Muskblog: Homesteading the Internet since 1995

Everyone else is talking about Diablo III, but I actually started my first game of Sid Meier’s Civilization V since 11-11-6 today. My eyes were starting to glaze over as I tried to read three chapters on economics. Yesterday I went to Civ Fanatics for the first time in almost six months to read their summary of the tidbits gleaned so far about the upcoming expansion Gods & Kings.

I need to return to studying for the CFA exam, you can never study too much for the CFA exam. But it was nice to take a break and play a hundred and fifty or so turns of Civilization V. I played as Rome, lowered the difficulty level and adapted to my small island start. Despite significant updates I had to download and two quick crashes, the game hasn’t changed that much. But with the first expansion, not just another piece of down loadable content, the game is set to change a lot. Hopefully my life improves in June and I can enjoy things like video games without feeling guilty.

Well back to practice problems.

Once again SOLEfood was in the Vancouver Sun as they announced they were building a new larger urban farm in a much more visible  location than Hastings and Hawkes. This is of course good news to see on Twitter and main stream media. I was involved during the gestation period of the project that became SOLEfood. I remember when it was just a handful of people from a couple non-profits in the Downtown Eastside. There was a lot of difficulty securing land to use for urban farming and I seem to recall SOLEfood’s very first grant application being turned down…

Eventually it was decided to sign an agreement for the land at Hastings and Hawkes and have the first of two volunteer build days. Obviously there have been some ups and downs, but considering how difficult it is to break even in new ventures, it is great to see that SOLEfood is still going strong and even expanding. They are still very reliant on favourable land leasing arrangements, community goodwill, and of course the consumer’s willingness to pay a premium for fresh local produce.

I wasn’t surprised to see coverage in the Vancouver Sun again, but the piece by Tony Wanless a few days later in BC Business was more of a surprise. It doesn’t mention SOLEfood by name and there are others doing urban agriculture in Vancouver, but the article seems to gloss over the amount of hard work that goes into farming and comments seem to skip to there being an iPhone app enabling people to find the freshest locally grown tomatoes. Isn’t that what farmers markets are for? NIMBYism and consumers losing their appetite for premium local produce could be the end of SOLEfood and urban farming. Eventually rising fuel costs may even our regional agricultural trade imbalance. However visions of rooftop farms are still a long ways off, what if they negatively affect penthouse condo prices?

Vancouver’s growing season will never be as long as parts of California, but at least we have plenty of rain.

Here is a photo and some accounts of the original SOLEfood urban farm and volunteer build day.

As someone who has put up with a lot over the last few years and believes in generally treating people decently online and offline, I have to advocate trying to keep a positive attitude and walking away from most confrontations. Bite your tongue, turn the other cheek, and walk away. Disassociate with anyone who turns nasty and spiteful in your life. Sometimes this can be hard and it is a shame when people make your life harder than it ever had to be. In my previous post I tried to raise some awareness of the hurtful abuse that can be hurled by complete strangers online at a randomly selected blogger who wrote about their personal and health problems.

Did I succeed in raising awareness of mental health issues or even what some would term cyberbullying? I’m not so sure, I did open myself up to more verbal abuse and ridicule. Some people don’t know when to shut up. Sometimes you need to step away from the keyboard, go for a walk, get some fresh air, sleep on it, get a second opinion, anything but send an equally mean spirited response. Disassociate with anyone who turns nasty and spiteful in your life.

I’d never heard of Caltrops.com until they decided to make me a target of their online abuse and ridicule. I don’t know them and I don’t want to know them or anyone like them. They fancy themselves elite online gamers and hide behind their handles, while picking on others they consider of obvious inferior intelligence. If I was the subject of systematic and ongoing abuse and ridicule from a group of online gamers and I decided to try and enact a measure of revenge this is what I would do.

Update

The problem of coordinated and systematic abuse and ridicule in online games must be worse than even I thought. I’ve now learned that you don’t have to file individual complaints on each member of a gaming group on Steam. You can instead search for the group page and report abuse. The question remains, how serious does Valve take five years or coordinated and systematic abuse directed from a group of gamers towards a random individual online?

First I would Google them. Since they are so proud of their elite online gamer status I’d find out their accounts on a major online gaming network like Steam. Then I would type out a series of short simple instructions on how to report accounts for abuse on Steam. 

