Russ explains..

OK, here we go – I can see this is a cause of concern, but a lot of you will find this very interesting – especially now I have read the ‘Russ, can you please explain?’ thread this morning.

A shame I didn’t have a chance to post this earlier, because I can see some of you are upset – but, the story is a little more interesting because the above thread has had a chance to develop. (Sorry to start a new one, but because this is important to a lot of people, I didn’t want it to get lost among the other posts)

So from the start (get ready for a long one), and a fine tale this is too :


Sometime ago TimmyToilet wanted to sponsor a player here, and opted for a tournament. This winner of this tournament was to win a star. Fantastic – a great idea. But there was problem, which I brought to Mr Toilets attentions : a free star for a non-ps tournament is going to attract cheaters. Like moths to a lamp. But we decided to run with it – the ‘The Mr. Clean Clan Subscription Prize Fight’ was born

I monitor the tournament. (I quickly hacked together some code to aid me in this.)

And sure enough, as predicted, I pick up suspicious behaviour – one person entering multiple entrants. I widen my investigation, and the result – Zach is exposed. Zach confesses when I confront him. And we all know the result of that…. (If you don’t, you were lucky&hellip😉

So, I clear the tournament down of all entrants, and restart it. The Terms Of Services are drafted – yes, it upsets some people, but by far the overwhelming majority are happy, and those who read the forums are well aware of the reason they exist.

The The Mr. Clean Clan Subscription Prize Fight restarts. Then some complaints start coming in – cheating and abusive language. Now we all know how difficult to prove cheating is – but players being abused is another thing altogether.

So, I start investigating the main suspect (Virus Carrier) and USING THE SAME METHODS TO UNVEIL ZACH (unfortunately, I don’t want to disclose what evidence I’m using, we check a few things, and I’m not saying any are faultless, but lets just say that we have never got it wrong before. To tell you what I’m doing would make the job harder in future – and it is difficult enough to pick up on already.)

And guess what, three name come out of the hat.

-Virus Carrier
-smurfchess
-lefthandedgambit

So, now we have a terms of service that prohibit multiple accounts, AND this is a tournament where there is a huge incentive to have multiple nic’s and cheat, where honest people are being robbed of a chance to win a subscription, and some other stuff that I’ll get to in a minute, they were banned instantly. Remember, they is a ‘he/she’ – I’m not banning three people, I’m probably just banning one!!!

Still with me, because there is more to go…

As one cheat had been spotted, I checked elsewhere (as I did in the Zach case) – and a whole other load of names came up. One in particular caught my attention…

Rather than ban them all (I was very tempted) – I thought I would see what the result of my actions would be – the tournament had been cleared of this offender, and that was the main thing.

So, shortly afterwards, a message arrives in my inbox. And no surprise, it is from one of the names that I had flagged as a ‘mutpliple account user’ – but one I had not banned. It was from a name I know well – because of cheat accusations made against them in the past. (At the time, I did not want to intervene – it would be a great shame to lose a good player on the site.) But here they were implicated as the one of the same people entering the tournament multiple times. Step forward Baron Of Chess.

Now as I said earlier, the methods we use have been accurate in the past. And there is a only a slight chance I am wrong.

So, the ‘Russ explan’ thread develops. Serious stuff.

In there is posts like this :

“Baron of Chess
28 Nov '03 01:03
I wish to make this statement, knowing that I may (WILL) be banned from this site...”

Yep, you are not wrong – but you are no banned – because I wanted to give you a voice, and I like to give people the benefit of the doubt in most cases.

There are a lot of posts whipping people in to a frenzy in there. Everyone getting very upset and very heated. ‘Russ this, Russ that…’ all a good read.

The main protagonists in this thread :
Baron of Chess,E C Perreault,SpecialForces1976
And lot of established players here are getting very flustered about these posts, BUT, guess what….

IT IS HIGHLY LIKELY THEY ARE THE SAME PERSON!!!!!!

And these were identified using a DIFFERENT method to the one used previously to implicate Barron of Chess.

Getting a little suspicious, don’t you think?

Now this little soap opera could go on and on…

As always, it only takes one person to cause a riot, and the result, I spend ages clearing up the mess.

And just to let people know, I don’t see myself as an all powerful being who can do what I like and get away with it – I do see everyone here as my customers (even the non-subscribers), so in a hierarchy of two, I’m at the bottom looking after you. But it is possible to get a little tired of dealing with cases like this, which is why I took SOME action last night – note I haven’t banned all the implicated users, just those involved in the tournament. So, if those who are ‘guilty’ would like to step forward and explain what/why then maybe we can sort out this mess too.

I’ll leave it here, because I need to do some work too. But I get a feeling this thread might run and run….so I will check back frequently.

Just as a little aside, after having written all that, I believe there are two people involved here with multiple accounts – not just one. But they are related. (Not literally!)

