Sock-Puppetting and the Current Affairs Forum

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118434891#Comment_118434891

sock puppetry is deceit

never a truer word spoken. and the only political allegiance caught doing that on this site is ...

I just feel sorry for the lad with the ten accounts and all the free time he now has on his hands.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118435553#Comment_118435553

There’s always Twitter.

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118435134#Comment_118435134

On a thread specifically about a pro-SF sock-puppetry incident, you have deflected time and again to either other political parties doing it or your own victim status, neither of which are relevant to the subject matter.

atticu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118434417#Comment_118434417

I have to call you out on this.

You claim that ‘he’ was a serial troublemaker, but you were one of the Moderators who moderated ‘him’ with a light touch.

What do you think will happen if you never discipline children?

What do you think will happen if you are a manager of staff, and you never manage your staff?

They will push the boundaries, and keep pushing the boundaries until they either find the boundaries, or in this case get exposed and banned.

I think a lot of reflection needs to be done by the Moderators (including you) on how they moderated Johnny Dogs McMurphy, and the results of that ‘soft touch’ moderating.

I think that a lot of moderating decisions need to be reviewed in light of what has been exposed.

One more thing, this all started long before the migration to the current format, so, please don’t blame that. I think the migration happened in July, but this ‘Sock-puppeting’ started in March last year (or earlier).

elperello

I only just saw this thread.

Thanks for opening it, I thought we would never be allowed to discuss this subject.

I'll read through it with interest.

Beasty

I am having to revise my conclusions regarding the historic actions of the FrancieBrady account following very helpful information provided by another user

There was more than one example of switching between accounts to post in various threads concerning the Queen. Francie said that was probably down to using different computers around the house. However that did not explain a situation where he posted from the Happyman42 account at 9:17pm on 17/5/11 then the Francie account at 10:02pm the same day, switching back to the Happyman account at 10:07pm with the second and third examples responding to exactly the same post in different ways

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2056266973/are-you-worried-about-the-queens-visit

Even if, as he claims, he did not understand the term sock puppet at the time, the intent to add further emphasis/credibility to his "cause" is clear. In the circumstances I have considered it necessary to issue a siteban, particularly given some of his own comments in this thread

It is not a permanent ban, recognising the passage of time and indeed the inability to appeal in Prison on the new platform. It is a ban for 5 weeks

Clearly these events did take place a long time ago, and I certainly could not remember what I would have been posting that far back. I do not want this thread to turn into a discussion of that particular example, but given I allowed Francie the opportunity to defend some of his comments earlier in this thread I think it appropriate to allow some discussion of this particular example. However it is a single example and I do not want this thread to focus solely on that incident or indeed Francie's earlier comments in this thread

The decision to issue a siteban is made at Admin level as was the length of the ban. Please do not turn this into a discussion of whether the sanction was too lenient or too harsh. I have spent a lot of time today looking at this and researching further the behaviour of both accounts any I consider this to be an appropriate sanction taking everything into consideration

Well well well

i just happened upon this thread yesterday and subscribed. I love a happy (pardon the pun) ending 😂

Beasty, fair play for all the work involved here.

Fionn1952

While the McMurphy schebango certainly needed action, I can't help but feel a ban for posts ten years ago goes waaaaaaay beyond the pale. If anything has happened in the interim, fair enough, I'll withdraw any criticism.

In the entire history of Boards, has someone ever been investigated, let alone banned banned off the back of something that happened ten years previously that hasn't been ongoing in any way since? That's a genuine question rather than a statement by the way.

Seems like a bit of peer pressure from those who have a problem with Francie's views led to a bit of a witch hunt and some are rubbing their hands gleefully to see him receive any sort of sanction and giving very little consideration to how petty this whole thing seems.

If I'm flying too close to the wind here Beasty, let me know and I'll wind my neck in. I'm not making comment on how lenient or harsh the particular penalty is compared with the offence, but rather whether for an indiscretion so long ago, it might have been worth letting the fella take the public lambasting on this thread and the inherent hit to his credibility.

The whole thing just seems a bit......unnecessary given the timescales.

Firstly Id agree with Beasty suggesting the thread isnt about that, and also its not fair to discuss it if the poster isn't here

Id also note i find it quite a harsh finding given the same considerations you note yourself

Id balance that off against the same poster spending half this thread making it about this particular issue and in fact denying it had ever occurred while calling posters who recalled it liars etc etc

Similar to yourself, if beasty feels that even pointing out the above is unfair ill delete

EmmetSpiceland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118435553#Comment_118435553

You’d have to imagine that he hasn’t gone away, you know. Even now we’re seeing posters with join dates going back years with only a couple of hundred posts “popping” back up suddenly.

We’re, obviously, dealing with someone with a lot of time on their hands and a steadfast dedication to “The Cause”. I’m not sure banning those 10 accounts will get rid of him too easily. Like a mushroom, you can cut the heads off but there’ll be, fungal, tendrils ready to sprout up again.

A, concentrated, focus on new, and recently dormant, accounts pushing the SF “agenda” day and night should be viewed with, extreme, suspicion and not engaged with by normal users. I would call on all users to join together and assist the mods, and admins in this matter. For the good of the site.

Funny outcome, but stepping back a bit. A lot of people might need to reconsider how they spend their time. It's just the Internet.

Fionn1952

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118437096#Comment_118437096

Fair point regarding the denial on thread. I'm flip flopping between, 'it is ten fecking years ago.....how would he remember' and, 'well he was able to reference enough fecking posts from that period'.

blackwhite

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118437365#Comment_118437365

He went from lying and claiming it was a single account that just changed names, to then lying that the two accounts had ever posted in the same time period, to throwing abuse at anyone who wasn’t aware of his secret special arrangements.

