Clones

I have a question for the forum administration: is there any way at all to prevent the creation of clone accounts? I mean, the current situation is just not normal. On the thread regarding Ukraine, new clones seem to pop up every single day—some even openly admit they are clones

What kind of message does this send to all the honest forum members who actually follow the rules? When I was banned, I served my sentence, learned my lesson, and made sure to be a bit more careful about the forum guidelines the second time around.

I would suggest that those who constantly break the rules by signing up over and over again—despite being under a ban—should simply have their IP addresses blocked (or whatever the technical term is).

A situation like this just doesn't make sense.

Static IPs are a nightmare here since most US providers just cycle through dynamic addresses anyway, so that's probably a lost cause. Honestly, I guess it’d be enough just to set some kind of minimum post count requirement before someone can even touch a thread.
The way things are now, it’s just pointless. Even the ignore button doesn't really work when the same handful of people just clone their entire persona every single day and pick up right where the last version left off.

Instead of reporting clones and ignoring you people just keep arguing with them, forcing moderators to scroll back through pages of posts to delete everything. It's how we miss the important stuff.

It’s just extra work for nothing.

Should I just nuked the clone once they make their first claim about being one, or should I maybe let them cook for a bit until they expose themselves? 🙂

There’s honestly not much you can do against people like that. It’s pretty obvious their whole game is just spamming clones and flooding the thread before they even get hit with the next ban.
The only real way to deal with this kind of thing is having a minimum post count requirement before anyone can jump into a thread. Even a small number, like maybe a few dozen posts, would probably be enough to shut them down.

Just handle the TV registration, and we'll take it from there.

Paul Kern12 said:I have a question for the forum administration: is there any way at all to prevent the creation of clone accounts? I mean, the current situation is just not normal. On the thread regarding Ukraine, new clones seem to pop up every single day—some even openly admit they are clones

What kind of message does this send to all the honest forum members who actually follow the rules? When I was banned, I served my sentence, learned my lesson, and made sure to be a bit more careful about the forum guidelines the second time around.

I would suggest that those who constantly break the rules by signing up over and over again—despite being under a ban—should simply have their IP addresses blocked (or whatever the technical term is).

A situation like this just doesn't make sense.

A new copy-paste troll shows up on the pro-Russian side and everyone greets them with a "welcome" 🤣

One welcome.

A second welcome.

That Mexican 😉 who can't even get his grammar right.

Charles Fox10 said:Just handle the TV registration, and we'll take it from there.

I truly value your hard work and good intentions (and honestly, as a moderator of unquestionable integrity, I’d say you’re actually the most beloved mod on Politics), but... last time there was an issue regarding— well, as a rule, it is difficult to prove who is a clone and who isn't; are you guys aware of how hard it is to determine that kind of thing?

On the 'Gender Violence and Discrimination' thread, it became a massive headache because people were constantly commenting about 'terror from clones.' There were even comments right on the thread itself suggesting that a 'clone would have to admit they are a clone' (referring to a banned user) before they could be banned for clearly violating forum rules. Like, seriously?

(And this happened specifically on that thread, by the way; someone actually wrote out which clone they were, and I think either Charles Fox10 or maybe rustydrifter10 finally issued the ban because it was someone who had already been permanently banned. And that happened several times.)

(By the way, I won't swear that he isn't still posting there under a new handle; you can tell by his extremely intense views and his specific writing style 😉—aside from everything else, of course, though I wouldn't know for sure.)

On another thread (Western North America + America and Visegrad, or whatever it was called a few days ago), the same thing happened again. There's serious suspicion among the participants that people are using multiple clones, which seriously violates the subforum rules and just confuses everyone involved.

(Plus, one participant actually admitted that their second post on the same thread was made under a different username, by the way.)

Then there's the Ukraine thread, where attention is constantly being diverted, and so on and so forth.

Actually, my suggestion would be that perhaps blue bird should step in—even if it's just for a set period—as a moderator for that subforum.

The reason is that she was precisely the one who solved an identical problem on the Religion board when something similar to what's happening on Politics was going on.

blue bird is excellent at that, especially when it comes to resolving issues quickly and effectively (specifically dealing with the way active users are 'terrorized' by clones, many of whom are just clones of previously banned members).

