Certified Trolls

I never intended to register on Topix. Back in the day, when Troll Mod Susan was Angelique770, she was always harping on people to register with Topix profiles. I figured early on that, if it was important to her, it was important to her and that couldn't be good. S/he claimed that registering would keep one safe from trolling. To illustrate this, she trolled a couple of people until they registered and then quit trolling them. Problem solved!

I did eventually register and it was as a result of being trolled. The former Terri at home had made a big production out of getting something out of (her) closet that amounted to a proxy server. She then made posts in my name, matching my location. People bought it. I don't know if she had done that to others or if Angelique had. I like to think she innocently got duped into thinking that she was (somehow) doing the (seemingly) *right* thing. But, I don't know. People get caught up in group think. Sometimes willingly, sometimes not.

Regardless of her intent, people thought her false Ferrerman posts were mine even though her Ferrerman impersonation was not at all good. The thing is that, with the general Topix population, you don't have to be a Rich Little wordsmith to impersonate someone. You can be like the drunk guy at the party whose impersonations all sound the same. It's the thought that counts if everyone else is wasted as well.

I was thinking about this when Hegel noticed that long after she had been banned the "Game Over" badge had been added to her deleted profile. We gathered that was supposed to be ironic since she had never played the game and, well, getting banned was "game over". Kinda bitchy on Troll Mod Susan's part. I have no such badges, BTW, because Troll Mod didn't ban my avatar, just my IP. Thus, I can't post gray.

It's a control thing. Topix doesn't require people to register except on the new political forum because they make their money in the sheer volume of (mostly) gray posting that goes on all over the world. It is the Troll Mod's idea that everyone post simply so s/he can track you easier.  That's it. The mods know who is who. That's why we don't take the advice of long time posters to re-register using new email addresses and getting new profiles. The mods and Troll Mods know. And they talk...

That's the game we won't play. A lot of posters brag about losing profiles. Lose one, come back with one.Repeat the cycle.

As I pointed out here several months ago, even this little ol' blog is privy to people's IP addresses. Once again, it doesn't mean I know your home address or your shoe size, but it gives me a pretty good idea who is who. And that's even true in some cases where the person is viewing with a proxy. I check IP addresses from time to time and some come up in other familiar locations. I gather proxies get better the more you spend?

The thing is, if my little ol' blog can gather such info, what kind of stuff can a huge operation like Topix gather about you?

I don't know. But, corporations are people, my friends, and surely they are friends just like imaginary people are. What could go wrong?

If you are registered with Topix, quit using your profile. You can't quit your profile- unless you know someone... Only Topix can delete a profile. There are still dead people who have active profiles. Evidently, Topix transcends death! Post gray. Use a proxy if you must as that would at least thwart the Troll Mods. Since they don't do their jobs anyway, why not make it harder for them?