Peakoil.com Under Sunday Troll Bombardment

by **GHung** » Sun 18 Sep 2016, 18:42:54

Tens, if not hundreds of new accounts being created have created a partial denial-of-service to regular commentators here. Seems like the work of one individual using multiple accounts (generally one comment per) to comment primarily under "THE DEATH OF THE BAKKEN FIELD HAS BEGUN: Big Trouble For The U.S." article, making trollish claims about the state of oil in the US and world, among other things. It's clear someone doesn't want to allow a normal discussion of the state of North Dakota's oil production, or its future. Of course, this individual doesn't respond to challenges.

Who? Paid schill? Some a'hole who's losing his ass on Bakken investments? One of our own cornucopian regulars gone nuts? Clearly not a 'bot'.

What, if anything, can the site owners/moderators do about this type of attack?

by **onlooker** » Sun 18 Sep 2016, 19:15:23

Yes on noticed on the News section a whole bunch of new names ha so its a troll bombardment. I say lets lye low and wait for it to pass. By Monday, this site should be back to normal. Us regulars wallowing or rejoicing in doom depending on our mood. haha.

by **GHung** » Sun 18 Sep 2016, 19:33:56

Pstarr asked; "GHung how did you manage to trace the problem?"

Not hard to spot; a lot of new names following the same pattern making similar pro-oil, pro-Bakken, pro-capitalist comments; things the Koch brothers would love. The user names that have links all link to places like Yahoo, HughesNet, or some inactive server. The usual rain-on-their-party, piss-in-their-pool tactics.

by **Rod_Cloutier** » Sun 18 Sep 2016, 20:04:06

Re: Peakoil.com Under Sunday Troll Bombardment

Postby GHung » 2016-09-18, 18:33:56
Pstarr asked; "GHung how did you manage to trace the problem?"

Not hard to spot; a lot of new names following the same pattern making similar pro-oil, pro-Bakken, pro-capitalist comments; things the Koch brothers would love. The user names that have links all link to places like Yahoo, HughesNet, or some inactive server. The usual rain-on-their-party, piss-in-their-pool tactics

Weird. Anyone following the peak oil meme knew that the whole shale oil thing was mostly hype, a ponzi scheme, and it was bound to deplete rapidly, nothing new here. I just went to the news article on the main page and I was stunned by 4 pages of comments from new commenters who differ from the usual 35 people who visit and post to this website regularly.

John Michael Greer warned that a time will come when the 'Witch hunts' will start and anyone not towing the BAU narrative would be thrown under the bus. This could be the beginning of that.

by **GHung** » Sun 18 Sep 2016, 20:06:29

pstarr wrote:they are gone.

It's back. Short thinks it's someone with a lot more resources than a PC, maybe exercising their AI on a Sunday.

by **shortonoil** » Sun 18 Sep 2016, 20:18:08

Hi Ghung, thanks for the thread. I really didn't expect to see stuff like this for another 5 to 10 years. PO News was picked as special. Go Figure?

PO News will need some more firewalls on their non member entrance.

BW

by **SumYunGai** » Sun 18 Sep 2016, 20:56:53

shortonoil wrote:I really didn't expect to see stuff like this for another 5 to 10 years.

The signal to noise ratio gradually degrades the system until a point is reached where the system instantly becomes completely useless. A rapid collapse.

by **shortonoil** » Sun 18 Sep 2016, 21:05:58

"The signal to noise ratio degrades the system until a point is reached where the system becomes instantly useless. A rapid collapse."

Do you see the entropy function in that statement? I know what the entropic state of petroleum is; but can you tells us what it is for the world's digital network.

Just asking, because I don't have a clue!

BW

by **SumYunGai** » Sun 18 Sep 2016, 21:31:58

shortonoil wrote:"The signal to noise ratio degrades the system until a point is reached where the system becomes instantly useless. A rapid collapse."

Do you see the entropy function in that statement?

Yes, and also the inherent nature of highly interconnected complex non-linear systems, i.e. their tendency to collapse suddenly.

shortonoil wrote:I know what the entropic state of petroleum is; but can you tells us what it is for the world's digital network.

No, not exactly. But I suspect it is directly tied to the entropic state of petroleum. So, not good.

by **shortonoil** » Sun 18 Sep 2016, 21:51:32

"No, not exactly. But I suspect it is directly tied to the entropic state of petroleum. So, not good."

I had a really bad feeling that was what you were going to say. It was the first thing that popped into my head after I read your post.

by **SumYunGai** » Sun 18 Sep 2016, 22:11:15

shortonoil wrote:"No, not exactly. But I suspect it is directly tied to the entropic state of petroleum. So, not good."

I had a really bad feeling that was what you were going to say. It was the first thing that popped into my head after I read your post.

It's like you can read my mind. LOL.

by **ROCKMAN** » Sun 18 Sep 2016, 22:40:10

Ghung - A simple solution, eh? Just don't respond to any newbie unless you get the sense they are real. And even if you think they are real a posting a truly rediculous response don't take the bait argue a fool.

IOW let them waste their time/resourcesdresourcesd and not ours.

by **aspera** » Mon 19 Sep 2016, 09:39:23

Rod_Cloutier wrote:
John Michael Greer warned that a time will come when the 'Witch hunts' will start and anyone not towing the BAU narrative would be thrown under the bus. This could be the beginning of that.

Or maybe some version of Ghandi's, "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win"?

by **Paulo1** » Mon 19 Sep 2016, 11:19:30

I was wondering what the hell was going on when I had to scroll to a page 3 of comments? I just figured, "Boy, this place sure has changed since I took a break". Not responding does work, although it is hard to stay off the hook with some of these twits.

by **Hawkcreek** » Mon 19 Sep 2016, 11:47:25

I was off yesterday helping a friend frame up an addition to her cabin. I looked at the comments this morning on the article. Funny as hell.
Looks like someone really is anxious to put a nail in the Peak Oil coffin. Kinda goes back to the, "Is Peak Oil Dead" topic.

by **GHung** » Mon 19 Sep 2016, 12:10:59

As Greer and others point out, the louder and more frequent their denials, the more sure you can be that you're right. Seems we've touched some pretty sensitive nerves here. Look for who has the most to lose when the realisation of the Bakken demise comes mainstream. Lots of folks up there losing their asses, including the State itself. As I said about 5 years ago; North Dakota will look like it's been gang-raped and dumped in a ditch as soon as this boom goes bust.

@Paulo: No point in responding since I doubt they (it) are paying any attention at all. I imagine their bot's only feedback is the number of accounts successfully created and the number of comments successfully posted.

Wondering where Tanada and the site's admins are. Haven't seen any feedback from them. Maybe they've been bot-napped

by **evilgenius** » Mon 19 Sep 2016, 12:18:15

If you put policies that ban activity before it happens in place you will also stop those activities which are legitimate and look like what the filter is directed to stop. You pull up the wheat with the tares, so to speak. If something happens in the world that causes people to look up peak oil as a search term and you've done that, all you will have succeeded in doing would be to make the site irrelevant to those looking for further understanding of the story through the use of message boards. it is possible to take some measures, like waiting periods for certain activities, but don't go wholesale please. It would be like what many unions did in response to the first foreign competition wobble brought about by Japanese competition, to take action that guaranteed older workers some protection, but threw the younger ones under the bus.

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