Journal Real Troll Talk's Journal: Real Troll Talk Featuring "sllort" 6
Real Troll Talk - Issue #3
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[Us] (12:48:28 PM): Hi sllort, this is Real Troll Talk. Care to do an interview?
sllort (12:48:39 PM): Fire away
[Us] (12:49:09 PM): Excellent. Well, first off, why don't you describe yourself and your Web antics over the past 5-10 years in a couple sentences or so.
sllort (12:49:25 PM): Well I'm sure you've heard of a site called Slashdot
[Us] (12:49:33 PM): Of course
sllort (12:49:40 PM): I signed up for their site in like, um, 1999
sllort (12:49:59 PM): and that same year they IP banned me for discovering a bug that became known as "multipost"
sllort (12:50:11 PM): In so doing they blocked my entire company from accessing the site.
sllort (12:50:26 PM): So I started documenting their willingness to break their own rules
[Us] (12:50:37 PM): Please explain multipost and what kind of company you worked for.
sllort (12:50:50 PM): Oh, I worked for one of those companies that died with Worldcom
sllort (12:51:01 PM): Doe-eyed, cheery young pups we were.
sllort (12:51:05 PM): Yadda yadda
sllort (12:51:10 PM): Multipost was very simple.
sllort (12:51:29 PM): If you hit "Submit" more than once, more than one copy of your comment would appear.
sllort (12:51:43 PM): So, there was a story about Bastille Linux.
sllort (12:51:52 PM): This upset me, because Bastille was in France.
sllort (12:52:04 PM): So I posted a comment that said "Bastille? but that is in France!"
sllort (12:52:13 PM): And I hit the submit button multiple times.
sllort (12:52:28 PM): Turns out that you only have about three or four seconds, but you could chain it by pressing the button a whole lot
sllort (12:52:38 PM): In the end, about 60 copies of my comment got posted.
sllort (12:52:50 PM): I got first post and 60th post.
[Us] (12:53:06 PM): That's beautiful
sllort (12:53:18 PM): Well, at the time I thought it was a little silly.
sllort (12:53:29 PM): But I thought it would be helpful to write them up and tell them what the problem was.
sllort (12:53:46 PM): I'd read the rules, and they were very clear in saying that people who used scripts against the site would be banned.
sllort (12:53:59 PM): I hadn't used a script, and I'd helped find a problem in Slashcode
sllort (12:54:14 PM): They wouldn't respond to me short of blocking my company's NAT'd IP address.
sllort (12:54:16 PM): It was very rude.
[Us] (12:54:22 PM): Definitely. You should have been thanked.
[Us] (12:54:42 PM): Did you get flack at work, or did they not know that you had caused the
sllort (12:55:01 PM): Well, I was moonlighting as the IT monkey there in addition to doing embedded dev work
sllort (12:55:21 PM): So I actually spent a good bit of time having our NAT box seamlessly proxy around the ban.
sllort (12:55:30 PM): So I wouldn't have to explain WTF was wrong.
[Us] (12:55:44 PM): Wow, sounds like 15+ hour work days I bet
sllort (12:55:54 PM): It was cyclic.
sllort (12:56:02 PM): For product deadlines, we worked a lot.
[Us] (12:56:41 PM): So at that point, after doing Rob and the editors a favor by finding a bug and properly reporting it, you were punished by them?
[Us] (12:56:49 PM): At that point, did you fight back?
sllort (12:56:56 PM): Well, understandably there was a difference of opinion.
sllort (12:57:07 PM): What really surprised me, though, was the reaction I got from jamie
sllort (12:57:17 PM): And it's sad, because I no longer have links to any of this crap
[Us] (12:57:17 PM): (i.e. as Modest Mouse puts it, you were "done done done with all the fuckin around")
sllort (12:57:43 PM): I really hadn't been expecting to get cussed out.
sllort (12:57:51 PM): So I tried to raise a stink about it.
[Us] (12:57:54 PM): Wait, Jamie cursed at you?
sllort (12:58:02 PM): Heh, yes.
[Us] (12:58:04 PM): I mean first off, that's a girl's name, right?
sllort (12:58:15 PM): Jamie, heh, sigh.
sllort (12:58:25 PM): He should really change that to a boy's name, like Kirk.
[Us] (12:58:47 PM): Is he a fat little white guy with long greasy hair who wears Converse and sleeveless t-shirts?
sllort (12:58:57 PM): He's extremely skinny actually.