He has a very long history of what could kindly be termed as “revisionism” when it comes to his own verifiable post history in lots of matters - not just this one

Funny enough, some of the people doing the accusations of sock puppetry here were, I assumed, of multiple accounts. If the mods don't see it though, it may just be co-incidence of posting styles.

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118437096#Comment_118437096

I think your third paragraph identifies the real issue here. The actual acts ten years ago were probably mild enough, certainly compared to the other ten month campaign, but the denials of the facts followed by the fevered attacks on this thread on those who only posted truthfully were despicable.

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118437076#Comment_118437076

He was punished on the facts, not on any "peer pressure".

As for his credibility, it is now gone.

I will leave it there, as enough has been said.

CrookedJack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118437365#Comment_118437365

It also didn't help that he was very superior and heavy handed after Beasty ruled his way initially - I would have had more sympathy for him if he had have held up his hands, said "It was ten years ago but i'm sorry". I for one would have been happy to move on.

I am surprised that this is the final outcome, I can only commend Beasty for going above and beyond in the investigation.

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118437494#Comment_118437494

Absolutely correct, fair play to the mods, and a fair outcome.

CrookedJack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118437416#Comment_118437416

This is exactly the kind of thing i think will be unhelpful in future - vague posts suggesting some posters are sock-puppets. If you have specific points make a case to the mods. How can there be any discussion if that card can be brought out at any point and no justification required?

When you can just insinuate posters are Shinerbots or FG Shills or Reds-under-the-bed and not in anyway back it up then the whole conversation is discredited. This is the point that Fionn et al were making and I agree with it.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118437507#Comment_118437507

I don't know if I have the time to catch somebody out from a post from ten years ago, unlike some posters here - and how **** weird is that. Or how I would have the "tools" to do it. Or how anybody who wasn't a mod could do it. And I suppose that I can't name names without proof. BTW I never use the term Shinner Bot, or any kind of Bot, unlike many of the heroes of the inquisition in this thread. Maybe ban that word, its pointless.

Beasty said he was informed about a thread from ten years ago where Frankie Brady may have posted something along with another account of his, which was apparently authorised to some extent. Quite weird. My question is how anybody would go to that trouble, or know that the two accounts were the same, or why bother. Its not like this site has a decent search tool, I don't even know how it could be done.

blackwhite

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118437524#Comment_118437524

Google site-specific search using the two known usernames. it’s takes about 10 seconds. It’s even been explained on the thread already

But good effort trying to deflect for the fallen brothers in arms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118437530#Comment_118437530

Yeh, and why did anybody do that from ten years ago. If you are accusing me of being a SF supporter, good luck with that. That witch-hunt is going nowhere, I have never voted for them and I have for FG and FF - albeit down the list. But its typical of the ad hominems on this site. By and large I stay out of any of the threads hijacked by either side.

( reported for an ad hominem by the way).

blackwhite

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118437534#Comment_118437534

Francie was called out for it multiple times before. This was the first time a mod or admin commented on it.

Funny how we have Francie and his defenders now claiming it’s everyone else’s fault that they didn’t know that he had a secret under-the-table arrangement in place (that he evidently abused)

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118437541#Comment_118437541

Who is "they" here. I don't know Francie Brady from adam. I have never participated in threads he is in to my knowledge, where he does in fact lead off topic a lot. its clear that the actions here are politically motivated. If FB needed a ban it was for driving nearly all threads to something about the IRA in 1972, which tended to drag in the other side of lunatics.

This smells of pitchforks though.

Fionn1952

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118437482#Comment_118437482

Like I said, I'm flip-flopping myself so I can hardly argue too strongly against you Blanch, but as for, 'punished on the facts, not any peer pressure', that's why I asked if there was a single comparable example of someone being banned for a posting indiscretion from over ten years back. I understand that the Mod team took the chronology into account as mitigation in terms of the duration of the ban, but I've just never seen a comparable investigation into someone's posts from a decade ago in my few years posting here and a fair few lurking without posting before that (to be clear, this is the only account I've ever held, so before the date on this account it was purely lurking: happy for anyone to give me an aul Francie style investigation on that matter if they so choose).

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118437494#Comment_118437494

Fresh eyes on the matter this morning, I'd find it easier to buy this than Blanch's, 'twas merely justice as received by anyone' view. Can certainly understand the mod/admin decision through that context.

Fionn1952

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118437530#Comment_118437530

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118437541#Comment_118437541

This, 'brothers in arms' and, 'francie and his defenders' nonsense is precisely the sort of low grade nonsense I was referring to earlier when we were discussing your suggestions around increased vigilance @blanch152. Any disagreement leading to one side being painted as in any way connected to eachother.

That being said, I've certainly directed similar towards you, which I'll be more cognizant of in future, lest I paint myself as a hypocrite.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118437243#Comment_118437243

You make the assumption its just one person using multiple accounts. It could well be multiple people using the one computer and all have access to the accounts. They work in shifts. A fruitful way to identify them is to identify the IPs that never seem to sleep

Is it just 10 year old sock puppeting,which will be actioned....or have mods/admins opened floodgates for all posts ever to be reviewed & actioned upon?

Couldnt imagine really caring about comments 10 years ago,even comments a week ago dont bother me,

fair play to those who have time/interest to persue such an investigation,will they scrutinize all other accounts now aswell.