As do I.

I don't see a duplicate handle in here

But if there is one, any moderator can ban system wide, not just for this forum.

Yes, sierelekne has very few posts, and it is strange that he/she would come out of the woodwork to make such remarks.

But I don't see anything that would say it's a duplicate handle.

If you have any proof, I suggest you PM Randy, after all, this is his forum

There is a whitehouse.gov?

That's a bit bold, considering the lack of concrete evidence available to you to make such a determination.

Agreed. There is no concrete evidence available to Attorney28. I will go even further and say that I doubt that there is concrete evidence that is not available to him.

It would, after all, require a particularly stupid fraudster to use his own IP when posting under a duplicate handle. I am not very knowledgable about tech matters, so I wouldn't know how to how to block F/T from seeing my IP. But even I would be able to think up going to a public computer and logging on from there.

In fact, I wouldn't even have to do that. I have providers that I use when I am in Italy, Switzerland, and the U.S. For the price of an overseas phone call, I can log into any one of them without ever leaving my home in Israel and post under a new handle.

That having been said, I consider this whole issue as worthless. As long as someone doesn't log in with a user name that implies he is a different, existing, poster (eg: if he were to call himself "CleuByFour") there really is no harm done.

Admittedly, it is a TOS violation but even with that, who has he actually hurt?
IMHO, nobody but himself.

Let's assume that I were to take on a second or third user handle and then post away, going after my favorite targets. What would I be admitting -- to myself?

1. I am a liar. I am saying that I am somebody other than who I am.

2. I am a coward. I am either afraid to post my criticism under my own name or, if I have done so, feel safer if it looks like I am part of a crowd.

3. I am a cheat. I have agreed to play the F/T game by the rules established by the TOS and now am not doing so.

By admitting to myself I am a liar, a coward, and a cheat I am inflicting self-punishment much more severe than any time out from from Randy.

So, given the dual facts that it is impossible to prove/disprove that somebody is using a dual handle and, if he is, he is the primary victim of his own actions, why bother speculating about the issue?

sierelekne, I have no idea if you are for real or a fake. If you are a true newbie, welcome to FlyerTalk and please excuse all the accusations made against you. If you are somebody's duplicate handle, you have to live with that fact, not me.

Indeed.

It is also interesting to see who came to claim that there is no evidence that it is a duplicate handle, when that could really hardly be more evident.

These statements appear to be based more on whom the posts made by a fake handle serve, and to claim that there is no evidence for this to be a fake handle seems to be "disingenuous" - to use the favorite word of one poster of that clique/group who has not shown up yet in this thread - at least not under his own handle.

Isn't that why someone from the clique decided to start this thread - just so that someone from the clique could post that link again and distract from the issue that "the list" is a commercial endeavour which might not be in accordance with the TOS of Flyertalk and which might be seen as piggybacking and leeching Flyertalk contributions in order to serve an undisclosed number of people's commercial interest?

Curious, how does 'the list' make money? In the same manner as the First Citiwide Change Bank? Volume?

Wow. I think someone needs a nap.

Thanks for the question and I'm sorry that the topic seems to have gotten off-track. Actually, the timing of the question is relevant.

Recently one of the members of FlyerTalk who is a trademark attorney, volunteered to assist us in cleaning up the issue of our brand and trademark. He is due to visit next week and from that point I think you'll see this matter worked toward a simple solution. As luck would have it, we first trademarked and have first commercial use of the name 'FlyerTalk.' And while others may think they can add .us or other extensions to our trademark and use it for their use - they are sadly mistaken as it has been ruled many times in favor of the trademark by the W3, ruling body for such disputes. Among the many volunteer tasks of this member is to contact all those who are violating our trademark use for URL extensions and provide them with a chance to cease and desist and turn over the URL. Those who seem unwilling will end up in a hearing in front of the W3 to settle the matter. We'll certainly approach this from a reasonable and friendly front and actually this post well serves as proof of the confusion that has been caused by others - though i suspect most have done so not with any harm in mind.

Again thanks for the question and my apologies for the confusion. To set the record straight, there really is only one 'FlyerTalk.'

All the other issues noted here can be started in their own thread if members determine they are issues for the general membership of FlyerTalk. Thank you.