For some reason, I find the shadowthief username fascinating. His posts at Booman Tribune and Daily Kos, from what I looked at, were very good, imho. But then one hears all this bad stuff about him, and the mysteries accumulate. Was he the same dude as the Blogging Curmudgeon? Was he some sort of concern troll, or as donkeytale said, some form of a double agent?
Then I start wondering about the Blogging Curmudgette. Heck, I wonder about a lot of this stuff from the past. It intrigues the fock out of me.
Anyway, I started out at this Marisacat thread. From reading some posts, it appears that shadowthief and the Blogging Curmudgeon were not the same person. I mean, ST and MCat were chatting away, and it seems to me as if Blogging Curmudgeon was a third person.
#91 Marisacat:
...At the time I thought both TBC and Curmudgette were running a bit of a scam to be taken in at WIngless and accorded some sort of rights.
Sorry to be rude, I was right.
One can also look at post #94, where MCat refers to both Curmudgeon and Curmudgette. It wasn't the way one would think she would phrase things, if shadowthief was Curmudgeon.
Uhm, perhaps we should look at the rest of post #91 which preceded the above excerpt.
The only thing that ever happened with Curmudgette as in thsi thread. Starts at about comment 29.
The Blogging Curmudge was careening around the netteries slamming me for my rather simple commentary on Msock. “Go home rest and stop hiding behind the kid. Get a grip. You are boring”
But he was not being consistent. He was coming here complaining about Msock, then emailing a commenter here that he would never post here for a list of reasons.
It was too looney.
So I posted that if Curmudgette agreed with TBC I would be happy to delink from the blogrool.
Not a big deal.
I left a comment at TBCurmudgeon site.
WHile there I noticed Curmudgette had a piece decrying blogging practices and linking to a thread at MBM that was inhabited with DavidBYron, Pyrrho and Supersoling. LOL Gettng their tiny rocks off slamming me. She also linked to a really stupid fp piece by Martin, his Paparazzi piece… slamming me (as well as others, mostly people who started MBM), using a blockquote of a smush of all sorts of comments here from all sorts of people and linking only to an old Sept 06 post here that had nothing to do with blogging or Blahgers…
I asked her that as I was the subject of the two posts she linked to, to please link to my site. Not to delve in and find a post of mine that related to such wide disparity of slams but to link to my site.
She refused saying the post was not about me. yes but she linked to two posts that were all in reference to me.
Basically, I must say that Marisacat comes across, in my humble opinion, as being legit, same with HRH. I'm kind of leaning towards agreeing with Marisacat's analysis, that Curmudgeon and Curmudgette had been working some sort of scam script. The only problem is that the Blogging Curmudgeon made some excellent posts at Booman's. I guess I then lean towards donkeytale's idea of a double agent. Perhaps bait and switch is a good phrase to apply also. But questions linger. Did a poster known as shadowthief have his username stolen and misused similar to how we've seen attempts done to a bunch of us, or was he also part of the act?
Don't Let the Paparazzi Get You Down
There are a lot of goodies to be found in that thread. It appears like Booman was being a whiner of epic proportions trying to cover up the fact that he is indeed a proprietor of some form of fake DKos refugee haven. He was upset that information he had put out about his girlfriend was revealed. He was all over Marisacat as discussed in the MCat thread.
It's as if the Kos Empire was at a point, where they wanted to establish strategies for shutting down sincere meta growing outside of their control.
Again supersoling shows up as usual. Who the hell is this guy, and why has he been in the middle of so much? Wormwood made a great observation a while back. Supersoling and shadowthief can be found on a lot of the same threads. But more than that, he noticed this.... colorsplash62 for supersoling and Shadowthief1962. That is definitely a strange coincidence.
Then what was up with LouisianaGirl and her porn is good for feminism attitude? Curmudgeon's responses were very funny. That's actually a fun thread to look through. It had a Dickensian type evolution with a bunch of layers to it.
The thing with the pole dancing debate actually triggered in my noggin the way Ben Burch has been some alleged feminist who supports the sex industry. Oh wow, if folks could get out of their Kos-centric Meta tunnels, there's a dude who is ripe to be looked into. He's a Mr. Libertarian with a bit too much influence in the "progressive" blogosphere. He also got busted harrassing Violet Blue, a well-known sex writer from California. But this is Digression City.
