Leaving comments for yourself are you?

Jahanshah Javid
by Jahanshah Javid
27-Nov-2008
 

It's been how long? Two years? Not sure really. But ever since comment boxes appeared below articles on iranian.com, there have been rare instances where writers have left supporting messages for themselves.

You, the general reader, may be able to guess these instances. But often you're probably wrong and it's just your conspiracy-friendly mind talking.

I on the other hand, have access to our publishing system, which can tell me, with a good deal of accuracy, if these comments are coming from the same person under the guise of different users.

In order to check on my suspicions, I have to ask our technical chief Foaad, to go and dig up the facts. I don't know how to do it myself and I don't want to. In a total of three instances (two concerning abusive users and one regarding comments on one's own writing), I have been so annoyed that I have sought Foaad's help. It's good to have an expert witness and second opinion.

Now my question is, what am I supposed to do? Should I tell the offending person to stop leaving congratulatory or supporting messages for her or himself? Should I just delete them? Should I expose them (I'm not going to that, I don't think)?

Or should I stop checking on these desperate individuals altogether? So what if people want to give themselves a pat on the back, anonymously, over and over again? Is that any of my business?

I would like your input. PLEASE do not speculate and name names in your comments (they will be deleted), because I would have done so myself and that's not the purpose of this blog.

However, maybe those who have done it may see this note and feel a little uncomfortable.

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I envy the lot of you

by Anonymous77 (not verified) on

For having no other problems in your lives, to be able to spend so much time on this.

And

I think I need to have my head examined for attempting to read through all of this.

Kerm az kohe derakhte and other stuff.


Souri

Now, I can give you another example !

by Souri on

This is called the "Ethic"....there are rules which are made only in an ethical way . Man does not always need sanction to recognize "good" from "bad" deeds.

I give you an example of this :

Imagine you are invited for dinner somewhere and there are many other guests like you, sitting around the table. There is food on the table. Imagine you take all the food or most of it. Example : a chicken for six persons, and you will have both legs and wings and the breast !!! You leave only the bones for other guests !! 

That is called the "Ethic" dear friend. There wouldn't be any sanction for your abusing manner but you are supposed to know your own limit.

In a highway context, you, as a driver, pay for the taxes. Usually you pay for many things, different taxes (road, highway, car,...etc. etc)

so it is normal to have officer and ticket and rules and sanctions, whereas in this site, you don't pay anything to anyone. It's just a community and the rules are only the human behaviour which is called the "Ethic".


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Sense of responsibility and collaboration don't mean a thing

by Anonymous Driver (not verified) on

When I drive in a highway and the speed limit says 40 to 65 MPH (that's 65 to 105 KPM in metric countries) I drive within that speed limit because that is the rule for driving in that road. If for some reason my speed drops below 40 MPH I pull over to a shoulder area because that is the rule for driving on that road below the minimum speed limit, and when I drive over 65 MPH I know I am breaking the law as it is clearly written in the Vehicle Code.

So, if I get stopped for driving too fast or too slow and I’m issued a citation I take my punishment without complain (moral or legal complain that is), and if they revoke my driver's license one day because they claim I don't have a sense of responsibility and collaboration the first thing I want to know is what section of the Vehicle Code they are referring too. As a matter of fact any time I’ve gotten a ticket, which is about once in the last fifteen years, it clearly says on the ticket what section of the Vehicle Code I violated. So therefore I hardly ever ASSUME that I'm an irresponsible drive because a highway patrol officer or some other driver THINKS so.

Self congratulatory note: Persians are the original inventors of everything in this world, in this case the original people who first thought of multiple username identities.


Souri

All started with the Anonymouse blog

by Souri on

Hi dear Muddlefish !! Nice to hear from you :O)

I believe I am the guilty one !! as I was the one who first gave them this idea of "multiple registration" ....In that blog of Anonymouse Which has been deleted by himself(I'm so disappointed...) I addressed JJ, asking him to remove the option of posting anonymously. Then I said that people can have multiple user names if they wanted, as this is internet and a virtual world.

