused of it by you janrinok.
I haven't accused you of being aristarchus in this thread. What you claim may have occurred elsewhere you can neither prove was you nor can I disprove it. So that avenue is irrelevant.
Why do you always leave out the IP tracking like it doesn't matter?
I leave it out because we are not doing it. The IPs are converted to hashes. I never see an IP address. If you think that decrypting both IPv4 and IPv6 hashes is trivial go ahead and demonstrate how trivial it is. It would require far more storage than we have ever had available to us on this site. And what would the decrypted hash give us? Probably the IP address of a VPN or TOR node. How would we track anyone through that? Most hashes change frequently. If the hashing mechanism has not changed as you allege but your hashes do change, then you must be changing your IP address. So you have just demonstrated that even if we were to decrypt IP addresses it would be pointless. Well done, sir, you have just proven that your claim is impractical.
But demanding that we stop doing something that we are not doing just demonstrates that you do not know what you are talking about. We do not track IP addresses or hashes. We use hashes for linking stories, comments, and moderations together. Effectively the hash is little more than a random number generated for a connection. IPv6 has changed lots of things. After the sock-puppet 'war' in 2021 everybody realised the vulnerability of fixed IP addresses and they changed to using ephemeral connections via VPNs and TOR.
If you still believe that we are tracking you then I suggest that the only option left for you is quite obvious. I hope that you find a site more to your liking and one that does not use IP addresses to maintain connections.
IP addresses are hashed, with the same hash since site launch
How has IPv6 affected that? There are far more IP addresses now than there were a few years ago. And probably far more collisions. I haven't been allocated an IPv4 address by my ISP for over 3 years now. I no longer use hashes for anything - they are, as I have said, effectively random numbers.
I've seen commentary guessing at the manufacturer of user devices and AC identity ...
Where? I would appreciate a link because I haven't seen it on this site. Maybe I missed it. Or are you referring to a discussion somewhere else?
... which reveals that staff are leaking privileged information
Where? Link please.
but you're [sic] "community building" is beyond hopeless
Definitely not aristarchus! I have already mentioned the obvious option open to you.
Blocking sock-puppets does not use hashes at any stage of the processing. Idiots compromise themselves by their actions, comments and behaviour, and sometimes their spilling mistooks. ;¬)
-- I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
Sorry - the first post didn't appear so I rewrote it from scratch and posted that - to discover that the original had eventually found its way through the pipes....
-- I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 10 2023, @07:22PM
by Anonymous Coward
on Monday April 10 2023, @07:22PM (#1300793)
Lie if you want, your more recent responses now rely on adhoms and blatant lies. As for spelling mistooks why should anyone bother proof reading callouts of site abuse? Keep spinning your forever tracking of IPs and user targeted modbans as no big deals, guess it is up to users to determine if they want to trust you. All you give are evasions and condescension, the nirmal behavior of a fascist that can not defend their own actions. SN was alt-right from the start and you're salty people keep pointing it out. Hopefully gen z gives old farts like you the boot instead of having to fight ww3 against nazis 2.0
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 10 2023, @02:18AM
(18 children)
by Anonymous Coward
on Monday April 10 2023, @02:18AM (#1300701)
We only record the information that people give us when they modify their personal pages, their comments, moderations, journals and submission. Everything else comes from what they say.
Funny, that is what aristarchus said when he was accused of doxxing. Does the starf at SN engage in doxxing? Selling the list of emails of users?
aristarchus made threats, both actual and implied, of violence and harassment to both the person subjected to his doxing and members of his family, and encouraged others to do the same.
The information that we hold is protected. It is neither sold nor given away. It is not used for any other purpose. Suggesting otherwise is just another smear tactic.
-- I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 10 2023, @05:57PM
by Anonymous Coward
on Monday April 10 2023, @05:57PM (#1300775)
Gotta love how you get to make accusations without evidence while everyone else has to prove every detail. Admin abuse from authoritarian dicks is much worse than mean words. Years upon years of "fuck your feelings" but now you can't stop complaining about criticism. Put up or shut up, seems clear this site is just another in the myriad of rightwing outlets meant to radicalize people over the internet. If it wasn't you'd be booting runaway right along with aristarchus, and you'd post sanitized proof. Oh right, the doxxing info is supposedly in the database that you somehow can't clean up, but you can't link to it for fear of making it known?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 10 2023, @06:00PM
(11 children)
by Anonymous Coward
on Monday April 10 2023, @06:00PM (#1300778)
Same ac, seriously jan post links to the aristarchus account making threats of violence. Hope they aren't simply more of your suspicions you want to relay as facts . . . .
