Could be using a number of things to change IP Address. Some internet companies have dynamic IP addresses that change every time you log on. Either that or more likely a proxy service like Tor or HideMyAss. If he is using a dynamic IP his location would still be the same (despite the different IP) you could try running the IP’s through IPTrackeronline.com to find and publish his home address (bet he would like that).
If he is using proxy’s it would be harder to pin him down, though I’m sure the operators of the platform could find a way. One way to get around the troll would be using the Capcha program that would require all comments to go into moderation. Could probably set comments from trusted user IP’s, like the regulars here, to go through without moderation and just have new Users/IP’s comments automatically sent for moderation approval. If all his comments went to “pending approval” before showing up he would probably lose interest.

Posted by: Colm O’ Toole | Oct 30 2012 20:22 utc | 4

I noticed this persona. He (almost certainly) is different from most disruptive trolls I have encountered in that he seems to be a real leftist, if somewhat of a fringy. Probably an antisemite. Obviously reads Mondioweiss and may even has or had a handle over there. Maybe he could traced using syntax analysis.

Posted by: ToivoS | Oct 30 2012 20:45 utc | 6

@ Colm O’Tool,
Remember the good ol’ days of Israel’s flagship the ‘megaphone?’
@ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megaphone_desktop_tool
The less you are allowed to say, the less the value of a blog/web site/etc.
I can deal with trolls and bigots, but am allergic to censorship [in what ever form or shape].
@ ToivoS,
The word ‘anitsemite’ has completely lost is meaning. By now, it merely means an individual is critical of the Israeli government and/or Israel’s policies in general. It’s overuse in attempts to stifle sincere and honest debates is therefore paying off handsomely.

Posted by: Daniel Rich | Oct 30 2012 21:01 utc | 8

Yes, is probably an Hasbarabot. Just don’t mind, or counter-troll them with an equal and opposite trolling force.

Posted by: Tom | Oct 30 2012 21:29 utc | 10

This is a problem close to my heart and wanting a solution. So much time wasted with these trolls when there is so much value here when their not disrupting conversations. I agree with somebody and Frank that it is a sign of high value that it happens here so much. But that’s not really consolation.
It is interesting to me, b, how you know

He has used the following names: [NAMES]. It is all the same person.

[NAMES] are all the same person since each has a different IP address. I detected a strong similarity between the “style” of SF and hu bris but none of the others, probably because I didn’t read much of the others posts. I was tempted to make a comment to SF of how similar his posts were to hu bris’ but when he didn’t reply to my last post to him on OT 2012-26 I dropped it. It was a totally intuitive sense I had about them being the same poster. I have done a quick search on Authorship Attribution but found nothing that wouldn’t take less than a semester course and a lot of practical experience in able to become proficient. And even then it’s not a science but more of an art. Perhaps some of our regulars have some knowledge of some software that could aid in Authorship Attribution? I don’t think Tor or Hide My Ass specifically address this issue.
Colm O’Toole,

don’t see why you would visit a site you don’t like and post loads of comments there everyday. Certainly a sign of a boring life.

I feel the same and I questioned both Slothrop and especially hu bris on the amount of time and effort they spent disrupting this blog. I think you are right in your first sentence that, at least for hu bris, that he is a professional troll with a specific agenda.

Posted by: juannie | Oct 30 2012 23:03 utc | 12

There should be HTTP header fields (like ‘user agent’ etc) that come up with his/her posts. Maybe you can ask your host to provide these for the various personas, and see if there is a pattern. The ‘user agent’ is usually used to advertise what browser the client is using, but there are programs to switch or bork this. Other fields are harder to bork. Your host may have request filtering set up already, or may be interested in doing this in the future.

Posted by: Dr. Wellington Yueh | Oct 30 2012 23:22 utc | 14

I am a fairly recent reader of MoA. I am impressed by the information in this site. Maybe, one day, I will be able to contribute substantively on a given issue.
Re: the troll.
Start by just flagging his (hers?) posts by overwriting the text with an MoA message. I hope that a longer term solution can be found, where the task can be automated.
Are the troll’s comments found elsewhere in the net?

Posted by: JaimeInTexaz | Oct 31 2012 1:06 utc | 16

Hu-Bris is Im sure someone that did post at Mondoweiss.

