January 26, 2013

Freedom Of Speech

Regulars will recall the original reason for comment moderation. We had a troll.

A particularly disturbed, anti-smoking troll. He targeted this blog, and around eight others and demanded various ludicrous conditions that if the bloggers stopped using certain terms he would leave them in peace.

Clearly, the man is delusional at best and at worst, psychotic. Either way, he caused me and others to change the way we accept comments. His usual M.O was to post gibberish which indicated that he hadn't first read the post, then commented with a pro or con argument like a normal person would. Bloggers and commenters noticed this and the bloke came in for some fairly hefty insults. They were well deserved.

Then he started to post as other people. In the real world, this is called identity theft, or if you want it old-school, impersonating others to their detriment.

In his final throes of madness, he declared on this very blog, over 130 times, that I was a paedo. No proof, no evidence, just the repeated scribblings of an obviously disturbed man.

It forced us (the affected bloggers) to get together and track him down. We did this remarkably quickly. We advised his ISP that his behaviour was worrisome and a tad unlawful. The ISP, given the evidence, agreed and did the right thing and closed him down. A few weeks later he reappeared and off we went again.

When I started this blog my aim was openness and honesty. No censorship, ever. Whatever your viewpoint was, this was the place to put it.

Thanks to this individual I am forced to use moderation. I don't particularly care what he calls me, as I remember the playground chant "Sticks and stones...etc" and it remains relevant today. BUT, when he thinks he has my name and my address and posts that, he crosses a line. Especially given that he has the wrong name and the wrong address. This may hurt the man whose details he insists are mine, so comment moderation stays. Until the man dies, or gets the help he needs in a secure mental facility.

This is his latest missive:


"Ranty. You can remove comment moderation if you want. unfortunately there are conditions which have to be met. Your lies/bullshitting/blagging/threats and all that shite you think i swallow is/has been an insult to my intelligence and will result in permanent sanctions on your blog. your sanctions are: The words FUCK/CUNT/WANKER are not allowed on your blog , you cannot post these words on your blog or any fucking about with word plays like FU, W>>>>>KER C*NT. This does not apply to other posters I will completely leave your blog and will not return unless you post those words. If you post those words from today then my offer will be withdrawn, and moderation will continue."


Now, I have been fighting Big Government for five years. I have picked fights with some mighty agencies of our pathetic government, and won. I could have done none of that or reported back here on the battles, without free speech.

It is the single most important right we have.

Yet this delusional soul thinks he can determine which words I use on my blog?

I do not negotiate with the mentally unstable, chum. I will continue to write what I want, when I want, and as often as I want.

Although I wanted to resist saying this, I cannot:

Fuck off, you wanker. Go and be a cunt somewhere else.

Okay?

CR.

21 comments:

AndreaUrbanFox said...

LOL!

StourbridgeRantBoy said...

The Cunt definately needs a good Cunting....i'll drink to that.

Laurie -

Mr Angry said...

I LOL'd so much I accidentally shat myself!

(And I hate proving I'm not a robot - so what if I have to plug myself in each night?)

Caratacus said...

Stands back in awe at your self-restraint, Cap'n.

Such a shame that we can't get to meet these people personally... I'm sure we'd all get on like a house on fire ;-)

seekingjusticeuk said...

"Back of the net..."
Well put Ranty.

Gordon the Fence Post Tortoise said...

One of the things about t'internet is that there's equality of access. I learnt quite quickly in the early days that folk with obvious mental health problems - if left to their own devices - don't generally take the routine medication and regard the Internet as a whole new audience....

That's almost all there is to it - apart from people who regard rational, reasonable and calmly explained alternate interpretations of the world as heresies or worse, indicators of a form of insanity. These folk seek to "medicalise" fair comment, dissent and cogent alternative interpretations of evidence.

Hello Sally Weintrobe and cronies!

Really, truly it's a funny ole world...

One thing I've been considering doing is to edit the tail of a post to show how many comments have been deleted - or maybe even copy n pasting them to a separate "sin bin" with time and IP address.

Anonymous said...

What a wanker.
John Gibson

Anonymous said...

I have freinds of all types and shades
i even hada pal that was a socialist once, one of these pals is a devout jew and he told me that mossad have teams to disrupt free thinking websites like this
and they geta kick out of it
CJ

Bill Sticker said...

Yes, Caps, a very sad individual indeed. Thinks he's clever, but has been proven definitively and utterly deluded on that score.

I stopped smoking a quarter century ago, and he even had me wistfully thinking about lighting up a good cigar again. Just to spite the sad fuck.

Captain Ranty said...

Thanks all.

Just received another comment from him insisting that my name is Ian (it isn't) and that I live in Hampshire (I don't).

Around 8 people who comment here know my real name and my real location. Four of them have my home phone number, which magically, has an Aberdeenshire code. I have spoken with three of them over the years. Two phoned me and once I phoned the other guy. I have met three of these 8 people in real life. We swapped contact details. None of mine have me living in Hampshire, mostly because I don't.

I cannot copy (or publish) the comment because, yet again, it is factually incorrect.

The delusional one fails to accept this despite being told many times.

I'll say it one more time Dickie, fuck off.

CR.

Mac said...

Just got one from this person. Deleted. The comment that is.

Captain Ranty said...

Thanks Mac.

Twisted Root said...

Sadly with the advent of care in the community there is no way of making certain they are taking their meds.

Perhaps CR, as a serice to this deluded individual and the community as a whole, and since he spends so much time here, you could put up a widget on the blog to remind him of his med times.

Anonymous said...

What a sad excuse of a human being he must be.
Keep on doing what you do best CR.

Captain Swing said...

I have it on good authority that said trolls mother engages in prostitution in order to raise funds for the building materials necessary to construct a brothel from which his sister will operate.

Unknown said...

Hi Cap, don' t le the bastards grind you down, you are doing a great job.

Span Ows said...

Hi Captain, I had a message too. I suspect he was posting on the blogs in your side-bar. Normally I leave anything up but this was full personal details, address, phone number etc, even if it isn't you it's still not right.

Longrider said...

Span Ows, yup, that's what he does. He will also try to hide behind the persona of regular commenters to get past moderation.

Smoking Scot said...

I rather enjoy my monthly visit to You Park Like a Cunt

http://youparklikeacunt.com/

Some Parking Cunts are pretty awful and deserve censure. Even uploaded a couple of photos to help him along.

Fortunately the Urban Dictionary helps us understand that the use of certain Cunt based words are appropriate descriptions in a pile of cases. Cuntisafuckflap being ideally suited for Lansley, Arnott, Duffy, Simpson and Williams.

And do bear in mind that Jay used the term for his Cunt of the Month.

I think, in this case, DDD's being more than a little cuntitudinous in his quest to irritate.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cuntitudinous

TheBoilingFrog said...

I had a comment too, now deleted CR. Not sure, even if the details were correct, how that was supposed to change my view of smoking or indeed your blog.

One suspects he craves (pun intended) the attention. Probably best to ignore him. Or even better (to wind him up) run a weekly post say on every Sunday with pictures of pretty girls smoking. You can even have a reader's poll on it.

Lion of England on adistant shore said...

Maybe it is that Satans brat war c b-liar?
or Brown low in one of his tantrums or even
our Cherub dave having his private school tantrum, good on you CR keep them boiling.