No, if they have been removed then it was for a reason. If they have been removed then nobody can link to them. If you want to see what he said that hasn't been removed then use the search facility.
-- I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 10 2023, @06:20PM
by Anonymous Coward
on Monday April 10 2023, @06:20PM (#1300784)
Lovely bit of evasion. Hopefully more regular users see your house of cards instead of blindly believing that you're honest. Protip, honest people do not make baseless accusations or try and hide privacy violating practices of the website. The best you've done is a claim the tracking is necessary while continuing to not make the information clear on the site itself, and the worst is actual admin abuse maybe done by you maybe not, but already verified by another staffer. Bye bye house of cards, get wrecked ya boomer jerk!
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 12 2023, @07:53AM
(8 children)
by Anonymous Coward
on Wednesday April 12 2023, @07:53AM (#1301066)
Runaway said he was going to kill me, and 50 million other liberal Americans. I took it personally. He needs to be banned, and turned in to the authorities for terroristic threatening, and online bullying. If you continue to harbor him, SoylentNews is complicit, just like Ivanka Trump.
turned in to the authorities for terroristic threatening
To be honest, nobody can stop you and you seem to think it is your duty to do so. If you don't, you are complicit just like Ivanka Trump. I'll wait and see what happens.
-- I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 12 2023, @04:06PM
(6 children)
by Anonymous Coward
on Wednesday April 12 2023, @04:06PM (#1301117)
Reports were made, but you realize no action gets taken till much later. Funny thing, there is a more immediately available authority that has received the reports. Even though the reports line up with the system guidelines this particular authority claims zero capability to resolve the issue, yet there is at least one example of corrective action that has been taken before.
On the other hand, if the authorities have already investigated and discover that no crime has been committed, then they will also take no action. You might not like what was said, I don't like what was said, but you haven't shown yet that what was said constituted a crime. Perhaps LE came to the same conclusion.
Freedom of speech for you, but not for those you disagree with. OK, I'll draft something to cover it.
Howabout: "Despite the US First Amendment granting every US citizen a right to express themselves, Runaway1956 is not permitted to state his views. However ACs can dictate what others are permitted to say without any legal justification to support their decision". Yep, I thing that covers it.
-- I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 12 2023, @07:47PM
(4 children)
by Anonymous Coward
on Wednesday April 12 2023, @07:47PM (#1301161)
I always thought SN should enforce some minimum level of decency as per the site rules. Banning aristarchus, with the excuse of legal liability which is simply not true in the US, shows everyone your true colors. Your standards are messed up and no amount of pearl clasping is going to change that. All while providing no evidence, but claiming the evidence is still in the database.
This situation is like all the moderation adjustments staff does, yet when people complain about shitposting you then say it is up to the community. Convenient stack of excuses you rotate through, each instance seeming plausible until you stack them up; then the lies become apparent. Stop protecting terrorists and hold the site to some standards of decency. Until then we shall keep calling you a knob headed goober brain, hypicritical sycophant, and subversive alt-wrong terrorist trying to push fascism under a guise of innocence. Seems a bit of a far stretch, but then that is the point of such propaganda tactics.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 12 2023, @09:55PM
(2 children)
by Anonymous Coward
on Wednesday April 12 2023, @09:55PM (#1301191)
If your position is that US law is messed up, I might be inclined to agree. However, janrinok's assessment of US law is correct. Runaway's reprehensible comment about "50 million dead progressives" was a hypothetical future scenario. In the US, violent threats are illegal, but they must be specific to violate the law. Runaway's comment was awful, but it wasn't specific. I don't necessarily agree with how the law is interpreted, but that's far beyond the scope of this site.
On the other hand, aristarchus' actions were specific, targeted at an individual. Runaway lives in Little River County, Arkansas. He has voluntarily shared this information on this site [soylentnews.org], so I am comfortable with repeating it. This has been repeated and implied many times by an AC who is almost certainly aristarchus. Also, in at least one instance, the aristarchus replied to Runaway with what he claims is Runaway's first and last name. This was posted by the aristarchus account in 2021, so this is not a case of mistakenly identifying an AC. It was aristarchus. I will not link to the comment because I do not believe Runaway consented to having his name posted. When you search for that name in Little River County, AR property records, it uniquely identifies an individual. I cannot confirm that the individual who was identified actually is Runaway, nor is it relevant. The fact is, aristarchus has targeted an individual for harassment. If this individual isn't actually Runaway, then aristarchus has potentially subjected an innocent bystander to harassment. Unlike Runaway's comments, aristarchus specifically targeted someone, which is why it is different.