Posted by: demize! | Oct 31 2012 2:02 utc | 18

@ToivoS said”: I noticed this persona. He (almost certainly) is different from most disruptive trolls I have encountered in that he seems to be a real leftist, if somewhat of a fringy. Probably an antisemite. Obviously reads Mondioweiss and may even has or had a handle over there. Maybe he could traced using syntax analysis.” You are such a ridiculous asshole it baffles me. I think you may be a troll, Im snitch jacketing you right now. No one can be so hopelessly obtuse and unself-aware without having an agenda. Your single mission in life seems to be ferreting “antisemitism” aka saying bad stuff bout Joos while said are actuallyu committing pogroms as we speak and are the single most powerful elite block in domestic affairs. Plus a dude who runs a blog is not going to do “syntax analysis” to catch a troll. What are you friggen Sherlock Holmes? Just because you sniff around wearing a deerstalker and carry a magnifying glass looking for “antisemitism” doesnt mean everyone is as neurotic and narcissistict as you. Now I will add, which I am loathe to do because it shouldnt matter< that I am a "Jew" myself and think all this hyper sensitivity is rediculous as well as a false paradigm. To those who arent aware he is one of the main persecutors of a woman who founded Free Gaza .org and put her life on the line as a Gaza siege runner for being a guess what? an "antisemite" because she linked to a Eustace Mullins video on the Federal Reserve. Thats right this arm chair Torquemada was and is busy purging actual Gaza Seige Runners because they linked unapproved information.

Posted by: demize! | Oct 31 2012 2:14 utc | 20

“If anyone has a good idea how we can get rid of that idiot please let me know”
Hmmmm. Well, can you give a blogsite an enema???

Posted by: PissedOffAmerican | Oct 31 2012 2:38 utc | 22

@22
well, if you did give this blog an enema you’d end up having to wash out practically ALL of the whining babies commenting on this thread
The best thing about this website is not b himself but some of the commenters – and none of the smart commenters are to be found whining about trolls, in this thread –
(except #20 & 21 – him I like – he totally nailed that ToivoS twat that sees ANti-Semites under his bed every night)
FFS – Mossad-hasbara conspiracy theories- what are ye like?
You bunch of gormless fucktards couldn’t spot a proper conspiracy theory if it ran up and bit ye on the arse
Oh and b, “Attempts to block his IP address from commenting failed because the IP addresses he uses are changing every few comments and are jumping all over various quite diverse IP-address blocks. (I am interested to learn what tool is enabling this.)”
obviously not THAT much of an idiot then, eh?

Posted by: Tyrol | Oct 31 2012 3:01 utc | 24

@23
“That is their tactic, to define antisemitism as criticism of Israel. This is what the Zionist desire.”
and idiots like you use it to silence any criticism of Jewish group-identity, as if, unlike every other group-identity in existence, it’s some sacred-cow immune from any and all criticism.
you’re really no different than the Zios

Posted by: Zio-Weiss? | Oct 31 2012 3:27 utc | 26

“Is it too much to hope for people to lose the ‘anti-Semitic’ nonsense label for something that should be called anti-Jewish?”
Yes.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 31 2012 4:15 utc | 28

Khalid you are quite correct about the meaning of Semitic. The term “anti-Semitic” is a term that was defined by its use in the West and its meaning from the very beginning was unrelated to the Semitic people of the Mediterranean world. It came out of Germany and it applied to European Jews and more specifically to the Jews of Eastern Europe. I am aware that these people are not Semitic in the way you use it. However, it is a term that has meaning in the West quite independently from what we understand as the Semitic people of the Mideast. Etymology is an understanding of the origin of words and the way in which their meanings have changed throughout history. In that sense “anti-Semitism” has assumed meaning divorced from what you think it should mean.
I would be happy to see this usage abandoned, but right now it is in current use, especially in the US. It is a term that is politically charged and I refuse to let the Zionist define its meaning as opposition to the policies of the Israel state. Therefore, I will try to deny them that opportunity and to keep the meaning that the 19th and 20th century anti-Semites had in mind when they tried to exterminate the Jews of Europe.

Posted by: ToivoS | Oct 31 2012 5:37 utc | 30

If anyone has a good idea how we can get rid of that idiot please let me know./BLOCKQUOTE>
I know it’s easier said than done but everyone should try to ignore disruptive comments.If we stick to that plan the troll will eventually lose interest.

