Full Circle, with the Irony-Meter Maxed Out
This post will take you on a little journey which promises to be very satisfying by the time it's done, but will require your full attention to get there. HINT: you're free to take notes if it will help.
Arriving at our destination, you can expect to have learned, as we have, that Gary Weiss is quite actively engaged in deception on other people's blogs, in addition to his own. Furthermore, by the time we're done, you'll have found new levels of ironic significance in these words:
"Bravely spoken, by the coward who hides behind a pseudonym."
And here we go...
The first thing you need to understand is that in late January of 2006, Gary Weiss' IP address was 70.23.85.112.
Here's how we know that.
The website Wikipedia endeavors to be an online encyclopedia that anybody can make changes to. Fortunately for mankind, a record is kept of each of those changes. Here's just such a record: a summary of edits made by a user at the IP address 70.23.85.112.
Note the date range: January 27-28, 2006, and the article edited: Naked short selling. Such rapid succession of edits, as seen here, is suggestive of what's called an "edit war."
Now, let's look at who else was editing that article during that period, to learn more about this edit war.
Starting at the bottom and working up, we see the editor identified by the IP address 70.23.85.112 editing heavily until 7:19pm when that user's edits abruptly cease.
79 minutes later, a brand new user calling himself Mantanmoreland arrives, picking up right where 70.23.85.112 left off. A few days later, Tomstoner arrives, forging an unusually strong "tag team" relationship with Mantanmoreland. Together, Mantanmoreland and Tomstoner become the primary antagonists of the novice and disorganized bloc of Wikipedian naked shorting opponents.
On February 20, 2006, as if to put a fork in their soundly defeated opposition, Tomstoner adds a link to Gary Weiss' blog to the naked short selling article.
Fast forward six weeks.
On April 6, Gary Weiss sees his second book published. Bravo, Gary.
On April 9, Tomstoner adds a reference to the three-day-old book on the article about Gary Weiss' alma mater, the City College of New York.
On April 13, Mantanmoreland creates the Gary Weiss article on Wikipedia, and goes on to take ownership of it, including going so far as to know when one Weiss quote is more suitable than another.
On April 14, Mantanmoreland adds a link to a nearly decade-old Business Week article originally written by Gary Weiss
On April 15, Mantanmoreland decides the article on Arthur Leavitt would be better with a link to the nine-day-old book by Gary Weiss.
On April 17, Mantanmoreland adds a link to the first book by Gary Weiss
On April 30, Mantanmoreland feels one more article could benefit from a reference to the three-week old book by Gary Weiss.
Make that two more articles
On May 13, Lastexit, one of Mantanmoreland’s admitted "sockpuppet" alter-egos, feels the article about Julian Robertson could benefit from a link to a six-year-old bit of journalism by Gary Weiss.
On May 19, Mantanmoreland decides the article on hedge funds is incomplete without a link to the Weiss Book.
On July 12, Lastexit concludes that a three year old Business Week piece on naked shorting penned by Gary Weiss would perfectly round out the Wikipedia article on the same topic.
Anybody not convinced that 70.23.85.112 = Mantanmoreland = Tomstoner = Lastexit = Gary Weiss raise your hand.
Ok good. So we can all agree that in late January, 2006, 70.23.85.112 = Gary Weiss (remember that...it's on the final exam!).
Now, let's go back to January 22, 2006.
On that day, two relevant things happened.
First, the New York Post published an effusive review of the Gary Weiss book, which would not go on to be available for purchase for another 3.5 months.
Second, Yahoo user ID lamborghini751 is created and soon makes his first message board post in the form of a question as to his “wife’s” career options.
Four minutes later, his second post, to Yahoo’s Overstock.com message board, announces to the world that Gary’s book, though a full financial quarter away, had been the subject of a glowing review by the New York Post.
On January 24, 2006, Yahoo user ID cupandsaucerwithsugar is created. As his first act, at 1:29 pm EST, he provides an answer to lamborghini751’s two day old question.
(A quick scan of the subsequent postings of both lamborghini751 and cupandsaucerwithsugar makes it obvious that the same person is behind both. But Yahoo’s delightful dissembler sorting algorithm bug confirms this, as those familiar with the DSA will easily see.)
As his second act, less than 60 seconds after the first, cupandsaucerwithsugar chooses to honor Gary Weiss, as follows:
“yeah and weiss just ripped boobo and co a new one on his blog”
How sweet.
For those keeping track at home, that post brings us to 1:30 EST on January 24, 2006.
Interestingly, according to the header info on the sample chapter posted on his website, Weiss’ publisher would complete the book's soft proof 82 minutes later, at 2:52pm.
So what had the NY Post reviewer been reading?
Hmmmm.
Nevermind such details!
Six hours later, at 8:35pm, Gary Weiss publishes a new blog post, which opens thusly:
"Bob O'Brien," the bravely anonymous leader of the Baloney Brigade…
Just 25 minutes later, on the above-mentioned Bob O’Brien’s blog, first time commenter cupsandsaucer has this to say to the same Bob O’Brien:
Bravely spoken, by the coward who hides behind a pseudonym.
