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: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @02:08PM (34 children)
Soylent was run by some fat guy in his underwear from his mother's basement surrounded by empty pizza boxes and Coke bottles.
But it is now apparent it is run from some secret bunker with ties to the Bilderberg Group.
:->
(Score: 3, Informative) by martyb on Thursday February 03 2022, @02:31PM (20 children)
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @02:48PM (3 children)
FWIW, I always thought SN was run by buff well-groomed gentlemen in bespoke suits surrounded by empty vintage port bottles. In their mother's basement, of course.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Thursday February 03 2022, @06:18PM (2 children)
Mom has great taste in port!
But on a serious note: This is why we can't have nice things and also why organizations end up needing Codes of Conduct.
(Score: 2) by pdfernhout on Saturday February 05 2022, @01:36AM (1 child)
From: https://web.archive.org/web/20140425014730/http://shirky.com/writings/group_enemy.html [archive.org]
"... What matters is, a group designed this and then was unable, in the context they'd set up, partly a technical and partly a social context, to save it from this attack from within. And attack from within is what matters. Communitree wasn't shut down by people trying to crash or syn-flood the server. It was shut down by people logging in and posting, which is what the system was designed to allow. The technological pattern of normal use and attack were identical at the machine level, so there was no way to specify technologically what should and shouldn't happen. Some of the users wanted the system to continue to exist and to provide a forum for discussion. And other of the users, the high school boys, either didn't care or were actively inimical. And the system provided no way for the former group to defend itself from the latter.
Now, this story has been written many times. It's actually frustrating to see how many times it's been written. You'd hope that at some point that someone would write it down, and they often do, but what then doesn't happen is other people don't read it. ...
This pattern has happened over and over and over again. Someone built the system, they assumed certain user behaviors. The users came on and exhibited different behaviors. And the people running the system discovered to their horror that the technological and social issues could not in fact be decoupled. ...
The normal experience of social software is failure. If you go into Yahoo groups and you map out the subscriptions, it is, unsurprisingly, a power law. There's a small number of highly populated groups, a moderate number of moderately populated groups, and this long, flat tail of failure. And the failure is inevitably more than 50% of the total mailing lists in any category. So it's not like a cake recipe. There's nothing you can do to make it come out right every time.
There are, however, I think, about half a dozen things that are broadly true of all the groups I've looked at and all the online constitutions I've read for software that supports large and long-lived groups. And I'd break that list in half. I'd say, if you are going to create a piece of social software designed to support large groups, you have to accept three things, and design for four things. ...
Writing social software is hard. And, as I said, the act of writing social software is more like the work of an economist or a political scientist. And the act of hosting social software, the relationship of someone who hosts it is more like a relationship of landlords to tenants than owners to boxes in a warehouse.
The people using your software, even if you own it and pay for it, have rights and will behave as if they have rights. And if you abrogate those rights, you'll hear about it very quickly. ..."
The biggest challenge of the 21st century: the irony of technologies of abundance used by scarcity-minded people.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 05 2022, @05:59AM
Nice, but the scope of that talk was actually fairly narrow. He was right about group dynamics being a human problem, but of his guidelines , there are some clearly incorrect ones. For example, the idea of limiting investment in handles is specifically and only correct under the assumption that the participants are interested in interactions where persistent identities matter - this is a flagrantly false, non-generalisable assumption. Here alone, the value of ephemeral identities has been shown, and slashdot's wind-down has shown the same. Similarly, the effects of scale matter at the personal level - some people are more sensitive than others, some have higher tolerance than others, but he makes basically no clear mention of individual management strategies.