Posted by: Calig | Oct 31 2012 5:47 utc | 32

“As a Jew, I abhor the fact that the Zionist rulers of Israel/Palestine claim they are acting in the name of Jews everywhere. I am one of many Jews internationally, and in Israel itself, who declare ‘Not in my name.’” see right there he is reinforcing the special preciousness of his tribal affiliation. As a Jew,As a Jew what other group does this? How about as a person I abhor the depraved nature of this anachronism of a confessional state. As a Jew I detest @ToivoS because he is neurotic twat.

Posted by: demize! | Oct 31 2012 6:19 utc | 34

Er Demize!!. You seem to be implying I made that statement. Not at all. Not only am I not a Jew, but by birth (both sides of my family going back at least 3 generations that include two ministers) I am a Lutheran. Your vitriol is irrational.

Posted by: ToivoS | Oct 31 2012 6:59 utc | 36

Well b you have certainly stirred your troll into action with this posting. He has reappeared as Zio Weiss? (formerly !), Tyrol and (is it you demize!). One nasty cat to be sure. And then a hapless thomas shows up with an irrelevant post raising all sorts of suspicions as to his provenance. b if you are fishing then you have certainly caused a few nibbles and bites here, hope you can hook one. Demize has recently been purged from the MW site (good riddance for sure). I am a fan of Tony Hillerman’s novels — mysteries if you don’t know — and this brings to mind the “Shape Shifters”. Good luck in your sleuthing.

Posted by: ToivoS | Oct 31 2012 7:46 utc | 38

if you think Israel shows “there’s a problem with Jews”, then you are racist, an antisemite in particular;
antisemitism exists, it is a form of European/Western identity politics; in its modern form (XIX century) it is ethnically defined (derived from that Arian-Semite BS) and has little to do with older Christian anti-Judaism
Zionism is European Jewish identity politics born as a mimicry of, and a reaction to European identity politics, where Jews (a little minority, until after WWII) accepted the European racial definitions; Israel shows there is a problem with Europeans/Westerners, not with Jews
worldwide Jewish support of Israel is totally analogous to, and is a component of worldwide Western support of Western racism and colonialism
Gilad Atzom is my favorite writer on these matters

Posted by: claudio | Oct 31 2012 8:08 utc | 40

they are showing now what I can, above claudio is not “claudio” and I fully expect multiple somebodies here …
This is the issue – from the Guardian
“The anonymity of the web gives companies and governments golden opportunities to run astroturf operations: fake grassroots campaigns that create the impression that large numbers of people are demanding or opposing particular policies. This deception is most likely to occur where the interests of companies or governments come into conflict with the interests of the public. For example, there’s a long history of tobacco companies creating astroturf groups to fight attempts to regulate them.
After I wrote about online astroturfing in December, I was contacted by a whistleblower. He was part of a commercial team employed to infest internet forums and comment threads on behalf of corporate clients, promoting their causes and arguing with anyone who opposed them.
Like the other members of the team, he posed as a disinterested member of the public. Or, to be more accurate, as a crowd of disinterested members of the public: he used 70 personas, both to avoid detection and to create the impression there was widespread support for his pro-corporate arguments. I’ll reveal more about what he told me when I’ve finished the investigation I’m working on.
It now seems that these operations are more widespread, more sophisticated and more automated than most of us had guessed. Emails obtained by political hackers from a US cyber-security firm called HBGary Federal suggest that a remarkable technological armoury is being deployed to drown out the voices of real people.
As the Daily Kos has reported, the emails show that:
• Companies now use “persona management software”, which multiplies the efforts of each astroturfer, creating the impression that there’s major support for what a corporation or government is trying to do.
• This software creates all the online furniture a real person would possess: a name, email accounts, web pages and social media. In other words, it automatically generates what look like authentic profiles, making it hard to tell the difference between a virtual robot and a real commentator.
• Fake accounts can be kept updated by automatically reposting or linking to content generated elsewhere, reinforcing the impression that the account holders are real and active.
• Human astroturfers can then be assigned these “pre-aged” accounts to create a back story, suggesting that they’ve been busy linking and retweeting for months. No one would suspect that they came onto the scene for the first time a moment ago, for the sole purpose of attacking an article on climate science or arguing against new controls on salt in junk food.
• With some clever use of social media, astroturfers can, in the security firm’s words, “make it appear as if a persona was actually at a conference and introduce himself/herself to key individuals as part of the exercise … There are a variety of social media tricks we can use to add a level of realness to fictitious personas.”
Perhaps the most disturbing revelation is this. The US Air Force has been tendering for companies to supply it with persona management software, which will perform the following tasks:
a. Create “10 personas per user, replete with background, history, supporting details, and cyber presences that are technically, culturally and geographically consistent … Personas must be able to appear to originate in nearly any part of the world and can interact through conventional online services and social media platforms.”
b. Automatically provide its astroturfers with “randomly selected IP addresses through which they can access the internet” (an IP address is the number which identifies someone’s computer), and these are to be changed every day, “hiding the existence of the operation”. The software should also mix up the astroturfers’ web traffic with “traffic from multitudes of users from outside the organisation. This traffic blending provides excellent cover and powerful deniability.”
c. Create “static IP addresses” for each persona, enabling different astroturfers “to look like the same person over time”. It should also allow “organisations that frequent same site/service often to easily switch IP addresses to look like ordinary users as opposed to one organisation.”
Software like this has the potential to destroy the internet as a forum for constructive debate. It jeopardises the notion of online democracy. Comment threads on issues with major commercial implications are already being wrecked by what look like armies of organised trolls – as you can sometimes see on guardian.co.uk.”

