OK. Internet storytime.
Years ago my husband had an urban planning blog we ran the server ourselves and mostly it was pretty tame. But he started getting comments from these two weird libertarian trolls. Some of it was passably "debate" some was just rude and nasty. I considered blocking their IP addresses since they were always the same. But then thought better of it and decided to look up the IPs. What turned up blew my mind!🧵
Now, you have to understand these were the days of blogs, and people were less savvy about IPs and VPNs. This probably wouldn't happen today... but the IPs were both from the Department of Defense in DC!
These guys were hate blogging urban planners on company time. Sending them an email seemed too direct.
They had their own blog and would link it and I figured they were tracking back clicks when soon after mentioning them and linking to them on another blog they showed up. I hatched a plan.
I went to another planner's blog and left a comment mentioning them again and linking so they'd track the link back. Then arranged for my husband to respond with something like "who are these guys?"
I responded with "They're from DC, department of defense, everyone knows they keep a trashy blog and don't do much at work but surf the net."
They never commented again. A year later the blog was gone.
It was fun and my husband said "I feel like a hacker."
Good times.
@futurebird Beautiful. Makes me wonder about some of the comments on my old blog.
