Day: March 9, 2001

  • Looks like another wave of spam aliases has reached the Xangan shores.

    The other day, in a comment on one of James’s posts, I pointed out what I saw as a  shambling charade to eProp another member’s posts, as they say, “to the top” :


    Just one thing that caught my eye, that you happen to mention, and that I find a probable total sham is the barrage of comments and eProps on the Bianca_ posts of Mar 5th and 6th. Whether the posts were deserving or not of eProps and comments, it appears that about 11 of the 14 visitors on the 5th and 8 of the 11 visitors on the 6th were created on the 5th and the 6th! Moroever, many of these delivered their eProps and comments in rapid succession (minutes) of one another. Pretty strong prima facie evidence of a farce.


    Here's a list of what I think were the aliases used to prop up Bianca_ : attentiondeficit, zookeeper, martinhannagan, agnesdei, billthecableguy, imajerksometimes, mudhens, sittinonthefence, zerointerest, margarethannagan, markmcguire.


    Am I outraged? NO! I think it's simply time-consuming silly. However, if one person, as I suspect, is feeding a barrage of 20 some eProps to just one post and no others--repetitively--and those posts don't seem to be attracting much attention otherwise, I might see how some others scrunch their noses up as the cheesy odor wafts around Xanga.


    Well, it seems that in the past hour (approx. 3-4 PM) a fresh amassing horde of similar aliases (which may, however, contain a legit new member or two—a very important point to remember) washed like seaweed onto the Xangan shore.  Here’s a list, most of which look suspicious: webdreg, Tammers, whojackafibby, horshoe, blackandtans, triplehfanatic (Bianca), Cacophony, and poettommie.  The creation of these was followed immediately by new postings from six of the same *new members* of Bianca_ minions created the other day (imajerksometimes, zookeeper, agnesdei, sittingonthefence, margarethannagan, and billthecableguy)…throw in FatBstard—who seems to attend all the same festivities with them—and Voila!  Another round of probable ultra-praising xangborgs for the next (soon expected) Bianca_ implosion.  Hopefully, one or two of the forementioned *new members* turns out to be more real than copycat Bianca_ and her hoary hordes of eProp xangborg maniacs. 


    By the way, Heresmy2cents seems often to hover awfully close to the tent setup of this slapstick circus...hmmm...has to be a coincidence!


    Update: Bianca_bianca, a spinoff took all the cronies!  And Heresmy2cents is the tenderonie!  How pathetic!


    Also, check out loopdeloup's update on the renewed schemings of the original Bianca. 


    And really I wouldn't give a damn except for the fact that I give a damn. 


    So more insights next post....

  • So it's like Sumerian numerical…these numbers swirl like words while words are naught.

    What's happening on the Xangan front (yes, multiple fronts there are-yet no affront to those who consider Xanga nearly life itself, or who crave blogging as an addiction) ? Let's see…

    Number of active posts this week up 4% from 548 to 571 over last week…

    Average number of eProps on the top 100 up (6.0 vs. 5.4) since the advent of BlogRings…but no trend discernible with so little (2 days) baseline, no, not yet…

    Number of BlogRings up to 76 today from 58 yesterday with 223 members today! Since a member can join up to 3 BlogRings, that means that at least 75 members are ringing, probably more like about 150. Since there wer 571 active posts over the last week, it seems like about 1/4 to 1/3 of all *activists* have joined Rings. Not a bad response in the initial two-three days!

    Uh-oh…no more searching the blog for "all time" eProp and comment awardees. Seems like Xanga jettisoned "all time" for shorter spans…yesterday…last 24 hrs…this week…last week…  They must be attuned to Zen Buddhism and trying to live more in the now.

    Got some scissors? It looks like the Xanga frontpage has dashed lined marked for folding or cutting. I'll cut, you fold-we'll figure this out!

    Recently Created is back! Uh-oh… *looks about* they must have taken something else away! I see…it's not all new members for the last two weeks…the "more recently updated" page offers only a pseudo-random sampling of the new members ("reload" they say, to see more new sites)…nor do new members appear as they first come onboard. Nope! It's not the same as it used to be.

    And what's the deal with the *TheXangaTeam* welcoming some new members and not others (confirmed!)? Is that random, too? Or does Bianca wake up in the morning and scream as she scans new membership, "Oh, Bugger! More of these little dip pots to welcome aboard…Arghh!"…then token an arbitrary one or two up the ramp?

    Some fellow bloggers still have broken links from Geocities or 123banners.net or elsewhere. Xanga doesn't host our images yet, but here are some images it does have that I think you could substitute for a broken pic or the default "ole radiohead":

    source:
    http://www.xanga.com/images/thexangateam/team.jpg



    source: http://www.xanga.com/images/bug.gif



    source: http://www.xanga.com/Images/welcome.gif



    source: http://www.xanga.com/Images/profile.gif



    source: http://www.xanga.com/Images/blogringlogo.gif



    source: http://www.xanga.com/Images/ufo.gif



    Ha! A real Dadaist clipart gallery, wouldn't you say? Who thinks Xanga could use a less angst-ridden graphics artist?

    So...you say you wouldn't be caught dead posting those graphics gems and are still in a real pinch? I can host some images on a paid-for business server. If interested, just drop a line and I'll see if I can help out.

    These numbers, these images swirl…
    but what of words?
    Are words really all we have?
    And, if so, are they not enough?
    Are they doors opening to infinity
    or doors to shut us out?
    Word in, word out…word in, word out…
    just like our breath, our chi.
    Do you know my name?
    Is that but another word?
    Can I know your name?
    Or is that another world?



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