Posted by: somebody | Oct 31 2012 8:15 utc | 42

This blog was started when Billmon closed the Whiskey Bar because he did not like the comments on “his” blog.
Although Bernhard does some excellent analysis ( eg recently taking the time to document media lies on Syria) – he does not “own” the conversation, and in my opinion is making a fundamental error in judgment by appealing to “my regular commentators”.
If he doesn’t like the comments, he can follow Billmon’s example of firstly shutting down comments, then closing the bar.
No one here posts under their own name, but still they can’t check their ego before entering the bar.
How can “somebody” get upset by a put-down by “Hu Bris”?
Get real – you either have something to say and say it – or do as you please. This is not a club, there is no crying on the internet, it is not be a safe zone for poseurs.

Posted by: DM | Oct 31 2012 8:38 utc | 44

lol guys sorry for the typos and weird syntax I cant type when Im pissed off.

Posted by: demize! | Oct 31 2012 9:28 utc | 46

I did write a personal troll remover Chrome Extension, mentioned here:
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2012/07/syria-a-turn-in-western-media-coverage.html#c6a00d8341c640e53ef017743b9af6b970d
It works based on user names and removes the specific comment block if the name matches the list.
Something similar may be possible at server level, but I don’t know Typepad to suggest any technique…
If there’s a match name (or even some keywords) mark the comment as “check for troll”.
Another option is to have a “Flag this comment” link in each comment. But surely enough this can be trolled too.

Posted by: citizen x | Oct 31 2012 11:43 utc | 48

“Gilad Atzom is my favorite writer on these matters”
you do realise that Mr-Anti-Semites-Under-The-Bed himself along with all the flaccid Spatch-cocks that inhabit MondoWeiss consider Atzmon to be not only AS but a “Hollycost” denier (!!!!)
By extension you are obviously a filthy AS and Holly-cost denier (!!!) in their eyes now, too.
@ the clueless gimp posting @42
“c. Create “static IP addresses” for each persona, enabling different astroturfers “to look like the same person over time”.”
Did you even read b’s original post? The bit where he says that the IP’s change all the time? Oh wait, I get it. You’re trying to look both relevant and knowledgeable by grabbing whatever you can find on Google that appears germane (but then how would a clueless-gimp recognise “germane”? A paradox wrapped in an enigma, eh?) and posting it here

Posted by: @claudio | Oct 31 2012 12:23 utc | 50

Somebody@42

US Air Force has been tendering for companies to supply it with persona management software, which will perform the following tasks:

Do you have a good reference for this? If so, something I’ld like to have/know thoroughly. Thx.