From that day onward, we have seen a growing number of users, choosing this option in plus of posting anonymouse comments. Means that not only we didn't resolve any problem but also we added some others !

Now, things have gone too far to become straight again. On the other hand, the number of bloggers and contributors is reduced to a minimum, so it is easier to read trough their post and guess who is who.

Overall, it's a very difficult task for JJ and the moderators, and we should all put our own sense of responsibility and collaboration.


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Muddlefish: give me rules or give me death

by Anonymous Multi Username (not verified) on

Your post has been the most documentary review of what went on this website in the past I have seen so far, the historical events in regard to policies and rules for posting articles, blogs, and comments, and the links were great help to read up on what happened in the past.

However, and this is not to be critical of you because you have done great to show us what happened, these blogs are opinions and not policies, and they are buried under a ton of articles, blogs, and comments. If they were official policies they should have been posted in the policy section.

I will stop posting under multiple registered and unregistered usernames if someone can direct me to the rule where it says not to so.

Self congratulatory note: You are doing an excellent job of making a point here.


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In Answer to JJ's Initial Question on This Blog//

by Muddlefish (not verified) on

blogging began in early August of 2007:

//iranian.com/main/blog/jahanshah-javid/hello

so one year four months ago, not two.

But blogging did not take off in any significant way for several weeks. When it did it was a war zone and ANYTHING and EVERYTHING went on those threads, there were hundreds of instances of ALL TYPES of abuse in the "little boxes".

The first attempt at a moderation system began IN COMMUNITY with this blog and a subsequent one by Bahmani, October 31-November 2

//iranian.com/main/blog/bahmani/editor-dead-l...

So, anything resembing a blogging COMMUNITY first began one year ago, not two.

The embryonic moderation system was established right after that but no blog was generated disclosing it. The next major community discussion of blogging/moderation practices was generated by JJ in early March:

//iranian.com/main/blog/jahanshah-javid/what-...

and was followed up with a blog by jj on his decisions. After that in early June posting guidelines were blogged by jj in response to a blog generated by a registered user:

//iranian.com/main/blog/jahanshah-javid/consi...

That was the last major exchange between jj and community on these issues...this current blog seems seems more like a muddle.

In order to work your way out of the muddle, to know what may work, you have to know what did work, what didn't work, and why. Why implies when. To find the correct balance in the dialog and decisions between admin, the bloggers, and the general readership, between what's too strict, too lax, etc., you have to beable look at the history and progress... It's the only way out of the muddle.

So, to start off with....

one year, not two.


Azadeh

Sheytoone chi migeh?

by Azadeh on

I was shocked to read there are people so stupid that would come here to write and then pose as someone to pat themselves on the back. It shows a level of sickness that I'm sad to see in any Iranian. However, when I read this, the first thing I think is maybe they'll wake up from their ignorance to know that just because they list a fake names doesn't stop IT technology from revealing their identities....but then, Sheytoone migeh, "JJ khan, tell us who they are!!" Maybe that will teach those "hoghe-baaz" Iranians to change...although I doubt it.  :)


Nadias

You are not lost or the only one........

by Nadias on

 By the way being a geek is a good thing these days. Actually, I consider myself to be geek chic. :o)

There are people that come here with certain objectives in mind. While others simply enjoy reading what is posted by some. Others are here to interact with others on the web (no strings attached).

solh va doosti

 


Bijan A M

I feel lost....

by Bijan A M on

Why do I feel like being the only geek in this debate? Why would anyone come to this site and participate in debates or initiate a conversation? I am here to read intelligent posts, learn, voice my opinion and engage in some meaningful debates. I appreciate the free format of the publication and try to be respectful to the audience. As normal as it can be for any human in any debate we may lose temper at times and get carried away with our emotions. In my judgment JJ’s moderators have done a decent job to reign some civility in most exchanges. I never imagined even in my wildest imagination that people come here to win points.

 

What difference would it make if there are 1000 comments against you and only 2 support you? So what? You are who you are and what you believe. Why should it matter if it is a single poster with multiple registration or everyone of those comments are coming from different posters?  How could it be abuse if multiple comments come from the same IP address? Why is it a crime or even irresponsible? Why should it discourage you from posting?