After aristarchus was temporarily banned, he continued to harass Runaway, including posting what he claims is Runaway's real name at least three additional times. This occurred once during aristarchus' temporary ban. It occurred most recently within the past month. A sock puppet account was also created using the name that aristarchus purports to be Runaway's real name. With this name and Runaway's county of residence, this uniquely identifies an individual. Once again, I am not linking to this content because Runaway did not voluntarily share his name. When aristarchus was temporarily banned, he was given the opportunity to reform his behavior and was strongly encouraged to do so. Instead, he escalated his harassment. He violated the conditions of his temporary ban, which were publicly disclosed.
Let's move on to your standard of decency. Your style of posting strongly suggests that you are Azuma Hazuki 2.0. You claim that you took over a sock puppet account and increased its karma so you could moderate offensive posts. This is a flimsy justification, particularly because the Azuma Hazuki 2.0 account had awful karma because of spamming. It would have been simpler to create a new account with a different username. Azuma Hazuki said multiple times that she disapproved of anyone using the Azuma Hazuki 2.0 account. Despite this, you continued to use an account that was created for the purpose of harassing Azuma Hazuki. That most certainly does not constitute decent behavior. I am not inherently opposed to enforcing a standard of decency for all users. However, if that is the case, you should lead by example. That means you should admit your wrongdoing, then voluntarily leave the site. After all, you want to enforce decency on this site. By your own standard, you should also get banned. If this is really what you want, then you should leave.
Are you going to leave? Or are you a hypocrite? What shall it be, Azuma Hazuki 2.0?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 12 2023, @10:46PM
(1 child)
by Anonymous Coward
on Wednesday April 12 2023, @10:46PM (#1301199)
I recall Runaway harrassing lots of people and making comments about not caring if someone knows his real location, and while I disagree with doxxing you have not demonstrated illegal actions, and you falsely accuse me of sock puppeting to harrass someone. Belueve whatever lies you'd like, on this site I have only been honest, and I'll agree that my posts are not the height of decency. However, if you dislike my commentary so much I would expect you to be demanding a ban for Runaway and other racist fucks promoting violence. So, maybe you're just an ass, maybe you're the one that created the harrassing accounts and you're just spreading more lies to sway users that SN is not biased and its the uppitty libs ruining everything. Free speech warriors, what pathetic snowflakes you've always been.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 12 2023, @11:42PM
by Anonymous Coward
on Wednesday April 12 2023, @11:42PM (#1301213)
You've just made my point. You want Runaway banned for his lack of decency, but you don't want to be accountable for your own lack of decency. Simone Biles would surely be in awe if she witnessed your display of mental gymnastics to try to avoid addressing your hypocrisy on the issue.
I did not say that you should be banned. I said that if you're serious about enforcing decency, you should demonstrate it by owning up to your actions and leaving. After all, if you want people banned for a lack of decency, that would mean both you and Runaway should be banned. As I expected, you dodged the question.
I don't believe for a moment that you and aristarchus are sincere about wanting decency or to clean up the bad posting on this site. You're using that as an excuse to troll, just like Slashdot trolls did 20 years ago. You've even reused their terminology, referring to your trolling as a "Jihad" just like they did 20 years ago. What's next? Are you going to register anti-soylent.org so you can post a manifesto for your "Sacred Jihad" against this site?
Oh, by the way, unlike you, I have taken real action to have Runaway held accountable. For example, when Runaway used ethnic slurs in the title of one of his journals, I emailed the admins about it. Sure enough, the title of the journal got changed. Unlike you, I actually wanted real action to be taken instead of looking for excuses to shitpost. I have also emailed janrinok many times to express my concerns about the site. Again, my goal was to get real change enacted, whereas you are just looking for attention and an excuse to troll.
Yes, you can call me all those childish names because your right to do so is enshrined in law.
However, you seem to think that banning somebody who has has the same rights as you is perfectly acceptable because well, just because.... If you don't like somebody's journals and comments, just stop reading them.
