forgeries at TheSomervilleNews.com

[ron_newman]

One or more people are forging my name and e-mail address on comment posts at TheSomervilleNews.com -- both to say things that I would not say, and to falsely repudiate things that I did say. This is very annoying. I post to a number of other bulletin boards and blogs, but this does not happen to me anywhere else except at The Somerville News.

If anyone here has friends who contribute to The Somerville News, perhaps you can suggest to them that the site needs some elementary security?

Comments

[androidqueen.livejournal.com]

wow, that's awful. not that i expect anything better from the somerville news.

[ceo]

That's atrocious (not that I, either, would have expected better from that site). I wonder if a conversation with the site's maintainers, possibly including words like "libel" and "impersonation", might prove useful. (IANAL, of course.)

I doubt it

[rollzroix.livejournal.com]

The guy who runs that site posts internet rumors (i.e. the fictional "cellphone directory" being opened to telemarketers) as actual news items. I, among other people, commented that this was not a factually correct story and posted the link to the fcc.gov page debunking the rumor. Instead of apologizing, he removed my post and angrily asserted that his story was correct! I think he may have since removed the entire story.

I still can't post a comment to that site unless I do it from another computer, so I think he may be blocking my IP address.

[georgy.livejournal.com]

I wrote for them briefly in 2004 when I was trying to get some extra experience, and they're a bunch of hacks. They change editorial management more often than their socks.

[ron_newman]

[Current mood: escalating from annoyed to peeved]

This is the response I got from the site's webmaster. It is located here, but I'm going to copy it here for the record, in case it disappears there:

Ron -

Holy crap will you stop about it already. I'm not here to erase comments that were or were not made by you. Do you have any idea how many comments have been made to the weblog, and of those how many were by the same "name" but a different email or IP address?

We aren't changing the format of the weblog so as to avoid one person being outraged by comments made by someone posing as him/her. Anyone who has read anything you've commented on here knows when it's you and when it isn't.

Deal with it. Or don't.

JN

Posted by: James Norton | April 24, 2006 at 04:58 PM


Is'nt there some way though typepad.com to open an account and log in? This way, a logged in user can not be forged and other posts can still have the freedom of not logging in?

Posted by: Martin Edin | April 24, 2006 at 05:09 PM


Martin -

Yep, there sure is. Don't care. Not doing it. End of story.

JN

Posted by: James Norton | April 24, 2006 at 05:11 PM

If LiveJournal operated this way, I think they'd be out of business quickly.

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

Holy crap! What kind of insanity is that??

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Wow. I guess I know how seriously to take the Somerville News, then.

[ron_newman]

They cover a lot of local news that is otherwise poorly reported, or not reported at all. So I don't want them to go away. I just want them to show some responsibility.

[nalz.livejournal.com]

Isn't it worse when you don't know whether those stories are legit or not, though?

As far as that response - what a sh*thead. I'll definitely not be going there!

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

How...professional! Ugh.

[shu-al.livejournal.com]

Maybe we should start bombarding the Somerville News with crap and sign our names as "James Norton" from now on.

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking that.

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

Oooh, sounds like a concept!

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Sounds like it's time for someone to start posting crazy stuff as "JN."

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Gah. "James Norton," even.

if he's not responsive...

[shava23.livejournal.com]

There are a couple things to do. One is, if you don't care about being banned, go into the comment sections on every article there and post your displeasure over Mr. Norton's attitude. Perhaps after enough of us did that and he couldn't keep up with banning IPs (if he did such a thing) he'd realize that making people log in would be a better solution.

Of course, that would be rude. But sometimes, being rude is the only thing that remediates rude people.

I did my bit: http://somervillenews.typepad.com/the_somerville_news/2006/04/news_talk_for_t_2.html#comment-16528341

I am "Why Would You Care" noone@erewhon.org.

Go forth and take your aggressions out...:)

Re: if he's not responsive...

[ron_newman]

James Norton replied to you, but I certainly don't consider the reply in any way satisfactory.

And no, I didn't post a public complaint because I didn't like his private response to me. I posted the complaint because the forgeries continued, and were followed by forged repudiations of posts I had actually made. Right now, there's no reasonable way for anyone to figure out which of "my" posts there are real and which are not.

Re: if he's not responsive...

[push-stars.livejournal.com]

Lets try some sanctions. he removed a link to wikipedia for some strange reason. Maybe you should consider not linking back to his site. Check out the latest post to his site:

Here is a concept for you. Lets call it "Internet prosperity". the way it works is that online communities posts links to other relevant sites. Also the blogs within these commnities may frequently cite information by posting links back to your site or to the original information. The more links , the more rich the blogging and the more traffic to both sites. Links to refrence sites like wikipedia just add to the richness of this whole prosperity experience.

Now for another concept , lets call it Internet Karma you Insular Bastard. Taking away links may work both ways for you. Don't make us exercixe our options here you funny bastard!

Posted by:
You Insular Bastard! (mailto:stop@now.com) |
April 25, 2006 at 04:57 PM (http://somervillenews.typepad.com/the_somerville_news/2006/04/controversy_con.html#comment-16556516)

[snarkyman.livejournal.com]

You could try complaining to his site sponsors. I see an ad for the ERA Norton Group. Why not start with them?

http://www.eranorton.com/

[ron_newman]

That's the same Norton family as James Norton.

[yangelina.livejournal.com]

I recently met a woman who was in an article in The Somerville News, and she mentioned that she was misquoted. And now I see this thread, I pretty much won't ever take anything they post seriously ever again.

I really respect the way you are responding to this Norton guy, by the way. I don't know if I would've been nearly as tactful or patient.

[mistergoat.livejournal.com]

I would let Norton's words speak for himself, as you did in your post above in which you quoted his response to you and to the person who suggested alog-in system. Perhaps pass said words along to the Somerville Journal...

[ron_newman]

James Norton has finally apologized to me and unpublished the three comments which I told him were forgeries.

However, he still claims that the newspaper's attorney has told them they can do only one of two things: (1) run the current comment system with no logins, or (2) not have a comment system at all. That makes no sense to me.