Troll magnet, definitely

[fpb]

Today's awakening, though less unpleasant than yesterday's, was still attended by a nasty sockpuppet. Someone calling itself atropaxbeladona (appropriately, a compound of the mispelled names of two poisons) thoughtfully provided a link to a couple of articles (from those celebrated sources of unbiased news, MSNBC and the New Jerk Dimes) which stated that the two women who were killed or killed themselves in the pet market at Baghdad, killing about a hundred innocent people who were there just shopping for pets (and I don't think anyone has even counted the slaughtered and still more innocent animals), were not in fact Down's Syndrome victims. And your point is? Apart from the fact that this does not make the butchery any less heinous, it is well known that terrorists used or tried to use Down's victims, little children, or even babies, in the same way, in Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan and even Pakistan. Even supposing the news were false, it was still credible. That is the sort of thing terrorists do, sockpuppet.

The interesting thing about the atropaxbeladona sockpuppet is that it was set up with some deliberation. According to its user info, the blog was still established in late January. There is only one post, which is basically an "eff-you" to anyone reading. Fairly clearly this is a shit-stirrer of the same kind as jezreelite, probably the same person. (The IP address is different, but that proves nothing.) I almost feel I could put a name to it. But imagine someone who goes to all that trouble, and spends weeks of its time waiting, purely in order to make life a bit more unpleasant to someone else!

In spite of what I said, the creature will not, for the present, be banned. Just so that everyone can contemplate what an elaborate job of sockpuppetry has been carried out here. Jesus, don't you people have a life?

Comments

[redcoast.livejournal.com]

You know, maybe they just wanted to talk to you?

[fpb.livejournal.com]

And you spend weeks setting up unpleasant sockpuppets just for that?

[redcoast.livejournal.com]

Maybe they aren't sockpuppets.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Two different persons set up accounts that are, as we say, as alike as two drops of water. (They both, for instance, start with an outrageous and insulting post.) They both visit my account within a day of each other, to say the same kind of things. The first of the two is indubitably a sockpuppet, and they are alike in character, attitude, and eloquence. What are the odds? You are an intelligent lady, Rebecca, you tell me.

[redcoast.livejournal.com]

Does having two accounts on LJ equal sockpuppeting, anyway? Do you feel assaulted because someone uses two different fake names instead of one fake name?

Actually, let's have the IP addresses. Now I'm curious.

Anyway, I kind of have limited sympathy for you in this particular case because you know that you attract trolls, and yet you don't restrict posting to friend's-only or take any of the various precautions that you could take.

[norwyn.livejournal.com]

I suppose you could be flattered that they took all that time and effort to set up sockpuppets just to annoy you...

I'm joking, please smile. I hate that you have to deal with this crap, as I'm sure it made your morning tea (coffee?) somewhat less pleasant, with this side dish of garbage.

Special Delivery for Captain Butthurt

[atropaxbeladona.livejournal.com]

I think you're just upset because someone called you on your mistake. Therefore, you're trying to cloud the issue by saying that the terrorist attack was still horrible regardless (which it was) and that I'm a sockpuppet (which I'm not.) I don't know this jerzeelite person you speak of, nor do I care to.

Since you seem to doubt the credibility of MSNBC and the New York Times, how about more articles from the Associated Press (http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hyCCxHh2AwrdW2d7AU-SJXtg8TLwD8UU8M200), the Taipei Times (http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2008/02/22/2003402352), Fox News (http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Feb20/0,4670,IraqBombers,00.html). I regret that I couldn't find any articles from Italian newspapers, which you seem to regard as pillars of objective journalism.

And by the way, you're quite wrong about my username. Atropa belladonna, also known as deadly nightshade, is a highly poisonous plant, not "a compound of the mispelled [sic] names of two poisons." In my username, Atropa is not misspelled. Belladonna is, but that's because it has too many letters to fit into the character limit LJ allots us.

Final response to Ms.Sockpuppet, Esquire

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Look, sockpuppet, that you amount to one poison or two does not make any difference, any more than the fact that I was mistaken about the way your friends murdered a hundred innocent Iraqis - especially since, as I point out, there had been precedent enough for the abuse of children and mentally disabled people. You are a creep and a coward, and I do not believe your denials for one minute. Take your distinctions without a difference and your absence of morality somewhere else.