If not her, then at least let Meadow be a new moderator there.

Please, give us a proven, high-quality moderator over on Politics. 👍😁 (And maybe a little 'woman's touch' too, lol)

I think that would solve a lot of problems immediately...

fadedmason3 said:A new copy-paste troll shows up on the pro-Russian side and everyone greets them with a "welcome" 🤣

One welcome.

A second welcome.

That Mexican 😉 who can't even get his grammar right.

Just another example of "democratic truth" being massaged to fit whatever narrative's convenient, I guess?
Some guy popped in this morning and dropped a pretty solid breakdown of the situation—which is probably why those users you quoted were so eager to give him a warm welcome:

From what I can tell, he’s only made about eight posts, and none of them look like copy-pasted junk. His stuff doesn't even look familiar.

Could you maybe explain what you're actually trying to pull here by twisting the facts?

Charles Fox10 said:Just handle the TV registration, and we'll take it from there.

Oh boy...

This guy keeps following me around, calling me a paid shill. It's a total obsession!

Right now, everyone's talking about @Palestinian children.
I keep filing reports, over and over. But they just get deleted every single time. Then he's right back at it the next day on at least two different threads. Well, I guess why not, when nothing gets deleted and nobody ever gets punished...

@supermod has all the tools; maybe take a look at those posts from this clone of a clone. If I can't quote the comments because the mod wipes them out, surely the supermod has access.

So much for the clones...

Charles Fox10 said:Just handle the TV registration, and we'll take it from there.

I reported an obvious clone twice yesterday, but instead of any actual penalties, they just flipped the script on me. ☕ Back to the usual routine: we're revisiting the old arguments about how everything fell apart under America, only to end up back at the same tired whining about some manufactured genocide against helpless kids. 😍If you don't believe me, just read this thread. Here we go again. It’s just some clone of a banned user popping up for the umpteenth time.

This is his first post since the cloning. I can't believe people still fall for this stuff. It’s like watching someone try to fix a broken engine with duct tape and expecting it to win the Indy 500. Total nonsense..

I have a question for the admin team regarding this unfortunate thread

We’ve bumped into this whole issue regarding multi-cloned accounts several times now—and, just to recap, Bio Fosna already gave me an answer once, basically stating that there isn't some grand system to systematically wipe out this nuisance; you just scrap them without hesitation once they're identified.
So, I get that part fine.

What I don't get is the forum's actual policy regarding their presence—specifically, why certain users' favorite sports are being rubber-stamped when those very individuals have quite literally torn this forum and its basic logic to shreds.
Could someone please explain why we aren't calling out the people whose entire purpose in life seems to be obsessively destroying any semblance of cohesion or constructive dialogue here, harassing other members and mods (the mods especially), and pathologically forcing their own "experiences" down everyone's throats?
I honestly don't see the point in tolerating people like that.

Like I said before, you already know what their favorite topics are. They usually set a minimum post count just to get a foot in the door—even something small like 20 posts is enough to get you cleared to write there.

nene, look, this is a systemic issue because you end up with entire threads being DESTROYED by people acting exactly like this.

What you’re suggesting is really just a band-aid solution—take our current debate about the crisis in Ukraine, for example.

But how do you actually shut down these trolls? These people who spin up twenty different burner accounts every single day? Just imagine the sheer volume of junk created over all these years, and the massive scale of the damage they've done to the integrity of this entire forum.
It’s honestly baffling that there isn't a way to put an end to this once and for all. It's infuriating, truly.🤷

This entire forum is an absolute disgrace. Here’s my take:

Usually, clones and trolls get banned, their accounts get nuked, and their posts get wiped clean, right?
Wrong.
If a clone jumps in and drops nothing but pure trolling, off-topic garbage, and personal attacks—BUT those posts happen to align perfectly with whatever specific agenda the moderators of this thread and this PDF hold—then those posts stay up. They won't be deleted, even though they are objectively low-quality trash that violates every standard rule of any decent forum. Even if the troll gets a permanent ban, their filth remains.