 

In the format of this publication, all this behavior (i.e. padding themselves) demonstrates is a sign of desperation and weakness by those committing it. Does anyone look at Iranian.com as a political platform? Is this the site to promote and advocate a particular view point? I could be the only odd man out here who doesn’t look at it that way? I don’t see this place as pro one thing and against the other. It is true that many of the regular visitors here may be more inclined toward a certain philosophy of political spectrum, but I have seen nothing to stop others with different views to post their strong opposition. In any public social gathering you will find some who may annoy others by the way they walk or talk or by the odor of their armpit without disrupting the social order. Should there be a police force with sniffing dogs to detect and arrest these people? I don’t think so.

 

Ms. Kaviani, your points are well taken and respected. AW, I feel sad that you are married!! (please take it as a complement). As many times as I find myself disagreeing with you I find you pleasant and respectful in every debate. On this particular topic I find myself totally agreeing with you, even though I have never engaged in multi-id posting.

 

JJ, for the second time, and as Hooshyar said, please “Let it be”….

 

Regards

 

Bijan


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Matador come back!

by Hooshyar F. Naraghi (not verified) on

Hi JJ. Mexico? I just finished watching your Las Vegas and Sedona pictures. Did you get a chance to meet Mr. Sepahbodi?

OK, I'll refuse to eat chelokabab 'til your return. Thanks for damadi. :-)


American Wife

Q

by American Wife on

You make some good points.  No doubt.  But just look back at this post.  The same people crying crocodile tears about someone hurting their feelings is the same one calling another REGISTERED user mentally ill.  But that's ok... how?  I was called an ignorant American and sure, my panties started twisting.  But then I considered the source and simply had to laugh.  Remember, subtle insults can be just as painful or distracting as the brash, in-your-face ones.  So who gets to decide?  Our illustrious moderators?  We've all seen how fair THEY are.  JJ?  He doesn't have time to read every single comment written.  Perhaps more emphasis could be put on the "flag as offensive" button? 

You know what offends me more.  The pathetically pious who make the subtle comments as mentioned before.  And then don't have the balls to back up their claims.  Who claim such wounded feelings and then insults you with pretty words.  What  hypocrites.

Marge is right.  This is a community.  What some are proposing is simply childish.  You want to start pointing it out now..lol.  I can see it right now.  Sounds like the kids in the back of the car.  "Mom... he touched me."   "Mom... he touched me first".  "Mom... he's looking at me"  "Mom... he stuck his tongue out at me". 

Silly.  Simply silly. 


Souri

Q: You said it all !!

by Souri on

Thank you. I agree %100

 

 

 


I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek

Tahirih - you decry cyber bullying after what you wrote me?

by I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek on

You told me that I'm loud, need prozac and am mentally ill and a bunch of other hilarity. LOL! You're the one who needs pills. Chill pills. We're a community, and we might have division and mutual hate, but we have to tolerate each other. You're not really qualified to talk about prozac or cyber bullying azizam.

If i didn't have a thicker skin, I would say you were "cyber bullying". This is getting ridiculous. Tamoom shod. Mr. Javid made a decision and it's his site. Unfortunately, at this point, we can do and say nothing else to change that.


Tahirih

I agree with Q 100%

by Tahirih on

He is absolutely correct. When  supposedly 8 people who are really one person attack some one's idea, then this is really trying to bully the person to either shut up or leave the site. I agree with Q , this action is irresponsible , and I will add childish to it  too. It certainly takes away the natural flow of the comments. 

Cyber  bullying has to stop , I believe we should all point to it when we see it.

Tahirih


Q

AW, I have already explained it

by Q on

There is no mental ignore button if everyone can read the filth and the slander associated with your name, if you dare say the wrong thing.

The comments are great. They are very precious. People can have discussion and explore the subject in more depth, and understand different points of view. I learn a lot from intelligent comments.