I'm simply trying to wrap up my Meta questions to the best of my abilities. It can be never ending. It can become mind boggling. Yet, many things can be figured out.
In short, I don't trust Curmudgette one bit. I don't buy into any of the stuff that went on between herself and Curmudgeon. I do believe in MarisaCat, though I admit I'm not one to read her blog too often.
I've a few more goodies to share with this post. I'm not a spammer or blog wrecker, and that's my explanation for some of these longer ones. If folks are into it, they can take from it what they want. If others don't care, they don't have to read it. So it's all just here, nice and tidy and non-disruptive to the rest of this forum.
Here's a good donkeytale post I'd like to copy and paste for prosperity.
Yes, I think vox misses the point when he says "every poster we loose is an important loss" (3.50 / 2)
is like sayin "every drunk who quits coming into this bar is an important loss."
Is it really important? For whom, the drunk or the barkeep?
For instance, I do not miss Sabrina, Howardx, Devore or Something. I know they are still lurking, but so what? They are gone. Does it matter? Of course not. Should I care? of course not. Should they come back? Of course, if they want to come back...
In some cases, leaving is best for the leaver. I would say definitely thats the case for Sabrina and Something, both of whom acted pretty deranged around 11/28/08 and thereafter.
And yet, vox doesn't think Jack caused or stoked their derangement with his little banning game? "There never really was a donkeytale, but multiple users using tha name across different blogs." Huh?
Vox. It. was. a.game. He wasnt threatened. First he changed noom's, erics and my userids, at least twice each. I was "cocksucker mcgee" and "Joseph K" remember? Would jack have done that if he was truly threatened? Of course not. He was jacking, making pffun, pyrrhiod.
He even let me back in once during the middle of it all, then rebanned me when I made a purposefully hateful comment toward Devore, Sabrina and Something in a fairleft dairy ironically enuff. See? I knew his game and I was playing him back. Wanted to see the reaction to validate in my mind. And he reacted just as I thot he would. Rebanned me. Matybe he thot he was teaching Eric, noom and I a lesson. But he went way overboard and caused some RL damage to Sabrina and Something and perhaps some others, too.
Let me repeat. It was only after Sabrina melted down, thinking some form of four headed imaginary monster with multiple userids named "donkeytale" was "stalking" her, possibly in RL, that jack finally called off the jam, as we say in the Roller Derby game. He realized that he was messing up some fragile emotional states....
But he sat back and allowed me to take all the heat. Same basically as he did with dave. Turned it into a game and let dave twist, altho Jack is shirley happy about the new users dave brought in with the "secret Kostapo" file and all the other attendent huey.
That's FL's point. Controversy is good, but the KKKrowd will always seek to contain and restrain it. They want "civil discussion." Of course, the KKKrowd is never civil when it rears its ugly head, but thats the part that is interesting to me...
Ok, just a few more things left to share. Hat tip for the next one ironically goes to shadowthief. Here is an extensive interview done by Markos Moulitsas with ABC News. {excerpt- concerning his banning of conspiracy theories and in particular "election integrity"}
MOULITSAS: In 2004, there was -- there were a lot of claims that there was fraud in Ohio. And for several months, people, you know, kept talking about how George Bush stole the election in Ohio. And after enough of that, I thought, 'OK, the evidence isn't there. This is being counterproductive at this point. If you have new evidence that would indicate that, then by all means, you know, share.' But the same discredited, so-called facts were regurgitated over and over again, and finally I got tired of that. I thought it was destructive. I also banned that type of diary.
And I think, in a case like that, what the problem wasn't necessarily people saying that the election was stolen. It's they were making claims that it was voter-box stealing, when in fact, I think a really strong case can be made that enough people were disenfranchised in Ohio that perhaps that was the margin of victory for George Bush. And instead of focusing on the, on the real problems in the electoral system, such as ballot-box access, having people put in felon voter rolls when they were not felons, not enough boxes in poor neighborhoods, in Democratic-leaning neighborhoods while out in the suburbs, there can be an in-and-out voting in 15 minutes.