Listen up, folks. That is rock bottom. 🤦
When moderators start siding with trolls, or when trolls start echoing the mods' own views... basically acting like "yeah, tell him like it is!"... 🤣
It makes you wonder who is actually who. It makes you realize just how little some of these mods differ from the pathetic clones, trolls, and lunatics they claim to police. ☕

I honestly don't know what happened to this once-decent platform. What a joke.
The only reason these clones are allowed to "communicate" and post is because the actual, legitimate users have been completely steamrolled. ☕

rustydrifter10 said:Hey, back me up with some links here; otherwise, you’re just breaking the PDF rules.

When dealing with clones, we don't necessarily have to wipe out every single one of their posts—sometimes doing that would just end up wrecking the whole thread.

I didn't know that, but that specific rule sounds even worse to me.
As far as I'm concerned, everything a clone or troll writes—and every single argument they trigger—should be aggressively deleted. Otherwise, quality just vanishes. ☕ (No need for examples... every thread lately is filled with people talking trash because clones have gone wild 😁 )
How would it "damage the thread" if most of these clones get banned after only 10 posts anyway?!
A few irrelevant troll posts getting wiped out (along with maybe a couple of posts from actual users) is going to "ruin the thread"?!

Are you being serious or just joking?? 🙂

So what, we only delete the branch of an argument the moderator personally dislikes, but leave the branch (which is just as bad as anything else from that permanently banned troll) that the mod actually likes?! 🤦

Grace Jones86 said:I didn't know that, but that specific rule sounds even worse to me.
As far as I'm concerned, everything a clone or troll writes—and every single argument they trigger—should be aggressively deleted. Otherwise, quality just vanishes. ☕ (No need for examples... every thread lately is filled with people talking trash because clones have gone wild 😁 )
How would it "damage the thread" if most of these clones get banned after only 10 posts anyway?!
A few irrelevant troll posts getting wiped out (along with maybe a couple of posts from actual users) is going to "ruin the thread"?!

Are you being serious or just joking?? 🙂

So what, we only delete the branch of an argument the moderator personally dislikes, but leave the branch (which is just as bad as anything else from that permanently banned troll) that the mod actually likes?! 🤦

Saying something is "even more unfair" is really just throwing out a bunch of accusations without actually backing them up. It’s basically becoming a permanent resident on the ban list without even bothering to read the community guidelines first.

Grace Jones86 said:I didn't know that, but that specific rule sounds even worse to me.
As far as I'm concerned, everything a clone or troll writes—and every single argument they trigger—should be aggressively deleted. Otherwise, quality just vanishes. ☕ (No need for examples... every thread lately is filled with people talking trash because clones have gone wild 😁 )
How would it "damage the thread" if most of these clones get banned after only 10 posts anyway?!
A few irrelevant troll posts getting wiped out (along with maybe a couple of posts from actual users) is going to "ruin the thread"?!

Are you being serious or just joking?? 🙂

So what, we only delete the branch of an argument the moderator personally dislikes, but leave the branch (which is just as bad as anything else from that permanently banned troll) that the mod actually likes?! 🤦

Well, sometimes quality is lost, and sometimes it isn't. At the end of the day, it's up to the moderators to judge what stays and what goes. Just feel free to report whatever is bothering you; hey, maybe something will slip through the cracks once in a while.

rustydrifter10 said:Saying something is "even more unfair" is really just throwing out a bunch of accusations without actually backing them up. It’s basically becoming a permanent resident on the ban list without even bothering to read the community guidelines first.

Well, sometimes quality is lost, and sometimes it isn't. At the end of the day, it's up to the moderators to judge what stays and what goes. Just feel free to report whatever is bothering you; hey, maybe something will slip through the cracks once in a while.

I'm telling you, I am reporting this entire "sometimes it gets missed" logic. Quality is ALWAYS lost if you let a clone hijack threads, harass users who clearly aren't trolls or clones with a mission like him, and drag out and destroy the flow of conversation.

Moderator "judgment" should be simple: if an obvious clone or troll becomes overtly destructive, auto-delete half the thread in the section they contaminated. At least fix the damage.
Don't leave behind pieces of troll garbage just because you think it's "good"... 🤦 and because you "personally like" it. 🤦🤦

If you happen to know about any threads that have been destroyed by those clone troll armies, please drop the links here.

On Bezmudan is basically just people talking to themselves or having weird little side chats now. 😕 Honestly, even I wouldn't spot a clone if they walked up and introduced themselves, because this thread has become a total mess..