The mission of AntiSocialMedia.net is to reveal those who misuse the power of online collaboration and community-building tools for personal gain.
Gary Weiss is a former journalist, book author, outspoken advocate of securities regulation reform, and someone who should know better than to use his blog to deceive and attempt to intimidate his opponents.
First, some background
Haloscan is a third party weblog commenting system often used by users of the Blogger platform.
A funny thing about Haloscan: when you use it to post a comment, a "cookie" is placed on your computer, storing your user data (username, email and website) so you won't have to enter that information next time. This is generally convenient, since Haloscan requires you to enter a username and email address every time you comment. However the website field is not required.
But the Haloscan cookie can be a little buggy, in that having entered a website url once, sometimes it will insist that the same url appear in subsequent comments. If you erase the auto-completed website field it will likely get posted with your comment anyway. At times, the only solution is to specify another website, which may in turn appear on future comments whether you like it or not.
A little inconvenient, but nothing more.
Unless, that is, you are a commenter attempting to covertly use multiple identities on the same blog, as appears to have been the case with blogger Gary Weiss earlier this year. In that case, Haloscan becomes a rather conspicuous indicator of deceit.
Here's what happened (in each case, a link to the live website is provided, but considering the likelihood that inconvenient posts will be deleted or altered, screenshots are provided as well. Click on the thumbnail to see a full version, each or which was captured while a mouse pointer -- not visible in the screencapture -- hovered over the link thereby revealing its destination in a yellow tool-tip style box):
On January 25, 2006, Weiss' blogging rival Bob O'Brien posted an entry from an apparant ally named James Cummins who, notably, lauds Gary Weiss as an "American hero." A commenter to O'Brien's blog suggested Cummins copy the post to Gary Weiss' blog, which Cummins does on January 31, 2006, via Haloscan.
In the Haloscan website field, Cummins apparently attempted to enter the url corresponding to his original post on thesanitycheck.com.
Original comment
Over the next two days, Cummins and Weiss engage in comment jousting. In each case, Gary includes a link to his website with his comments, while Cummins does not. That changes on February 3, 2006, when a link to Cummins' website suddenly appears. Strangely, the link points to the website claimed by Gary Weiss.
Original comment
The following 14 hours saw more comment jousting in which Gary Weiss consistently includes a homepage link while James Cummins did not. Suddenly, that changes, with Cummins again linking to Gary Weiss.
Original comment
Two hours later, a special treat: the previously unknown Mr. Frank Guss opts to join the discourse, with harsh words for Mr. Cummins. Oddly, the homepage of Mr. Guss is the same used by Gary Weiss.
Original comment
Before Cummins can respond, Guss is back for more, attacking Cummins and again linking to the homepage of Gary Weiss.
Original comment
In less than two minutes, Cummins is back up off the matt, calling Guss a "basher" yet following his lead by linking to the homepage of Gary Weiss.
Original comment
Less than a minute passes before Gary Weiss sweeps in to defend the honor of his fair blog commenters. In keeping with what's fashionable, Gary links to the homepage of...Gary Weiss.
Original comment
Now, at this stage, it needs to be pointed out that Gary Weiss is known for moderating his blog comments; meaning, prior to publication, Haloscan holds comments pending Gary's approval, with requests for moderation arriving via email. So, depending on the speed of the network carrying that email and Gary's proximity to a computer, this can realistically delay the posting of comments anywhere from a minute to many hours or beyond. However in the case of the three comments documented immediately above, we see James Cummins respond to Frank Guss and be responded to by Gary Weiss...all within about two minutes. Of course, comments made by Gary himself get published immediately.
There are several possible explanations for these odd circumstances, and I commit to add Gary Weiss' version here alongside my own if he'll offer it. But the version I find most likely is as follows:
Gary Weiss is James Cummins and Frank Guss.
While there is evidence to suggest that a young writer named James Cummins does exist and may have collaborated on the referenced project, he had no part in this interaction. Instead, Gary gravely mislead his readers by propping up an overly-gracious strawman to publicly flay with the help of others, including at least one poster who was in fact also Gary Weiss.
The effect of the Haloscan auto-complete bug is limited to individual machines, such that the only reason it might affect either James Cummins or Frank Guss would be if they all posted from the computer used by Gary Weiss. Indeed, that appears to he what happened, though it was Gary acting as the other two at the time.
Gary Weiss has done his readers and patrons a tremendous disservice for which he should apologize, reveal what role the real James Cummins played in this ruse (if any), and commit to a more honest use of social media moving forward.
--ASM