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> Gary Weiss = Samiharris = Mantanmoreland, Here's how I know.
WordBomb
post Sun 27th January 2008, 1:50am
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Depending on how much you care to know, you can bail out after making it through the short version of this story, or you may stick around for the long version, which will include all the details of how I know what I know.

The short version
  • On January 21, 2008, User:Samiharris was using the IP address 151.202.103.104.
  • On January 21, 2008, Gary Weiss was using the IP address 151.202.103.104.
Given this is a Verizon residential dsl account, which assigns a single IP per subscriber, we can safely conclude that Gary Weiss and Samiharris use the same computer, and are most likely the same person.

The long version
Gary Weiss is an idiot, but he’s not stupid. So he’s learned to use Proxify any time he visits a site he’s unsure of. Matching his IP to Samiharris’, therefore, would require coaxing him to a site au naturel, both as Weiss and as Samiharris, in the relatively short period of time in which his dynamic IP would likely remain unchanged.

I, editing as User:Post Doctorate y-o-y (so named because anybody doing post-doc work must certainly, and regularly, ask themselves “why, oh why am I still in school?!”) engaged Samiharris in a discussion over inclusion of some facts he (Samiharris) clearly wants to keep out of the article on Patrick Byrne. It happened in a very out-of-the-way place (Post Doctorate y-o-y’s brand new talk page), where nobody else was likely to notice it.
EDIT: They blanked that talk page in record time, so I've substituted a cached version of it here.

In the process of making my case, I invited Samiharris to read an article (which is not otherwise available freely online, btw) on a website that a friend can monitor. To put Samiharris at ease, and maximize the chance that he'd go there directly instead of anonymizing first, the link was presented as a Webcitation.org cache of the page, created that day and linked to by no other source.

Because Webcitation maintains the original html of the pages it caches, viewing it would still trigger the embedded ActiveMeter script.

Only one person visited the link that day, and the timing of the visits coincides precisely with Samiharris’ posts on the topic.

A screenshot of the resulting pings (he visited twice) is here:(IMG:http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg59/writerjudd/20080121-samiharris-ip.jpg)

At that point the challenge was to quickly capture Gary Weiss’s IP, sans anonymizer.

Like Webcite, the Wayback Machine caches a page’s html intact, also including any tracking scripts that might be present. But for some reason, most anonymized browsing of past versions of pages captured there is not allowed.

So, I arranged for Gary Weiss to receive email from somebody encouraging him to visit an archived version of a website that I used to own, promising that he'd find damning information about me there. I knew that when (not if) Weiss followed the link, it would be while not anonymized, triggering another ActiveMeter account which I am also able to monitor, though the old version of the site is long gone.

I was correct and a screenshot of the resulting ping from that visit is here:
(IMG:http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg59/writerjudd/20080121-weiss-ip.jpg)

I doubt this comes as much of a surprise to anybody, much less Jimbo. But we'll see what happens from here...whether Wikipedia manages to police itself for once, or whether I need to work this out in the media again.

