Mentzer/Bote incident at DF

[Kellri]

If someone was, and had been for a long time, on your ignore list...wouldn't that imply you couldn't actually see their posts? That seems to be the very definition of the verb 'to ignore'. How do you then go ahead and reply to that person and follow that up with a nutgone flake PM if you actually were ignoring them?

Oh yeah. You do if you're just a colossal, lying, dumpster-diving sack of shit.

[Juju EyeBall]

I'll lose no sleep over it. I had no interest in Frank's new project anyway.
It sounds like a bad play-acting social justice simulator.
Funny, I remember Col. Pladoh talking about future continents of the world of GreyHawk and Frank's Aquauria/Empyria-whatever-the-fuck it was wasn't a part of it. Funny how all the sudden he remembers it differently.
I'd go find the thread at DF but it's not worth my time. It's there for anyone to find if they search.

[Matthew]

As far as Frank Mentzer being hacked goes, the hacker would have had to have somehow posted from his IP address (the same one used in other private messages sent to us and posts made this month) and done so during the same period he was posting to the website 8th to 12th September, or more specifically 8th to 9th since this message is dated 9th. This is not to overlook the content matches with regard to what was actually written. You can understand why Dragonsfoot has concluded this is not a hack.

[Pres-Gas]

Wow... just... wow...

It was a great decision for the DF people to keep things as private as possible and let the players decide how public to make it. Good work, DF admins!

[Juju EyeBall]

I'm no computer forensics expert but I find it highly unlikely that someone was able to compromise Frank's account, while he was logged in and posting before and after the PM in question, without Frank being notified he was logged out during that window.
That and the confirmation from the DF mods that the IP logs are not unusual in any way, well...
I can smell a lie like a fart in a car but it smells more like big baby shit the bed on this one.
Maybe he didn't write it and he just edited it.

[T. Foster]

Wow. A lot of posts while I was asleep last night. I suppose that's not too surprising...

Not much to add that others haven’t said. I met Frank at one of the LGGCs, while Gary was still alive. Frank ran AD&D (the only game he ever ran, he said—that seemed kind of humble). Honestly, his game session was nothing to write home about, but, that was okay. In those days it felt like we were Gary’s crew, and it seemed like he was one of the guys. Was it a façade? It was very different from the present Prince—megalomaniacal, boastful, threatening, too good for the old school movement and the communities that birthed it, furious when questioned. I haven’t head of any negative interactions like this from before Gary’s death, but I could be missing something.

I've heard some unsavory rumors about Frank that go back before Gary's death. I don't want to repeat them because I heard them all second (or third or fourth) hand, so I might have details wrong, and the people who shared with the people who shared with me might not want the stories made public, but they're out there.

One thing I will mention briefly, because I've heard about it multiple times, from more than one source: there was apparently a lot more to the incident where Frank announced that he was selling Gary's original T2 manuscript only to abruptly cancel the sale and arrange a public "ceremony" of returning the manuscript to Gary than what we saw from the outside.

I've heard other similar stories. At first I was inclined not to believe them, or to give Frank the benefit of the doubt, because (as many others have attested) in person at cons he's always seemed affable and generous (but never humble: when I went to GenCon as a kid and he was the MC at the auction he had a noticeable habit of long-winded, personally-aggrandizing "Franksplaining" about various auction items that even as a kid I found kind of offputting), but as more of these stories accumulated (and as Frank's public persona began to shift after Gary's death) they became more credible.

That said, the PM he (allegedly) sent to EOTB is still next-level. I have no idea what he could have possibly been thinking to send that

[T. Foster]

Heh. I seriously doubt he was hacked.
Maybe he accidentally wrote his password down and threw it in the trash and somebody pulled it out of the dumpster.

Or maybe he's been using the same password for everything since the 80s and his ex-wife shared it with her current husband, Skip Williams. Maybe Skippers has framed Frank?!?!

[disclaimer note: The above is a joke. I in no way mean to seriously imply or suggest that Skip Williams or anybody else hacked Frank's DF account and sent that message]

[Jeff]

As far as Frank Mentzer being hacked goes, the hacker would have had to have somehow posted from his IP address (the same one used in other private messages sent to us and posts made this month) and done so during the same period he was posting to the website 8th to 12th September, or more specifically 8th to 9th since this message is dated 9th. This is not to overlook the content matches with regard to what was actually written. You can understand why Dragonsfoot has concluded this is not a hack.

There was a very long hiatus (10 months) of Frank posting on DF, from 22 Feb 2016 to 04 Dec. Could it be that Frank never actually came back and, instead, a hacker has been using his account for almost a year?

I know that's a really long reach, I mean, really long. IP spoofing can occur (it's actually not that hard), but for it to occur, one would need to know Frank's source IP. That would be more difficult, because they would need to find some regular forum or social site that has the information and furthermore, they would need to access it (via gaining admin access or hacking that). Not impossible, but unlikely. Someone would really, and I mean really have to dislike Frank to go to those lengths.

Also, someone would need Frank's password too, unless they changed it (which the mods could check). In order to get that (they can't do it with the database encrypted and salted, if using lock/stock phpBB) they would need to do it with a keylogger.

If there is historical evidence of Frank's IP beyond the last few months, maybe something from 2015 or earlier, it would probably help alleviate some people's concerns about this being a hack.

[Matthew]

It seems not, as I just read that he has admitted to all such activity excluding the private message over on Tenkar's Tavern.