Posted by: jdmckay | Oct 31 2012 14:32 utc | 52

DOD Social Media Sites – United States Department of Defense …
http://www.defense.gov/registeredsites/socialmediasites.aspx
The Department of Defense social media directory lists all of DOD’s official pages across various social media networks. Social media is all about collaboration, and we want to hear from you. Check out our pages, ask questions, provide feedback and share your thoughts.
Do you have an official DOD-level social media page that you want included in this directory? If so, please submit the link, using an official e-mail account, and the page will be added to the registry.
For Service-level social media pages — i.e. Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy, etc. — please register with one of the following Service-specific registries. After the Services have approved the pages, they will be automatically added to the main DOD directory.
Army – http://www.army.mil/media/socialmedia/
Navy – http://www.navy.mil/socialmedia/
Marines – http://www.marines.mil/News/SocialMedia.aspx
Air Force – http://www.af.mil/socialmedia.asp
Pentagon Contractor Admits To Perpetrating Online Smear Campaign Against USA Today Reporters
Camille Chidiac, the minority owner and former president of Leonie Industries, one of the consulting firms that works with the Pentagon and was featured prominently in USA Today’s reporting, took responsibility for the misinformation campaign. USA Today reports:
“I take full responsibility for having some of the discussion forums opened and reproducing their previously published USA TODAY articles on them,” he said a statement released by his attorney, Lin Wood, of Atlanta.
“I recognize and deeply regret that my actions have caused concerns for Leonie and the U.S. military. This was never my intention. As an immediate corrective action, I am in the process of completely divesting my remaining minority ownership from Leonie,” Chidiac said.
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/05/24/490237/pentagon-contractor-admits-to-perpetrating-online-smear-campaign-against-usa-today-reporters/
DARPA contract solicitation
Social Media in Strategic Communication (SMISC)
Solicitation Number: DARPA-BAA-11-64
DARPA is soliciting innovative research proposals in the area of social media in strategic communication. Proposed research should investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in science, devices, or systems.
“SMISC needs to be able to seek out “persuasion campaign structures and influence operations” developing across the social sphere. SMISC is supposed to quickly flag rumors and emerging themes on social media, figure out who’s behind it and what. Moreover, Darpa wants SMISC to be able to actually figure out whether this is a random product of the hivemind or a propaganda operation by an adversary nation or group.”
five contract awards Jan-Mar 2012
#System and Technology Research LLC $6,157,220
# University of Southern California $1,497,365 SentiMetrix $661,568
#Georgia Tech Research Corporation $776,351
#Indiana University $515,887
#International Business Machines Corporation $8,987,156
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/04/usa-today-pentagon/#disqus_thread
Pentagon Wants a Social Media Propaganda Machine
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/darpa-wants-social-media-sensor-for-propaganda-ops/?utm_source=Contextly&utm_medium=RelatedLinks&utm_campaign=Previous

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 31 2012 14:53 utc | 54

jdmkay, it has been all over the net
this here is a more indepth article by the Guardian
this here is Huffington Post
the Californian company involved is Ntrepid
Ntrepid runs “Anonymizer”

Posted by: somebody | Oct 31 2012 14:55 utc | 56

@57
Ntrepid’s website has… nothing… but email address. Guardian link says it was “recently formed”, coinciding w/announcement of this project. Be interesing to see what connected non-techie donor received this contract, and… by what means. Quik google doesn’t turn up much, on ownership.
This is EZ stuff to write. $2.7m pretty sweet deal.
Saw a ton of this kind’a thing, back in W’s earlier years… ton of it. Rep. “Duke” Cunningham scandal for instance, All Abramhoff’s malfeasance… much more.
Still stunning to me just how utterly… thoroughly, intentionally corrupting most everything Bush did… was. And… how the affects of all that so carries forward now. Yet, they all walked free, little public consciousness of undeniable continuity of “that stuff” w/much of US’s broken down state…
rather incredible.

Posted by: jdmckay | Oct 31 2012 15:24 utc | 58

Sure, Don Bacon, lots of that is either legitimate opinion or a crafty exercise in calling the glass half full instead of half empty. As long as the media gives the facts I do not worry about the opinion they write in between. I begin to worry when they invent or create events, or keep silent on events. Or when someone creates personas trying to confuse me.
Let’s face it, good journalism has to be paid for and nothing relieves us from thinking for ourselves.
Wikileaks has a fun ‘security presentation’ by Ntrepid – which includes the recommendation to use serveral IP adresses when “engaged in web harvesting”
The web connects Ntrepid with Abraxas and quotes Virginia’s company record with
Richard H. Helms (director and officer)
Wesley R. Husted (officer)
Margaret A. Lee (officer)
concluding it is a front company made up of ex-CIA officers …

Posted by: somebody | Oct 31 2012 16:05 utc | 60

@62 Quite correct. Propaganda is what Chinese and Russians do.

