Post by King John on Jan 27, 2013 17:41:24 GMT -6
My dear fellow Talossans, I come before you with some extremely grave and unsettling news.
Friday morning, the day before yesterday, the Secretary of State pointed out to me some anomalies in a small group of Wittenberg accounts, six or seven accounts that seemed to be logging in from the same IP addresses. This wouldn’t have been alarming in itself, except that some of the accounts belonged to people in North Carolina and others to people in Michigan, who would certainly not be using the same IPAs. I investigated, and with the greater information available to me as Witt Admin than that available to Sir Iustì, I discovered the problem to be far more serious than Sir Iustì had realized.
The facts are these.
One of our citizens, Eiric S. Börnatfiglheu, has been running 17 different Wittenberg accounts, besides his own, as "sock puppets", all under different names. 15 of his puppets have become citizens. All 18 accounts (his and the 17 puppets’) have been posting sometimes from IPA 152.27.34.201 (which traces to the North Carolina Research and Education Network in Jacksonville, North Carolina) and most often from IPA 174.106.140.126 (which traces to an Internet Service Provider called Road Runner, also in Jacksonville, North Carolina), even though the supposed owners of the accounts live and in some cases work in North Carolina, Michigan, South Carolina, Georgia, New York, Maine, Iowa, and England. Börnatfiglheu lives in Jacksonville, North Carolina, where he works for Coastal Carolina Community College, whose Internet Connections are provided through the North Carolina Research and Education Network. The times and dates at which Wittenberg postings were made from these 18 accounts are closely coordinated. When Börnatfiglheu is active on Wittenberg, so are the 17 puppets; when he's away or inactive, so are all of them; whenever one of them posts something, the others are also likely to post, but long periods pass when none of them posts anything. Whichever IPA he is using at the moment, all the sock puppets use also. The typographical styles of all 18 are quite similar, with certain unusual features in common; ditto their verbal styles.
The sock puppets – 15 citizens and 2 prospectives (the Sawins) – are:
William Beng (Vitxalmour Estinc-Vatna)
Judah Benjamin (Iudas Levì Bentxamì)
Barb Carlin (Barbrà da Carolin)
Sasha Carlyle (Xandreta da Luguvaliüm)
Aaron Clyburn (Aharon Quintana)
Robert Dumenil (Roibeard Istefan Sandart)
Sariah Gipson (Sarac’h Txilvertescu)
Vernon Larsen (Veirnarac’h Lorentzescu)
Caity Lawson (Catrina Curganescu)
Thomas Rushing (Tomás Cariana)
Cameron St Clair (Oltatsch Santa Cjara)
Sven Sawin
Thor Sawin
Benedict Stamford
Nikki Theocharidou (Michi Merþedes da Bheat)
Morris Van Rossum (Moritz Vandalutz d’Ialiüm)
Sandra Yalmin (Sondra Lomaira)
It is possible that some of these people actually exist. For instance, both Thor and Sven Sawin seem to be real people, and are both from the area of Fife Lake and Traverse City, Michigan (where Börnatfiglheu used to live), but they have both moved out of the area. Sven – the real Sven, that is –, works in Ann Arbor, Michigan (not as a bait shop owner in Fife Lake), and Thor is a graduate instructor and PhD candidate in linguistics in South Carolina (not working for the local school district in Fife Lake). So while it’s possible that some of the other names are those of actual people, and it’s even possible some of those people gave Börnatfiglheu permission to use their names, they never posted anything except from one of Börnatfiglheu’s usual IPAs, never joined the Kingdom, never actually became citizens. It was all lies.
Observation through the last couple of evenings reveals Börnatfiglheu’s pattern. Last night, for instance, he logged into his own account at 19:11 (Talossan time), made a posting at 19:11, then logged off at 19:17. Immediately, using the same IPA (174.106.140.126), Benedict Stamford logged on, and off again at 19:18. Then Börnatfiglheu logged on again from 19:18 to 19:29 and from 19:34 to 19:38, making a post at 19:34. Then Sariah Gipson logged onto the same IPA at 19:38, off at 19:48, on again at 19:56, made a post (including rude comments about Börnatfiglheu – part of his game) at 19:56, and logged off one minute later. Thor Sawin logged in, on the same IPA, from 20:11 to 20:16, posting at 20:14; then Börnatfiglheu again from 20:20 to 20:34. And so on, all evening. Gipson, Börnatfiglheu, Lomaira, Larson, Börnatfiglheu again, Thor Sawin, back and forth, all from the same internet connection, one after the other in quick succession.
