More Smith on Reddit

One or both Smith brothers regularly create socks on Reddit. These accounts make wild accusations, and at least one Reddit user was blocked, apparently due to the complaints that the Smiths file copiously and sometimes organize, involving others. The accounts are commonly deleted. This is all part of the general Smith MO. This was interesting:
The full discussion was started by a Smith sock, now showing as [deleted].
The title was a Smith deception, following impersonation socking on Wikipedia. It’s a bit complicated, because Smith and Mikemikev apparently live in the same close region, and, as I recall, both may use the same mobile service provider, so a checkuser might confirm two accounts as the same, even when they are not. The behavior, though, was not Mikemikev, it was Smith brother behavior, and clearly. And this followup activity is obviously a Smith brother, I will show how visible that is. Dysklyver, a RatWiki sysop and tech, doesn’t buy it at all.

[deleted] 1 day ago

Just more lies. All Abd does is lie, lie again and again. “OliverS” is a blatant impersonation.

The implication is that I lied about “OliverS.” Where? What did I write was that OliverS was “almost certainly not Mikemikev, but Dysklyver does know more, has apparently seen checkuser data, and wrote this:

[Dysklyver:] Ha the extreme efforts put into accusing John66 of being Bongolian have become rather a meme, culminating in this epic Conservapedia post by “OliverS” (CU data confirmed privately by a Conservapedia sysop fwiw); https://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=User_talk:DMorris&oldid=1504046#RW

Oliver most recently popped up on RationalWiki as Bigtom, wrote a nice page, looked useful… and then randomly accused an LI Discord mod of being Mikemikev, wouldn’t back down, and then I had to block them again for trolling.

This is the sole edit showing on Conservapedia for OliverS:

RW

You should be very careful when dealing with users of RationalWiki. You were wrong in exposing yourself to them, but you were right in blocking that account. Dyskylver/Arthur Kerensa is a sock-puppet of Bongolian (a RationalWiki moderator), and also a notorious sock-puppeteer. He is also almost certainly the operator behind the “John66” account on RationalWiki. I can’t prove any of these claims right now as so few edits have been done, but I will eventually be proved right. Dyskylver will pretend to be normal for a while like he did on his Wikipedia accounts, but sooner or later will reveal himself when he posts in support of anarchism. He is an active British Antifa and identifies as anarcho-communist. It is clear that all the accounts posting on the RationalWiki coop are accounts are operated by the same person to create the illusion of support. I also notice someone has created another sock with a name similar to the others to cause disruption here. Most likely the same individual behind this entire shit show. He is a dangerous ideologue, don’t trust what he tells you. OliverS (talk) 20:08, 23 March 2019 (EDT)

Who was this? This is evidence:

  1. Motive. The target has been blocking Oliver accounts. This would motivate either Smith brother.
  2. Pattern: a set of preposterous allegations. Strong history of that from Darryl Smith. Oliver Smith, maybe, maybe not. Oliver has claimed that disruptive socking was his brother, and my first encounter with the Smiths was over Darryl impersonation socking. When I exposed that, massive impersonation attack and troll socking appeared, I was threatened with consequences if I continued. I do not respond well to threats, and even less threats followed by action. Eventually the RatWiki article on me appeared and there has been massive impersonation of me on RatWiki. The force behind that was Darryl, not Oliver, Oliver was mostly a bit player (but very disruptive in other ways).
  3. If this was Mikemikev, his motive would be obscure. This account is not being cited by me, for sure, as proof of Oliver disruption, and I don’t think this was likely Oliver. This could easily be an impersonation, and, yes, the Smith brothers do weird things with each other, so it could be Darryl. Distinguishing between Oliver and Darryl with checkuser could be easy or difficult; most Smith brother edits use open proxies and Tor nodes, but they do slip up. Mikemikev also uses open proxies.

What lie?

According to Abd Lomax, the Smiths cannot be impersonated despite all evidence to the contrary.