-- I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 08 2023, @07:32PM (32 children)
Liar. Going to update the site with details of how users are tracked and what amount of anonymity they actually have? No? Thought so.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday April 09 2023, @06:55AM (31 children)
Easy - I can do that now.
WE DO NOT TRACK ANYBODY ON THIS SITE.
Is that clear enough for you. We only record the information that people give us when they modify their personal pages, their comments, moderations, journals and submission. Everything else comes from what they say.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 09 2023, @05:33PM (11 children)
this comment made me wonder why the canary like privacy notice on bottom of mainpage disappeared later in 2022?
cannot be bothered checking more than teo dates but it was there 22feb and gone by 20dec2022.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220220161738/https://soylentnews.org/ [archive.org]
probably a good thing considering how caustic the sites main benefit (comments) has become.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Monday April 10 2023, @06:42AM (10 children)
It disappeared because the system crashed several times in Oct/Nov and early Dec 2022. For some reason that statement had not been integrated into the master copy of the site. You would have to ask a maintainer why that had not been done.
When the site was recovered the statement was missing. It will be returned but, although the site may appear to be working from the user's point of view, we are running at an estimated 60% of what we had before the site was updated and secured. It is not the most important task on NCommander's list, and I still do not know when he will be able to return to continue his update work.
There has been no change in policy. We do not track anybody on this site. We have records of every account ever created because they have unique user id numbers. They only contain information provided by the creators of those accounts.
One person is complaining that he is having difficulty creating new sock puppet accounts to add to his over 600 previous sock puppet accounts. I have told him that his security is abysmal. His attempts are often easily identified as his accounts frequently have unique characteristics. He ought to look at his own actions and software before accusing us of 'tracking' users. Nevertheless, he still has working accounts on this site which he can use providing he follows the behaviour expected of people in a public place. In essence: "Don't be a dick!"
There are hundreds of new accounts being created every week. Unfortunately most of them are fake accounts or Spam. Regardless of their content, they are having no problem creating those accounts. We are also getting new members albeit at a much lower rate. They too seem not to have any problems.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 10 2023, @04:46PM (9 children)
So many lies.
Not aristarchus here, but frequently accused of it by you janrinok. Why do you always leave out the IP tracking like it doesn't matter? The excuses are lame and only show SN as laxy with respect to privacy.
FYI: IP addresses are hashed, with the same hash since site launch, so rebuilding actual IPs is trivial. Suppisedly true AC comments not posted from a logged in account are stored forever. So every logged in user is tracked and IP history stored forever. Maybe that was the main reason so many users left, that info becoming public really showed how little care SN truly has for user privacy.
Yes you need IP history to enforce some rules, but you could rotate the hash at the very least. Also, I've seen commentary guessing at the manufacturer of user devices and AC identity which reveals that staff are leaking privileged information and your public protests against admin abuse are totally hollow. Maybe it is not you precusely, but that just points to an even worse problem of bad management.
The lack of technical staff to support the site is a real problem, but you're "community building" is beyond hopeless.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Monday April 10 2023, @05:44PM (5 children)
No, you are AC, we can all see that. I haven't accused you of being aristarchus in this thread and you can claim whatever you wish. You cannot prove it nor can I disprove it.
I don't mention it because we are not doing it. You are stupid if you think that we can crack both IPv4 and IPv6 hashes without an exceptional amount of storage - far more than we have access to. And if we did use it then I suspect that all it would give us in most cases is the IP of a VPN or TOR node. How would we 'track' you through them? We have hashes. We stopped using them several years ago for anything other linking comments and moderations to stories and accounts. I have said this before. If you don't believe me or you think that the staff are tracking you then your alternative option is quite obvious. However, demanding that we stop doing something that we are not doing is another sign that you do not know what you are talking about.
Look at the code, changes to the hashing is built in - it is part of slashd. Nevertheless, we have to ensure that we can link every story, comment and moderation going back to 2014 - otherwise we cannot refer to previous stories or quote material posted 9 years ago. So we have to keep the old hashing method in addition to each new one. As far as anyone here is concerned the hashes are merely random numbers allocated to a connection.
Fine, we have already discussed the alternative options open to you. I hope you find a site that doesn't use IP addresses to maintain connections.
