Below, you can see a reproduction of the email I sent on the left, and the response, when applicable on the right. Albert Kidd (aka ScipioAfricanus) The most persistent critic of AntiSocialMedia.net is Albert Kidd, whose blog boasts roughly ten times more content than the site it purports to deconstruct. Kidd’s reply arrived quickly, but was only a “reply” in the technical sense, as you’ll read:

With that in mind, I sent the following to Gary.

“In preparation for another lie-a-gram, Bagley recently emailed myself and other critics (such as this one) to plead what oh what have I said that wasn’t true?”

“If, as I believe, Bagley was both TeachMeSomething and pbyrnepatriot, he has participated on this very board, has read my posts, and almost undoubtedly still has access. Given that, to mis-render my opinion of him as questioning the accuracy of his blog is disingenous to a fault. The unctuous nature of the e-mail, overflowing with kindness and the desire to do right, simply heightens its falsity…

“But I am willing to fire where obvious targets present themselves, and should I receive any further communication, intimidating or otherwise, from Judd “Anal-Cranial Inversion” Bagley, his profile will be raised.”

As I stated above, and reiterate now, I have never once posted on any fool.com message board, nor directed anybody else to do so. If that’s what’s keeping UR from replying, I hope he will reconsider. But wait, there’s more.Last week, Wikipedia took unprecedented steps to keep me (or any who might agree with me) from accessing the encyclopedia that “anyone can edit.”

Specifically, MediaWiki Foundation employee David Gerard blocked every computer on my employer’s network from accessing Wikipedia.

Because it’s impossible to justify such a sweeping and ostensibly permanent block for the sake of one non-vandal, Gerard instead claimed it was to thwart “commercial spamming.”

As if on cue, Hu12 jumped to attention, saying “They’ve been very naughty” and promising to rid Wikipedia of inappropriate links to Overstock.com.

Over the next five minutes, the hard-working Hu12 managed to eradicate a total of four links, added over the course of six months by four separate editors.

For those unfamiliar with the problem of Wikipedia spam, let’s just say four links falls so short of the threshold of “spam” as to not be worth mentioning.

To put a finer point on it, Gary Weiss added double that many references to his own book, each of which remains to this day.

Perplexed, I emailed Hu12 to learn more.

Curious, I emailed Gerard to learn more.

In response, I created and posted the following table, listing all Wikipedia editors named on these pages, the claim made about them, and any confirmation of that claim.

I also left a column for Sandifer to note any applicable unseemliness.

Of course that column remains unchanged.

Editor	Claim	Reality	Unseemliness
Mantanmoreland	has a COI problem	Fred Bauder confirms	(please insert unseemliness here)
Lastexit	Mantanmoreland sock	Fred Bauder confirms	(please insert unseemliness here)
Tomstoner	Mantanmoreland sock	Fred Bauder confirms	(please insert unseemliness here)
Fred Bauder	exists	Fred Bauder confirms	(please insert unseemliness here)
Sweet Blue Water	SlimVirgin sockpuppet	SlimVirgin confirms	(please insert unseemliness here)
Jayjg	oversighted embarrassing SlimVirgin edits	recovered diffs confirm	(please insert unseemliness here)
FloNight	exists	FloNight confirms	(please insert unseemliness here)
Cla68	Proposed the article on Gary Weiss for deletion	nobody denies	(please insert unseemliness here)
Jimbo Wales	Deleted the record of the Gary Weiss deletion debate	Jimbo admits	(please insert unseemliness here)
SlimVirgin	Has a name in real life	unconfirmed	(please insert unseemliness here)
WordBomb	is upset about most of these things	his blog confirms	(please insert unseemliness here)

David Gerard offered three responses.

• The first was to very publicly encourage me to “F*ck off.”
• The second, like the first, publicly suggested that I “F*ck off.”
• The third was to block, for six months, the IP address that my home shares with 1,000 other subscribers of the local ISP.

To justify yet another unprecedented move, Gerard noted:

“Favourite open proxy of Judd Bagley/overstock.com, actively (and almost exclusively) used by them.”

As this record of anon edits (of which none is mine) attests, it most certainly is an actively used IP, but hardly exclusive to me, and never by Overstock.com.

More to the point, the now blocked IP is the exact opposite of an open proxy, in that only paying subscribers may access it.

Wanting to help Gerard do the right thing, I sent him the following email:

Obviously, something is broken.

Is it my email, or those on the receiving end?

Because my email seems to be working for everybody else, I’m going to say the problem is limited to the above nine people and their inability to defend their shameful actions. ]]> http://antisocialmedia.net/my-email-must-be-broken/feed/ 0 http://antisocialmedia.net/hoosier-daddy-scipioafricanus-uncovered-in-indiana/ http://antisocialmedia.net/hoosier-daddy-scipioafricanus-uncovered-in-indiana/#comments Sat, 16 Jun 2007 21:33:26 +0000 antisocialmedia http://antisocialmedia.net/?p=108 As much as everybody seeks after the easy win, there’s also a unique sense of satisfaction to be found in confronting a truly worthy opponent.

AntiSocialMedia.net spent its first few months essentially shooting fish in a barrel. That’s because for over a decade, Gary Weiss and his many identities had stomped around the internet, leaving tracks behind that were far too easy to find and connect. When confronted with the evidence, the best Gary could do was accuse me of lying and/or “cyberstalking,” characterize me as “nauseating,” and go out of his way to avoid addressing any real issues.

Then came Albert Laverne Kidd of Connersville, Indiana.

“ScipioAfricanus,” as Albert dubbed himself, initially played the part of a voice of intellectual honesty, whose job it was to ensure that the process of exposing Weiss did not devolve into a witch hunt.

Where Weiss lacked the technical ability to aptly cover his tracks online, Albert, a software engineer by training, proved very adept and disciplined at taking the steps necessary to remain anonymous.

Albert Kidd was a worthy opponent.

Yet, by early December of 2006, Albert’s moderating tone had grown quite shrill, and it became apparent that his role was in reality that of assigned advocate for Gary Weiss. This became undeniable when it was discovered that hidden within the code of O-Smear (the site created specifically to attack and mischaracterize me), was an inadvertent reference to the location inside Albert’s own computer’s directory structure where the data destined for his blog was stored:

C:/Documents and Settings/Big Al/My Documents/Weiss/

This confirmed what had become clear: that in Albert’s mind, this process was not about “truth” or “O-smear” or “Anti-AntiSocialMedia,” but about “[Gary] Weiss.”

And indeed, Albert’s attacks expanded beyond this site and me as its creator, and soon eerily mirrored those of Weiss himself.

Two months ago, I erred in claiming that fellow named Al Petrofsky was ScipioAfricanus. The body of evidence supporting that conclusion was overwhelming, but in the end, circumstantial and flawed.

The evidence tying Albert Kidd to ScipioAfricanus, on the other hand, is incontrovertible. As eager as I am to share it, I do not intend to do so, as it would expose specific “sources and methods” used to arrive at the conclusion, in addition to crossing certain personal boundaries that I feel compelled to respect, while recognizing that it’s very unlikely that I would be afforded the same courtesy were the tables turned.

However, if in responding, ScipioAfricanus or any of his allies should question the veracity of these claims, the evidence will be presented, and Albert can deal with the consequences.