A group is its own worst enemy is a cute concept, but that matters in constrained circumstances, and those constraints aren't always true. In fact many of the more implications violate them from the outset.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @04:23PM (14 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @04:34PM (5 children)
You really can't dox Zumi. She has published her full name, her favorite colors, favorite flavor of jelly-beans, and her shoe size openly. The only thing she hasn't published is her physical mailing address. Anyone who published that address would be guilty of doxxing, I suppose.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday February 03 2022, @11:38PM (3 children)
You are obsessed with me :) It's kind of cute, but also kind of creepy.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 07 2022, @07:11AM (2 children)
You flatter yourself wombyn.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday February 07 2022, @10:33PM (1 child)
Then disabuse me of this notion by shutting the haemorrhaging fuck up and not replying to me, LOL
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 14 2022, @06:24AM
You first.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @01:32AM
now picturing Azuma as a hyper dog [puppyleaks.com] tearing around the house
(Score: 5, Informative) by tangomargarine on Thursday February 03 2022, @05:38PM (7 children)
Unless you're one of those people who are still aware of the old English convention to refer to unknown-gender entities with male pronouns.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @10:11PM (6 children)
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @06:14PM (5 children)
I'm relatively conservative and I use 'they' or him/her or s/he when trying to hide the gender.
The grammar Nazi part of me doesn't like to use 'they' for one person because it grammatically refers to more than one person.
Interestingly I would much rather be a liberal in a conservative environment than a conservative in a liberal environment. The left has absolutely no tolerance for dissent, it's obvious. For instance, aristarchus, the very topic of this discussion is on the left. Who has he been going after? Anyone on the right. He wants their jobs, he wants them harassed personally, etc... just because they disagree with them. I don't see from the right nearly the degree of intolerance that I see from the left. Yet the more moderates and the right aren't trying to dox aristarchus, have him fired and harassed.
It makes sense. Leaders of socialist countries destroy any dissent and go after any dissenters.
When you say "drives to many on the right into a tizzy" what you mean is that some people in the right might simply disagree with you on a matter. They won't try to go after your job, try to dox you, vandalize your property, etc... They'll simply explain why they disagree.
When people on the left go into a tizzy because someone disagreed with them on something then that's a completely different story.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @06:31PM (2 children)
Another recent example
(Krysten is a democrat)
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/575280-far-left-bullies-resort-to-harassing-shaming-kyrsten-sinema-it-wont-work [thehill.com]
Joe Manchin got death threat emails and whanot and he's a democrat. Can't vote against the party, can't disagree, or else ...
These are just the most recent examples I can think of, people have lost their jobs because people on the left would complain to someone's employer over something that happened outside of work because of a disagreement (I can't find the example now but I posted one before because they go way back). When has someone on the right gone to an employer to get someone on the left fired.
I believe, statistically, companies are FAR more likely to get sued by people on the left. So they try to cater to the left to avoid lawsuits. The left has ZERO tolerance for dissent.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @06:52PM (1 child)
Except that this behavior isn't limited to the left. For example, many of the local election officials (both Republicans and Democrats) who refused to support Donald Trump's claims of massive voter fraud and a stolen election have been harassed and received threats. Pretending that this phenomenon is limited to one side of the political spectrum is asinine. Making generalizations about "the right" or "the left" is almost never helpful, and is more about taking cheap shots instead of making actual cogent arguments.
There are lots of instances of people on "the right" trying to get university faculty members on "the left" fired. In fact, Turning Point USA operates a Professor Watchlist, which is really an effort to blacklist faculty whom they claim promote liberal views in the classroom. However, if you look at their justification for including many of those faculty members, in many cases it is based on political opinions expressed in op-eds or posted on personal social media accounts. Your generalization completely fails.
As for your statement that businesses cater to the left, it's more likely that a lot of businesses focusing on tying to attract younger demographics like in the 18-49 age range. That's why, for example, TV networks generally focus on the 18-49 subset of ratings when deciding whether to cancel or renew shows. Advertisers are generally more concerned about attracting younger people, whom they believe are more likely to spend money at their businesses. Statistically speaking, that age range tends to lean left of center. They're just trying to appeal to customers in their desired demographics. I've not seen anything suggesting that it's about fear of being sued.
Let's refrain from making absurd generalizations about "the left" or "the right", okay? They're just not helpful.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @07:14PM
(same poster as the one you are responding to).
I do agree, in the case of Donald Trump, he did have an attitude of going after and firing anyone he disagrees with.
I remember George Bush, at one time, said something to the extent that you are either with us or against us (you can't be neutral?).
You are right, both parties are guilty of this, when the right is in charge they can also be intolerant as well. It's partly that the left is who is in charge right now so they have a lot more room to be intolerant.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @06:58PM
(instead of 'they' often times I may use the term 'this person').