Not only does blocking sock puppets not rely on IP addresses or hashes - we don't even use them. We don't need them. Idiots compromise themselves by what they say and how they behave.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 10 2023, @05:52PM
Ruh roh, janrinok has entered the super-slyiang stage! Someone warn Vegeta Ble!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 10 2023, @08:11PM (3 children)
Um, stopped? So SoylentNews was using them for "other" things, prior? So a rouge admin could easily do it again? We are to trust you? No, thanks.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Tuesday April 11 2023, @06:12AM (2 children)
They were used to link lots of bits of data for which we no longer use them because they provide nothing of any value but require access to the Perl code more than is necessary.
We stopped using them several years ago for anything other linking comments and moderations to stories and accounts.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 11 2023, @06:19AM (1 child)
Lies.
Proof of your lies [soylentnews.org].
You use them to track people like aristarchus.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 11 2023, @09:36AM
FatPhil is an IT professional, used to work for Nokia, in Finnsland! He would never help janrinok dox a AC, because that would be wrong. As he has asserted many times to janrinok, who refused to listen.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Monday April 10 2023, @07:00PM (2 children)
Not a single one.
I haven't accused you of being aristarchus in this thread. What you claim may have occurred elsewhere you can neither prove was you nor can I disprove it. So that avenue is irrelevant.
I leave it out because we are not doing it. The IPs are converted to hashes. I never see an IP address. If you think that decrypting both IPv4 and IPv6 hashes is trivial go ahead and demonstrate how trivial it is. It would require far more storage than we have ever had available to us on this site. And what would the decrypted hash give us? Probably the IP address of a VPN or TOR node. How would we track anyone through that? Most hashes change frequently. If the hashing mechanism has not changed as you allege but your hashes do change, then you must be changing your IP address. So you have just demonstrated that even if we were to decrypt IP addresses it would be pointless. Well done, sir, you have just proven that your claim is impractical.
But demanding that we stop doing something that we are not doing just demonstrates that you do not know what you are talking about. We do not track IP addresses or hashes. We use hashes for linking stories, comments, and moderations together. Effectively the hash is little more than a random number generated for a connection. IPv6 has changed lots of things. After the sock-puppet 'war' in 2021 everybody realised the vulnerability of fixed IP addresses and they changed to using ephemeral connections via VPNs and TOR.
If you still believe that we are tracking you then I suggest that the only option left for you is quite obvious. I hope that you find a site more to your liking and one that does not use IP addresses to maintain connections.
How has IPv6 affected that? There are far more IP addresses now than there were a few years ago. And probably far more collisions. I haven't been allocated an IPv4 address by my ISP for over 3 years now. I no longer use hashes for anything - they are, as I have said, effectively random numbers.
Where? I would appreciate a link because I haven't seen it on this site. Maybe I missed it. Or are you referring to a discussion somewhere else?
Where? Link please.
Definitely not aristarchus! I have already mentioned the obvious option open to you.
Blocking sock-puppets does not use hashes at any stage of the processing. Idiots compromise themselves by their actions, comments and behaviour, and sometimes their spilling mistooks. ;¬)
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Monday April 10 2023, @07:02PM
Sorry - the first post didn't appear so I rewrote it from scratch and posted that - to discover that the original had eventually found its way through the pipes....
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 10 2023, @07:22PM
Lie if you want, your more recent responses now rely on adhoms and blatant lies. As for spelling mistooks why should anyone bother proof reading callouts of site abuse? Keep spinning your forever tracking of IPs and user targeted modbans as no big deals, guess it is up to users to determine if they want to trust you. All you give are evasions and condescension, the nirmal behavior of a fascist that can not defend their own actions. SN was alt-right from the start and you're salty people keep pointing it out. Hopefully gen z gives old farts like you the boot instead of having to fight ww3 against nazis 2.0
Wut do you think mr boomboom?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 10 2023, @02:18AM (18 children)
Funny, that is what aristarchus said when he was accused of doxxing. Does the starf at SN engage in doxxing? Selling the list of emails of users?
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Monday April 10 2023, @06:50AM (17 children)
aristarchus made threats, both actual and implied, of violence and harassment to both the person subjected to his doxing and members of his family, and encouraged others to do the same.
The information that we hold is protected. It is neither sold nor given away. It is not used for any other purpose. Suggesting otherwise is just another smear tactic.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 10 2023, @07:20AM (14 children)
That wasn't aristarchus, it was someone else, and Runaway's over-active paranoid fearful conservative imagination. Ask me how I know.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Monday April 10 2023, @09:06AM (13 children)
Prove it, AC. More FUD from an AC.