This post has been edited by WordBomb: Sun 27th January 2008, 2:05am
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Posts in this topic
WordBomb   Gary Weiss = Samiharris = Mantanmoreland   Sun 27th January 2008, 1:50am
Ben   Seems like an open and shut case to me. Nice detec...   Sun 27th January 2008, 2:14am
One   Lamont pointed out the MONGO vote. Any other examp...   Sun 27th January 2008, 2:17am
Piperdown   Lamont pointed out the MONGO vote. Any other exam...   Sun 27th January 2008, 3:14am
jorge   So, I arranged for Gary Weiss to receive email fr...   Sun 27th January 2008, 2:20am
WordBomb   [quote name='WordBomb' post='75750' date='Sun 27t...   Sun 27th January 2008, 2:35am
WhispersOfWisdom   Oh the humanity! :o Real super sleuthing,...   Sun 27th January 2008, 3:45am
LamontStormstar   Gary Weiss's IP vandalizes. http://en.wikiped...   Sun 27th January 2008, 6:13am
WordBomb   Gary Weiss's IP vandalizes. [url=http://en.w...   Sun 27th January 2008, 7:18am
Amarkov   Verizon uses dynamic IPs, so that's not necess...   Sun 27th January 2008, 6:15am
Somey   Verizon uses dynamic IPs, so that's not neces...   Sun 27th January 2008, 6:37am
LamontStormstar   Okay, maybe it has, but still, technically the IP...   Sun 27th January 2008, 7:54am
WordBomb   Verizon uses dynamic IPs, so that's not neces...   Sun 27th January 2008, 7:06am
Somey   I think he was referring to the person who used th...   Sun 27th January 2008, 7:13am
BobbyBombastic   [quote name='Amarkov' post='75799' date='Sun 27th...   Sun 27th January 2008, 7:24am
Amarkov   Yes, I used sooper sekrit sarcasm! Anyway, ye...   Sun 27th January 2008, 7:18am
Moulton   Bearing accurate witness in a wry and understated ...   Sun 27th January 2008, 7:32am
Moulton   Hell is an untamed recursion.   Sun 27th January 2008, 2:42pm
Amarkov   I don't think that this would ever be brought ...   Sun 27th January 2008, 6:50pm
Piperdown   And so even though: a checkuser will show that S...   Sun 27th January 2008, 7:28pm
One   This man is the only person on Wikipedia who is b...   Sun 27th January 2008, 9:20pm
Piperdown   This man is the only person on Wikipedia who is ...   Sun 27th January 2008, 9:22pm
WhispersOfWisdom   And so even though: a checkuser will show that ...   Sun 27th January 2008, 10:13pm
LamontStormstar   And so even though: a checkuser will show that ...   Sun 27th January 2008, 11:55pm
Piperdown   and let's talk about Mark Devlin (Sparkzilla)....   Sun 27th January 2008, 7:45pm
Kato   and let's talk about Mark Devlin (Sparkzilla)...   Sun 27th January 2008, 8:14pm
Piperdown   and let's talk about Mark Devlin (Sparkzilla...   Sun 27th January 2008, 8:21pm
Piperdown   The short version [*]On January 21, 2008, User:S...   Sun 27th January 2008, 9:19pm
One   C'mon man. And most admins supporting you seem...   Sun 27th January 2008, 9:33pm
Piperdown   C'mon man. And most admins supporting you see...   Sun 27th January 2008, 9:35pm
One   [quote name='One' post='75950' date='Sun 27th Jan...   Sun 27th January 2008, 9:43pm
Piperdown   [quote name='One' post='75950' date='Sun 27th Ja...   Sun 27th January 2008, 10:00pm
dogbiscuit   Let so me try to summarise your position, One (On...   Sun 27th January 2008, 10:57pm
One   I'm sorry Piperdown. I know the block was bunk...   Sun 27th January 2008, 10:56pm
Piperdown   I'm sorry Piperdown. I know the block was bun...   Sun 27th January 2008, 11:24pm
One   I wasn't trying to be a contender. I don...   Mon 28th January 2008, 12:11am
dogbiscuit   again, I wasn't playing a game. Whats to be ...   Mon 28th January 2008, 12:55am
dtobias   You've got to understand that from the Wikiped...   Mon 28th January 2008, 12:58am
Proabivouac   You've got to understand that from the Wikipe...   Mon 28th January 2008, 1:55am
Piperdown   About 3 more weeks left for WP to run a checkuser ...   Mon 28th January 2008, 10:00pm
LamontStormstar   Checkuser lasts for 3 months. Maybe policy is 1 m...   Tue 29th January 2008, 5:12am
Jonny Cache   You must remember the «Precept Of WAS» (POW) —...   Tue 29th January 2008, 5:18am
Moulton   There is no difference between Hitler and Tom Sawy...   Tue 29th January 2008, 1:33pm
Jonny Cache   Here's the full quotation, which is chock full...   Tue 29th January 2008, 2:24pm
thekohser   What happened to the WAS 4.250 who told off Jimbo ...   Tue 29th January 2008, 2:35pm


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