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 07 2022, @11:52AM
Let's also not forget the attempts at deplatforming like what they are trying to do to Joe Rogan and Spotify.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 06 2022, @05:03AM
As if there was any doubt about who the whiny right-wing snowflake is. Worries about busloads, or plane-loads! of anti-fa being sent to his address, courtesy of Amazon? They may also be bringing law enforcement, but you know, if you have done nothing wrong, which I suspect our "victim" has not. So cut the crap, bytram! This whole thing is so contrived as to be laughable. It is laughable. Evidence? Legal considerations? Looks like SN is going down.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @02:51PM (12 children)
Troll?
Guess they do not know how to read emoticons...you know the :-> means sarcasm;
Moderation on here is so fucked.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @03:51PM
No, it doesn't necessarily mean sarcasm. Bixies are, and always have been, open to interpretation.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @04:01PM (1 child)
I've been on the internet in one form or another since the early '90's, and I didn't know that.
Thank god I missed out on usenet.
(Score: 5, Informative) by HammeredGlass on Thursday February 03 2022, @05:56PM
Usenet was the best the internet had to offer to this day.
(Score: 5, Informative) by mhajicek on Thursday February 03 2022, @05:33PM (7 children)
Never seen that before. The one I'm familiar with is "/s".
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @10:09PM (6 children)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emoticons#Western [wikipedia.org]
Top row, third column. It has been in that article for quite some time, so it may just run in different social circles.
(Score: 2) by owl on Thursday February 03 2022, @11:39PM
And, the 'definition' of the top row is: "Smiley or happy face." so that wikipedia article supports :-> not meaning sarcasm.
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Friday February 04 2022, @01:19AM (4 children)
Wikipedia just says its a 'smiley/happy face'.
It's true that putting a smiley at the end of something can hint at 'sarcasm', but it can mean a LOT of things, and you need to make the inference -- it's not nearly as explicit as /s
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @02:21AM (3 children)
And /s may mean that its your signature or something per second. All communication is context-dependent and I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt. On top of that, it is for something Wikipedia said is a smiley and it is following one of the bog-standard jokes on the Internet.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday February 04 2022, @04:05PM (2 children)
Or more likely, the reader will have no idea what /s is supposed to mean - I've rarely seen it used anywhere but here.
I usually type out the full "/sarcasm" instead just to avoid such misunderstandings... and I still get people responding with confusion sometimes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 06 2022, @02:53AM (1 child)
I think that is often a different problem. They read your comment and got as far as they could stand without bashing the reply button. They probably didn't even read the part at the end or it didn't even register if it did.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Sunday February 06 2022, @04:02PM
quite possibly. Though I have actually had a few people ask what the /sarcasm meant?!?
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @12:15AM
<sarcasm>Use the tags, Luke.</sarcasm>
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @02:10PM (1 child)
Thanks admins as always for your efforts. Hope you get a break. Sounds like a tough one.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @05:48AM
Good admins are hard to come by and are usually underappreciated, but communities can't survive without them.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Gaaark on Thursday February 03 2022, @02:20PM (8 children)
...just 'Wow.
I liked ari when he posted intelligent stuff, but thought he was just a bit of a 'one-track' nut (one-trick pony?).
Now? Wow.
Just.
Wow.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @03:00PM (6 children)
/me Rubs tears of laughter from eyes
It should have been obvious to everyone that Aristarchus was using other accounts and posting as AC to play both sides of his own argument. TMB let the cat out of the bag before his departure and Ari's fake dramas have really been self-incrimination ever since.
If you want intelligent, look at the way admins and staff handled the situation.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday February 03 2022, @06:31PM (2 children)
Oh, there was a time, way back, when he hadn't gone all loopy and had interesting things to say.