Those are real problems. And people are still fixated on, you know, the boxes -- the black boxes were stolen. That, I thought, took the focus away. And then actually de-legitimize actual conversations on voter rights issues that actually, you know, voter right violations that happened in Ohio.
The rule is really is that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. That's all we're saying. And when people make accusations without proper supporting, it's really frowned upon in the Daily Kos community, because we want to be reality-based. We want to be a reality-based community. We don't want to be one that's just throwing stuff against the wall to see what sticks. I think I'd rather leave that to the Republicans -- that's what they do.
Then why wasn't Larisa Alexandrovna banned? Why was I attacked by the KosKops for supporting what Kos said above? Why was MajorFlaw such a big supporter of Larisa in regards to my Prepostericity diaries concerning Brett Kimberlin and "election integrity" hoaxes. Of course electronic voting machines are no good. Yet, of course hoaxes have been circulating for years revolving around the black box theories.
Jeepers, the Michael Connell threatened by Karl Rove hoax just recently got pushed. Flaw can be tied to the fakes at Democratic Underground. He had a problem with Dave going after Sean Hannity and John McCain but had no difficulty in supporting hoaxes revolving around election fraud? Epluribus media is still on the DKos blogroll. That website has had plenty of "coverage" giving the Connell and other hoaxes credibility. It just doesn't add up. Same with all the attacks on me for being a so-called conspiracy theorist. If I'm that, then the ex-KosKop Kops are living in glass houses. On their blogroll at FSZ, one can easily get to BradBlog and RawStory. They also have all the DKos off-shoots lined up. It goes back to what donkeytale said in the link above.
...It was only after Sabrina melted down, thinking some form of four headed imaginary monster with multiple userids named "donkeytale" was "stalking" her, possibly in RL, that jack finally called off the jam, as we say in the Roller Derby game. He realized that he was messing up some fragile emotional states....
But he sat back and allowed me to take all the heat. Same basically as he did with dave. Turned it into a game and let dave twist, altho Jack is shirley happy about the new users dave brought in with the "secret Kostapo" file and all the other attendent huey.
That's FL's point. Controversy is good, but the KKKrowd will always seek to contain and restrain it. They want "civil discussion." Of course, the KKKrowd is never civil when it rears its ugly head, but thats the part that is interesting to me...
{emphasis mine}
Mendacity, hypocrisy, honey pots, same as it ever was, concern trolls, rabbit holes......
I'll wrap up this meta lollapalooza with some MSOC stuff. From the FSZ link, here is an excerpt from Fairleft.
fairleft, you're a lying hypocritical douchebag....
And yet... here you still are -- not banned.
Just another lying, hypocritical douchebag.
Life in the big blogosphere.
by: Maryscott O'Connor
MSOC's unprovoked trash mouth attacks drive down discussion and contributions at her site because a lot of whimpy, gentle, or just plain normal self-respecting folks find such attacks rude and abusive and don't want to subject themselves to them. And when the attacks are coming from the site owner, participants who say nothing indicate they're 'okay with' potty mouth abuse and baiting of people with incorrect opinions (which differs from potty mouth self-expression, which people need to get over themselves about). Authoritarian types may be attracted to the protective, conformist cocoon of a righteously and abusively led blog, but 'normies' will just move along (especially if they don't have axes to grind). Traffic down.
But there are many ways . . . and it can happen here, even at fsz! Today donkeytale (emphasis added), discusses the non-reaction of many at fsz to Jack's crazed banning of multiple users last Nov. 28:There was no WMD. Jack acted like Bush, abused his powers one night when he was high or pissed off or wtf. Fine.
The problem is, you all fell for it, willfully. Nobody wants to piss off the Commander-in-Chief even on a third-rate blog.
Why? Isn't this the "left?" Don't answer. I already know that it isn't.
Yup, here too we live within the fear and groupthink of the whiteysphere, as indicated by the by-and-large whimpy reaction to Jack's drug-addled banning spasm. Suddenly he morphed into the boss, not just that cheery undergrad who happened to plop into blog admin. And many reacted instinctively....
