An Evening of Experimentation

[comokate]

It has been postulated, by more than one board member, an individual exists here who with the aid of "friends" has used innocuous posts containing such things as graphics, one sentence salutations and at times one lone emoticon, such postings being viewed at least by some as seriously lacking in form and substance, to simply "bump" their threads (and there could appear to be at least several) to the forefront and ahead of all other postings in this message board forum.
That does, at least to me, seem to be a rather odd use of time and effort, particularly when such postings occur not only during the "work day”, but also appear to occur during what is normally viewed as "recreational" hours. Behavioral oddities always capture my intellectual interest since they seem to defy the normal, predictable patterns exhibited by the general population, patterns upon which we come to rely on providing some understanding of the world in which we live and which often become the basis for our own behavioral choices. The result of further investigation and observation of what initially appears to be odd or irrational behavior almost always ends in the discovery of a primal impulse when, once defined, does present it's own predictable behavioral patterns.
Additionally, some protests of the aforementioned threads have come, in part, from board members who possess personal viewpoints that often greatly conflict with those held by the majority of the general population. Conflicting personal viewpoints do not, however, necessarily negate the allegations of the protests. Conflicting personal viewpoints do often lead to psychological discomfort, even if that conflict originates simply in the abstract realm of ideas and opinions. People who feel uncomfortable usually react, based upon their individual personalities and motivations, in fairly predictable ways. Predictable, once patterns are established.
Some major reactional patterns that seemed to have emerged on this message board are:
· anger
· denial
· avoidance
· use of mockery
· personal insults
· spamming
· assorted other methods of statistical irrelevance

Engaging in speculation as to the personal motivation would be incorrectly moving forward without first establishing the alleged pattern of behavior. In order to facilitate the existence of such a pattern, I decided to engage in the use of a posting algorithm, the purpose of which, rather than assume an expected result, would perhaps instead authenticate a theoretical pattern.
Using a symbiotic pattern of graphics, one sentence salutations, and at times, one lone emoticon, over the course of several hours a pattern emerged that would seem substantiate the claims, of at least some board members, that the individual in question does indeed, using the same methodology, and with the assistance of 'friends", keep his personal threads at the very visible top of the forum, ahead of all other posts/members.. Virgil, if time and interest permit, please feel free to validate the pattern using any statistical data you may find helpful.
Motivation for such a pattern remains a question open to theoretical probabilities.
Sorry if I offended any in my process.

[Virgil Showlion]

Como, you can PM me if you don't want to speak in hypotheticals.

As for thread bumps, I'm not going to ban them. I'll see what I can do about getting "pinned" threads, which can change order but are guaranteed not to move off of the first page.

[decoy409]

Why this is some really good stuff como brings up, not. This is called TARGETING. This very same issue is ON RECORD by your top Commanders as far as targeting terrorists as well as those that may be detrimental to the system in play due to their thought process breakdown designed for use.
Nothing like coming over to my post (como) starting and assisting wxyz as to what you pulled last night, RUINING the thread, and then come back with your mumbo jumbo as above.
I have had respect for you in the past como as you are no dummy. However with your latest stunt pulled, I have lost much respect.
If the NEW BOARD here is to be a place to EXPERIMENT with people, you can have your board.

[comokate]

Decoy,
check your personal message box.

[neohguy]

The posting behavior comokate describes is interesting, although quite annoying to some of us. I think comokate is talking about the 24/7 bumpers. Not the posters that might be very talkative some days but normal the rest of the time.
I have noticed for some time the efforts of a poster to immediately bump his threads ahead of any subject that he does not agree with. Weird behavior imo.
I've done my own little experiment on the old MT board lately. I would bump 5-10 threads ahead of his threads and wait for a reaction. He would then bump his threads, or threads that he was the last poster on, to the top again.

[midwesterner (banned)]

Como, I've argued this point time and again. Your easement has many valid points. I do find it strange how a 2 sentence poster with non market related subject matter can have such a huge karma rating if it weren't for many working together or spoofed IP addresses to gain karma points and bump threads. Speculation? Yes, but enough evidence this could be true and should be watch carefully IMO.

Alliterative views are welcome, but one post wonders, self proclaimed superstars, and insider one liners with idle chatter to bump threads is not. I've asked many, many, many more times than I can count direct questions to some which go unanswered, and are very much market related in nature. Silence is all we hear. I would argue strongly that most of the pumping threads here are just that, no statistics, graphs, charts, commentary, articles, ect to back up pumping position. I think if this was used many would relax a bit about the pumping, cause it would be bring these points to the table and discussing them.

I find the pumping threads to do no such thing, and starting to strongly believe the some of MSN minions have come here to cause trouble and pump market. They I'm very sure are not happy about this site, and will do what they can to silence us, which was tried many times on MSN. I also find it interesting who was some of the first over here, pumping away before many signed up. I know this cause I was one of the first over here too before the old members had signed up.

I think we should at least examine this posting pattern Como talks about, I think she is on to something here completely.

[Deleted]

You guys don't know what you are getting yourselves into. This thread bumping issue goes all the way to the top. They know about, they are going to make sure it happens and they are going to makes those that try to stop it... disappear.

[The Virginian]

They know about, they are going to make sure it happens and they are going to makes those that try to stop it... disappear.

Is this board run by the CIA???