The Mudflats

Keeping Confidences.

1 Comment Posted on by Snoskred

Some of you would know that I’ve been involved with AKMuckraker and The Mudflats since September, 2008. We’ve been through a lot in the past few years, many stressful situations which we have worked through together as well as the rest of The Mudflats Admin & Moderation team. I consider her to be a good friend.

AKMuckraker (Jeanne Devon) and her good friends Ken Morris and Frank Bailey (A former aide to Governor Palin) have collaborated together on a book. It was released yesterday in the USA.

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Also released yesterday were several “tweets” from Rebecca Mansour, a current aide of Sarah Palin.

What a top aide to Sarah Palin really thinks about Mitt Romney, Bristol Palin, Erick Erickson and more

Though whether she is still an aide remains to be seen – Palin has a habit of throwing people under the bus for much less than Mansour is guilty of.

During the time I have worked with AKMuckraker, there have been times when she has shared confidences with me. Never in a million years would I think to share those with anyone else, not even the admin & mod team, without her express permission. Certainly not with someone I’ve never met whether or not I trusted them.

When someone tells me something and tells me to keep it in the vault, with me, it is LOCKED IN THAT DARNED VAULT and it isn’t coming out until that person tells me otherwise.

Mansour betrayed Sarah and her family, and thoroughly deserves to be thrown under the bus. When someone trusts you and allows you to be a part of their “inner circle” you have a responsibility to keep your mouth firmly zipped..

Even worse – if this is what she was saying to someone she never met, what the heck is she saying to people she knows?

Apparently the person who was tweeting with her had 122 tweets from her which he was willing to sell. The people he ended up giving them to (nobody would buy them) have not shared all of them but you can view the ones they did share here and here.

My personal favourites with the irony in bold –

19:23:35: Listen: I tell you things I wouldn’t tell anyone tho I have press hounding me for the info I tell you. I trust you even tho I’ve never met u

19:28:55: Nothing we can do when someone behaves stupidly.

Ain’t that the truth!

Angry Snoskred, anonymity, internet, Internet Safety, Sarah Palin, The Mudflats, The Vault, Who Is Snoskred

Journey Into Insanity

1 Comment Posted on by Snoskred

Sarah Palin’s book “Going Rogue” is set to be released this week.. She’s going on Oprah, and doing Barbara Walters, and travelling around the country in a bus, which if you think about it, is quite insane for someone who just wants to be left alone by the media.

Some of the pages from her book have been released – Wonkette has a few. I am not sure if this book is one long run on sentence with full stops in there only because the editor insisted on putting them in there or what the heck is going on with it, but the truth is this book seems like comedy gold. Fingers crossed William Shatner will do a reading of it.

So while The Mudflats will be going a bit craizy this week, I will let you in on a little secret. Below you will find the location I’ll be going to in my head when things just get a bit too nutty.
glassyak3

Sarah Palin, The Mudflats, US Politics

Welcome Slash Dotters..

2 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

I’ve read through the comments here, and I just have a couple of things to point out.

In the case of AKMuckraker, previous to Doogan outing her, there was no connection between her real life identity, and the identity of AKMuckraker. You couldn’t google and find a link between the two. It simply was not possible.

He spent three months obsessively asking people who AKMuckraker was. He did this because she posted this blog post – Are You People Nuts? Lessons In Email Etiquette – this post came about as a direct result of his own actions.

The actions? Rep Mike Doogan replies to emails in a very inappropriate manner as a matter of course, it seems. But in that case he had collected up 30 or so different email addresses, and then emailed them ALL with the email addresses viewable to everyone. That is a clear breach of the privacy of those people who wrote to him.

Now AKMuckraker had a right to inform people about that, in my opinion. If you write an email to your representative, you expect there to be a level of privacy. Apparently this sent Doogan quite over the edge and began his obsession with her.

He chose to send out her identity in a newsletter to his constituents, many of whom may never have heard of AKMuckraker at all. That is the part which is most inappropriate in my opinion.

There are many reasons people want to remain anonymous on the internet. Alaska is a quite a small place in the scheme of things and like a lot of small towns to have true freedom of speech you don’t want to use your real name.

