Cy Guy's Journal: Low Numbered, High Karma /. ID on eBay

A quicklink on PLASTIC pointed me to do this eBay auction for a SlashDot userID. Apparently the seller wants at least $100 for it since the reserve still isn't met.

But I'm wondering if it wouldn't be possible to identify the user without too much trouble based on the attributes of the account they list in the auction: UserID "below 400" meaning it must be between 301 and 399; Excellent karma; several stories accepted; scores of threads started (I don't know what that means other than some of their comments actually got replies); and, hundreds of comments posted.

I know how to call up user info by user ID number and I am currently going backwards from 399 to find possible candidates with at least 200 comments.

Okay, possible candidates so far (most likely to least):

1. Erbo userID 384. Has made 207 comments and 5 accepted subs.
2. Wakko Warner userID 324. Has made 2172 comments (so I don't think it is him) and 3 accepted subs.
3. Tony Shepps userID 333. Has made 378 comments and 3 accepted subs.
4. Shaheen userID 313. Has made 261 comments, 2 accepted subs.
5. KMSelf userID 361. Has made 231 comments, 2 accepted subs.
6. volsung userID 378. Has made 429 comments, 1 accepted sub.
7. Alan userID 347. Has made 596 comments, (there are many "alan" userIDs so it will be hard to ID all subs - but if his email has remained constant, it is just one).
8. Cardinal userID 311. Has made 269 comments, but no accepted subs.
9. MagPulse userID 316. Has made 254 comments but no accepted subs.
10. (I'm ignoring Roblimo (357) under the assumption he is not our guy)

And that's it. Just ten of the userID's between 301 and 399 have "hundreds of comments". And just THREE of those have had a "few" (3 or more?) submissions accepted. When I have some more time I will try to come up with some other weighting criteria to help indicate the seller (Journal entries, friends, current activity, etc. - I'm open to suggestions.) But for the time being I'm pretty certain it is Erbo, given that one of the other prime candidates sounds too much like the user's real name and the other seems like too much of SlashDot addict.

I am going to add all THREE as Friends. If you read read this and you are the seller feel free to post your thoughts (as AC I presume) on my "stalking" campaign.

UPDATE 3/22/03 6:25 AM

The reserve has been met, the bidding is now up $100. (though I may have had something to with it given I included a link to the auction in this comment I made in the eBay privacy thread.)

Also, I'm re-ordering the top three, moving Wakko Warner to second choice and Tony Shepps to third. The reason is that I wait the lack of anonymity of Tony Shepps ID as a serious impediment to the transfer, and that after I added Wakko Warner as a friend I dscover that one of his few friends had posted this Journal entry.

UPDATE 3/24/03 10:40 AM

The final price was $152.50 !!!
I checked for new posts by the three leading contenders, and WW & TS both made comments during the auction period, which reaffirms for me that Erbo is the most likely candidate. I will be checking that account every week or so see if their is any change in posting habits/style.

It'd be funny...

[Dave2 Wickham]

It'd be funny if:
A) There is no such account
or
B) The user gets banned :P

Seems a bit of a cheap thing to do though.

Cheap? Not really.

[Dthoma]

If you get bored of Slashdot and aren't ever going to come here again, why not put your account up on eBay? I don't think it's against their TOS, anyway.

Re:Cheap? Not really.

[Cy Guy]

I don't think it's against their TOS, anyway.

Actually it is [osdn.com]

5. NO RESALE OF SERVICE

You agree not to sell, resell or offer for any commercial purposes, any portion of the Services, use of the Services or access to the Services....

7. TERMINATION

A user's account may be terminated for reasons that include, but are not limited to, the following: 1.) violation of these TOS; ...

OSDN's termination of any user's access to OSDN or any Service hereunder may be effected without notice and, on such termination, OSDN may immediately deactivate or delete user's account and/or bar any further access to such files, that Service or OSDN. OSDN shall not be liable to any user or other third party for any termination of that user's access or account hereunder.

I meant eBay's TOS.

[Dthoma]

I don't think OSDN will notice if one account discreetly pops up on eBay and changes hands over the next few days. Unless they have someone who actively watches out for that kind of thing...

scewed perspective

[subgeek]

i'm sorry to whoever buys that account, but buying a low number high karma account is like hiring people to be your friends. i remember when slashdot was new. i never did much more than read headlines, so i didn't bother to get an account. do i deserve a lower id? no. it's my fault for waiting so long. but if people respect me for my slashdot id number, that's silly.

i suppose maybe it could be like buying out of print albums or collecting stamps. just not what i would spend my money to collect. i'd rather save it for out of print or limited edition music. or a vacation. but to each his own.