Eariler this morning I posted a RP thread under an RP alt. This thread has since been reposted after Incarnate was kind enough to remove the old one. He had to remove the old one because several people posted extremely personal attacks. The thread in question is just like other threads in it's vein, a satirical take on events in VO and their often comical consequences. If you look closer, you'll also find subtle references to real world events, historical figures, etc. I enjoy writing them as a purely RP element (as I play all my characters) and will continue to.

The issue earlier this morning was different, in that the poster who replied to my thread did it through my account name. This was not a subtle spoof or misspelling, but my actual account name to the letter and spacing. However, despite that fact, I had no ability to edit these posts. John ruled out it being someone logged into my account, because if that were so I would have been able to edit and delete them.

My only conclusion can be that either a guide helped make these posts, or a skilled hacker was able to spoof my own account to make them.

I am making this public because this is far beyond crossing the line. If a guide was involved, they should be removed immediately, and if it was a hacker they should be tracked down and banned permanently. This goes beyond name spoofing, misspelling a name or making a mock name (such as fumblepunkster or manharu). This person created an exact account name and posted hurtful and unwarrented personal attacks. I have been all but gone for months, and have posted articles under this RP alt many times since my main character was put to rest.

I hope that the Devs and Guides take this issue seriously. At the very least these people have grossly violated the TOS, and at worse they have broken the law. I intend to follow up on this until I'm offered a satisfactory explaination for how it happened, and assurances that it cannot happen again and that the people responsible are dealt with accordingly.

It is absolutely ridiculous that something like this should happen. I personally enjoy those RP threads enormously and I don't think that anything is even close to being really insulting.

As I read the replies to that original post I know what you are talking about and I don't think that there is any good justification for spoofing one's forum account and insulting someone in this way..

Yeah, there isn't a vendetta that reasonably would do this. Someone with too much time on their hands, perhaps?

That serously sucks dude! Oh noes its attack of the clones again >.<

edit: actually i dont want to know how an account could be created that mimics another account.

the mere fact it can be done needs to be adressed.

meanwhile, whoever did this should get it's ass banned from vo. both the boards and the game.

Very serious offense. Whoever did this, deserves to be banned forever.

We're aware of how the exploit was performed, it was a name-spoofing type thing. It'll be fixed. Moving right along..

Yeah, that's bad. Now I'm kind of dying to know what was said though.

Google cache work for VO forums, maybe, Strat?

It wasn't anything pretty.

I tried the Google cache feature but it only has a record from March 31st. It doesn't update enough. Oh well. My curiosity will have to go unquenched.

It's deffinately not anything worth seeing again. Thank you incarnate or finding the exploit, I hope you'll also consider consequences for those responsible.

Wow, someone took it waaaay to far this time. Jokes on them though. Hopefully they can be found.

Good news is, at least you weren't stabbed:
http://www.geekextreme.com/content/view/8558/10/

Considering last time someone exploited a bug to grief players, said person wasn't punished at all...

[EDIT] Anyway, this is a good case for limiting the forum-posting abilities of trial accounts. Maybe just the Bugs and OS forums?

HTML entities in account names or something? hmmmm...

Personally, I'd be willing to bet that tumble had it coming. I have absolutely no sympathy for the troll.

Well, I heartily enjoy the newsposts that tm is talking about.

As do I, you drunken idiot. The truth will soon be told about your incompetence, your obvious lack of leadership qualities, and worst of all - your body odor. Take a shower, already.

What was it you claimed I was jealous of again, LeberMac? Your, ah, "good looks" was it? I can certainly see how I would be, considering all the attention you get from the ladies.

P.S. I was being sarcastic.

I am glad to see that Inc has caught this and I seriously hope there are some major consequences to the person responsible. Playing around with insults in RP is one thing, this goes far beyond that.

Faction A is on one side, Faction B is on another. Faction A decries what Faction B does and thus imitates them, claiming it "payback". Faction B does likewise. Of course, "we" are right and "they" are wrong, despite the very similar things done.

Honestly, grow up, drop it. And anything that should be done should be done to all who like to "retaliate" to "defend themselves". There is no one innocent in this "vendetta" or "feud" or whatever, just some who claim to be less guilty.

That's my take. I apologize for any part of the "feud" et al I took part in in the past, but I'm going to try to stop. "An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind". (Tacky cliche but it fits)

P.S. - No, I had nothing to do with this hair-brained incident.