I got the same treatment from MSOC. Then when I returned fire more efficiently than she ever could have imagined, she perma-banned my arse and reported me to the FBI for cyberstalking. That was after it seems I had the gall to rummage through her HuffingtonPost comments and see that she doesn't support taxing the rich. That was after I had shown just like Fairleft did that certain fight clubs are rigged. That was after I had shown as Marisacat had, that if public personalities are gonna bring their family and issues into the public sphere, such folks cannot complain when others use their free speech rights to discuss such self-wallowing meanderings.
The following is from a right winger, that I in no way support ideologically speaking. Yet, this person has hit the spot in regards to explaining the MSOC phenomenon. I don't agree with his political conclusions. I agree with how he explains how MSOC is all about MSOC and her misfortunes.
Vietnam Psychosis
This also takes us back to the Booman overreaction to folks finding out who his girlfriend is. I believe that was just a ploy to shut down the growing dissent centering around the awareness that the so-called left blogs are not so leftish. Markos Moulitsas is a big fan of the CIA. That is not left wing. Democratic Underground is neither democratic nor underground. True lefties do not allow one-sided hate speech as seen at these venues. True lefties do not cozy up with "progressive moderates" like KarmaStench nor producers from Fox News {AngryRich?}. In short, true lefties, peaceniks, and intellectuals are not wanted at the political dinner table.
Here's another strange thingie. Maryscott and other Kossacks used to hang out at the right wing website named Red State. That one has been characterised as being a right wing version of Daily Kos.
Hmmm. Armando was on this thread too. Fancy that.
Maryscott O'Connor in 2005:
Truthfully, I don't come here. Ever. I came when it first opened, but there were no conservatives here -- just curious Kossacks.
I don't have enough time in the day to spend any part of it on a website that espouses virtually everything that I loathe in politics and social issues.
But oh boy did she ever post a bunch there. And if what she wrote above is true, then what's up with there having been a lot of Kossacks dominating a right wing website?
Perhaps the answer to that one is with Joshua Trevino? He was a co-founder of that forum. To really take this post full circle, I stumbled across a piece done on Mr. Trevino exhibiting more curious ties between right and so-called left wing bloggers.
Interview: Josh Trevino, Online Integrity
{excerpts}
1) Having seen what happened to the families of Erick Erickson and Ben Domenech when the online left went after each -- and operating on the assumption that similar things had happened to leftists -- I conceived of OI while on business travel in the last week of April.
2) I floated the concept to Mike Krempasky [and] Erick Erickson [of RedState], Armando and Mcjoan [of Daily Kos], and received their unanimous support for a nonpartisan, nonideological code of practice....
4) Matt Stoller [of MyDD], one of the initial invitees, asked if he could share the concept with others. I readily agreed -- my assumption was that he would share it with his colleagues in the online left, and I wanted this to happen, as I strongly felt that absent that milieu, this effort would be crippled. I was right: He posted it to a Google Groups [distribution] list that he runs called Townhouse. It must be emphasized that Townhouse is, by all appearances, the internal brain trust of the big-time online left. I believe Garance Franke-Ruta of [Tapped] was once on it; and Maryscott O'Conner of MyLeftWing.com was once on it (more on her shortly)....
It's really sad what happened to MSOC and her life. She'd probably be happy to hear of someone feeling sorry for herself. Though she does have her small group of syncophants eating up her every sorrow with a cold glass of milk. She basically got in over her head. She is an admitted college dropout. She is virtually unreadable due to all the cap locks and cursing. She is incompetent at running a fair ship. She has supported too many right wingers and "progressive moderates" such as and Phil. I. Stine {AngryRich?} and Karmafish. She has been too easily manipulated and made the fool by KosKoppers like ThereIsNoSpoon, Armando, Eugene, and also by apparently insidious forces such as Curmudgette. And what's up with the poster named Nonpartisan? Isn't the point to be partisan and get stuff done on behalf of social and environmental justice? I advised her to dump the fake progressives dominating her forum. At that point, I hadn't been too aware of her complete background, of how she had been the wrong person at the right time to build up the counter-Kos following.
Well, maybe she can get back into the acting field. She claims to be a natural at acting and is proud of her blue eyes. Is she also proud of being semi-nude in Lee Stranahan's film? This is her, correct? That looks like the same Maryscott O'Connor from the cast photo.
{source: http://breathingroommovie.com/}
