I apologize...

... for the idiot from Madison Wisconsin who has been commenting on this site on a very regular basis for a long time and has recently taken to writing a comment several times a day, using different names, and quite often, using YOUR names. His regular use of the names of regular commenters on this site is very annoying and destructive, the kind of thing only someone with his mental illness/political orientation would do.

The way commenting is handled on this site, Scienceblogs.com, makes it almost impossible for me to stop him from doing this. All I can do is delete the comments as I identify them, and frankly, I don't have time for that.

I assume that he will continue doing this and will probably even ramp up his efforts after reading this post admitting that there is not much I can do about it. In which case, 1) yes, a right wing asshole Republican/Libertarian who respects each and every one of you, and me, as much as he respects a piece of dog shit on the bottom of his shoe, will have won. And, 2) I'll either turn off commenting on this site, and move most of my blogging to The X Blog, where I can control commenting, or simply stop managing comments alltogether and let you'all sort it out among yourselves (let me know your preference on that).

The only reason I'm telling you (and him) this is the following: In a few weeks, this site is going to change. We are getting an upgrade in technology which will allow for a normal, modern, system of commenting. You see, the Movable Type system we have in place here was specially designed for Scienceblogs.com many years ago, and modified further over time, and the software engineers that did this were all killed in a tragic bus accident in Peru. Or, at least, one hopes. In any event, they don't exist any more, and we are stuck with a piece of technology that simply does not work and that can not be fixed. When the new system goes into place, all of these problems will end and the gentleman from Madison Wisconsin will have to go back to biting the heads off chickens, because he will not be able to operate here.

More like this

Kinda creepy that someone would spend that much time obsessed with one blogger. Maybe he's infatuated with you? Wouldn't be the first time a wingnut was hiding in the closet. Just sayin'

Is there some way readers could help with policing until the new system arrives? Would flagging by pointing out, with another post or posts, be any help, or just make things worse?

By Achrachno (not verified) on 08 May 2012 #permalink

I wonder why he picked you? You aren't the only person that admits climate change is occurring...maybe you were the first he saw?

By Drivebyposter (not verified) on 08 May 2012 #permalink

Seriously, Greg is there any possibility this could be coming from the Heartland Institute? They have obviously figured out the science is completely against them, and they have nothing left but dirty tactics. After the unibomber incident, I can't help wondering....

By hoary puccoon (not verified) on 09 May 2012 #permalink

Achrachno, thanks, I think we'll just wait for the new system.

It could be from the Heartland institute! Mr Madison (as in Madison Wisconsin) has been trolling this blog for a long time, but then again, the Heartland institute has been around for a long time ....

"I wonder why he picked you? You aren't the only person that admits climate change is occurring...maybe you were the first he saw?"

My guess: Target of opportunity. This individual would be posting on other climate blogs (e.g. ClimateProgress) but can't get past their moderation.

By Chris Winter (not verified) on 10 May 2012 #permalink

Chris, he posted here as an anti-evolution guy for about a year before the first posting on climates. So, nice hypothesis but ...

"Is his original name Klem by chance? Sounds rather familiar."

Hey Jason, how've you been? I haven't visited your site in awhile.

No it was not me making those comments under different names. I use Klem only, except when the particular blog doesn't have a space for names so I choose 'Anonymous' for those. On occasion some other people use my Klem handle but thatâs rare. I usually end most of my comments with 'cheers' too.

cheers

I can verify that the commenter who claims to be klem (and in Minnesota we would pronounce that "k") is not Evolution Denier from Madison Wisconsin!

Cheers