This deception has been going on at least since early last summer.
The evidence against Börnatfiglheu is overwhelming and absolutely conclusive. (I will of course be making it all public, quite soon.) He has violated the Anti-Imposter and Liar Act (36RZ10) hundreds of times. He has subverted the Talossan electoral system, with eight of his sock puppets voting in the last General Election (all eight for the ZRT), and one of them currently being a ZRT Member of the Cosa. He has played us all for fools, most especially his own political party – which he has betrayed and manipulated – and the College of Arms, having used an enormous amount of volunteer time in obtaining Grants of Arms for most of his sock puppets. He has violated the trust of the entire country.
Anyone with an enabled Witt account can edit or delete his own posts; so in order to preserve the evidence, on Saturday morning I directed the Chancery to obtain an ex parte order to have the 18 accounts suspended. That order was issued by Justice Ian Tamoran, and I as Witt Admin have obeyed it.
After suspending the 18 accounts to preserve the evidence, I (just a few minutes ago) phoned Börnatfiglheu, outlined the evidence against him, and asked him to confess. My thinking was that he could save us all vast amounts of trouble if he would just admit what he’d done. He apologized and said he would “come clean”. I don’t know whether he intends to renounce his citizenship. (If not, I would expect the Attorney General to bring charges against him.) I offered to make a new Wittenberg account available to him if he had anything he wanted to say to everyone; he didn’t seem sure whether he wanted that. We left it that he could let me know.
For what it’s worth – and I’ve closely read almost all the Wittenberg posts made from all the sock puppet accounts ¬– I am personally convinced that this was a one-man operation. I haven’t seen any reason to suspect the involvement of anyone but Börnatfiglheu himself; this is not the tip of some great conspiratorial iceberg. Things being what they are, there will no doubt be political fallout from this mess, coming as it does shortly before a General Election; but nobody should think that the ZRT as a party was in on the deception, nor yet that the RUMP somehow orchestrated its revelation as what we Americans have come to call an “October surprise”. This was Börnatfiglheu, probably without anyone else’s knowledge, acting by himself for his own motives – which may have involved politics, but I think probably were mostly to make himself feel like some kind of big shot, deceiving and manipulating people who liked and trusted him.
I know you’re all shocked. So am I. This is shocking news. We’ll get through it, though.
– John Regeu
Friday morning, the day before yesterday, the Secretary of State pointed out to me some anomalies in a small group of Wittenberg accounts, six or seven accounts that seemed to be logging in from the same IP addresses. This wouldn’t have been alarming in itself, except that some of the accounts belonged to people in North Carolina and others to people in Michigan, who would certainly not be using the same IPAs. I investigated, and with the greater information available to me as Witt Admin than that available to Sir Iustì, I discovered the problem to be far more serious than Sir Iustì had realized.
The facts are these.
One of our citizens, Eiric S. Börnatfiglheu, has been running 17 different Wittenberg accounts, besides his own, as "sock puppets", all under different names. 15 of his puppets have become citizens. All 18 accounts (his and the 17 puppets’) have been posting sometimes from IPA 152.27.34.201 (which traces to the North Carolina Research and Education Network in Jacksonville, North Carolina) and most often from IPA 174.106.140.126 (which traces to an Internet Service Provider called Road Runner, also in Jacksonville, North Carolina), even though the supposed owners of the accounts live and in some cases work in North Carolina, Michigan, South Carolina, Georgia, New York, Maine, Iowa, and England. Börnatfiglheu lives in Jacksonville, North Carolina, where he works for Coastal Carolina Community College, whose Internet Connections are provided through the North Carolina Research and Education Network. The times and dates at which Wittenberg postings were made from these 18 accounts are closely coordinated. When Börnatfiglheu is active on Wittenberg, so are the 17 puppets; when he's away or inactive, so are all of them; whenever one of them posts something, the others are also likely to post, but long periods pass when none of them posts anything. Whichever IPA he is using at the moment, all the sock puppets use also. The typographical styles of all 18 are quite similar, with certain unusual features in common; ditto their verbal styles.