But Under these circumstances, where 8 people (= 1 person) attack and call you a terrorist purposefully try to drawn you out, and, get away with it, people like me are less likely to leave comments. That kills the participation value for this site and make people not want to share anything important or personal.

It's not causing me 'distress', it's killing the value of having comments: getting people to share and exchange views, the very reason Javid provided them in the first place. Same goes with articles and pictures and... whatever people contribute.

And for what? Just so you can feel like you are "preserving" the freedom and privacy of a small number (and we now know, given all the fakers, the true number is even smaller than that) of single-minded, proto-fascist agitators who simply want to make sure no other point of view is expressed? Give them license to slander people's work, and devalue their writing. It hurts javid and this stie.

Why would I want to participate in that?

What's also hypocritical is that Javid doesn't want any of these things either, and he will intervene and delete comments that are like this. But only if he or his moderators happen to catch it and only if they are in the mood to do something about it. We have to rely on his good graces and his 24/7 presence on this site.

Why he just doesn't make this a policy and state it so clearly is beyond me. Now he's given permission for people to have multiple fake personalities. I call that irresponsible.


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Systematize things.

by Fish Out of Water (not verified) on

INFRACTIONS

1. Never EVER expose anyone for ANY reason. Worst thing in the world you could possibly do for community morale.
2. Anything you consider a serious infraction contact the poster and warn them if it happens again they'll be blocked.
3. First incidence should be a temporary blocking, say one month. Tell them that if it happens again the blocking will be permanent.
4. Do it.

or SOME such system.

Blog whatever system you've devised and the types of infractions involved.

____________________

These discussions.

1. Have them whenever you feel you need to about any issue related to running the website.
2. Following the discussions, after you make a decision, blog it publicly informing the readership it was based on the general input.

________________________

Moderation

1. Moderators should be disclosed, otherwise it's like a secret police. Any moderator who isn't willing to take on the job publicly and proudly really shouldn't moderate.
2. However readers must be told (in a blog) that, since they're volunteers, any problem with moderation should go to you, not ANY moderators. Otherwise it's a kind of harrassment.
3. Anyone who contacts the moderators directly onsite or off about moderation: follow the system devised above, or whichever you arrive at, because-- it's a SERIOUS INFRACTION.


American Wife

Q...?

by American Wife on

I am trying to understand your rationilization... truly.  How could anything anyone else does affect your participation?  There is a mental ignore button as well.  You know whos opinion you respect or whos debate you enjoy participating in.  You work... you drive... you shop... with distractions and irrelevant intrusion.  Why is this causing you such distress?  Regardless of your beliefs, you're one of the most abled mental participants and so many people enjoy (or hate...:-) your views.  Why let this incredibly insignificant issue be such an problem for you?

Kaveh.... you too.  Why do you care what someone else is doing.  Continue YOUR worthy efforts and be damned what anyone else is doing.  Your contributions are no less appreciated.

Much ado about nothing.

GO TIGERS!


Q

This is irresponsible

by Q on

Now you have encouraged those who engage in this kind of abuse, making others less likely to leave good comments or enter into discussions.


Tahirih

Why do I get deleted?

by Tahirih on

Who is holding the delete button?

And why what I say is so harmful that needs to be deleted?

Having multiple personalities on the site is cute I guess?

But not to me, when one character writes an insulting blog about my beliefs and as soon as I reply the other characters attack me? So is this right or honorable?

Which one is more important? dignity of the site or the #'s?

Tahirih

 


Monda

I'm kinda disappointed

by Monda on

I love reading the blogs and the comments for the writers here. Some times I enjoy the reactions even more than the blog content (No offense to anyone). I love the fact that each one of us may be touched by something someone wrote in their blog..most of the time it's really haphazard or serendipitous. Someone writes about their friend's cousin's pain and it gets associated with something that I heard 30 years ago...unconscious mind works in mysterious ways you know. So when I hear that bloggers are leaving comments on their own pieces, well that piece kinda bursts my bubbles. And of course because it takes away from the genuine quality of this site, even if it means occasional sneering and foul language, etc. It is a big family after all with fighting and tantrums as part of it...it's a sign of feeling safe here. This site is designed  for us to feel safe so we can look at our collective stuff and hopefully/ultimately be more creative in supporting our motherland .