Don't forget we were reading aristarchus' own submissions.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 10 2023, @05:57PM
Gotta love how you get to make accusations without evidence while everyone else has to prove every detail. Admin abuse from authoritarian dicks is much worse than mean words. Years upon years of "fuck your feelings" but now you can't stop complaining about criticism. Put up or shut up, seems clear this site is just another in the myriad of rightwing outlets meant to radicalize people over the internet. If it wasn't you'd be booting runaway right along with aristarchus, and you'd post sanitized proof. Oh right, the doxxing info is supposedly in the database that you somehow can't clean up, but you can't link to it for fear of making it known?
Do you even brain bruh?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 10 2023, @06:00PM (11 children)
Same ac, seriously jan post links to the aristarchus account making threats of violence. Hope they aren't simply more of your suspicions you want to relay as facts . . . .
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Monday April 10 2023, @06:08PM (10 children)
No, if they have been removed then it was for a reason. If they have been removed then nobody can link to them. If you want to see what he said that hasn't been removed then use the search facility.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 10 2023, @06:20PM
Lovely bit of evasion. Hopefully more regular users see your house of cards instead of blindly believing that you're honest. Protip, honest people do not make baseless accusations or try and hide privacy violating practices of the website. The best you've done is a claim the tracking is necessary while continuing to not make the information clear on the site itself, and the worst is actual admin abuse maybe done by you maybe not, but already verified by another staffer. Bye bye house of cards, get wrecked ya boomer jerk!
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 12 2023, @07:53AM (8 children)
Runaway said he was going to kill me, and 50 million other liberal Americans. I took it personally. He needs to be banned, and turned in to the authorities for terroristic threatening, and online bullying. If you continue to harbor him, SoylentNews is complicit, just like Ivanka Trump.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday April 12 2023, @11:40AM (7 children)
To be honest, nobody can stop you and you seem to think it is your duty to do so. If you don't, you are complicit just like Ivanka Trump. I'll wait and see what happens.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 12 2023, @04:06PM (6 children)
Reports were made, but you realize no action gets taken till much later. Funny thing, there is a more immediately available authority that has received the reports. Even though the reports line up with the system guidelines this particular authority claims zero capability to resolve the issue, yet there is at least one example of corrective action that has been taken before.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday April 12 2023, @07:01PM (5 children)
On the other hand, if the authorities have already investigated and discover that no crime has been committed, then they will also take no action. You might not like what was said, I don't like what was said, but you haven't shown yet that what was said constituted a crime. Perhaps LE came to the same conclusion.
Freedom of speech for you, but not for those you disagree with. OK, I'll draft something to cover it.
Howabout: "Despite the US First Amendment granting every US citizen a right to express themselves, Runaway1956 is not permitted to state his views. However ACs can dictate what others are permitted to say without any legal justification to support their decision". Yep, I thing that covers it.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 12 2023, @07:47PM (4 children)
I always thought SN should enforce some minimum level of decency as per the site rules. Banning aristarchus, with the excuse of legal liability which is simply not true in the US, shows everyone your true colors. Your standards are messed up and no amount of pearl clasping is going to change that. All while providing no evidence, but claiming the evidence is still in the database.
This situation is like all the moderation adjustments staff does, yet when people complain about shitposting you then say it is up to the community. Convenient stack of excuses you rotate through, each instance seeming plausible until you stack them up; then the lies become apparent. Stop protecting terrorists and hold the site to some standards of decency. Until then we shall keep calling you a knob headed goober brain, hypicritical sycophant, and subversive alt-wrong terrorist trying to push fascism under a guise of innocence. Seems a bit of a far stretch, but then that is the point of such propaganda tactics.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 12 2023, @09:55PM (2 children)
If your position is that US law is messed up, I might be inclined to agree. However, janrinok's assessment of US law is correct. Runaway's reprehensible comment about "50 million dead progressives" was a hypothetical future scenario. In the US, violent threats are illegal, but they must be specific to violate the law. Runaway's comment was awful, but it wasn't specific. I don't necessarily agree with how the law is interpreted, but that's far beyond the scope of this site.