Too far back, though. Nothing intelligent has come from him for a long long time... since Copernicus' time, i believe. ;)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @06:59PM (1 child)
Really? He's been an obvious troll since I first spotted him, and about as sane and balanced as kurenai.tsubasa. Just more prolix.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 05 2022, @08:28AM
No, he hasn't. You are.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday February 03 2022, @11:40PM (2 children)
Okay, maybe I'm just dumb here but...are you saying the Real Donald Trump and Ari were the same person? I don't for a moment believe ari was APK or is Runaway for example, but I missed this particular feline sack-escape.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 15 2022, @04:30AM (1 child)
Sulla had said multiple times he suspected aristarchus of being TRDT. Would be interesting if that turned out to be true, also not surprising.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 26 2022, @08:58AM
You Really Think a LARPer Would Do That? Just Go On the Internet and LARP as Somebody Else?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @06:26PM
I stopped posting under my name because of his flood of non sequitor bs. I didn't really care about the comments themselves, but it made it a real pain to follow any legitimate tells I got.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by mmlj4 on Thursday February 03 2022, @02:26PM (24 children)
Seriously, if there's impending lawsuits and the guy has a history of stalking over an extended period, why would there be even the suggestion of a temp ban?
Need a Linux consultant [joeykelly.net] in New Orleans?
(Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Thursday February 03 2022, @02:35PM (22 children)
Doxing based on publicly accessible information (the all-too-common "bad OPSEC") is unlikely to be considered a crime in the U.S. outside of extreme circumstances. I don't see anything here about impending lawsuits, and civil litigation against some anonymous homeless philosopher wannabe would likely be fruitless anyway.
aristarchus will happily troll as AC and dodge any account restrictions. I'm not sure even a temp ban is warranted.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by stormreaver on Thursday February 03 2022, @02:45PM (2 children)
Although I can't quote them (or bother to look them up at the moment), there are many jurisdictions where the intent to cause injury is a crime even when it involves publicly available information. The biggest obstacle is the will (and/or financial means) to pursue it.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @03:41PM (1 child)
Not so sure. The mayor of my town posted tax records of people who were arguing with him on a public forum. Yes, this is available from the county if you know the property address. But most found this to be weird and threatening. Exactly nothing happened to the mayor, even though he did it multiple times to multiple people. What is described here won't go anywhere in the courts, unfortunately.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday February 04 2022, @04:17PM
Perhaps.
Keep in mind though that "something happening" to the mayor would require:
1) The victims having the time, energy, and money to actually press charges against them. (the law rarely has anything to say about anything unless someone with standing decides to try to make it stick in court)
2) The mayor not having friends that could "make the problem go away". It's not exactly rare to have a pretty tight-knit old-boys network in the halls of power, in which case enforcing the law against them can be... challenging.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Thursday February 03 2022, @02:58PM (5 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @03:59PM (4 children)
Do you mean THIS post of mine about facts on the VAX that's KILLING YOU & all of its points are NOW proven facts https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=46034&page=1&cid=1197563#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] (especially on what the VAX is causing in health issues, ala the title "The 'CURE' is WORSE THAN THE DISEASE" & within its content about Dalek saying "there is no graphene in the vaccine" BS since anyone can lookup "Graphene" and "Adjuvant" & SEE it's been used as such for DECADES++ & yes, that is is DEADLY...
As time has passed SINCE then, even the HORRENDOUS TERMINATION OF THAT (awful & yes, scary) is coming out (hydras forming etc. & graphene constructs of FERRO FLUID & aluminum forming clotting you & KILLING YOU - "men's hearts WILL FAIL THEM for FEAR" as stated).
OR
Optimization of CODE & why PASCAL is superior to C/C++ & most others (many now like RUST shoring up non-Pascal deivants only to use the SAME MEANS & METHODS Pascal has since, oh, 1970? Yes, IMITATION is the SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY, lol) https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=46096&page=2&cid=1198315#commentwrap [soylentnews.org]
?
* :)
Above ALL else, FatPhil?? Your FAKENAME tends to lend credence to this saying by Ancient Greeks "those who are given the RING OF GYGES (invisibility/anonymity) will tend to do BAD (purely relative term really, though that's what Nicolas Schreck & Nina LaVey (jewess daughter of Anton LaVey, Satanic Church Leaders) would espouse) BEFORE those who post as their REAL selves" - more or less a DIRECT quote you can verify using Ring of Gyges as your search term... WELL???