Posted by: dh | Oct 31 2012 16:27 utc | 62

I would like to explain how the term “anti-Semitic” arose. It originated with the conservative parties in Germany. One of the dilemmas a conservative party has in a country with universal suffrage is how to get the average labourer or lower middle class person to vote for it. Here is the way the German conservative parties solved it.
They worked to develop a consciousness feeling of the nation to break the feeling of class solidarity revealed in the French Revolution and the Revolution of 1848 when the working and middle classes saw how the rich sided with the aristocracy, who attempted to use force to break the two revolutions. In Germany, they did this by taking the German mentality of hard work and efficiency and transforming into a national identity based on an artificial linguistic unity (Written German is based on one of the most archaic dialects of German; most dialects have a simpler grammar.) and a cultivated claim of a common racial origin.
However, the German Jews posed a problem. Most of them were not Orthodox but were Reform (in spirit similar to Unitarianism compared to Catholicism), so the German Gentiles rarely saw Jewish men walking around wearing a kippa / yarmulke, long curls instead of sideburns / sideboards and full beards. Furthermore, the Jews were pro-French Revolution and pro-Revolution of 1848 as their rights were finally being recognized. So in most respects they were assimilated Germans. They shared the German mentality but they most definitely were not believers in a common racial origin. The conservatives needed to neutralize the Jews, so these conservatives developed the notion of Anti-Semite, originally a euphemism designed to emphasize the foreignness of Jews.

Posted by: Albertde | Oct 31 2012 17:09 utc | 64

66, very sorry, I just did not think you would join a diversion on Zionism in a thread on trolls …
but, of course, anonymous names can be used by everybody. I have done it before here to make a point in the thread on the Iranian election, where people thought their name and IP address were proof they were Iranians reporting from the street, and I found someone posting as somebody who was not me, but of course, who am I to complain, everybody is somebody, and of course “somebody” cannot be offended by “Hu-Bris” :-))

Posted by: somebody | Oct 31 2012 17:50 utc | 66

68 agree.

Posted by: somebody | Oct 31 2012 18:20 utc | 68

Watching you two is like receiving a masterclass in idiocy
“and it’s telling that one of the most powerful rhetorical weapons colonialists have to silence opposition is the anti-Semite card, cultivating the current confusion”
yes, and ToivoS and Noah were the ones to use it.
“and it’s telling that the anti-Semite anathema is invoked, sooner or later, by most trolls”
So ToivoS and Noah are trolls, obviously

Posted by: @idiots | Oct 31 2012 18:37 utc | 70

@idiots – you need a course in elementary logic; “most trolls play the anti-semite card” doesn’t mean that if you are anti-semite you are troll
ToivoS might sound like an anti-Semite from what he said at @23

There does exist a good old fashioned meaning to that word and many who subscribe to it will join the struggle for Palestinian justice to promote their own hate of Jews in general.

but that would be uncharacteristic of him in relation to his posts till now, and anyways that doesn’t make him a troll
Noah said the opposite of what you claim

Posted by: claudio | Oct 31 2012 19:50 utc | 72

Of course, the advice ‘don’t feed the troll/s’ is good sense.
However, if troll posts cannot be immediately deleted, one can feel obliged to counter the ‘facts’ or arguments which they contain.
Anyway, it is good that this particular troll (former identities including Zio-Weiss & Ed Milliband, now posting as @idiot & @idiot #1 etc) has been emphatically ‘outed’, whether he / she is a minor hasbara operation to try & discredit this website, or a rather industrious someone with an ‘honest’ anti-Jewish ethnic / sectarian agenda.

Posted by: Noah | Oct 31 2012 20:50 utc | 74

The rather obvious solution to this problem is dumping the anonymous posting and requiring actual registration of a valid email address and logging in for attribution. I’ve seen it in use for years now, but I really couldn’t say what it might involve. I’m just a plastic process technician (engineering of another kind) so I don’t really know much about software engineering. I did use my actual email address here years ago and never got spammed, so something like that might be practical. I’ve grown used to keeping track of the various personalities here, and there are some I just skip over as soon as I recognize them. No, not SufferingFools/HuBris/various idiots but another cut’n’paste artist I don’t like. The news and information I find first only here is worth a little reading before I just skip over what I find useless.

