January 19, 2012

"I've Got A Rotating ISP# So It Never Shows Up The Same," Says Commander Bunny In His Sock-Puppeting Apology!

"Oh NO!  I've drowned 'Mosby'!"

"The apology thing is just part of the cycle. He'll calm down for awhile and then it starts over again. I really think he's got a screw loose." 
~from a Bunny insider


Pirate Radio News & Commentary
By John Poet


In our previous article about the 'pirate radio war of 2011', we told you how Commander Bunny had actually started the war with his anonymous/sock-puppet attacks on Radio Yellowknife, how he reported Doc John of Radio Yellowknife to a radio club and Canadian authorities in an attempt to get them busted; and how he later switched to public attacks against Doc after he started his new station, the Northern Relay Service.  That article also explained how 'Commander Bunny', aka 'Pat Murphy', whose real name is Jerry Michael Graves, became more and more obvious in his use of sock-puppets  on the FRN 'Free Radio Network' forum, using them to make, augment and orchestrate his attacks. Among the most-often used sock-puppets were 'Beans', 'Mosby' and 'Thumper'.

When 'Commander Bunny' stated in his "Why Can't We All Just Get Along?" FRN post that he was 'all done talking about NRS,' he continued to use the sock-puppets to continue his attacks on NRS, and, what I personally found to be even more disturbing, used his sock-puppets to bully FRN members who had posted loggings of NRS.  All of this led directly to my break with 'Commander Bunny', and I decided I wasn't going to ignore or play dumb about all this sock-puppeting any longer, but call them out publicly if he insisted on continuing this game... and, he insisted on continuing.


Poet "Outs" The Puppets;  FRN Gets Really Quiet

'Beans' was first to show up again, on April 10th, 2011.  In a rather amusing post, Ragnar had complained about an anonymous pirate operator having played the song "I'm a Barbie Girl, in a Barbie World" over and over on the air, until it got stuck in his head... and then 'Beans' had to speak up and blame it on NRS, "or one of his many sock puppets"  (!)  ((Oh, give me a break... what nerve! ~ JP))

I gave him a warning, again, but I guess he just didn't get it, and chose to tell me to "go f00k yourself".  So, I let him have it 
((Thanks to the anonymous poster on Radio Paranoia who recently used the imgur.com site to post copies of threads-- I like how these work a lot better than that Google thing... ~JP))

That scene seemed to throw the FRN into a deathly silence, until Ragnar posted the "monkey sniper" picture on April 15th, trying to lighten the mood.... I chose to comment on it, "Monkeyboy don't miss when he aims his gun".  This brought 'Thumper' onto the scene.  I disposed of him summarily, without hinting around any more about my meaning.  (The link "for what they are" pointed to the Wikipedia "Sock-Puppets" entry.)

No Feeding the Sock-Puppets!
This seemed to deepen the silence on the FRN even further.... but my Email box started going wild.  I began reading all these narratives, about the abuse of FRN posters by Commander's sock-puppets, and how FRN accounts got deleted when anyone else had tried to speak up about them, etc etc etc.  Most of this was news to me; from what I read, the disappearing accounts seemed to happen to posters who were newer, or had a lot fewer connections with others in the hobby than I have.  Besides, in some previous off-board altercations with 'Pat Murphy', I had made it quite clear that I would not hesitate to use my large Email list to broadcast whatever I felt needed saying-- in the event that anything ever happened to my FRN account-- so I guess "Commander" realized that I couldn't be silenced by deleting my posts or my account, as he had done to others with smaller footprints...

(If you're on the front page, click "Read More" for the rest of this story, including the never-before-published Email exchange between CB and Poet, and CB's "Sock-puppeting Apology"!)




'Commander Bunny' Tries To Bargain Poet Into Attacking HFU

On April 15th, I received the following Email from 'Commander Bunny, accusing the HFU of harboring sock-puppets, and seeking to turn me loose against that site to hunt for sock-puppets. As it turned out, the only sock-puppets I now know to have been active on the HFU actually belonged to the 'Commander':




fromCommander Bunny wbnyradiobunny@gmail.com
toJohn Poet
date Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 7:42 AM
subject: Lets be fair
mailed-bygmail.com
signed-bygmail.com
Important mainly because of the people in the conversation.



If you are going to be outraged at the "sock puppets" on the FRN, you should be showing the same outrage at the sock puppets on the HFU. Which you clearly aren't. In your last post on the HFU you told a sock puppet to stop identifying himself as such. At least he's being honest eh?


I can tell you beyond any doubt (Cos can confirm it) that NRS, Eagle Ears, Radio Raven are the same person. (same IP address every time)


So the sock puppetry on the FRN will end if you show the same outrage at the practice elsewhere.