Other reasons someone might wish to remain anonymous –

* Because it is a standard identity- and privacy-protection precaution
* Because they have experienced online or offline stalking, harassment, or political or domestic violence
* Because they wish to discuss sexual abuse, sexuality, domestic abuse, assault, politics, health, or mental illness, and do not wish some subset of family, friends, strangers, aquaintances, employers, or potential employers to know about it
* Because they wish to keep their private lives, activities, and tastes separate from their professional lives, employers, or potential employers
* Because they fear threats to their employment or the custody of their children
* Because it’s the custom among their Internet cohort
* Because it’s no one else’s business

Bear in mind also – remember Kathy Sierra? Remember Dooce? Remember Abby Lee? What person in their right mind would knowingly put themselves out there for the kind of treatment those people went through?

Would you put your hand up to be fired from your job because of your blog? To receive death threats – and the people sending them know where you live? Who knows how far those people who do not like what you wrote might go?

The bottom of the bottom lines is – AKMuckraker would never have written about Doogan if he were acting in a sane manner. He is the politician who was sending the crazy emails to 30 people at once. If he had been doing the right thing and treating the people who elected him professionally and with respect, AKMuckraker would not have exposed his behavior. And NOTE – It is actually his JOB to listen to what the people are saying, and respond appropriately.

I haven’t had time to collect links today but here are some from yesterday – I would like to highlight these –

Picture of Mudflats’ AK Muckraker Posted! <-- do not fear, just go and read it. ;) I would not be posting a link if it infringed on AKM's privacy, and AKM has commented on the post too. Lorelle Van Fossen, who to me is famous but may be unknown to many of you, is writing a series on this event - The Outing of a Blogger: Social Transparency or Violation?
The Outing of a Blogger: Is it Legal to Reveal a Blogger?
The Outing of a Blogger: The Fear of Being Found Out

More links will be added to this post once I work out what hasn’t been posted. Apologies for any double ups.

Dear Mr. Doogan (Don’t feed the bears)
A Final Thought About Rep. Doogan and Mudflats
“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.” ~ Thomas Jefferson
alaskan dem legislator outs blogger
Exposed
Mike Doogan- own version of 1st ammendment
Anonymous bloggers, journalism and politics
The pertinent point
Alaska Legislator Mike Doogan: A Tool Of The First Order
Headline Does Not Match Story, Part 14: “Anti-Palin”?
Mike Doogan was wrong!
Take action on behalf of MUDFLATS
Mike Doogan Fell
My Letter to The Ethics Committee
Anonymous blogging
Open Letter to Alaskan Rep Mike Doogan
Please look for a new book by Alaska writer Mike Doogan: “Indecent Exposure.”
Know Your Blogging Rights and Help Protect Anonymous Bloggers Everywhere
Suck. Suck. Blow.
ADN’s Ear Siding With Doogan – The World Has Gone Mad
Politician Outs Blogger
…it begins.

Angry Snoskred, anonymity, internet, Internet Safety, The Mudflats, US Politics

Snoskred’s Avalanche Of Mudflats Linkage..

9 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

This has been a very long day for me. As we head towards hour 32 of being awake keeping a close eye on The Mudflats, things are starting to get a little blurry..

I generally know it is time to get to bed when I begin to hallucinate spiders and scream out loud, Carrie-Bradshaw-esque, before realising there is nothing actually there – and we passed that time of day about 10 hours ago. ;) Caffeine was the answer for a short time, but soon sleep will be the only solution.

What I don’t think people understand about AKMuckraker and The Mudflats.. what makes someone like me want to stay up so many hours, keeping an eye on things? And it isn’t just me, it is a genuine phalanx of people.

There’s my trusty fellow Admins – admin, AKMuckraker, Charcoal Sniper P, Deep Blue, ForumAdministrator, Sephy, ServerGuy, TRConnie – in alphabetical order. There’s the mods – Aeroentropy, Alex, BigSlick, Cassie Jeep Pike Palin, daMamma, Erin, Forty Watt, Irishgirl, Jaime from Wasilla, Jamie, Julia O, Kiterea, Lani formerly Bash Budweiser, Memphis, NY, Rubo, Sirenoftitan – also in alphabetical order.

