Can you help us file charges against Matthew Gilchrist?

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dirtbag

climber

Jul 22, 2014 - 11:15am PT

Locker, in Kalifornia penal code section 502 covers exactly this kind of thing.

The problem is he ain't in KA.

HighTraverse

Trad climber

Bay Area

Jul 22, 2014 - 11:16am PT

What company manufactures Camalots

That's too easy.
Better to ask "8.2mm or 9.4mm or dental floss for a tag line?"

Good luck RJ and Chris. Most of us really appreciate this site and try to keep it out of the muck.

JEleazarian

Trad climber

Fresno CA

Jul 22, 2014 - 11:24am PT

Filing charges with the FBI seems overly heavy-handed to me.

I respectfully disagree. His activies were designed to sabotage not only the campfire, but the entire site, which is an integral part of buying a Supertopo guide. I've been very cautious in opening new trip reports and new beta posts because of his antics.

We tend to forget, but Supertopo remains a business. His actions were destroying much more than our campfire. Treating it as a mere prank or annoyance doesn't come close to recognizing the seriousness of the possible consequences to Supertopo. I applaud ST's actions, because it shows diligence in dealing with a potentially serious situation. Best of luck to them.

John

TwistedCrank

climber

Released into general population, Idaho

Jul 22, 2014 - 11:36am PT

Supertopo is trying to run a business.

Part of the business is advertising revenue generated every time you click on the forum.

The alleged perpetrator knowingly interfered with Supertopo's right to run a business by posting content that may drive customers away

If Supertopo shuts down the forum and trip reports - which is their right and choice, it loses part of its revenue stream.

I'm sure there are a bunch of legal precedents and other assorted official mumbo jumbo.

But as for the alleged perpetrator, I say we tickle him until he vomits, then draw the Supertopo logo on his forehead with a red Sharpee pen.

RyanD

climber

Squamish

Jul 22, 2014 - 11:44am PT

Has admin, or does admin ever contact users by email to let them know what and why their behaviour is inappropriate and what needs to change if they are to stay users before or after banning them??

Or is it just mob style wackings?

GDavis

Social climber

SOL CAL

Jul 22, 2014 - 11:49am PT

This is a waste of time for the FBI. I understand your position and your rights, but did you think he would go on indefinitely? He was upset and screwing around with you guys, I think it is more an issue of site security than legality. Do you think the Huffington Post or any big forum doesn't have spam? You're site has long been weak to spammers and to involve the FBI when the site has no defense and a long history of abuse is not a very responsible thing to do.

As for the voyeurism, yes I understand Matt spammed our community, but ask yourselves if there isn't some kind of titillation or curling of the lip as you madly scramble to find personal information and photos of someone manipulated ones and zeros on a message board. He's a massive dickhead, but don't be evil.

edit - said perfectly by khanom, who is actually competent and intelligent unlike myslef:

Pro-tip: Competent Lawyer: $200++ / hr; Competent developer: $70-90 / hr.

Possible remedial steps:
* In case it wasn't obvious, using IP for anything is near meaningless.
* For the next month (or forever) require all posts made by newly registered users (meaning just signed up or never posted before) to be reviewed, either all or only those that match certain criteria. Once they pass 1-3 reviews they're good.
* Restrict what new users can do. I.e. can't post images or video, posts must contain a certain amount of climbing-related terms, etc.
* Essentially the above is a trust system -- it can also involve verification via other users, offline verification, etc. The fact that this forum has always allowed a free-for-all in registrations has (IMO) caused problems. In this instance you can use IP to flag multiple registrations since over a short time frame even someone using a VPN is probably too lazy to switch... most of the time.
* Alternatively shut down new user signups until this idiot gets bored and leaves.
* Use the methods I suggested in the death to spammers thread to catch and hold for review questionable content.
* Recruit people to help with reviewing flagged posts.

RJ Spurrier

SuperTopo staff member

Topic Author's Reply - Jul 22, 2014 - 12:01pm PT

Thanks for the continued brainstorming on how to best stop Mr. Gilchrist.

Regarding recommended techniques such as blocking all of New Zealand IP addresses and similar approaches with IP addresses, please rest assured that we took actions similar to this quite some time ago, as well as many other related techniques. We have also blocked all tor exits, and implemented a growing body of code using other techniques to prevent Mr. Gilchrist from posting.

