Watch out! That person next to you might be a birther.

Riding on mass transportation? Sitting in a restaurant? Lounging in the park? The person next to you tapping on a smart phone or other wireless Internet device might be a birther.

I wanted to share a curious result with you. I was applying a ban today, and made a comment that a particular commenter had used several sock puppets. I think the identifications I made were probably right; however, I wanted to dig a little deeper to see if perhaps there were others. I have a tool that lets me quickly search by commenter name and branch off from there to look at other entries with the same IP address or email address they used. Today, I thought I would upgrade my tool to do recursive searches, so that I could enter a commenter name, and find every IP address they had used, and every name that had ever been associated with that IP address, and all the IP addresses they had used and so on and so on.

When I turned my tool to the recently-banned commenter it went on a very long journey, so long that I wasn’t willing to wait for it to finish. I stopped it after 200 commenter names. “WOW!” I thought. This is sock puppetry beyond anything I could imagine. Since the result was so surprising, I looked at it a little closer and found that one of the commenter names was that of a well-respected, and long-time participant on this blog. I examined that IP address and found not one, but two such long-time participants, and I could tell by the email addresses that impersonation was not what was happening. Nor can I justify the conclusion that they are all the same person.

What I found with all of these individuals is that they use many, many different IP addresses, and I found that the particular IP address I looked at pointed back to mycingular.com, a wireless Internet provider now owned by AT&T. So what I have concluded is that there is considerable duplication of IP addresses for users of this site. This may explain some of the mystery moderation events of the past.

About Dr. Conspiracy

I'm not a real doctor, but I have a master's degree.
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26 Responses to Watch out! That person next to you might be a birther.

  1. JRC says:

    Yes, dynamic and static IPs. Even static change from time to time because of the ISP. I remember back in the old days with ISPs such as AOL, and Prodigy that you’d ban a block instead of an individual address. They were dynamic. Usually would tick off a bunch of people. Just as my sentence fragments do to English Professors.

  2. bovril says:

    For my part, I use TOR, VPN’s and periodically tether my laptop to my moble. All will generate a range of IP’s.

    Based on the tendency of Birfoons to attempt to stifle dissent via “outing” Obots it is simply good ‘net hygiene.

    When getting paranoid I use all 3….. 😎

  3. Northland10 says:

    Riding on mass transportation? The person next to you tapping on a smart phone or other wireless Internet device might be a birther.

    Now I really want to turn on my phone’s hotspot while riding the train and change the name to FBI_Surveillance1.

  4. Northland10 says:

    bovril:
    For my part, I use TOR, VPN’s and periodically tether my laptop to my moble. All will generate a range of IP’s.

    Based on the tendency of Birfoons to attempt to stifle dissent via “outing” Obots it is simply good ‘net hygiene.

    When getting paranoid I use all 3…..

    And, if you tether on a moving vehicle (along with using your devices on their own), your IP will likely change every time you switch towers.

  5. Majority Will says:

    Northland10: Now I really want to turn on my phone’s hotspot while riding the train and change the name to FBI_Surveillance1.

    Change your WiFi home ID too.

    FBI_SorosTeam323

    FEMA_CampRndUp

    GunSweepAlpha

    ChemTrailPlan1b

    IRS_GunSquad10Q

    ATF_BirtherArrest

  6. Craig HS says:

    Silly Patrick! If your searches aren’t giving you proper results, it’s a CONSPIRACY! You’re Clearly being HACKED! They’re out to get you!! Honestly, I would have thought Orly’s authoritarian declarations on these topics woulda learned ya Something by now!

  7. ben says:

    Hmmm Doc. Interesting. Any chance of becoming a consultant for the NSA data mining program. Incidentally thats pretty much what they do on the surface level resolve IPs to and from the USA to IPs that they have on a blacklist.

  8. SueDB says:

    You just never know if that person sitting near you is going to try and spread birther cooties all over the place.

  9. richCares says:

    how many birthers does it take to change a light bulb?
    None, they live in the dark

  10. Andrew Vrba, PmG says:

    richCares:
    how many birthers does it take to change a light bulb?
    None, they live in the dark

    LOL! You just won the internet!

  11. Northland10 says:

    Majority Will: Change your WiFi home ID too.