Posted by: Jim T | Nov 1 2012 1:26 utc | 76

“Most of FP and The Atlantic blogs fit in this category, particularly favoring the State Department”
Yeah. That Clemons ended up being a huge disappointment, didn’t he? Sold out, to the core.

Posted by: PissedOffAmerican | Nov 1 2012 2:01 utc | 78

Damn, these guys seem to popping up out all over here.
Nice work on calling them out B, but it’s starting to look like ‘The Revenge of the Zombie Trolls’ on some these threads…
Maybe take it as a compliment to your excellent work, B – not many genuinely ‘serious’ multi-issue blogs attract this much disruptive attention.
Also good to hear about Gareth Porter’s new book – much needed, & hopefully will make a wider impression.
—
RE: somebody @42 – Nice work on posting the links & info – was hoping someone would dig up some links on the ‘business’ side of things.
Wouldn’t mind seeing something like a cross between Rightweb ( http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ ) & a wikileaks subthread permanently tracking how many & how big these companies are getting, as well as tracking & naming names of professional trolls (don’t have the time or skillset myself)…

Posted by: KenM | Nov 1 2012 7:13 utc | 80

I just serendipitously ran across this which is most appropriate for this thread.
COINTELPRO Techniques for Dilution, Misdirection and Control of an Internet Forum
I start with the conclusion:

CONCLUSION
Remember these techniques are only effective if the forum participants DO NOT KNOW ABOUT THEM. Once they are aware of these techniques the operation can completely fail, and the forum can become uncontrolled. At this point other avenues must be considered such as initiating a false legal precidence to simply have the forum shut down and taken offline. This is not desirable as it then leaves the enforcement agencies unable to track the percentage of those in the population who always resist attempts for control against them. Many other techniques can be utilized and developed by the individual and as you develop further techniques of infiltration and control it is imperative to share then with HQ.

COINTELPRO Techniques for dilution, misdirection and control of a internet forum.
There are several techniques for the control and manipulation of a internet forum no matter what, or who is on it. We will go over each technique and demonstrate that only a minimal number of operatives can be used to eventually and effectively gain a control of a ‘uncontrolled forum.’
Technique #1 – ‘FORUM SLIDING’
…
Technique #2 – ‘CONSENSUS CRACKING’
…
Technique #3 – ‘TOPIC DILUTION’
…
Technique #4 – ‘INFORMATION COLLECTION’
…
Technique #5 – ‘ANGER TROLLING’
…
Technique #6 – ‘GAINING FULL CONTROL’

Definitely worth checking out.

Posted by: juannie | Nov 1 2012 13:49 utc | 82

@All
I have now found a way to block the idiots comments coming through the Tor network that he uses to hide his IP address. It seems to work well. There are already five of his comments in the spam queue waiting for their deletion.
At least for now his party is over.

Posted by: b | Nov 1 2012 17:35 utc | 84

jeez I hope this doesn’t double post. fuckin captured by captcha eh?
Well in one way I’m pleased to see that many have finally realised that blogs on contentious issues are frequently distorted and digressed (OK using an active verb in a passive sense? is bad grammar, hmm I digress 🙂 [doncha hate ‘smileys’] by types who for whatever reason from paycheck to personality disorder invest a heap of effort into disruption.
In the end it doesn’t matter whether the disruptor is paid or just fucked up, just as whether or not they actually believe their bullshit is irrelevant.
Much of the problem comes from an undue reliance on other web sites as ‘proof’ especially when one is doing little more than just parroting an already stated & circulated argument. Then it is just too easy for drones (in the original sense & meaning both human and digital) to hunt down supporting ‘evidence’ for their cliched contention. All participants do it and the result is distorting, opaque, uninformative dross. (See the weather thread a week or so back).
Lately my mind has been absorbed by the way that divisive anti-humanist agendas are completely dominating ‘western culture’. This has culminated in the best contemporary ‘Art’ originating from an anti-humanist perspective, and is something that immensely saddens me.
Worse in popular culture. I’ve written about 5 pieces (I never found anywhere to post em too many people arguin the number of angels on a pinhead etc.) which compare the ersatz left attempt to brainwash the masses, Aaron Sorkin’s dire n schmaltzy ‘The Newsroom’ a piece of absolute crap released in a failed attempt to explain ‘the truth about the tea party to amerika’ with the right’s entry into popular culture, Kelsey Grammar’s excellent and worthy (well according to my artistic sensibility anyway) TV series that explores the corrupt political environment that spawned Barak oblamblam, a TV show, “Boss’.
There is simply no comparison. Boss stands on its own as drama and uses the medium (TV drama & its fascination with who is fucking who and whose picking up the tab)in new and interesting ways, mostly avoiding all the cliches that Sorkin’s garbage grabs with both hands.
So what is all this doing in an hysterical thread about the buzzword of new media dummies for 2012, trolls?
Simply that exploring ideas such as the extent to which amerikan imperialism has succeeded in dominating the landscape, to the point where the best cultural endeavour is dominated by it, is likely to be more interesting and provocative than endless restatements of hackneyed ideas about false flags n conspiracies.
Better yet it is only by dissecting anti-humanist strategies, that people have any hope at all of countering them.
Trolls are basically dumb, sure some are articulate but they are peeps who have missed the point of life so they waste their existence tryin to ‘fuck with others’. Discussing ideas that they can’t google, then cut n paste a counter for is the best way of frog marching em out the door.