1. Login to your steam account, using your Steam application.
2. Click on the Community button.
3. Enter a Caltrops team members account into the search box, I recommend starting with Fussbett.
4. Click on the person’s account, find the “Report Violation” button. 
5. Click “Report Violation”
6. Select “User Misconduct”
7. Enter text such as “This account, the Caltrops Group, and Caltrops.com are being used to coordinate and systematically abuse gamers.”
8. Click the “Submit” button.
9. Repeat steps 3 through 8 for as many additional team members as you feel necessary.
10. Share/Forward/Repost these instructions as you see fit if you’re against the systematic and calculated abuse of the mentally ill or cyberbullying.

Next I would move on to the next major online gaming network: Xbox Live, BattleNet, PlayStation Network, etc and I would find their accounts and report them for abuse. Once again you could type out some simple instructions and forward them to your own friends or post them in various gaming forums. But first I’d focus on Steam accounts as I was able to quickly and easily find and take a screen shot of all the Caltrops team members. If one complaint is good, surely 100s of complaints is better?

I’m sure Fussbett Sanitario would think of a much more mean-spirited means of enacting revenge, once again I recommend resisting the urge to reply or engage in a war of words and just walking away from painful situations. However there are options available such as the one outlined to report systematic and repeated verbal abuse. I didn’t want to waste any more of my time on these people but while at the gym I thought if I was an online gamer overly proud of my handle and my ability to hide behind it while hurling abuse at random people online, what happens when they take away my handle and my ability to play games online?

This also seems like an interesting experiment to conduct on the ability of social media, online networks, and gaming communities ability in combating the systematic abuse and bullying that is all to common in online gaming. How many online gamers do I know having spent 15+ years in various online gaming communities and having worked as a software developer in Vancouver, the world’s largest video game development hub?

I learned long ago the dangers of electronic communication and just how debilitating mental illness can be. Depression isn’t something I talk about much, though there was an extended period when I wrote too much about the difficulties I was having and how I just couldn’t make people see how much they were hurting me. I gave up many times. Took down my blog, went about as low as you can go. I’m not cured…

I’ve absorbed a lot of abuse, a lot of unkind words, a lot of nasty looks. I bit my tongue and walked away from most every potential confrontation. I dropped out of school, but was talked into resuming, just to put up with all the nastiness in as much silence as I could for months. Things never got better. I didn’t attend the convocation ceremony. I don’t associate with my classmates or the university. I’ve taken down a lot of my more bitter posts and I gave up asking why. Some content remains online against the advice of many. This isn’t a good career move, but I refuse to engage in revisionist history for the benefit of people who hurt me.

Some people occasionally encouraged me to blog despite my many problems, I can’t say I recommend it for people dealing with serious health or personal problems. One thing it opens you up to is more abuse and ridicule from random strangers online. One particular group of individuals have taken great amusement in belittling me and my struggles. I called them out on it, but that just led to more abuse being posted under pseudonyms on Caltrops.com. So I ignored them for years, never even bothered to read what was being said. Why give them the satisfaction? They along with UBC however continue to poke me to see if I’m still paying attention, by sending unwanted emails and web traffic my way. I ask UBC the same questions I always do, they never answer. But folks on Caltrops.com are the exact opposite, they don’t shut up, they most definitely think it is amusing to poke the bear.

Caltrops is run by Robb Sherwin and has been for years. He’s has no problem with it being a forum where quasi anonymous individuals can post nasty hurtful crap about random strangers on the Internet. I’ve had enough of being the butt of their jokes and the target of their abuse. So I decided to use social media and Mental Health Week as a catalyst to make Robb Sherwin aka @icecreamjonesy and the rest of Caltrops more aware of the difficulties mental illness poses to enjoying a happy and productive life.

Of all the things I’ve ever written this most succinctly describes what it is like being seriously depressed and suffering anxiety attacks. That wasn’t the post that got me the attentions of the folks over on Caltrops.com, it was this post about Christina Ricci and her then upcoming movie, Black Snake Moan. Eventually I noticed and wrote about it on my blog, this only got me more attention. I ignored them for about five years. One of the biggest loud mouths on the website claimed to be Wagner James Au, so when I recently discovered he was on Twitter I started asking louder and louder why this was considered acceptable online behaviour even in the gaming community. Finally I took to blogging, if the folks on Caltrops want my attention they have it, along with a lot of other people’s attention seeing as how the web is a lot more social and news travels a lot quicker than it did five years ago.