In fact, NRS, Eagle Ears and Radio Raven were thrown off the FRN because of the sock puppetry which they were using for attacks.


I think you have a sense of "fairness" but if you want to be taken serious you must apply it evenly. Otherwise you're a hypocrite and I don't think you want to be thought of that way.

Sock puppetry will end if you apply it evenly.

This exchange is between you and me, and no one else.


Fair enough?

---------------------------------------------------------


'Commander Bunny' and his 'friends'

I made the following response, quoting extensively from his Email and responding to his various points. ("CB" and "JohnPoet" added for the sake of clarity)

from John Poet tcsshortwave@gmail.com
to Commander Bunny
date Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 9:31 AM
subject Re: Lets be fair
mailed-bygmail.com

On Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 7:42 AM, Commander Bunny wrote:
CB: If you are going to be outraged at the "sock puppets" on the FRN, you should be showing the same outrage at the sock puppets on the HFU. Which you clearly aren't. In your last post on the HFU you told a sock puppet to stop identifying himself as such. At least he's being honest eh?


JohnPoet: He was being facetious, and I was being sarcastic, and paraphrasing one of my own FRN posts. For someone who claims to have a sense of humor, it is certainly selective. He was not seriously IDing himself as a sock-puppet, and I was not seriously agreeing that he was. Stop being silly.
If there are sockpuppets on the HFU, I have thus far seen no evidence of it, or that they have been used in the manner that you you've used them for YEARS.


CB: I can tell you beyond any doubt (Cos can confirm it) that NRS, Eagle Ears, Radio Raven are the same person. (same IP address every time)


JohnPoet: Frankly, now knowing how I've basically been LIED TO for YEARS, and manipulated by the use of these socks, I can't trust anything that you say. (When I finally started to recognize this and finding out all the details, it almost made me literally sick, and frankly, somewhat hurt--- in-between seething with outrage) And now that Cos appears to me to be such a tool of you and 'The Bowling League,' I don't know if I can trust what he says either. Perhaps you'd like to allow me access to the server logs or mod tools, so I can see for myself? :-D

The mere existance of sockpuppets is not the biggest issue with me; their use on the FRN to back you up on whomever you decide needs beating up, or to appear as a mob standing behind you, is the REAL issue; their use to even post people's personal information IS the issue. ('Spore'? See, I missed that episode at the time, before it was removed.. and now I've been brought up to date) That's why I won't have any issue with "Bill O. Rights" as long as he behaves himself. I've never seen him used that way; he's an "alternate ego" (just like "Commander Bunny", although he can often be quite obnoxious) associated with a particular station, as opposed to an "attack sockpuppet"-- and to my knowledge, you've never dragged him into one of these piss-matches. The rest, or at least the ones I know about so far, have a long documented history... which I have been reviewing over the past two weeks, once I realized who and what they were...


CB: So the sock puppetry on the FRN will end if you show the same outrage at the practice elsewhere.


JohnPoet: The sock puppetry on the FRN will end, regardless... or the site will eventually lose all credibility with the radio community. Frankly, it may be too late already. Notice how quiet its been this week? (I also know all about the removal of NRS loggings that had a 'neutral' viewpoint--- I've seen the copies of several different threads, while those spouting that NAMBLA nonsense remain ((logs of conterfeit NRS transmissions made by you? Guess so!))--- if that becomes generally known, the FRN will have no credibility left whatsoever as a place to post logs...)

My email however has been anything but quiet-- full of complaints from people persecuted by you and your 'gang', and people afraid to post their opinions on the FRN for fear of being beaten up by 'the gang of socks'-- you've done a pretty good job of initimidating people, I must admit. I must have been asleep for the last 7 years...


CB: In fact, NRS, Eagle Ears and Radio Raven were thrown off the FRN because of the sock puppetry which they were using for attacks.

JohnPoet: So Cos threw them off but allowed you to continue to use yours that way? That just proves my earlier point about him being merely your tool-- unless what you're saying about their posting attacks is not true. I don't know that it is. I never saw any such 'attacks'. Maybe they just got thrown off because you said to throw them off. Got any screen-caps to show me any of these alleged 'attacks'? I'm more into "hard evidence" these days. I'm STILL waiting to see those 'abusive emails' from NRS that you claimed to have... before CB conveniently decided he was 'done with this'.

Perhaps I'll be the next to go. I'm fully prepared for that, and would respond proportionately through my own channels. Maybe you will attempt to expose me or my location (using a sock-puppet, of course!) That would not surprise me either; that just illustrates how far your stock has fallen with me over the past two weeks... and I'm sad to have to say that.

CB: I think you have a sense of "fairness" but if you want to be taken serious you must apply it evenly. Otherwise you're a hypocrite and I don't think you want to be thought of that way.