Posted by: Debs is dead | Nov 1 2012 22:22 utc | 86

juannie 83, that’s a really interesting link.
thanks b, i do not envy you.

Posted by: annie | Nov 2 2012 0:09 utc | 88

yeah, the point about proxy servers is that they hide private information to websites and to ISP providers so that the proxy server has all this information to itself :-))

Posted by: somebody | Nov 2 2012 7:09 utc | 90

I think you may have killed the wrong pig.

Posted by: DM | Nov 2 2012 11:07 utc | 92

94, 1) the smartphone dictation function presumably is an “app” so if that app is not programmed to fill in the forms of web pages, that’s it.
Large commercial websites usually serve different versions of websites to desktop pc’s and handhelds. It is up to the website provider.

Posted by: somebody | Nov 3 2012 6:48 utc | 94

ctuttle, sure i have my own ideas. my hunch is it was black flag as noah mentioned, but i could be wrong. but that’s just my hunch. i don’t fancy myself as a syntax specialist. also, it didn’t really bother me. par for the course.
i thought it was interesting it was happening here at moa.

Posted by: annie | Nov 3 2012 22:25 utc | 96

This is crazy_inventor. I stopped posting here awhile back because I was only interested in Fukushima, and when you indicated you weren’t, I took it as my cue that in order to avoid being a troll, to buzz off..
I occasionally take a quick look here every few weeks or so.
However
I have directed people to here to see the real situation re: Syria, and the place (la-imc) IS infested with trolls.. In fact I stopped posting there as well, (even though I’m welcome to) because it’s a waste of time since only a few trolls read the comments there and posts from people not in the ‘in group’ are never syndicated..
La-imc is infested with exactly what people above have described – zio-trolls – who specialize in using other people’s nics and so on, to spread FUD, smear them, etc..
You can go there http://la.indymedia.org/comment_latest.php and see for yourself, where I posted a few threads re: climate change, fukushima. (tried to encourage people to build thier own radiation detectors, just like here)
I take a dim view of trolls spoofing my nic, so I’m only posting this comment to let you know. I normally use Tor (anyone can) but am posting this from my hometown IP on purpose as a sign of faith. IMC knows who and where I am (I’ve been dealing with them for over 10 years) which is why I can publish news there (unwelcome posters/trolls/spammers have thier posts hidden – you can view the hidden posts there from a link on the main page near the bottom)
Also the e-mail I supplied here relates to the radio stations, which the spoofer doesn’t know. Only you, IMC, exiled online, and a few other admins do. It’s an old inactive e-mail I stopped using years ago, so a google search might show it here & there but years back.
It’s not publicly known to trolls and spammers/spoofers.
Wow I just googled it myself and the only hit was from a dump of the rootkit.com MySQL database, that Anonymous released.. 🙂
good thing I closed out that e-mail years ago..
There you are – that e-mail, IMC showing my un-hidden crazy_inventor published stories, and using my local IP here now, authenticates the real crazy_inventor. I wanted you to know it’s not me, but someone spoofing my nic. I simply lost interest in commenting here..

Posted by: crazy_inventor | Nov 4 2012 18:35 utc | 98