Martin A (16th Oct 2012):

Well, multiple pseudos used by just one or two would certainly give the impression that their beliefs are more widely shared than in reality.

BBC (8th March 2014):

Is this the same woman? Some social media users in Ukraine seem to think so.

The woman has appeared in interviews in cities across Ukraine under different names, spreading an anti-protest and pro-Russian message. It's led to a deluge of videos and pictures being shared on social media platforms as people try to spot the woman.

Anne-Marie Tomchak from #BBCtrending investigates whether this is the same woman and discovers a trend of spotting 'fakes' in #Ukraine.

Showing that social media correct their own weaknesses in the end?

There seems to be increasingly rapid recycling of many of the nyms we've come to know and cherish that channel dogginess. For the first time for well over a year I've asked one of the perpetrators about it in a main thread. Or the perpetrator in one of her guises. Or a guise in one of her perpetrators. You know the kind of thing.

I wasn't surprised that all four posts - Sparticusisfree, me, Sparticusisfree, me - were removed without trace. The person or persons concerned must be feeling dog-tired. Why not release the paper we were promised way back and be done with it?

Nor would I. Trolls don't care of course.

Troll culture is poison. It takes amazing mental gymnastics for these people to see themselves as the good guys.

That's John Siracusa tweeting earlier today about the terrible Kathy Sierra situation. Who's John? One of the most tech-savvy journalists of our generation. See his mammoth introduction to Apple's Leopard upgrade for Mac OS X in Ars Technica in October 2007 for example - a piece I greatly appreciated as I evaluated technical directions for myself and clients at that time. Who's Kathy? Someone deeply respected by people I look to like Ward Cunningham and someone who's finally had enough.

There aren't exact parallels with the difficulties climate blogs often find themselves in of course but I think it's useful and sobering background. And John's point about trolls posing as the good guys definitely holds all the way down the line. Are they?

As I was saying to my old drinking partner Mickey Mouse the other day there are some contributors of your type on Bishop Hill. Radical Rodent's not one of them. There are many nyms like him or her. There can be useful humility in using this kind of handle, as I express on the first page of the thread. The downside is the kind of evil experienced by Kathy Sierra. Only a small percentage - but such people always use a nym and, as John Siracusa observes, manage to persuade themselves they're the good guys. This seems closely tied up with the cult of pseudonymity. A complex and troubling subject.

I'm going to be at the Pret A Manger at 81 Piccadilly from 6pm prior to walking to the GWPF Annual Lecture this evening. Just wanting my SEO ratings to go through the roof - because this is one of the most hit-upon pages on the Internet! Did you know Google's famous Page Ranking refers to Larry Page, not anything as boring as a web page? There, I'm doing it again. Larry's buying the coffee tonight. I'm incorrigible!

An interesting area, Michael, of which I know little, probably less than I should. The theory that what I put under my name on BH is motivated by CEO reminds me of this from SJ Perelman: "My years in the Okhrana had finely honed my instincts and I detected he had a beard." If Perelman really was in the Tsarist secret police before taking up as a New York humorist then I certainly edit Bishop Hill for the purposes TBYJ has described.

A couple more sobering stories in the MSM in the last 24 hours. I'll select and only make one point from each but the full articles are worth study. In The Times today in Twitter comes under fire over antisemitic abuse:

The spate of anti-Semitic abuse against Ms Berger, Labour MP for Liverpool Wavertree, was triggered by the jailing of troll Garron Helm last Monday, who was sentenced to four months for a vitriolic attack against her.

Vindictiveness against anyone who publicly seeks to resist is a key marker. Here's another, from the BBC on the nasty GamerGate situation:

Journalist Allum Bokhari, a writer for TechCrunch, has said there was credible evidence that at least one well-known trolling group was "working to provoke both sides against each other".

Divide and conquer is an ancient strategy for those without moral compass and it's hardly surprising to see it in action in this area. I've taken many of the attempts to divide on Bishop Hill, including on this thread, as entirely synthetic, for that reason.

I didn't say that I was a big name in the climate world, did I TBYJ? This is something that Barry Woods accused me of thinking, publicly and angrily, in front of Andrew Montford, Anthony Watts, Nic Lewis and others in the pre-meeting I arranged at Caroline K's before Mann spoke in Bristol last month, effectively ending that meeting. I asked Barry where I had ever said I thought I was important. He had no answer to that. Later we had a very friendly discussion about some other stuff. But I mention it because the reputation you're trying to give me can have negative effects in the 'real world'.

Perhaps you'd also like to respond to my reaction to your barmy ideas about SEO, from 13-15th? Alternatively you could stop insulting me for no reason. The invitation to meet in person in London has never been rescinded by the way. I'd be delighted to learn that you're 'for real' and to hammer out any differences that way. For the moment I take you to be as genuine as a nine bob note.

I didn't click the link. I've offered to meet. That stands.

Back to the topic of this page. I've always been attracted by those that fight injustice but aren't big names. That's how I see Kathy Sierra, Luciana Berger and Zoe Quinn. I hope they do become big names but if they do it will be because they've taken a stand for truth. A costly one. Just like Regina Jonas did in the 1930s and 40s - the most unknown person I've learned about this year who showed incredible courage and prescience in her own day.

There is a battle going on at present against the worst forms of trollery. It takes courage to take a stand, although for some this is a situation thrust upon them, not of their own making. If I've paid any price for the truth myself, since I began to confront destructive pseudonymous actors in 1999, that doesn't make me either a big name or right. But it means I may have avoided the worst forms of cowardice, as I look to the example of others far ahead of me.