Monday 13 June 2011

Bitcoin has Dragons

Just to let you know about the heavy pro-trolling at the Bitcoin forums on the weekend. Much of which was coordinated with the market correction (aka. crash).
Many of the handles used were recognizable to a seasoned commentator. It looks like they studied the forum message boards for several weeks to find weak points and newbie hangouts so they could create ultimate shock value. I spotted 10-15 matured (50+ posts) profiles that would create rapid-fire postings and quickly jump around filling other new posts created by newbie trolls (orcs) at a rate of 5-10 a minute. Some were point/counter-point style to appear as legit, some were rants to entice the vulnerable. Many were goading attempts to drag moderators and seasoned posters into endless tit-for-tat barrages. And then it got interesting...
New tactics of spoofing long-time posters, cloning moderators' profile look-n-feel, threats aimed at anyone stupid enough to reply. Wow, I knew the professionals had arrived when I saw our proudest, vibrant protagonists slowly backing out of the room. It was left a snarling, blackened mess. These people had a playbook created with forethought and malice. Trolls are one thing, these were Uruk-hai bending to the will of someone, somewhere.

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