YOU ARE USING THE "Ring of Anonymity" MORE THAN I DO - I "id" myself as "APK" whereas yourself? HIDING to do what is noted JUST ABOVE THIS PARAGRAPH as you LURK in the SHADOWS doing so.
I don't - I'm honest about who I am - YOU ARE NOT.
FACT!
... & TALK about FALSE PRIDE & DELUSION? Let me quote your SIGNATURE pal "I know I'm God, because every time I pray to him, I find I'm talking to myself." - somehow I SEVERELY doubt that pal... lol!
APK
P.S.=> Yes, YET AGAIN, those like YOU make ME just HAVE to say this (since it's fact per the above): THIS? This was just too, Too, TOO EASY - just '2ez'" & it always is when hypocrites speak (like Dalek for example here) https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=46034&page=1&cid=1197193#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] where he says "Oh everyone will say my MAINSTREAM MEDIA sources (RussiaGate LIE proven in court no less & they were champions of "Russia, Russia, Russia" etc. & now VAX PROPAGANA all "Brought to you by PFizer" bs) are BOGUS" well, they long ago PROVED they were BUT then Dalek turns around & puts down MY using a site like this one, a NEWS AGGREGATOR (citing economists, scientists & FAR more vs. PAID FOR PARROTS for Pharmakeia) is "bogus sources"??? Please, give us a break... apk
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @04:19PM
Dalek HYPOCRISY better accuracy than my OWN posts (I'lll let HIM say it himself in fact):
Then, his OUTRIGHT HYPOCRISY:
All I cite, once again restated now as I did in my post parent to this, is I use a SITE LIKE THIS ONE & cite scientists with actual research OR economists etc. - brighteon is a NEWS AGGREGATOR & facts don't NEED "FACT CHECKING" (hilarious that when MSM sources have to ADMIT that's purest bs too).
I'd LOVE to see "Dalek" get outta that one (set of quotes from HIM no less, contradicting himself), lol - after all - he GAVE ME THE BULLETS to SHOOT HIM WITH easily... lmao! Just like his "there is no graphene in vaccines" well, again, ADJUVANT & GRAHENE folks, look it up, decades in vaccines & yes, your body views it as NO GOOD!
Ring of Gyges (any search engine turns this up but it came from Plato's Republic) https://tenyearreadinglist.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/plato%E2%80%99s-republic-book-ii-your-dog-is-a-philosopher/ [wordpress.com]
APK
P.S.=> It's pitiful, but THIS RESULT FOR THIS SITE & many others using "downmods"? Purest destruction & YES it IS purest "CENSORBEAMS ON MAXIMUM" Capt. Kirk - & when you have to CENSOR away things rather than DISCUSS THEM? You are SHOWING YOUR ASS & truest selves as losers doing so... apk
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @04:31PM (2 children)
"Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for apprehension of those things which are coming on the earth" per LUKE 21:26 & what's causing it? PHARMAKEIA (Big Pharma) SORCERY (greek for witchcraft = Pharmakeia, per Revelation by John in the Bible) & my post on VAX DEADLINESS that is coming FAR MORE TRUE with FAR MORE BEHIND IT than what I posted here initially LONG ago https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=46034&page=1&cid=1197563#commentwrap [soylentnews.org]
FUNNIEST PART? All I did was cite ACTUAL concrete VERIFIABLE & UNDENIABLE FACTS here https://soylentnews.org/meta/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=47504&page=1&cid=1218287#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] & moreso HERE on Dalek's HYPOCRISY easily verified (he said it, not I) https://soylentnews.org/meta/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=47504&page=1&cid=1218296#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] quoted...
AND YOU GAVE ME A "SPAM" downmod?
APK
P.S.=> Seems VERIFIABLE FACTS that TRASH you "ring of gyges" FAKENAMES hiding behind them DESTROY YOU & you HAVE TO HIDE THEM, lol - THANKS FOR PROVING MY POINT! apk
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @10:41PM (1 child)
Oh fuck. APK has gotten religion. (not really - he's as fale as ever, just using different source material to rage at the world).