[Us] (12:59:00 PM): Or Adolf perhaps
sllort (12:59:19 PM): He doesn't allow pictures of himself to be taken, but there were some pictures of his back when he was testifying about library filters in Michigan
[Us] (12:59:21 PM): (Adolf means "Skinny vegetarian dictator" in German I believe)
[Us] (12:59:41 PM): Yeah, ugly people are like that sometimes
sllort (12:59:43 PM): I believe he's obsessed with vegetarianism, gun control, and rabbits.
[Us] (12:59:56 PM): You should kill a rabbit with a gun and eat it
[Us] (1:00:00 PM): And show him
sllort (1:00:01 PM): And Philip K. Dick, and Tori Amos.
sllort (1:00:22 PM): I like to pretend to be mature.
[Us] (1:00:38 PM): So I hear you're pretty high up in the chain of trolls...mind explaining the structure? Is there a structure even?
sllort (1:00:49 PM): Oh man.
sllort (1:01:02 PM): If there is a structure I don't know about it.
sllort (1:01:09 PM): Basically you are what you do.
sllort (1:01:39 PM): I managed to bring some publicity to what happened with the Post of Doom
[Us] (1:01:53 PM): I remember that post. Is it still viewable?
sllort (1:02:04 PM): 500 moderators banned, editors admitting for the first time that they moderate comments with unlimited points.
sllort (1:02:37 PM): I like to think that because of collective efforts I took part in, M2 replaced the rtbl, editor moderation is in the FAQ, and IP addresses are no longer stored in their dB
sllort (1:02:44 PM): it is, let me find the link.
[Us] (1:03:00 PM): True, IP addresses and such seem to be MD5'd
sllort (1:03:16 PM): Not that that provides any protection with a SALT
[Us] (1:03:24 PM): What is SALT?
sllort (1:03:31 PM): You know CmdrTaco actually checked his response to that into the source code?
sllort (1:03:35 PM): You can still view it in CVS
sllort (1:03:52 PM): http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=26315&cid=2850660
sllort (1:03:58 PM): over 1000 moderations done.
[Us] (1:04:00 PM): Excellent
sllort (1:04:20 PM): Basically a salt is a random number you combine with the cleartext before you hash it.
[Us] (1:04:25 PM): Are you the most knowledgable troll WRT Slashdot's history, policies, technology, etc.?
sllort (1:04:37 PM): If I try to talk about crypto with authority I will get nitpicked by the Schnier fanboys
sllort (1:04:52 PM): God knows.
[Us] (1:05:01 PM): Who are some trolls that you look up to?
sllort (1:05:10 PM): I'll say this: I've probably spent more time at it than anyone else.
sllort (1:05:36 PM): Hmmm, well that's tough, because that word is so misused.
[Us] (1:05:53 PM): Well, try your best. Name 5-10 members you enjoy.
sllort (1:05:58 PM): The Anne Marie account on Slashdot was, in my mind, the best ever.
sllort (1:06:15 PM): The moon myth post, Lita Juarez
sllort (1:06:37 PM): OGG for singlehandedly getting the caps filter installed.
sllort (1:07:06 PM): And while I hate to blow my own horn, the collaborative work that was the JUNIS KANUNI account was probably the funniest thing I ever did.
sllort (1:07:17 PM): I got help in bypassing the caps lock filter
sllort (1:07:40 PM): http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=27966&cid=3007797
sllort (1:07:54 PM): The source code to that post, if you view source, is pretty funny.
[Us] (1:08:38 PM): Holy Christ. That's insane man.
[Us] (1:08:43 PM): You really do spend a lot of time on this
sllort (1:08:50 PM): Well, I had help with that.
[Us] (1:09:34 PM): Hahahah, that's awesome. If you're reading this, go to that post and view source of the page to see how it was done.
[Us] (1:09:53 PM): How did the Friends/Foe thing come into the picture ?
sllort (1:10:18 PM): Well, basically the only cool Slashteam member in history, Brian Aker (krow) wrote that
sllort (1:10:27 PM): Which is the reason it actually does what it was designed to do
sllort (1:10:40 PM): Though I think that, for the intended purpose, it wasn't much of a success.
sllort (1:10:49 PM): I.E. The be-all end-all anti-troll solution.