Seems appropriate to confirm all my recent public posts on DF are from Me. Not my best, I agree; sad mostly, and unwise with that quip about running a test (being a public call to resist trolls). But I repeat, I first saw that PM this morning, on Tenkar. I am not competent to discuss I.T. aspects.

[Steve]

First, I don't see EOTB being a troll at all.

Even so, I'm totally adding a hermit troll named EOTB (pronounced ee-YOH-tuh-Bah) to the swamp in my Isle of Dreadmoor.

I wish Frank well; he sounds seriously stressed.

Frankly (no pun intended), how is the post which he apparently acknowledges any different from the PM he doesn't acknowledge? They're the same thing. I think the post alone was ban-worthy.

And since when do people refer to themselves in the third person as the humble yet noble prince who graciously decides to slum it with the common folk?!

[Jeff]

It seems not, as I just read that he has admitted to all such activity excluding the private message over on Tenkar's Tavern.

Seems appropriate to confirm all my recent public posts on DF are from Me. Not my best, I agree; sad mostly, and unwise with that quip about running a test (being a public call to resist trolls). But I repeat, I first saw that PM this morning, on Tenkar. I am not competent to discuss I.T. aspects.

That's that, I guess.

[Melan]

It'd be better if he just owned up about losing his temper and sending that PM. A hothead's more respectable than a weasel. He'd come away slightly singed, but the lie will just keep burning.

[Juju EyeBall]

As far as Frank Mentzer being hacked goes, the hacker would have had to have somehow posted from his IP address (the same one used in other private messages sent to us and posts made this month) and done so during the same period he was posting to the website 8th to 12th September, or more specifically 8th to 9th since this message is dated 9th. This is not to overlook the content matches with regard to what was actually written. You can understand why Dragonsfoot has concluded this is not a hack.

There was a very long hiatus (10 months) of Frank posting on DF, from 22 Feb 2016 to 04 Dec. Could it be that Frank never actually came back and, instead, a hacker has been using his account for almost a year?

I know that's a really long reach, I mean, really long. IP spoofing can occur (it's actually not that hard), but for it to occur, one would need to know Frank's source IP. That would be more difficult, because they would need to find some regular forum or social site that has the information and furthermore, they would need to access it (via gaining admin access or hacking that). Not impossible, but unlikely. Someone would really, and I mean really have to dislike Frank to go to those lengths.

Also, someone would need Frank's password too, unless they changed it (which the mods could check). In order to get that (they can't do it with the database encrypted and salted, if using lock/stock phpBB) they would need to do it with a keylogger.

If there is historical evidence of Frank's IP beyond the last few months, maybe something from 2015 or earlier, it would probably help alleviate some people's concerns about this being a hack.

They'd have to know his IP in the first place to spoof it.
Then they have to slip the PM in while between two posts he says are his, without him knowing he'd been logged out and logged back in.
It just doesn't add up.

[bobjester]

I have a front-row seat to a lot of youtube roasting going on by those of us who love Marvel/DC comics and one thing you can always be sure of:

Those "authors/artists" of comics believe they can say whatever they want from their perches and be above reproach. Twitter can be screen-capped and resent a billion times over. Its how memes are created.

We've also learned that if they have any sort of "agenda" aside from writing bad stories, they will always lie, and they will always double-down on a lie.

If you roast someone over a shitty tweet (hell, you don't even have to troll them, if you say their writing was under-par for any reason, they'll block you), you get blocked, but even though you cannot see that tweet, someone else will, and it will get re-tweeted, and you will eventually see what the person who blocked you said about you.

And, like ignoring someone on a forum, you can still peek out and see what the blocked person said.

This is the digital age people! Not a bunch of private letters sent by post! WTFuck did you think was going to happen when you "trolled" your "troll" in PM? That it would never see the light of day!?

If you're a publishing "giant" and "pioneer" in a field of media that reaches thousands, if not MILLIONS worldwide, you should know, it must be in your head somewhere that digital never, EVER means private. Or at least it won't be for long. Either that, or believe your weight is yours alone to throw around.

[Jeff]

As far as Frank Mentzer being hacked goes, the hacker would have had to have somehow posted from his IP address (the same one used in other private messages sent to us and posts made this month) and done so during the same period he was posting to the website 8th to 12th September, or more specifically 8th to 9th since this message is dated 9th. This is not to overlook the content matches with regard to what was actually written. You can understand why Dragonsfoot has concluded this is not a hack.

There was a very long hiatus (10 months) of Frank posting on DF, from 22 Feb 2016 to 04 Dec. Could it be that Frank never actually came back and, instead, a hacker has been using his account for almost a year?

I know that's a really long reach, I mean, really long. IP spoofing can occur (it's actually not that hard), but for it to occur, one would need to know Frank's source IP. That would be more difficult, because they would need to find some regular forum or social site that has the information and furthermore, they would need to access it (via gaining admin access or hacking that). Not impossible, but unlikely. Someone would really, and I mean really have to dislike Frank to go to those lengths.

Also, someone would need Frank's password too, unless they changed it (which the mods could check). In order to get that (they can't do it with the database encrypted and salted, if using lock/stock phpBB) they would need to do it with a keylogger.

If there is historical evidence of Frank's IP beyond the last few months, maybe something from 2015 or earlier, it would probably help alleviate some people's concerns about this being a hack.

They'd have to know his IP in the first place to spoof it.
Then they have to slip the PM in while between two posts he says are his, without him knowing he'd been logged out and logged back in.
It just doesn't add up.

Yup, totally agree.