JohnPoet: I must make myself clear-- its not their existance that causes my outrage-- it's how they have been used. The mere fact that someone may have an extra screenname doesn't make that a "sockpuppet"-- only the way it is used can make it into one.

I've already done enough to establish my reputation for fairness, so much that any accusation from you of 'hypocrisy' won't hurt me-- in fact, at this point, it may even help me. If I were you, I wouldn't touch that word any more than sockpuppet-- because it has begun to appear to me that almost EVERYTHING you've accused other people of doing-- hmmm, 'vicious attacks', 'using sockpuppets', 'trying to expose pirates', 'launching attacks hidden from behind the internet', YOU have in fact DONE at one point or another. You attack me for 'being a hypocrite', and I won't have any hesitation about proving who really IS-- and not with mere words. Fair warning.

That said, yeah, I'll look into sockpuppets on the HFU. If they exist, I've never seen any evidence of it, or that they've been used in the way you've been using them. Perhaps I'll take it up with Chris-- he doesn't seem to want them there--- that's why "Beans" lost his login there, I've heard-- too many SNs under one I.P....


CB: Sock puppetry will end if you apply it evenly.

JohnPoet: It'll end-- unless you want them to be kicked around by me every time they show up-- or perhaps the FRN will eventually be reduced to you talking to yourself-- and then it won't matter anymore.

CB: This exchange is between you and me, and no one else.  Fair enough?


JohnPoet: Sure. But if you think by taking this offboard you can manipulate me or shut me up or fill my head full of lies about other people-- then you may as well forget that right now.

--

John Poet
The Crystal Ship

((End of Exchange))

((Yes, we did have a confidentiality agreement--- but, considering the fact that he has now repeatedly published my real name, real address, and sundry other surmised 'facts' about me for months on end, until he made his blog cult 'private', I consider it to have been rendered null and void, torn apart, demolished, ripped to shreds, and smashed into little tiny pieces, long, LONG ago... and that goes for every other communication which I've ever had with him-- and there are some good ones! ~JPoet))

----------------------------------------------------


"It'll end-- unless you want them to be kicked around by me every time they show up,"  I told him back then.  Well, we all know that eventually it started up again--- which should explain why THIS had to happen first:


But that came much later-- probably in revenge for my having deleted "Pat Murphy" and "Lovemyradios" from the Free Radio Cafe.  (My rules against sock-puppeting are quite explicit and clear-- and he quite clearly violated them-- even having the nerve to use 'Lovemyradios' to try to solicit specific schedule information for The Crystal Ship-- before it became public that we had been busted by the FCC. Wonder why he wanted that, since he hardly ever logs stations which are not himself...)

But, back to the topic at hand.  After having sent my rather angry response to 'Commander Bunny', the 'phone line went dead' for about five days, and I considered the exchange to be at an end.  In the meantime, I made this post on our blog, mostly links and pictures but it pretty much tells the story:

'FRN and The King of Performance Art' -- Or --
'The Sock-Puppet Ball: A Story in Links and Pictures'

'Commander Bunny' seemed to have a long-running misunderstanding about the relationship between this post, and his Email above.  He seemed to think that he had told me something I didn't know, or "admitted" something which I was not 100% sure about-- or that I needed his "admission" before I would have been able to have made the post above.

None of that is true.  I didn't need his admission about any of it.  I had no doubts about any of it.
I had caught him red-handed (as had so many others-- who either weren't talking about it, or were silenced when they did.  Frankly, I was pretty late to the party).  The fact that he would even discuss it directly without his usual denials is proof of that.  The 'King of Performance Art' was only a continuation of what I had started on the FRN, as it names additional sock-puppets.

The fact is, he wasn't that great at this sock-puppet game-- too prone to repeating himself in ways that would give himself away.  Here's just one example:

"Beans", on the FRN "Can't we all just get along?" post (his comment was removed by CB before he deleted "Beans" from the FRN, but I have it quoted in an Email discussion I was having at the time):

"Not meant to be harsh to you Captain. But I think when everyone knows the facts, that logging him shows support for him. what I find hilarious is that when the NRS character was attacking Cmdr Bunny those HFU jerks didn't have a problem with it, but when Cmdr Bunny fought back, it was "bashing" and they wanted to go listen to "hams". They didn't have a problem with the NRS jerk broadcasting lies and crap about Bunny, but now they are offended when bunny fights back? What a bunch of double standard, two-faced jerks. No wonder they only have a handful of people posting there anymore. This is a prime example of why." ~ 'Beans'


Now, here comes 'Commander' on his Facebook page, making almost the same, identical rant:



Pretty much repeating what 'Beans' said on the FRN, almost word-for-word. They both even put quotes around the same word "bashing" and mention "double-standard, two-faced--", and say that HFU lacks posters.

 He almost had it memorized... Once you've got a good rant down, its easy to repeat yourself-- but under the wrong alias!