    The “Falcon” poster at ORYR actually made a comment about his lady friend freaking because she noticed FBI Survellance Van1 showing up when she was trying to connect from a parking lot. I am considering writing the editors of Roget’s Thesaurus and suggest they add birther to the synonym of gullible.

    I would go and find the ORYR link, but I already cleaned the bathroom tody.

  12. Majority Will says:

    Northland10: The “Falcon” poster at ORYR actually made a comment about his lady friend freaking because she noticed FBI Survellance Van1 showing up when she was trying to connect from a parking lot.I am considering writing the editors of Roget’s Thesaurus and suggest they add birther to the synonym of gullible.

    I would go and find the ORYR link, but I already cleaned the bathroom tody.

    *facepalm*

    Do Not Name Your Wifi Network ‘FBI SURVEILLANCE VAN’:
    http://gawker.com/5832665/do-not-name-your-wifi-network-fbi-surveillance-van

  13. Arthur says:

    Northland10: The “Falcon” poster at ORYR actually made a comment about his lady friend freaking because she noticed FBI Survellance Van1 showing up when she was trying to connect from a parking lot.

    Birthers, on the whole, are repulsive lot, and Falcon is the bottom of the barrel. I pity the women who would willing spend time with him.

  14. Majority Will says:

    Arthur: Birthers, on the whole, are repulsive lot, and Falcon is the bottom of the barrel. I pity the women who would willing spend time with him.

    Warm fruit filled baked goods and watermelon are probably as close as he gets.

  15. Arthur says:

    Majority Will: Warm fruit filled baked goods and watermelon are probably as close as he gets.

    Or else she inflates.

  16. scott e says:

    I like this article doc, keep up the good work !

  17. scott e says:

    Andrew Vrba, PmG: LOL! You just won the internet!

    then why would they need to change a lightbulb ??

  18. Andrew Vrba, PmG says:

    Falcon isn’t the bottom of the barrel, he’s the floor directly below the bottom of the barrel.

  19. The Magic M says:

    No, he’s the bottom of the basement five stories below the floor with the barrel.

  20. Andrew Vrba, PmG says:

    Honestly though, I think he’s a sock puppet of ORYR’s admin.
    Its the way he runs roughshod over any and all other posters, who are more times than not, his fellow Birtherstani, without so much as a warning. If he’s not the admin posting under a pseudonym, he’s certainly the teacher’s pet.

  21. Majority Will says:

    Andrew Vrba, PmG:
    Honestly though, I think he’s a sock puppet of ORYR’s admin.
    Its the way he runs roughshod over any and all other posters, who are more times than not, his fellow Birtherstani, without so much as a warning. If he’s not the admin posting under a pseudonym, he’s certainly the teacher’s pet.

    And I would guess that the handful of hardcore, obstinate birther bigots that still post idiotic comments here are from birther cesspools like that.

  22. roadburner says:

    Northland10: The “Falcon” poster at ORYR actually made a comment about his lady friend freaking because she noticed FBI Survellance Van1 showing up when she was trying to connect from a parking lot. I am considering writing the editors of Roget’s Thesaurus and suggest they add birther to the synonym of gullible. I would go and find the ORYR link, but I already cleaned the bathroom tody.

    his lady friend?

    how could an inflatable use the web?

    wow! hasn’t technology come on in leaps and bounds in the last few years!

  23. nbc says:

    roadburner: FBI Survellance Van1

    A lovely name for a wireless access point btw…

  24. Jim says:

    Northland10: The “Falcon” poster at ORYR actually made a comment about his lady friend freaking because she noticed FBI Survellance Van1 showing up when she was trying to connect from a parking lot.I am considering writing the editors of Roget’s Thesaurus and suggest they add birther to the synonym of gullible.

    I would go and find the ORYR link, but I already cleaned the bathroom tody.

    That’s OK, we took care of it. Changed the Van’s color and license. It will be identified now as “Not the Government”. Falcon will be none the wiser.

  25. Kiwiwriter says:

    Jim: That’s OK, we took care of it.Changed the Van’s color and license.It will be identified now as “Not the Government”.Falcon will be none the wiser.

    The van will now say on the side: “Flowers By Irene.”

  26. Majority Will says:

    Kiwiwriter: The van will now say on the side: “Flowers By Irene.”

    Ha! 😀

    A summer camp bus with blacked out windows and bars and a banner on the side that reads:
    Family Events, Meetings and Assemblies!

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