OK, back for a little more explanation for DJR. The wifi saga began about ten months ago when a Wisconsin Badger fan joined the board under the name
@nebraskafaninwi. Click the name for his profile and read through
this thread, and it'll help explain why we're on alert for members from Madison, WI.
Since we banned nebraskafaninwi, or "wifi" as he's known around here, he's attempted to join the site again numerous times, using proxy servers, using different servers around Madison, whatever he can think of. When he posts he has these big, aggrandizing posts that are rather tell-tale. So when I saw that OP it was a big red flag right away.
I explained a lot of why I was suspicious of him in the first post of this thread, but not everything. I did the leg work to ferret him out at work and I'm working from home today so I don't have all of the digging at my fingertips, but there were enough clues to point to this being wifi again. He has a way of posting that stands out, a "voice" to his writing that people recognize. Members in the thread recognized it, and someone even pointed out that he misspelled critique the same way wifi did.
Looking further, he posted this same post on Scout (among other places, as zoogies pointed out). His user name on Scout is
hashmarken34. Digging under this name shows memberships on other forums, such as Wisconsin Sports Network (like our boy "hudson" here), and
talksec.com, where he, like wifi, spends most of his time talking about recruiting. hashmarken34 created a profile on aztecmesa.com, a San Diego State board,
and posted once - to ask the Aztec fans about Andy Ludwig, an SDSU coach hired to be the Wisconsin OC this year.
Who writes like this, talks about recruiting quite a bit, lives in Madison, Wisconsin, is a Wisconsin Badger fan and alleges to be a Husker fan? We know wifi fits this description.
That's, as Trevor put it, probable cause to believe this guy is wifi.
Why do we ban this guy? Because this post is just the beginning. As you'll see if you go through nebraskafaninwi's history, he's not interested in conversations, he's interested in talking
at people. It mucks up the boards, we've had tons of complaints about the guy, and one member should not be allowed to ruin the posting experience of dozens of others just because. The guy posts like a weed - he starts small but he'll explode into a big mess. We've seen it before.
Is it possible this isn't wifi? Absolutely. If it isn't I imagine we'll be getting a message from hudson soon wondering what's up. This would not fit wifi's M.O., and would be a big sign to reevaluate all this. But I'm betting we never hear from hudson again. He'll be back, under another user name.
Regarding formerly banned members in general. Since we don't ban people on a whim, but have solid reasons to kick them out in the first place, it's not a typical process to reevaluate each person when we know they've signed up under a different user name. First off, that's a bannable offense right there - written in
The Rules. Second, we've discussed the person the first time and decided they were intractable enough to warrant kicking out. I'm pretty comfortable with the decisions we make in that regard.
However, people do come back. We don't catch them all, or we don't catch them right away. Usually there are "tells" that give them away, and they're gone again.
But they're not always booted again. There are members right now on the board who were previously banned, but who have returned. Usually they try to join again around the Spring game, or when Fall Camp starts, or around the start of the season. Sometimes it takes a while for them to give themselves away, and by the time they do, they've been around for a month or two already. In those situations, if the person isn't mucking up the boards and in general is being a good egg, I don't say anything.
The point of our "job" here is to facilitate a board where good conversation happens. If those guys come back and don't cause trouble, it's best to just leave them. If they mess around again, they're gone, and the leash is far shorter.
So I'd hate for you to think we're banning people for nothing, or we're too trigger-happy. It's not a personal vendetta against anyone. We're just trying to make this the best board we can.