A quick review of the corresponding server log entry (time zone set to GMT) confirms what we all already suspect, and poetically brings us full circle:
How much more ironic is the accusation,
...coward who hides behind a pseudonym...
when you consider it was posted by cupandsaucer Gary Weiss (aka 70.23.85.112, Mantanmoreland, Lastexit, Tomstoner, Lamborghini715, and cupandsaucerwithsugar), who's turned pseudonymity into a way of life?
Gary Weiss: The Strawman Cometh
The mission of AntiSocialMedia.net is to reveal those who misuse the power of online collaboration and community-building tools for personal gain.
Gary Weiss is a former journalist, book author, outspoken advocate of securities regulation reform, and someone who should know better than to use his blog to deceive and attempt to intimidate his opponents.
First, some background
Haloscan is a third party weblog commenting system often used by users of the Blogger platform.
A funny thing about Haloscan: when you use it to post a comment, a "cookie" is placed on your computer, storing your user data (username, email and website) so you won't have to enter that information next time. This is generally convenient, since Haloscan requires you to enter a username and email address every time you comment. However the website field is not required.
But the Haloscan cookie can be a little buggy, in that having entered a website url once, sometimes it will insist that the same url appear in subsequent comments. If you erase the auto-completed website field it will likely get posted with your comment anyway. At times, the only solution is to specify another website, which may in turn appear on future comments whether you like it or not.
A little inconvenient, but nothing more.
Unless, that is, you are a commenter attempting to covertly use multiple identities on the same blog, as appears to have been the case with blogger Gary Weiss earlier this year. In that case, Haloscan becomes a rather conspicuous indicator of deceit.
Here's what happened (in each case, a link to the live website is provided, but considering the likelihood that inconvenient posts will be deleted or altered, screenshots are provided as well. Click on the thumbnail to see a full version, each or which was captured while a mouse pointer -- not visible in the screencapture -- hovered over the link thereby revealing its destination in a yellow tool-tip style box):
On January 25, 2006, Weiss' blogging rival Bob O'Brien posted an entry from an apparant ally named James Cummins who, notably, lauds Gary Weiss as an "American hero." A commenter to O'Brien's blog suggested Cummins copy the post to Gary Weiss' blog, which Cummins does on January 31, 2006, via Haloscan.
In the Haloscan website field, Cummins apparently attempted to enter the url corresponding to his original post on thesanitycheck.com.
Original comment
Over the next two days, Cummins and Weiss engage in comment jousting. In each case, Gary includes a link to his website with his comments, while Cummins does not. That changes on February 3, 2006, when a link to Cummins' website suddenly appears. Strangely, the link points to the website claimed by Gary Weiss.
Original comment
The following 14 hours saw more comment jousting in which Gary Weiss consistently includes a homepage link while James Cummins did not. Suddenly, that changes, with Cummins again linking to Gary Weiss.
Original comment
Two hours later, a special treat: the previously unknown Mr. Frank Guss opts to join the discourse, with harsh words for Mr. Cummins. Oddly, the homepage of Mr. Guss is the same used by Gary Weiss.
Original comment
Before Cummins can respond, Guss is back for more, attacking Cummins and again linking to the homepage of Gary Weiss.
Original comment
In less than two minutes, Cummins is back up off the matt, calling Guss a "basher" yet following his lead by linking to the homepage of Gary Weiss.
Original comment
Less than a minute passes before Gary Weiss sweeps in to defend the honor of his fair blog commenters. In keeping with what's fashionable, Gary links to the homepage of...Gary Weiss.
Original comment
Now, at this stage, it needs to be pointed out that Gary Weiss is known for moderating his blog comments; meaning, prior to publication, Haloscan holds comments pending Gary's approval, with requests for moderation arriving via email. So, depending on the speed of the network carrying that email and Gary's proximity to a computer, this can realistically delay the posting of comments anywhere from a minute to many hours or beyond. However in the case of the three comments documented immediately above, we see James Cummins respond to Frank Guss and be responded to by Gary Weiss...all within about two minutes. Of course, comments made by Gary himself get published immediately.
There are several possible explanations for these odd circumstances, and I commit to add Gary Weiss' version here alongside my own if he'll offer it. But the version I find most likely is as follows:
Gary Weiss is James Cummins and Frank Guss.
While there is evidence to suggest that a young writer named James Cummins does exist and may have collaborated on the referenced project, he had no part in this interaction. Instead, Gary gravely mislead his readers by propping up an overly-gracious strawman to publicly flay with the help of others, including at least one poster who was in fact also Gary Weiss.
The effect of the Haloscan auto-complete bug is limited to individual machines, such that the only reason it might affect either James Cummins or Frank Guss would be if they all posted from the computer used by Gary Weiss. Indeed, that appears to he what happened, though it was Gary acting as the other two at the time.
Gary Weiss has done his readers and patrons a tremendous disservice for which he should apologize, reveal what role the real James Cummins played in this ruse (if any), and commit to a more honest use of social media moving forward.
--ASM