Spamalot

As most of you by now should know, I moderate Team17’s forum. On the off-chance that it is etichal for me to blog about this, some time ago (in fact, a little over two years ago now) I got into something of an argument with a user called “Skinbom”. Hestarted out being argumentative and annoying, and then, along with his buddy RoQ, whom I believe to be unique in choosing to name his videogame handle after a skin cream, started trolling the whole forum under the quaintly naïve impression that I couldn’t delete all of his posts in less than ten mouse clicks.

I got into a bit of an argument with him. I’m never sure how to handle those. I mean, is it okay to say “if you keep arguing with me I’m going to lock the thread,” or is that abusing my power? The alternatives, though, are just to let him think he’s won, which is probably worse in the long run, or else to argue forever. Fortunately, we have a Thomas to lock the thread for me so I can get the thread locked without actually locking it.

But then he posted on my website to attack me. That’s not on.

Nor is it very smart: people don’t seem to understand how easy it is to work out who is who and what is what. For example, here’s a Team17 spammer called Energize trying to play mind games with me and failing abysmally:

Why I Hate Energize Click for full image.

Anyway... I sent him this:

From : AndrewTaylor To : Skinbom Date : 2005-04-03 00:36 Title : Your post on my guestbook
If you don't like me then that's fine; I don't like you either. But you should at least recognise that you're no better.You don't need to resort to profanity the first time you imagine* that one of your posts has been deleted. You don't need to reply to every little thing that you consider off-topic -- doing that merely encourages a discussion of them. Use the "report post to a mod" button for that. (See also, posting an extended flame halfway through a thread and then blaming someone else for it being off-topic.) It couldn't be the first time a mod's post was reported, and it wouldn't be the first time one was deleted, either. And you don't need to start a personal vendetta based on one post.But I don't mind all that. I'm used to that, and at least it's defensible.But you ABSOLUTELY DO NOT post replies specifically and transparently designed to annoy another user. And having done so, you ABSOLUTELY DO NOT then visit that user's website and post personal remarks about him there. That's the online equivalent of arguing with someone in the pub and then tracking them down the next day and throwing a brick through their window. And that would get you a restraining order. Your friend RoQ was banned for less than that, remember, and I strongly suspect that the only reason you weren't is because the admin staff don't know you exist.Yet._____________________ *Yes, "imagine". Nobody deleted your post about the queen's knickers, though now that I look at it, perhaps that was an oversight and we should have done.

One of the great tragedies of our time is that, in order to save precious inbox space, I deleted all the messages that weren’t quoted in another, so this tale will have to be told largely in my replies to his messages, but fear not: his rantings are reproduced as quotes therein!

From : AndrewTaylor To : Skinbom Date : 2005-04-03 01:28 Title : Re: Andy!!!
Skinbom: "Hi Andy! Hows it going? Hope all is well in Andy land!Oh, by the way......you are one of the worst mods I have ever seen.Bye Andy." I feel sure you must have a point, but I'm at a loss to discern it.

I had explained that my name is not “Andy” but I hadn’t expected him to listen. (There are precisely two people in the world who call me Andy. One I’m used to and don’t mind and the other was a lecturer who I didn’t want to argue with. Not about that, anyway.) After that pointless diversion he got back on topic.

From : AndrewTaylor To : Skinbom Date : 2005-04-03 01:42 Title : Re: Your post on my guestbook
Skinbom: "if you don't want me to come to your site....make it private. As long as its public......go pound sand." That's like saying "if you don't want to be punched in the face, wear a hockey mask". Just because you can do something doesn't mean you may.I'm more than happy to let this go, but if you make one more personal remark about me I will do everything I can to get you banned, purely so that you stop bothering me. I have a perfectly enjoyably social life, thankyou very much, and it's not your place to ascribe a spurious life to me and then mock me for it. I think that says a lot more about you than it does about anyone else.

I’ve never heard of the phrase “go pound sand” before. Or since. Next, he accuses me of abusing my moderator powers to get his personal details, which I couldn’t have done even if I’d wanted to:

From : AndrewTaylor To : Skinbom Date : 2005-04-03 14:33 Title : Re: You have overstepped you bounds.
Skinbom: "You have illegally given out my private information on your personal website. My email is listed as private on this site and you used your power as a mod to access it and post it and asked your friends to attack it. I have copied the entire page over there and forwarded it to the proper authorities.....good luck with that." Actually I got it from your public profile on your clan website.If you want it private, make it so.

Persumably he reported me to the same “authorities” as Trippenz. I base this on theobservation that two years have passed and there have been no discernable consequences of this blatant attack on his human rights (assuming he is a human).

From : AndrewTaylor To : Skinbom Date : 2005-04-03 14:41 Title : Re: You have overstepped you bounds.
Skinbom: "So....you wanna have an email account war? Remember you started the email doo-doo." I've not done a thing to your email address. I've never even emailed you. Besides which, I happen to know that you've linked to my website on your clan forum. I'd say it's a bit rich to pretend I started anything.

I can’t read what he put on his clan website, either, because it’s locked to members only, but as I did with Energize, I can put two and two together: his forum appeared on my referrals list.

From : AndrewTaylor To : Skinbom Date : 2005-04-03 14:49 Title : Re: You have overstepped you bounds.
Skinbom: "You posted my email and asked your friends to spam it." In fairness, you spammed my PM inbox AND my forum first. And I didn't ask them to spam it, I just didn't ask them not to. "Feel free" is such a wonderfully ambiguous phrase.
From : AndrewTaylor To : Skinbom Date : 2005-04-03 14:55 Title : Re: You have overstepped you bounds.
Skinbom: "I made one post in your forum.....and i have not spammed your PM." This is spam: Skinbom: "Hi Andy! Hows it going? Hope all is well in Andy land! Oh, by the way......you are one of the worst mods I have ever seen. Bye Andy." It contained no new information and was clearly designed to irritate me. That sounds like spam to me.

Apparently not, though…

From : Skinbom To : AndrewTaylor Date : 2005-04-03 15:08 Title : Re: You have overstepped you bounds.
Andy, Although it may have irritated you, it was not spam....only stated my opinion of what I think of your mod abilities.

I decided to call an end to the whole debacle then.

From : AndrewTaylor To : Skinbom Date : 2005-04-03 15:26 Title : Re: You have overstepped you bounds.
Well clearly it was spam. I know it was, and you know it was, and trying to pretend that it wasn't isn't going to change anything. Whatever else I may be, I'm not an idiot and I'm not going to believe you, even if you do.I'm not going to PM you again. Frankly, I'm running out of space in my inbox anyway. In return for this I expect you to get off my back. And that includes stopping spamming the rest of the forum, not least because someone will delete them and the last thing I need is you thinking I'm systematically deleting all your posts.

I didn’t hear from him after that.