Back to leaving comments for self, I'm glad to hear JJ's discovered only rare instance. 



Khar

Jahanshah are you...

by Khar on

Homesick already?! what is it day 3 in Mexico?


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.

by Anonymous00009 (not verified) on

mmaybe it would be much better if everyone was anonymous so we would only look at the comment rather than the name.


Jahanshah Javid

Miss you!

by Jahanshah Javid on

Hooshyar Jan! Misssssss you so much! I'm going to be in Mexico for a few months or else I would have loved to meet you for chelokabab.

You're right. People can have multiple accounts under any name. I don't mind. There's no harm.

Our publishing system (Drupal) does not allow registered users to delete or modify comments left under their blog post. We have moderators who help with this to make sure people don't use vulgarity or make aggressive/slanderous comments.

I knew the Siamack Baniameri's piece on Takhti would drag you here. I only wish he had a daughter. You would have been the perfect doomaad :o)

ghorrrrbanat


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Let it be

by Hooshyar F. Naraghi (not verified) on

Hi JJ. Let's have chelokabab and I tell you what you should do, but over here I would say "let it be." Nobody can solve this problem. Heck, we have this football club in England and some trolls decided to pay for three or four users to be able to log in as different users. The fee is 70 dollars per user/year. That sow how far trolls would go. In the case you cited, you are dealing with a troll, but a person who congratulates himself under diffrent names. No harm.

In reference to imposters, e-mail addresses get hijacked all the time. A spam mail could be sent to thousands of people bearing even your legitimate e-mail address and we cannot do anything about it. The thing is spammer steal people's address books and your e-mail address could be in address book of thousands of people on the Internet. In fact, because of your contact point at the Iranian.com, you would be in thousands of address books.

The thing is your web site allows free (I mean no payment) registration. By definition, you allow one person to create more than one account. I might be wrong, but this is what I concluded based on what you were saying.

Now, talking about content publishing and permissions, I don't know who is responsible for mederating comments on individual blogs. Standard publishing practice says the individual blogger is responsible for his/her blog, even though the Iranian.com provides the blogging service. It is his/her job to clean up the comments left by trolls. If he is part of the trolling, he damages his reputation.

Just few thoughts I wanted to share with you.

volek, my back itches for a debsh conversation about mabhas-e shirini-e user-generated content over chelokabab. I have not dined at Alborz in ages. Let me know when your head is khalvat.

Take care and keep up your great work at Iranian.com.


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much appreciated JJ

by Anonym7 (not verified) on

JJ, it is obvious that you keeping this site as the freest does not come for free! Above all, it causes you headaches that we can't possibly understand.
thanks jj...


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I do not know how you can undo this, jj

by Puzzled (not verified) on

Going after IP addresses of your readers is sadly absurd and planting that seed of fear, intentionally or unintentionally, among readers of this site is contemptible and against all your good works.

Going after IP address is only justified in case of life threatening and life saving incidents.


Jahanshah Javid

Imposter

by Jahanshah Javid on

Anonymous 1 1/2, the person using my name with the email address (jj@journalist.org) is not me.

In past years, people have sent mass emails under my name with vulgar content. Every time I've seen them, I've replied to the list to let them know they are dealing with an imposter.


I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek

Wow. That was anticlimactic as hell. Nice strategy JJ!

by I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek on

Also, Khar, did you see the Barbara Walters interview???? I love the chemistry between the first couple. How's that for Sexy?


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Hey JJ, Didn't you used to post to yourself under

by Anonymous 1 1/2 (not verified) on

Jahanshah Javid (jj@journalist.org)? You ought to be ashamed of yourself!


Khar

OK! Lets talk about SEX....

by Khar on

...........................................Anyone have any juicy stories?..................Ladies??....Bajenagh Jaan?....Jahanshah how about you? How was the Bunny Ranch in NV?

No need to stone me, Just joking! :0)