Robb Sherwin knows who Fussbett Sanitario and Zensi are, he’s let them and others post nasty hurtful stuff about complete strangers on his website for over five years. This isn’t harmless fun and I know you’re not supposed to feed trolls, but given it is Mental Health Week, perhaps some people need a reminder that they’re not cool when they pick on random bloggers struggling with mental illness. What does that have to do with video games?

Update

Seeing as how it is Metal Health Week combined with another recent high profile suicide, that of former NFL star Junior Seau, a few more personal accounts of what life is like with depression have appeared online, such as this one written by Chris McCosky. And here is another more local story from the Georgia Straight.

And why do he and his buddies over at Caltrops.com find this acceptable online behaviour? Until this week I’d never bothered to read Caltrops.com or really look into who was running the website and why the hell they think they are so damn clever and superior to the rest of us lesser Internet users. Fussbett Sanitario seems particularly proud of his long association with Caltrops.com and is overly enamored with with the sound of his fingers hitting the keyboard. He’s also very attached to his online Internet handle and continually uses it or variants online. He and his buddies also play online video games and chat using AOL Instant Messenger of all things. Using my renewed annoyance at Mr. Sanitario and his pals over at Caltrops, last night I did some investigating.

Caltrops.com is proudly run by Robb Sherwin. His latest clever online Internet handle is Icecreamjonsey. He has the matching Twitter account and another website just in case he wants to distance himself from Caltrops when it is inconvenient, it’s called Jolt Country. Mr. Sherwin not only enjoys video games, he’s started making them. He finds Fussbett particularly amusing and has no qualms operating Caltrops.com where Fussbett and pals can engage in their own personal brand of online fun, such as picking on the mentally ill. Mr. Sherwin’s latest, greatest game is called Cryptozookeeper.

But enough about Robb, the enabler, lets return to our protagonist Fussbett Sanitario, the writer. Well he fancies himself some sort of writer, he types, and types over at Caltrops.com, explaining such useful facts as how he arrived at his AIM account name: Sanitario666. He’s been using variations for a long time. On Steam his account is Fussbett. All the Caltrops regulars have formed a group on Steam which includes the following handles:

• Jso, killer of zonbey goasts
• Clever Hans
• Dr. M. Von Katze, PhDD
• Francesca Lucchini
• Jackie Treehorn
• Jhoh (a tauren)
• Lizard_King
• McMoo
• Moop
• naknak
• Parkraz
• The Happiness Engine
• ToutSuite
• Worm

Of these Jhoh is the one to note. There is however, more to online gaming than just Steam. Over on Xbox.com Mr. Sanitario uses the account FSBT. Apparently he is the 7,829,974 best Street Fighter player in world. More importantly he can use this account to compete with his buddies for bragging rights. His best buddies are:

• Cable Bruddas
• Worm4Real
• Sun El
• McMoo tadc
• Shecky Kilowitz

What about the Sony Playstation, apparently Fussbett is an Xbox man, superior platform don’t you know. I’m sure someone can cross match the five Xbox handles with a corresponding Steam account. I’ll help you out, Cable Bruddas is Jhoh aka Jhoh Cable aka @jhohcable on Twitter. Although he obviously spends a lot of time on Caltrops, Xbox, and Steam, I’m not sure Jhoh is considered as ‘cool’ or ‘witty’ as Fussbett. He is less anonymous, he has his own website.

Lets get back to Fussbett, he likes to see his name in print on a computer screen. In addition to typing he also takes screenshots and posts them online using Photobucket. Using the URL for these photos you could see where besides Caltrops.com they have been posted… Fussbett is way too cool to use a Play Station 3, but apparently he’ll use other Sony products. If you’re starting to think Mr. Sanitario is a bit of a hypocrite in addition to being an asshole, well you’re entitled to your opinion.  