'Commander Bunny' Apologizes To Poet For His FRN SockPuppeting-- --And Explains How He Was Getting Away With It!

Five days after our previous exchange, this arrived in my Email:

from Commander Bunny wbnyradiobunny@gmail.com
to John Poet
date Wed, Apr 20, 2011 at 2:10 PM
subject Thanks
mailed-bygmail.com
signed-bygmail.com
Important mainly because of the people in the conversation.

"I suppose I should be pissed off that you took my honesty to you, and splattered it all over your webpage, but I'm not. In fact, much like many years ago, when you slapped me with "internet personality" you woke me up. You did it again. Please don't blame Cos or Murphy or any of the FRN folks, I've got a rotating ISP# so it never shows up the same, so they never could confirm it. I'm to blame, no one else.

I apologize to you and hope you won't continue to hate me. Too much hate in this world and I know I deserve your anger, but I do hope that you will eventually forgive me.

Won't ever happen again, and as I said, you caused me to focus, yet again on what really is important. The shows, not the webpage horseshit.

Getting way too old to play this stupid game. Thank you for your wake up call.

You're a good guy and sorry I upset and hurt you.


Commander Bunny"




So... for a moment, he almost sounded contrite.  Almost as if he was really sorry. 

But, within a couple days, he was making various remarks about "backstabbers", and sending out veiled jabs at me in his WBNY Email notices... and the moment didn't last.

I did not respond directly to this Email.  Fact is, I wasn't all that impressed-- particularly with his "don't blame Murphy" remark  (still full of shit, I see-- desperately trying to continue the fairy-tale that Murphy wasn't Bunny, and believing that I still bought it-- that would prove useful later, but slipped into this supposed apology, it just stuck out to me as another attempted manipulation, and it detracted from the attempt at sincerity of the rest). 

My feeling was, I was just one guy-- and he'd done a lot worse to others on the FRN with his sock-puppets.  I felt that whom he REALLY OWED the apology to, was EVERYONE ELSE ON THE FRN!

Later, I even suggested that to him-- but he didn't seem to feel as if it was necessary.

The closest he came  to it was his public admission of sock-puppeting on his blog (while at the same time accusing others of outing pirates.  Oh, the irony is thick, isn't it?) 


But-- an admission is not an apology... so, the remaining members of the FRN, or what's left of it, still have one coming from him. Oh wait, now they actually they have a second one coming, as well-- since he's gone back to his old ways.  ('Winston'?  'MIB'?  'Bill O. Rights'? Bueller?  Bueller?  Bueller?) 

Guess those I.P. addresses which are different from 'Commander's, and different from 'Pat Murphy's, don't actually mean anything at all, do they, "Winston"?

In the meantime,  I have deemed it proper (and funny!)  to immortalize CB's Sockpuppeting Apology in a bit which has been seeing airtime on the TCS Shortwave Relay Network:
 
 



Enjoy, 'Commander'! 

And thanks for that ad you did for the Free Radio Cafe, just in case you haven't heard it yet... stay tuned!

Hmmmm.... if that's for real, I'd like to join.

'The Gang's All Here--- In My Head, In My Head, In My Head...!'

8 comments:

  1. P.S. My thanks to 'Bad Andy' for sending me that harassing Email the other day-- you got me motivated to get blogging again! Bless you, sir!

    (I'm sure 'Commander' will thank you also!)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Once again, the truth is out there! Sometimes, people need to reminded of the nefarious means that the Commander Coward stoops to cover his fuzzy little tail.
    His motto should be: "Do as I say, not as I do!". The twists and turns in this saga would be amusing, if they weren't true. That's the frustrating part.
    Thanks for setting the record straight!

    ReplyDelete
  3. nice job poet, stand tall and keep up the fight!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Poet,

    Appreciate your efforts coming forth with this.

    ReplyDelete
  5. you upset some one i heard it on the airwaves

    good post poet

    ReplyDelete
  6. Careful with that blog, Eugene. My grandmarm swears that if you pluck a wild hare, two will grow back in its place.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The FRN Vines are offline for the time being. I apologize for the performance issues of the system. I've been unable to contact the owner of the system this software sits on, and I can't effectively administer the Vines until this is fixed.

    did the virus finally take it's toll

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wow, every time I think I've heard all the head-spinning-crazy background details, something new comes up. I should be ashamed for laughing at this.

    ReplyDelete

You may comment anonymously, without signing up or logging in. Please keep language relatively clean. Hate speech will not be tolerated. Comments on posts less than 14 days old will appear instantly.

DISCLAIMER: Approval and posting of a comment should not be construed as our agreement with, or endorsement of, the comment in question. Opinions posted are those of the commenters, and not necessarily those of John Poet, The Radical, or tcsshortwave.com