On the other hand, aristarchus' actions were specific, targeted at an individual. Runaway lives in Little River County, Arkansas. He has voluntarily shared this information on this site [soylentnews.org], so I am comfortable with repeating it. This has been repeated and implied many times by an AC who is almost certainly aristarchus. Also, in at least one instance, the aristarchus replied to Runaway with what he claims is Runaway's first and last name. This was posted by the aristarchus account in 2021, so this is not a case of mistakenly identifying an AC. It was aristarchus. I will not link to the comment because I do not believe Runaway consented to having his name posted. When you search for that name in Little River County, AR property records, it uniquely identifies an individual. I cannot confirm that the individual who was identified actually is Runaway, nor is it relevant. The fact is, aristarchus has targeted an individual for harassment. If this individual isn't actually Runaway, then aristarchus has potentially subjected an innocent bystander to harassment. Unlike Runaway's comments, aristarchus specifically targeted someone, which is why it is different.
After aristarchus was temporarily banned, he continued to harass Runaway, including posting what he claims is Runaway's real name at least three additional times. This occurred once during aristarchus' temporary ban. It occurred most recently within the past month. A sock puppet account was also created using the name that aristarchus purports to be Runaway's real name. With this name and Runaway's county of residence, this uniquely identifies an individual. Once again, I am not linking to this content because Runaway did not voluntarily share his name. When aristarchus was temporarily banned, he was given the opportunity to reform his behavior and was strongly encouraged to do so. Instead, he escalated his harassment. He violated the conditions of his temporary ban, which were publicly disclosed.
Let's move on to your standard of decency. Your style of posting strongly suggests that you are Azuma Hazuki 2.0. You claim that you took over a sock puppet account and increased its karma so you could moderate offensive posts. This is a flimsy justification, particularly because the Azuma Hazuki 2.0 account had awful karma because of spamming. It would have been simpler to create a new account with a different username. Azuma Hazuki said multiple times that she disapproved of anyone using the Azuma Hazuki 2.0 account. Despite this, you continued to use an account that was created for the purpose of harassing Azuma Hazuki. That most certainly does not constitute decent behavior. I am not inherently opposed to enforcing a standard of decency for all users. However, if that is the case, you should lead by example. That means you should admit your wrongdoing, then voluntarily leave the site. After all, you want to enforce decency on this site. By your own standard, you should also get banned. If this is really what you want, then you should leave.
Are you going to leave? Or are you a hypocrite? What shall it be, Azuma Hazuki 2.0?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 12 2023, @10:46PM (1 child)
I recall Runaway harrassing lots of people and making comments about not caring if someone knows his real location, and while I disagree with doxxing you have not demonstrated illegal actions, and you falsely accuse me of sock puppeting to harrass someone. Belueve whatever lies you'd like, on this site I have only been honest, and I'll agree that my posts are not the height of decency. However, if you dislike my commentary so much I would expect you to be demanding a ban for Runaway and other racist fucks promoting violence. So, maybe you're just an ass, maybe you're the one that created the harrassing accounts and you're just spreading more lies to sway users that SN is not biased and its the uppitty libs ruining everything. Free speech warriors, what pathetic snowflakes you've always been.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 12 2023, @11:42PM
You've just made my point. You want Runaway banned for his lack of decency, but you don't want to be accountable for your own lack of decency. Simone Biles would surely be in awe if she witnessed your display of mental gymnastics to try to avoid addressing your hypocrisy on the issue.
I did not say that you should be banned. I said that if you're serious about enforcing decency, you should demonstrate it by owning up to your actions and leaving. After all, if you want people banned for a lack of decency, that would mean both you and Runaway should be banned. As I expected, you dodged the question.
I don't believe for a moment that you and aristarchus are sincere about wanting decency or to clean up the bad posting on this site. You're using that as an excuse to troll, just like Slashdot trolls did 20 years ago. You've even reused their terminology, referring to your trolling as a "Jihad" just like they did 20 years ago. What's next? Are you going to register anti-soylent.org so you can post a manifesto for your "Sacred Jihad" against this site?
Oh, by the way, unlike you, I have taken real action to have Runaway held accountable. For example, when Runaway used ethnic slurs in the title of one of his journals, I emailed the admins about it. Sure enough, the title of the journal got changed. Unlike you, I actually wanted real action to be taken instead of looking for excuses to shitpost. I have also emailed janrinok many times to express my concerns about the site. Again, my goal was to get real change enacted, whereas you are just looking for attention and an excuse to troll.
Grow up.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday April 13 2023, @06:04AM
Yes, you can call me all those childish names because your right to do so is enshrined in law.
However, you seem to think that banning somebody who has has the same rights as you is perfectly acceptable because well, just because.... If you don't like somebody's journals and comments, just stop reading them.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.