-Russ

Oh, and just to follow up some other stuff that was said in the other thread.

I worked all day yesterday on stuff, and one task on my list was putting the ban in place, and then, get this, I HAD THE NIGHT OFF!!!! 🙄 (A curry and a DVD, thanks for asking..) This isn’t that rare in itself, but normally I would log in to deal with stuff before hitting the sack, but not last night.

We all live in different time zones, so I can't respond to all posts as quickly you may like - so please don't think that a lack of a post means I have no comment to make!

-Russ

Originally posted by Russ
so please don't think that a lack of a post means I have no comment to make!

-Russ

I had noticed the sudden burst of "new" faces in the forum suddenly deciding to post in the "Russ, can you explain" thread, but, as per some private messages with other members on the site, again i don't like posting wild accusations in public. Did make me a tad suspicious though that all of these "new" members were jumping to their defence.

Mark

Edit: although I notice that many of these posts have now been removed, if people cannot see what I am talking about

Originally posted by Russ
OK, here we go – I can see this is a cause of concern, but a lot of you will find this very interesting – especially now I have read the ‘Russ, can you please explain?’ thread this morning.

A shame I didn’t have a chance to post this earlier, because I can see some of you are upset – but, the story is a little more interes ...[text shortened]... with multiple accounts – not just one. But they are related. (Not literally!)

-Russ

For my part: good job Russ! Traking down cheats must involve quite a lot of detective work, and your effort is appreciated by the great majority on the site who just likes to play chess and enjoy the forums without having to worry about cheats, people using multiple accounts and other abusers.

It is the cheaters who employ Russ when he'd have a lot better things to do that should enrage us. The Russ I've come to know through the forums in the months that I've been a member is certainly worth our trust - I believe he does his utmost to ensure that any bans that are handed out, are handed out with good reason.

To ban them so "quietly" without much explanation was a nice tactic to let the rest expose themselves. Well done. There's a saying in Finnish which translates into something like "The dog that gets hit by the stick, is the one that yelps." (In Finnish it sounds a lot better, cause it rhymes... 🙂 ) And indeed there were some new faces popping up shortly after, doing some very loud yelping.

-Jarno

Well i think you`re doing a damn fine job. You deserve another curry and dvd 😉

Hey Russ, I have a question about this!

A couple accounts (I guess 5 or something like that, one of them even has become a PS!) of friends of mine are created on this computer, and moves have been made on this computer as well, not by me of course...

I know that there isn't anything wrong with this, but I thought I'd let you know, can you, with your method, see through this and know that I am not abusing the site?

Olav

I KNEW something was up with those guys, ooh they were making me so mad! Baron of Chess and I had messaged back and forth a few times because I had asked him where he lived in Washington- said it didn't matter because he wouldn't be here very much longer yada yada, and I gave him my opinion on the deal, which is trust Russ and the site and all that. He came back and said that he and chessmurf are professional chess players, that the Chess community is close, that chessmurf is an up and comer 18 year old ranked something like 38th in the U.S., and this situation will make the whole chess community look poorly on this site- basically saying that the site will falter because the professional chess community will not pay for it. 🙄

Thanks Russ!

Originally posted by mmanuel

Edit: although I notice that many of these posts have now been removed, if people cannot see what I am talking about

Originally posted by Russ
OK, here we go – I can see this is a cause of concern, but a lot of you will find this very interesting – especially now I have read the ‘Russ, can you please explain?’ thread this morning.

A shame I didn’t have a chance to post this earlier, because I can see some of you are upset – but, the story is a little more interesting because the above thread has ha ...[text shortened]... d here with multiple accounts – not just one. But they are related. (Not literally!)

-Russ

Just my 2 cents worth: First off Russ and Chris do a damn fine job here. I would gladly pay more for what I get out of this site. Friendships, many, many friendships, oh and a chance to play chess on top of that! This is a community, nothing more, nowhere on the site does it say it's a professional chess site affiliated with any local, national or international chess organization. There are no prizes or titles, just friends and chess.
I doubt that Russ is making any money at this site. I would tend to think he's losing his shirt as some people complain about him. He has every right to do what he did. I've been in the retail business for over 35 years, and anyone who is using active multiple accounts is no more than a common shoplifter. It's called theft of service. And as such I think Russ would have every right to pursue legal action.
Again let me say: Russ and Chris damn fine job and thank you.

Okay I'm off my soapbox and will shut up🙂

Charlie

Originally posted by Rhymester
Just had a look - as yet NO posts have been removed from the 'Russ please explain thread' and in fact Russ has accepted them all himself. Not quite sure which posts you are talking about?

Rhymester

I don't get it Russ. You picked the names out a hat?🙄

Originally posted by mmanuel
You are right, they are all there, but i could have sworn earlier some of them had disappeared. Maybe I'm just going slightly crazy...in fact I'm deinitely going crazy - I've given away two queens for no apparent reason already today!

Mark