Remember that scene in Men in Black where agent K opens up a locker and there's a whole bunch of little creatures that worship him? APK needs to get himself a locker like that, and shut himself inside.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @10:48PM
Ah, another FAKENAME Ring of Gyges fool in you: Thanks for proving THAT for me too. Dalek is that YOU? If so, I note you "FALE" (Learn to SPELL, dolt) confronting YOUR HYPOCRISY you armed ME with against you here https://soylentnews.org/meta/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=47504&page=1&cid=1218296#commentwrap [soylentnews.org]
LMAO!
("Gosh! I wonder WHY?", lol - not).
APK
P.S.=> Ah yes, FAKENAMES from the Ring of Gyges ABUSERS & downmod to hide things like the link above that FLAT-OUT OUTRIGHT DESTROY YOU, & best part is? You HELP ME help you destroy yourselves, lol... keep RUNNING "Forrest" (Run Forrest, RUN!)... apk
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @03:17PM (10 children)
You missed part of the TFA. Ari did off-site research to find information not published anywhere online. Publicly available information, paired with some deductions, a lot of guesses, and ultimately, some fraudulent phishing phone calls, and you can doxx just about anyone, anywhere. Read TFA again. Ari has spent years at his obsession.
Also consider that ari has likely dug to expose other members. Why would you suppose that there has only been the one target?
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @04:20PM (6 children)
All still not a crime. No more than digging up Trump's tax returns. Lots of threats, then he STFU.
While other jurisdictions have a more far-reaching definition of defamation, the US doesn't see the publishing of publicly available personal information (name, address, employer, telephone or email address) as any sort of crime, either criminal or civil.
Would have been more fruitful to ban the racists, and make more sense.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @04:42PM (3 children)
Publish a federal judges personal info (regardless if public sourced or not) and tell me out that works out for you when the US Marshals and FBI show up.
(Score: 2) by exaeta on Thursday February 03 2022, @05:07PM (2 children)
The Government is a Bird
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @05:08PM
Not if you can afford a lawyer... how many can?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by epitaxial on Thursday February 03 2022, @09:37PM
Doesn't matter. They can still serve a warrant, trash your house confiscate your devices, possibly jail you for a bit and ultimately drop the charges. You might get your shit back in a few years after taking them to court.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Thursday February 03 2022, @06:26PM (1 child)
Doesn't need to be a crime for us to decide it's not allowed here...
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @03:41PM
Since this wasn't all that noticeable to the general public, it would have been better to just ban him.No announcement (other sites don't feel the necessity to publicly announce and debate bans - what is wrong with you people? Transparency? Then explain why you allow hate speech and misinformation but not the posting of publicly available info.)
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @05:44PM (2 children)
If I go to city hall and look up ownership titles for homes and publish them, that's still publicly available information and completely legal to publish.
Giving out information to a phishing phone caller? So someone is incredibly fucking stupid. Do they also fall prey to Nigerian Prince scams? Fake IRS phone calls? I put phishing phone calls on speakerphone and let everyone hear just how abusive I can be with scammers - everyone should.
If you had ignored this it would have amounted to nothing. If you hadn't posted a story about it it would have amounted to less than nothing. Instead you've fed the troll/ari. Again. Sheesh.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Mykl on Thursday February 03 2022, @09:37PM (1 child)
Easy to say when you haven't been subject to a harassment campaign for an extended period of time. We don't know the specifics (and I don't really want to), but I believe that doxing someone in the community is a line crossed.
Funny that you seem to be OK with people's details being published, yet are posting AC. Care to state your full name and address?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @10:27PM
There was a time when everyone got a phone book with everyone's name, address, and phone number delivered to their door every year. Nobody freaked out. It's publicly available information, bo big deal then, no big deal now. Get a grip.
The only exception is minors. For obvious reasons. So many people cry abot being doxxed, and when you look at their posts, most of the information they claim should be private they leaked themselves. A big one is employment/employer. Linkdin is a thing. So is people discussing their work and social life, their education, etc.
For the record, I no longer have ANY active accounts on any internet sites. Not even online banking . Just don't see the need to feed the surveillance/advertising economy. Unlike the wankers who decry the evil of fakebook/googles, but still hypocritically use them.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RS3 on Thursday February 03 2022, @07:46PM (1 child)
I wonder if his account can be configured to always post at -2.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Reziac on Friday February 04 2022, @03:54AM
I generally like this idea better than banning.