[Us] (1:10:59 PM): Right. Who started friend whoring?
sllort (1:11:10 PM): Um.
sllort (1:11:31 PM): Well, that's tricky to answer, though I believe it was perfected by "$$$exyGal" or somesuch
[Us] (1:11:44 PM): Was she ever revealed?
sllort (1:12:02 PM): In the beginning, the same guy who wrote the caps-lock circumventor also figured out some interesting things you could do with Zoo.pl
sllort (1:12:13 PM): We had a link which would befriend or enfoe an account with a single click.
sllort (1:12:19 PM): So while we didn't use it for friend-whoring
sllort (1:12:29 PM): We DID manage to get hundreds of people to mark JonKatz as foe.
[Us] (1:12:48 PM): That's great. Is he still alive, or did his dog eat him?
sllort (1:12:57 PM): They actually laid him off.
sllort (1:13:07 PM): They talked about it in their IRC chat.
[Us] (1:13:08 PM): Was it a paid position?
sllort (1:13:12 PM): Yes!
[Us] (1:13:43 PM): Tell us about some scripts you use/have written for Slashdot
sllort (1:13:49 PM): http://slashdot.org/~jonkatz/freaks
sllort (1:13:54 PM): Well, here's the thing.
sllort (1:14:03 PM): After I got banned for not breaking the rules.
sllort (1:14:12 PM): I was actually meticulous about following them.
sllort (1:14:23 PM): So, the rules say "no scripted interaction with the site".
sllort (1:14:43 PM): Now, the JUNIS script, that's a script which generates a comment which you could paste into a browser, so that doesn't count.
sllort (1:14:51 PM): So, stuff like that.
[Us] (1:14:53 PM): Agreed. No violation.
sllort (1:15:05 PM): Scripts to build a comment which will pass the lameness filter.
[Us] (1:15:21 PM): Excellent. Would you say you're a bit "off your rocker", or are you just really brilliant with some free time on your hands?
sllort (1:15:37 PM): More of the latter, but minus the brilliant.
[Us] (1:15:52 PM): You're not a stupid man though, sllort
[Us] (1:15:56 PM): By any means
sllort (1:15:58 PM): I look at www.google-watch.com
sllort (1:16:10 PM): That guy who rants about how evil Google is.
sllort (1:16:20 PM): Now, this guy is upset because they screwed up his business model.
sllort (1:16:33 PM): Because he was fucking with search engines to make money.
sllort (1:16:45 PM): Me, on the other hand, I'm not motivated by money.
[Us] (1:16:58 PM): That's funny shit. People truly are selfish, which is why capitalism/America works so well.
sllort (1:17:10 PM): I think what really motivates me is the fact that Slashdot's system truly does exclude reasonable people.
[Us] (1:17:35 PM): What's your life like when you're not tinkering around on Slashdot's servers?
sllort (1:17:45 PM): No one will believe this
sllort (1:17:52 PM): But I'm a fanatical endurance athelete
sllort (1:18:03 PM): And I own almost no technology
sllort (1:18:13 PM): I leave work at work.
[Us] (1:18:21 PM): So you have a 486 and good pair of running shoes?
sllort (1:18:37 PM): No 486, actually no computer at the moment, and no television
sllort (1:18:45 PM): I have a couple pair of running shoes
[Us] (1:18:57 PM): Is there a girl/guy in the picture?
[Us] (1:19:04 PM): Surely you must do something at home
sllort (1:19:11 PM): Well, of course.
sllort (1:19:26 PM): But for her sake, I keep her out of my online affairs.
[Us] (1:19:48 PM): I hope she's at least mildly attractive
sllort (1:19:55 PM): See above
[Us] (1:19:57 PM): Where are you working these days
sllort (1:20:16 PM): The greater washington area.
[Us] (1:20:37 PM): DC or WAstate?
sllort (1:20:45 PM): Oh, DC
sllort (1:21:00 PM): Home of Marion Barry, murder capitol of the world.
[Us] (1:21:16 PM): Excellent. Perhaps you could meet up with us sometime.
[Us] (1:21:27 PM): I promised I'd keep this short, so for now, good bye
sllort (1:21:35 PM): Peace
[Us] (1:21:38 PM): Keep up the good work
[Us] (1:21:42 PM): Fight the good fight
[Us] (1:21:43 PM): ?
sllort (1:21:50 PM): Profit
sllort (1:22:00 PM): Not likely
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