Mr. Gilchrist's recent posts are coming from IP addresses from around the world. Most recently Canada, the day before Iraq, before that France, etc.

It is only because Mr. Gilchrist's abuse rises to a unusually high level, with many hundreds of inappropriate posts from dozens of accounts each day, that we feel no reasonable alternative than to take the unusual step of filing charges with the FBI.

Our normal level of volunteer moderation on the site cannot keep pace with this level of abuse.

In the meantime, we are investing in further technology changes to prevent such posts. Currently we are working on some changes to the way registration works, and expanding the range of algorithms to detect potentially malicious posters. These methods require us to add new data structures for tracking user activity in more detail, to enable enhanced methods of fingering abusers.

In the near future, we will also be implementing a method for forum members to report abuse, so as to enable a crowd-sourced capability of removing objectionable posts from the site sooner.

Thanks for your help, your ideas, and for keeping the forum a friendly and informative resource for climbing related discussions.

rj

Braunini

Big Wall climber

cupertino

Jul 22, 2014 - 12:02pm PT

This place, man

Minimal moderation would have been too invasive -- so we called the FBI instead

I think that would be the campfire equivalent of throwing the dude into a volcano

fing classic

overwatch

climber

Jul 22, 2014 - 12:06pm PT

Yeah, poor Matt

I like DMizzleTizzles plan

Edit:
I thought my sarcasm obvious?

couchmaster

climber

Jul 22, 2014 - 12:18pm PT

"Poor Matt" has some of the nastiest things to say, his obsessive stalking as well is a huge issue. It's a matter of time till he hurts some one, dude has mental problems. Leave him alone and he'll be quickly chasing off the normal people from this site. No one wants to deal with those kinds of mental cases unless you're getting paid to do so or feeling super altruistic and felt that said altruism would make a positive impact which in this case it wouldn't. Dude has no right to destroy Cmacs business that he has cultivated so hard and for so long.

Good luck guys, hopefully he sees this thread, realizes the seriousness of the situation and stops his craziness.

Marlow

Sport climber

OSLO

Jul 22, 2014 - 12:23pm PT

In my view the Matt tool's actions could be labeled as severely sociopathic. His vision-in-action is to do harm. And Locker is in his usual way putting out the fire with gasoline.

Ward Trotter

Trad climber

Jul 22, 2014 - 12:25pm PT

I propose sending a team of heavy drinkers with a collective mean streak down to New Zealand to sample the climbing potential ...if you know what I mean.

"Don Corleone , I must tell you that Lucca Brazza, is on his way to 'vacation' in this place called ....New Zealand"

overwatch

climber

Jul 22, 2014 - 12:26pm PT

BECAUSE IT IS THE RIGHT CALL AND YOU KNOW IT!

Big Mike

Trad climber

Jul 22, 2014 - 12:46pm PT

Wow.... I can't help but think that communicating with people, rather than just wack a moling them might help avoid some of this angst in the first place.

You guys whacked wml, and he was one of the king content providers around here. You didn't even have to decency to answer his email!! After a while he just said fu(k it and made a new account...

Not talking to people has a way of pissing them off.. I don't agree with matt's actions but i understand why he's so pissed... Good luck with prosecution... Maybe next time... Write a few emails first....

Marlow

Sport climber

OSLO

Jul 22, 2014 - 12:54pm PT

Big Mike

And the Matt tool was one of the king content providers? And you saw it all?

Big Mike

Trad climber

Jul 22, 2014 - 12:55pm PT

Umm no... Read it again....

phylp

Trad climber

Millbrae, CA

Jul 22, 2014 - 12:58pm PT

RJ, I have no ideas to help, practically, but I am glad that you are doing something because I accidentally clicked on one of the fake trip reports and it made me sick. Not the images, who really gives a f$&k, we've all seen plenty of porn, but the association of CMac with it, and the disrespect for the owners of the site, which is a great CLIMBING resource for the whole world.

I don't want to lose this resource and that is ultimately what these few bad apples could cause.

Marlow

Sport climber

OSLO

Jul 22, 2014 - 01:05pm PT

Ok, Big Mike

But if someone does not talk to you, you get "pissed off" and that can explain the behavior though you do not agree with his actions. Just to follow you into this line of reasoning.

Is he responsible for his actions? Or is it the moderators who are responsible for his actions because they should have talked to him, sent him e-posts and so on...?