However, there's a distinction between merely posting stupid shit, which harms no one and can be ignored, and doing nasty shit behind the scenes, which can't be ignored because it impacts someone else.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Thursday February 03 2022, @04:19PM
I would suggest that a temporary ban is more desirable/effective not because I would miss Aristarchus's posts, but more because I would not enjoy the guessing game of what his new whack-a-mole identities (via TOR or other free IP proxy services) are.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by jelizondo on Thursday February 03 2022, @02:29PM (10 children)
I applaud your efforts on keeping SN free of vermin.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @11:06PM (9 children)
They have a strange definition of vermin when right wing white supremists can still jew-bait with impunity. They scrubbed information from the database containing ari's comments - until they start doing the same for the hate speech they're more like spotify not taking action against Joe Rogan. And for the same reasons - sn has no problem with publishing outright lies about the election, covid, hate speech, etc.
Very hypocritical. Freze peach for some but for others. Ari's a teoll, but he's a troll who has made the hypocrisy obvious.
Of course most of us now come here to watch the clusterfuck that, in retrospect, was inevitable running a site on unmaintable feature incomplete software (meta moderation would have handled ari).
Have fun squaring THAT circle.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @05:57AM (4 children)
They scrubbed the victicm's PII from the database. The racist garbage, while disgusting, doesn't actually put anyone at risk of IRL harm or harrassment so down-modding it to oblivion is sufficient.
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @09:09AM (3 children)
So is stuff on linkdin. Post your current job on linkdin, you've made it public. No longer protected. Post that you're on probation anywhere, you've made it public , so again not protected.
And hate speech definitely puts people at risk. It's one reason some jurisdictions ban hate speech. The canonical example is Nazi hate speech against jews anf roma. 6 million dead says you're wrong.
So, now that SN has officially crossed over from merely hosting user content to actively editing user content, without a legal requirement to (such as copyright infringement), no more section 230 safe harbour claims.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @04:18PM
Every now and then some authoritarian nut says this crap, hoping to wreck the concept of free speech.
Get this straight: the nazis didn't kill jews, roma or communists with words. Lots of other people disliked people, vocally so, without killing anyone. The nazis killed people with privation, bullets, bayonets and gas (and whatever else was handy at the time). "Hate speech" (which is an ill-defined concept anyway) isn't even a direct precursor to acts of violence, and isn't a necessary precondition either.
Now show the jury on the dolly where the mean frozen peach touched you, so we can all have good laugh at you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @07:13PM
The 'protected' qualifier is your own invention and not relevant to the discussion.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 16 2022, @08:22AM
It seems like you might want to peruse this [techdirt.com]. And you're welcome.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday February 04 2022, @01:15PM (3 children)
And we know that because? There's no technology that forces sincere posting.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @03:55PM (2 children)
Fakebook is making the same claim that they don't have the resources to moderate content. And now they're no longer growing because it's an obvious lie - they sure have algorithms to generate conflict and promote lies because it makes them money.
And the whole concept of the metaverse has already been proven to be a failure - people want human contact. Not artificial reality. Not zoom meetings. The whole concept goes against what we know people need - human interaction. Not mediated through avatars, or in a fake universe (unless you're an incel, in which case real human interaction scares the shit out of you). If the metaverse was all that interesting, 2nd life would have been more than a flash in the pan.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @04:45PM
2nd life is still around...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday February 04 2022, @11:45PM
Given the operations model is as free speech as possible, I'd say it's a problem that won't be fixed soon, and that far more your problem than mine.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Thursday February 03 2022, @02:31PM (21 children)
What does the victim of doxxing want to happen?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @02:37PM (16 children)
Ideally? Ari apologizes, and makes amends. The old Ari returns, and makes real contributions to the site. All the stupid just blows over, and is forgotten over the next few months. What are the odds?
- Target (not victim)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Thursday February 03 2022, @02:58PM (14 children)
That makes sense to me.
Sometimes we all go too far when our blood is up. It's also possible to develop deleterious patterns of behavior because we think we're doing the right thing, or because we think the target of those actions deserves it. We are living in toxic times, and they're bleeding into all of us.