The sock puppets – 15 citizens and 2 prospectives (the Sawins) – are:
William Beng (Vitxalmour Estinc-Vatna)
Judah Benjamin (Iudas Levì Bentxamì)
Barb Carlin (Barbrà da Carolin)
Sasha Carlyle (Xandreta da Luguvaliüm)
Aaron Clyburn (Aharon Quintana)
Robert Dumenil (Roibeard Istefan Sandart)
Sariah Gipson (Sarac’h Txilvertescu)
Vernon Larsen (Veirnarac’h Lorentzescu)
Caity Lawson (Catrina Curganescu)
Thomas Rushing (Tomás Cariana)
Cameron St Clair (Oltatsch Santa Cjara)
Sven Sawin
Thor Sawin
Benedict Stamford
Nikki Theocharidou (Michi Merþedes da Bheat)
Morris Van Rossum (Moritz Vandalutz d’Ialiüm)
Sandra Yalmin (Sondra Lomaira)
It is possible that some of these people actually exist. For instance, both Thor and Sven Sawin seem to be real people, and are both from the area of Fife Lake and Traverse City, Michigan (where Börnatfiglheu used to live), but they have both moved out of the area. Sven – the real Sven, that is –, works in Ann Arbor, Michigan (not as a bait shop owner in Fife Lake), and Thor is a graduate instructor and PhD candidate in linguistics in South Carolina (not working for the local school district in Fife Lake). So while it’s possible that some of the other names are those of actual people, and it’s even possible some of those people gave Börnatfiglheu permission to use their names, they never posted anything except from one of Börnatfiglheu’s usual IPAs, never joined the Kingdom, never actually became citizens. It was all lies.
Observation through the last couple of evenings reveals Börnatfiglheu’s pattern. Last night, for instance, he logged into his own account at 19:11 (Talossan time), made a posting at 19:11, then logged off at 19:17. Immediately, using the same IPA (174.106.140.126), Benedict Stamford logged on, and off again at 19:18. Then Börnatfiglheu logged on again from 19:18 to 19:29 and from 19:34 to 19:38, making a post at 19:34. Then Sariah Gipson logged onto the same IPA at 19:38, off at 19:48, on again at 19:56, made a post (including rude comments about Börnatfiglheu – part of his game) at 19:56, and logged off one minute later. Thor Sawin logged in, on the same IPA, from 20:11 to 20:16, posting at 20:14; then Börnatfiglheu again from 20:20 to 20:34. And so on, all evening. Gipson, Börnatfiglheu, Lomaira, Larson, Börnatfiglheu again, Thor Sawin, back and forth, all from the same internet connection, one after the other in quick succession.
This deception has been going on at least since early last summer.
The evidence against Börnatfiglheu is overwhelming and absolutely conclusive. (I will of course be making it all public, quite soon.) He has violated the Anti-Imposter and Liar Act (36RZ10) hundreds of times. He has subverted the Talossan electoral system, with eight of his sock puppets voting in the last General Election (all eight for the ZRT), and one of them currently being a ZRT Member of the Cosa. He has played us all for fools, most especially his own political party – which he has betrayed and manipulated – and the College of Arms, having used an enormous amount of volunteer time in obtaining Grants of Arms for most of his sock puppets. He has violated the trust of the entire country.
Anyone with an enabled Witt account can edit or delete his own posts; so in order to preserve the evidence, on Saturday morning I directed the Chancery to obtain an ex parte order to have the 18 accounts suspended. That order was issued by Justice Ian Tamoran, and I as Witt Admin have obeyed it.
After suspending the 18 accounts to preserve the evidence, I (just a few minutes ago) phoned Börnatfiglheu, outlined the evidence against him, and asked him to confess. My thinking was that he could save us all vast amounts of trouble if he would just admit what he’d done. He apologized and said he would “come clean”. I don’t know whether he intends to renounce his citizenship. (If not, I would expect the Attorney General to bring charges against him.) I offered to make a new Wittenberg account available to him if he had anything he wanted to say to everyone; he didn’t seem sure whether he wanted that. We left it that he could let me know.
For what it’s worth – and I’ve closely read almost all the Wittenberg posts made from all the sock puppet accounts ¬– I am personally convinced that this was a one-man operation. I haven’t seen any reason to suspect the involvement of anyone but Börnatfiglheu himself; this is not the tip of some great conspiratorial iceberg. Things being what they are, there will no doubt be political fallout from this mess, coming as it does shortly before a General Election; but nobody should think that the ZRT as a party was in on the deception, nor yet that the RUMP somehow orchestrated its revelation as what we Americans have come to call an “October surprise”. This was Börnatfiglheu, probably without anyone else’s knowledge, acting by himself for his own motives – which may have involved politics, but I think probably were mostly to make himself feel like some kind of big shot, deceiving and manipulating people who liked and trusted him.
I know you’re all shocked. So am I. This is shocking news. We’ll get through it, though.
– John Regeu