Although Fussbett Sanitario may fancy himself the sharpest knife in the drawer over at Caltrops.com and maybe compared to his peers he possess a certain low cunning. It was easy for instance to find out that Jhoh Cable lives in Garden City, Michigan and now enjoys Tumblogging. He and Fussbett used to be friends on MySpace, I guess back when it was cool. But MySpace was never as cool as AOL Instant Messenger. JHOH Cable, Sanitario666, and Zsenijeim use AOL Instant Messenger to chat about how awesome they are at video games I guess and how clever everyone is who posts on Caltrops. Zsenijeim is the AIM account for the person who decided I was a shiny new psycho that all the folks on Caltrops.com should pick on five years ago. Hi Zseni, sorry I neglected to mention you for seven whole paragraphs but your AIM buddy Fussbett Sanitario posts more frequently. Zseni’s claim to fame seems to be having the 2nd account banned on Caltrops.com, congrats on that, you can tell your grandkids.

I wasted time last night finding this information out and then I decided to type up some of what I discovered to see if the data would be useful to others. I’m also considering other options… Back when I used to work in the Downtown Eastside, one of my coworkers showed me Pipl.com that was what she used to do background checks. Pipl seems to think Fussbett Sanitario is Fred Pendleton of Toronto Ontario Canada. I’m not 100% sure. It is probably more likely than Fussbett’s original claim of being Wagner James Au. Fred’s Facebook account has the privacy settings cranked way higher than Fussbett’s MySpace friend jhoh.cable. I’m not sure how Pipl.com works but supposedly it takes various data points, like the ones I’ve mentioned and connects the dots algorithmically. Fussbett’s MySpace profile lists him as being from Canada, probably verified using IP address lookup, and lists his age being the same as Fred Pendleton. Fussbett on Steam and FSBT on Xbox are also listed as being from Canada, again the video game companies probably used IP addresses to determine this, remember Caltrops.com forum members are all wicked cool online video gamers. So is Fussbett Sanitario, Fred Pendleton of Toronto, Ontario, Canada? Fussbett does talk about his age on Caltrops, Fussbett just posts way too much online to remain completely anonymous.

I ignored the folks over at Caltrops.com for years, I put up with a lot of abuse from a lot of people, if it wasn’t for web analytics and Fussbett Sanitario’s inability to shut up, I wouldn’t have written the last two blog posts and I would have slept better the last few evenings. I’ve tried hard to put my problems behind me and now that my mental health has improved I’m better able to apply myself. I hadn’t intended to use my valuable time trying to educate some people on ethical human behaviour, however my tolerance for abuse and Internet bullshit is considerably less than it used to be. Perhaps I’ll have to expend yet more time and effort letting Robb Sherwin know that Caltrops.com isn’t making the Internet a better place and years of posting offensive and hurtful comments using the exact same Internet handle will likely catch up to some people.

Fussbett Sanitario is no Keyser Söze.

Fussbett Sanitario, who claims to be Wagner James Au, Twitter handle @slhamlet, and the most powerful Second Life journalist of 2007 and his buddies on Caltrops.com, an unremarkable online forum, decided it would be amusing to select a random blogger and ridicule him. It was deemed necessary to start an entire thread on Caltrops.com devoted to insulting this stranger and making light of his personal issues, mental health problems, and of course his favourite actress. 

I tried to contact @slhamlet via Twitter several times prior to publishing this. I was definitely upset, never a good combination with social media. When I started to realize that Fussbett was most likely just claiming to be Wagner James Au while simultaneously posting nasty hurtful comments online, I edited this post some.

Seeing as how next week is Mental Health Week in Canada and various folks on Caltrops.com have deemed it amusing to insult, belittle, and mock a person because of their mental illness and their blog for over five years. I finally felt compelled to draw some unwanted attention to this painful portion of my life.  This is not appropriate behaviour online, offline, or even in Second Life. It is doubly saddening that it is all too common in online gaming circles. I’d never even heard of Wagner James Au or Caltrops.com until people took it upon themselves to call me “a shiny new psycho” among other things and repeatedly link to my blog. Perhaps this blog posting or a series of questions posed on Twitter will draw attention to this hurtful online behaviour and result in some positive change. I ignored this crap as best I could for over five years and I’m just tired of bullshit like this, who really is Fussbett Sanitario and why do he and folks at Caltrops.com think this acceptable behaviour?