We have skype chats running 24/7 and as a result, these people are now some of my closest friends. We exchange links, talk about our family and friends, share the highs and support each other through the lows of life. It isn’t an easy thing to learn to be a moderator. There are technical things you need to know. To begin with you are never quite sure if you are doing the right thing, but you learn, and you grow confident.

Sure, there are times when things get stressful – when we have to ban someone from the forums, when we have trolls posting bizarre things and calling us names, when spammers arrive, when the server has issues – and because of that, we have grown stronger as a group, and stronger individually.

When people have been in trouble financially, we’ve ponied up. We’ve donated. We’ve organised wood for one of the mods who wasn’t sure how they would heat their house through a tough winter. We’ve mailed things to each other as a surprise. And just the other day one of the mods who we’d helped out said – now I am back on my feet, and I want to pay it forward. Who needs help?

I can’t imagine life without these people. I do not know what I did before I met them. And just think, we all have Sarah Palin to thank for it!

So I wanted to thank everyone who wrote an article today about The Mudflats – and I wanted to let the bloggers who wrote these posts know, there is a lot more to what you see on the surface.

You can be a part of it. Join the forums, get chatting, propose a mudstock meeting near you. Everyone is welcome. You might even be asked to join the Mod team, at some point! If that happens, it would be like winning the lottery, to be allowed to know these wonderful , amazing, brilliant people.

I’ve got a bunch of links to posts written in the last couple of days below, which I’d love people to click on if they have a chance. Thanks everyone for writing about The Mudflats – AKMuckraker, the Forum team, Forum members, and all the readers of The Mudflats blog appreciate it. ;)

We’ve taken The Mudflats Blog and Forumsoffline to do some work on the server – it will be back online tomorrow. In the meantime you can read the following linkage. Enjoy!

Famed Anonymous Anti-Palin Blogger ‘Outed’ by Lawmaker <-- this one is a must read. AK state rep Doogan outs Mudflats!
Outing Mudflats: The Dirty Martini Philosophy
Mike Doogan Outs Mudflats in Challenge to Outdo Eddie Burke as 2009 Anchorage Slimeball of the Year
My friend Mudflats…not a KKK Member, Mr. Doogan
You know the difference between Rep Mike Doogan and Mt. Redoubt? One is a sulphur spewing ash-hole and the other is just a volcano. UPDATED!
A Sad Day- Mudflats is Changed Forever
Doogan broke a federal law by outing Mudflats
Did Rep. Mike Doogan Misuse Legislative Resources?
Epic Fail Mike Doogan
In support of MUDFLATS and anonymous bloggers everywhere…Mike Doogan is a Grinch
Mike Doogan, you are a Public Ass
Mudflats Exposed (Updated)
Why Mike Doogan sucks
Freedom to Blog?
A. Nony Mouse
Time to Unite
Thanks Rep. Mike Doogan
Alaska State Representative Outs Anonymous Blogger
Shame on Alaska Rep. Mike Doogan
Politician Stalks Blogger – Rep. Mike Doogan Outs AKMuckraker
Government Official Reveals ID of Anonymous Blogger
So Long, Mudflats
The Right to Privacy – Bloggers and Privacy
It May As Well Be Rape, Sir
Mike Doogan Ousts AKMuckraker
Dorkwad State Legislator Outs Blogger Who Dared Pick On Him
Rep. Doogan’s main accomplishment for this session–OUTING MUDFLATS!
Rep Mike Doogan (D-AK) exposes the true identity of Mudflats blogger
Alaska Lawmaker Violates Privacy of Famed Anonymous Blogger
Shut up or we’ll tell the goons where you live
Blogger’s identity outed by AK politician – Updated
Outing AKMuckraker
Mike Doogan responds to free speech by outing popular anonymous blogger
Mudflats Blogger Outed by a Tool named Doogan
Open Letter to Alaskan Rep Mike Doogan
Eldridge and Barbie Dolls vs. Doogan and Mudflats: Because Nice Matters
The Outing of a Blogger: Social Transparency or Violation?
Open Letter to AKMuckraker
The Internet can be a creepy place
Rep.Mike Doogan Just exposed himself: Going after Blogger Mudflats
AKM is our Friend, and we will NOT be Distracted
we can assure you that skippy is a male
Mike Doogan v. Alexander Hamilton and James Madison
Yup. Still Mad. Mike Doogan is an Asshole.
Political activist? Who, me?
Outing AKMuckraker