This is also common Smith language: they will create some conclusion not present in the writing of a target, and present it as “according to,” but I have never said what this Smith wrote, it is utterly preposterous. Anyone can be impersonated, with the lousy security on most sites. These straw man arguments are practically never accompanied with any link. They are just trolling, raving, and what is amazing to me is how long it took before a serious RatWiki user to notice the pattern of years of deception. For years, anyone who pointed to the obvious was immediately blocked. Simply pointing out that two socks had the same master would be called “doxxing,” which it is not, generally. Blocked anyway.

Mikemikev has even admitted to impersonating Smith many times, check his Kiwi Farms thread.

Ah, that famous reliable source, Kiwi Farms. No link. I do not find it remarkable that Mikemikev may have impersonated Oliver. Mikemikev does apparently troll, and that is a method. But what I have written is that I haven’t seen anything that was clearly him, and I have seen plenty that was likely not, and plenty of apparent impersonations of him, many of which, to the naive, were assumed to be him.

I tried to find these “admissions.” With no further clue, I failed. It is easy to contact me, such as by a comment on this page. I look at evidence. There could be a problem, though. How do we know that an account is Michael Coombs? There are ways to identify an account, but when were these alleged admissions? What evidence is there? (There could be such evidence, I am merely pointing out that if an anonymous user, with an obvious trolling agenda, claims evidence exists, it is not evidence at all. As with any anonymous report, verification is necessary, but beware of “verification” that is only a surface appearance from a casual glance. The Smiths often, in their “articles,” depend on people not actually reading the whole source, which frequently contradicts the conclusions they present.)

And all the “Oliver Smith” & “Darryl Smith”impersonation accounts on ED are Mikemikev:

Followed by a list of accounts. This is way ahead of what the Smiths usually do. I have annotated the list and substituted contributions links for the user names, which is what is much more useful.

Smith have never used their real names on these websites.

And, if true, how would this troll know that? It’s obvious. But Oliver has used his real name, particularly on RatWiki, ODS was openly him. He has used, on ED, Atlantid, known to be him for a long time. He recently used MrStrong, admittedly him, and lying, but also revealing much. By the way, these trolls accuse many others, including real name accounts, of extensive socking. They have created hundreds of accounts, easily documented. Pot, kettle, very very black. Plus impersonation socks, copiously.

I am freely called a “liar,” and “impersonator,” with the only example given being the RatWiki account Some random Smith, allegedly an impersonation account. But any account impersonating the Smiths has long been blocked on sight on RatWiki. That account was actually opped, so it obviously did not appear to be an impersonation (and an impersonation that does not appear as such is not an impersonation!)

The account stands as a demonstration that anyone who points to the obvious regarding Smith claims will be attacked, even if they have nothing but positive contributions before that, for more than a year. In the old days, on RatWiki, sock puppetry was not grounds for blocking, per se. Unless someone with tools takes it all very personally. This event revealed that there may be, effectively, checkuser on RatWiki. Interesting, eh? Checkuser is not magic pixie dust, but Dysklyver I consider reliable, even if not always correct. Who is?

What Some random Smith pointed to is now routinely accepted on RatWiki. Shoot the messenger, though.

Conclusion: Yes, Mikemikev impersonated Oliver Smith, several times in May 2015. The last impersonation in 2019, was so obvious as to not really be an impersonation at all, that might also be said of the 2015 ones. (Really, the context must be seen, there were at that time, two discussions involving Oliver on the ED admin discussion page. The first was started by MrStrong (openly Oliver Smith). The second was started by Tenchu, also Oliver Obvious, and “Oliver and Darryl Smith” made a sarcastic comment there. Harmful impersonation socks create belief in others that they are the impersonated one. Reviewing these claims, yes, technically, impersonations. In substance, not. If this were all that could be found on the issue, the Smith claim is substantially false, misleading. Like nearly everything they write.