Multiple Account Usage - Accounts Banned

[admin]

(Please note: The CJ-8.COM website and forums is a distinct entity owned and operated by myself (Matt Donaghy). When you register for a userid on the CJ-8.COM you are presented with the following verbiage to which you acknowledge:

"The owners of Jeep Scrambler Forums & Discussions reserve the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread or user account for any reason."

As the owner/administrator/founder of this forum and a long time resident of the Scrambler community, I feel it necessary to create this posting to reveal some facts about a recently discovered situation to preserve the character and integrity of the Scrambler Community we have all built over the years. The decision to post this information was weighed heavily and advice was sought from several different impartial sources.

Significant efforts have been used in researching the technical findings to present these facts below. They have been researched to the best of my ability and are now being presented. It was discovered that an individual created multiple userids representing different false identities on the CJ-8.COM forum. Over the last several years, postings occurred within a matter of minutes from the same computer using these different userids. Specific web site logging data and tracking information has been researched and it has been proven that the following userids are all in fact someone using the same computer.

Here are the facts surrounding the creation and use of these accounts on the CJ-8.COM website:

• Users' original userid was "BritScrambler", created 3-25-2004 and corresponding registration data provided show a location of California with Full Name listed as Mark Wells.
• Userid "Prime Minister", was created 5-14-2006 with registration data provided currently showing a location of Colorado and a registration name field showing "Mark Wells Formerly known as BritScrambler". The BritScrambler userid publicly stated in a posting that he was starting to use the new userid sometime close to creating this userid.
• Userid "HoosierJP" was created 5-06-2005 with registration data showing Gnaw Bone, IN showing full name of "Frank". This userid has been proven to be repeatedly used from the same computer as Prime Minister And BritScrambler
• Userid "Curley" was created on 6-22-2005 with registration data showing Bixby, OK and a Full name "Chuck". This userid has been proven to be repeatedly used from the same computer as Prime Minister and BritScrambler.
• The majority of HoosierJP's and Curley's posts are in response to or converse with postings by Prime Minister or BritScrambler and appear to be promoting activities, events, websites and communications of the BritScrambler and/or PrimeMinister userids.

After a recent review of the contents of the postings over several years created by these user accounts, it was determined that these additional accounts were intended to be used in a deceptive and hurtful manner to attack individual members of this forum, the SOA (Scrambler Owners Association), the SOA officers and generally be a divisive force in the Scrambler Community.

Therefore, the following actions have been taken:

1. All of the user accounts involved have temporarily been banned/locked
2. the individual was contacted via email address on record for the main account on July 10 and July 11 in regards to his account usage but did not respond via email
3. The individual was phoned on July 12th and was successfully reached. I asked if this was a good time to discuss his account usage and was deferred until July 13th
4. July 13th I reached the individual on the phone and was able to speak for several minutes in regards to their account usage CJ-8.COM. At my request, an additional third party was present on the phone call.
5. The offer was made to the individual to provide a written response to be presented at the same time as this information was revealed. The written response was received on July 14th and is presented below.
6. Further actions in regards to the accounts used and the postings created by those accounts are at my sole discretion

I am leaving this posting temporarily open as I suspect that if I do not leave an open avenue for comments I will be fighting new threads and responses for a while. PLEASE KEEP ANY COMMENTS ON THIS THREAD, ANY NEW THREADS OR COMMENTS BROUGHT TO THE ATTENTION OF ME OR THE MODERATORS WILL BE DELETED. Any specific comments, topics, items on this issue and how it relates to the Scrambler Owners Association or how this relates to the recent elections MUST be redirected to the CJ-8.ORG site, as that is the proper venue. Any posting containing any comments, information about elections, nominations about the Scrambler Owners Association will be removed.

The moderators and I will only allow discussion, comments or responses that directly relate to CJ-8.COM and I am asking that all responses be tempered.

Further actions in regards to this user and these accounts are yet to be decided and are at my sole discretion. I may delete this post or close it, any comments in this thread, or any comments/threads outside of this one regarding this situation at any time.

Use of multiple userids by the same person and misrepresenting themselves on this forum is prohibited and will not be tolerated. Further investigations of suspect userid and sock puppet accounts is ongoing and may be made public as well. Any postings, threads, userids, pictures, profile information on this forum can be removed for any reason at any time. Userids and accounts on this site can be banned for any reason at any time including any level of paid memberships as well as vendor sponsors without refund.

 

[admin]

Response -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mark Wells <XXXXXXXXX>
Date: Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 3:02 PM
Subject: My input
To: Matt@cj-8.com


I would like to open by saying that I apologize to any of my fellow Scrambler owners that my actions have offended in any way. I would also like to say that I am sorry to anyone that has spent any time in the administrative role for taking their valuable time that would normally be spent with other matters.

After purchasing my Scrambler I had been lurking and reading posts on the cj-8.com site. But as time went by I wanted to view photos, etc. that could only be seen if you register. So I registered as BritScrambler. And I was happy to meet many of you online, and then latter in person. As time went by, my local Scrambler friends picked a new Jeeping nick name for me. That name was Prime Minister. I tried to change my username on this site, but not seeing an option to do I registered Prime Minister (and noted my former account “now Prime Minister,” with the same avatar, to be clear).

Later on, with an action that started as harmless fun, I registered myself as Curley and another family member as HoosierJP. But unfortunately as time went by we gave into temptation to post more serious views, etc. These views started as a way to spotlight some of the positive things that we saw going on but then grew to include criticism of some of the negative things. Also included was beating the drum in support of our local events and even, I regret to say, of me personally. As I said, this was a gradual slipping into the temptation of the use of a second account. This activity was not known by any other Scrambler owner and was my doing alone and I take full responsibility. I have now disappointed many including all those closest to me. That scar will never go away. Believe me, I have clearly learned my lesson in this matter. I will never violate the trust of dear friends again. I don’t know if you will ever be able to accept my apology. But I offer it again with the sincere hope that as time goes by, you might find it in your heart to move on, beyond this matter.

Very sincerely,

Mark

 

[Wyoming]

In a partial defence of Mark, I have tried to change my log in name with no luck. I even sent e-mails to the adminstrater with no reply.
I considered doing the same thing: Leave the old log in dead and register a new one.
Now I just gave up and don't post much.
Dennis

 

[bigwalton]

In a partial defence of Mark, I have tried to change my log in name with no luck. I even sent e-mails to the adminstrater with no reply.
I considered doing the same thing: Leave the old log in dead and register a new one.
Now I just gave up and don't post much.
Dennis

Dennis, we work very hard to reply to any trouble requests. Let me know whatever your issue is and we'll take care of it. If your emails got missed I apologize.

I can assure you 100% that what was done by Mark that led to the ban in no way had to do with trouble changing his username or anything like this.

Feel free to PM or email me (click my username) directly about any changes you want made on your account.