There has to be a road back to discourse. There has to be a road back for him, or we can't expect there to be one for any of us.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by acid andy on Thursday February 03 2022, @06:05PM
Well said Phoenix. I believe there are few if any saints in this place (as it also is elsewhere).
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @07:50PM
A lot of Valium and/or CBD in the drinking water (and all beverages) would be a start.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Thursday February 03 2022, @08:29PM
Wise words.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Friday February 04 2022, @01:20PM (10 children)
Who really believes that aristarchus just went a little too far because his blood was up? We have years of harassment, abuse, and exploits of the system (such as the modbombing of last summer). This has been escalating for a long time.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Friday February 04 2022, @02:05PM (9 children)
You didn't read the second line of mine you quoted. Aristarchus thinks he's doing the right thing. He thinks he's fighting people who are "toxic" and bad, and that doing that makes him a "good" guy. He doesn't realize he has gone way over the line.
This is a wake-up call. We all need those from time to time.
Let's let him nurse his wounded pride and see what he does with this rebuke. I hope he returns to what he was before undertaking the behaviors you listed. He used to laugh at himself and engage with humor. He used to employ his knowledge of the Western Tradition to skewer posts that were erroneous or not well thought through. The Trump years broke him, though, and he has not mended even when his team achieved the Executive and Legislative branches. He has fallen victim to the constant legacy media brainwashing that demands its acolytes defame, deplatform, and attack, attack, attack anyone who doesn't bend the knee to them.
He's not alone in any of that. If there's no road back from such extremism for him, then there is none for for any of his confreres and we must all, perforce, come to literal blows. If your opponents deny your very basic humanity, your right to exist, then no possibility for peaceful reconciliation exists.
So, aristarchus, can we live together in a contentious reality, or do we have to come to blows?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday February 05 2022, @12:14AM (8 children)
He has acted in bad faith often enough and just with the aristarchus persona generated a bunch of secondary personalities, that I'm not sure he cares what the right thing actually is or actually holds to the opinions he claims to have.
I don't buy that we're all aris a step away from extremism. My take is that he's going to push until he's permabanned and then some new personality will pop up to replace him. It might share aristarchus's views or it might not.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Saturday February 05 2022, @01:18PM (5 children)
Well I suppose when you're extremely establishment with the big corporations and big money on your side, it doesn't get called extremism.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday February 05 2022, @06:38PM (3 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 06 2022, @02:25PM (2 children)
Would you consider yourself to be a problem for the site?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday February 06 2022, @04:45PM (1 child)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 14 2022, @10:34AM
Bad faith, khallow, you argue in bad faith. And it has become tiresome.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday February 06 2022, @02:34AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 06 2022, @12:55AM (1 child)
The Irony of khallow complaining of "bad faith"! Ha! Ha ha!
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday February 06 2022, @02:38AM
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @05:28AM
Right, khallow!
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @08:51PM
I was dox'd on Yahoo once in a way that I didn't consider actionable. It was of the "we've been arguing, so here's his picture on another forum so you can poke fun of him" type thing. I simply stopped using the Yahoo forum, because it wasn't worth the possibility that some insane person might truck across country to shoot me because he was in financial trouble (it was a finance board, and I was making a bear case on something he was bullish, ultimately turning out to be right but not until years later).
An apology would have been nice, but I don't think the concept of "dox" was even really fleshed out at the time. I just thought it was creepy, a prelude to possible violent action, and not worth participating in the forums.
I'm a well-known user on other forums so I still prefer to post AC about it. Creeped me the fuck out. So what do the victims want? For the perps to chill out and stop, mostly; but also an apology would be nice.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @09:22PM (2 children)
The "victim" wants Ari censored, silenced, shut up. That's all. Spam modding Ari didn't work, mod-bomging Ari only worked temporarily, but false accusations of doxxing? Priceless!
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @09:46PM (1 child)
What was false about the accusations? Seems staff looked into them and found merit to them, irrespective of the target's views?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 05 2022, @08:47AM
No secret staff also wanted aristarchus shut up. Collusion is highly probable.