The Mudflats

Elections And.. Moose?

5 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

So you may recall I mentioned Mudflats the other day. It’s been a cool place to hang out since the end of August, when Governor Sarah Palin from Alaska was chosen to be the running mate for John “I tell lies more often than the truth” McCain.

WordPress.com isn’t exactly supportive of a site that finds itself as popular as Mudflats. When you have comments threads which are over 1,000 posts long and no way to subscribe to comments or even have the site remember where you were at when you hit shift and reload… there was a couple of weeks there where I had to copy the name of the last commentor and then hit find in page.

Eventually I got in touch with AKMuckraker and offered to host a blog and forum for her, for free. And that was because I truly believe in the community that has grown up there.

When Sephy and I set up Aussie Bloggers originally, I believe it took us two weeks. We set up The Mudflats Forums in two days. It would have been even quicker if we had installed the same version of Tiny Portal as we use on Aussie Bloggers, but for some reason it refused to install for us, so we had to go with the latest release and they’d changed some fairly important stuff.

So given Mudflats on wordpress.com was the number one site, I was expecting a busy few days once the forums were live – especially as we had no moderators at all when we opened. It was just Sephyroth and I (and AKMuckraker but of course she is very busy with the blog and Admin-ing a forum is a bit of a learning curve at the best of times!) and we intended to add moderators during the first day. I had a list of names that had stood out while reading the comments area. By the end of the first day I believe we were up to 7 mods. We now have 15 and we could do with at least another 7. A huge thanks to all those who are helping out with Modly duties. ;)

We had absolutely no idea just how busy it would be. On the first day the forums were open, over 550 people registered. There were hundreds of posts – so many I could not read them all, and I am a quick reader.. :) That night my sleep was broken into one hour chunks, worrying that things would go haywire while I slept, I kept waking up – and so I got up to check on things.

There’s currently – as I type this – 778 members. It is a wonderful community.  And it has Moose. Drop by and check it out. If you’re interested in the election, it is the place to be for the next 42 days. I’ll be there, and I won’t be getting a huge amount of sleep – there’s a lot to do! ;)

And I must give a massive amount of thanks to Sephyroth for helping me out with this. I couldn’t have done it on my own. And he found the great moose pic. :)

The Mudflats, US Elections

Acts Of Bravery.

6 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.

Margaret Mead

Recently, a group of women had an idea over coffee. This is how a lot of things begin. The idea was to hold an Anti- Sarah Palin rally in Alaska. So they got to organising.

One of the things they did was to send out a press release. A conservative talk radio host known as Eddie Burke chose to call them some very nasty names on air – and then gave out their home telephone numbers which had been included on the release in case the press wished to get in touch for interviews – and encouraged his listeners to call and harass these women. And they did get harassed, in a big way.

For some, this would be the point at which you maybe think of giving up – or perhaps not showing up at your own rally. Not these women.  They did show up – and so did 1400 other people. They did not expect that kind of turn out.

Congratulations, brave Alaskan women (and men, and teenagers) for standing up for what you believe in peacefully and with grace.

You can read more about this at Mudflats – ‘Alaska Women Reject Palin’ Rally is HUGE!

Eddie has been suspended for a week, by the way.  He is just lucky that nobody took things too far – anything could have happened to these ladies, it isn’t hard to find out an address from a phone number in the USA.

Have you ever protested? I did once, against Pauline Hanson. I have to be honest, I find Sarah Palin just as scary as I found Pauline, back in the day..

The Mudflats, US Elections