After seeing how "Johnny Nocom" decided to escalate his trolling into
actually hurting people businesses, I've decided to do a little bit of
detective work. Normally I woudn't have bothered even reading this
trolls rants, but he just went too far.
I have to say I'm 99.99999% sure that Johnny Nocom is Ed Gin. And here
is why.
The first thing to keep in mind is that Ed Gin lives in Chicago, and
that he sells Nocoms. I understand that he was also somewhat involved
with the design and development of the bike. Also keep in mind that Ed
was one of the main contributors from the now twice deceased Monkey
Island discussion forum - a forum where the majority of the messages
were attacks on Bryan Ball, bentrideronline, Bacchetta, and any bike
that is not a lowracer. In the interest of full disclosure, I should
say I too dislike the Bacchetta company, but for my own reasons, and
don't go around trolling them.
So what I did was to download the entire newspool for this group between
26 June 2003 and 18 December 2004. That's every single message posted
during this 18-month period, including all message headers. If anyone
wants a copy of the file, drop me a note. By doing a quick text search
for "Mozilla 4.76 (Macintosh; U; PPC)", the newsreader used by Johnny
Nocom, here is what comes up:
The first message using that newsreader is this one:
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent/msg/17e3e012e1656e5c?dmode=source
That's a message by Ed Gin. By looking at the line "X-Mailer: Mozilla
4.76 (Macintosh; U; PPC)" we can verify that he is using Mozilla 4.76 on
an older Macintosh PowerPC. On the line "Content-Type:" it describes
his Mac as "x-mac-type="54455854"" which is the actual model Macintosh
he is using. And by doing a traceroute on his "NNTP-Posting-Host:" it
shows that it is an Earthlink/Mindspring dial-up connection in Chicago.
The several next positive hits for "Mozilla 4.76 (Macintosh; U; PPC)"
all follow the exact same pattern. Ed Gin, same computer, same ISP.
Then on 4 November 2003, someone else shows up using "X-Mailer: Mozilla
4.76 (Macintosh; U; PPC)"
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent/msg/0e5c87095a1616b8?dmode=source
That's an anonymous troll, Sam Longer, posting the typical anonymous
Monkey Island drivel against Bacchetta. By looking at the headers,
you'll notice that the troll is not only using the same older version of
Netscape, but he is also using the exact same model Macintosh as Ed Gin
(x-mac-type="54455854"😉. The only difference is that the
NNTP-Posting-Host is a Prodigy/Yahoo/SBC DSL connection instead of the
Earthlink/Mindspring dial-up, but it is in the same city, Chicago.
After a series of messages by the same troll, we get a message by Ed Gin.
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent/msg/f3ae95eb61f49e04?dmode=source
Now here is the interesting thing about the message: Although it is
still using the same computer and posting software, he has now switched
from his dial-up to a Prodigy/Yahoo/SBC DSL connection in Chicago, just
like "Sam Longer".
The next message to follow the exact same pattern (Netscape 4.76,
x-mac-type="54455854", Prodigy/Yahoo/SBC DSL in Chicago) comes from a
"Rich Long" (long instead of longer like the previous encarnation).
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent/msg/b744868665485e27?dmode=source
Then after several messages by "Rich Long", he accidentally forgets to
change his Netscape settings, and posts a message as "Rich Long" but
signs it as "Ed Gin".
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent/msg/3a1b9c09fc5a336d?dmode=source
Then another anonymous troll, FlabbyBlabbyRevealed, shows up with all
the same software/computer model/ISP/city combination
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent/msg/f31bd9a18c2d2d33?dmode=source
After some messages, FlabbyBlabbyRevealed accidenly signs his message
"Rich", just like his other alias "Rich Long".
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent/msg/3e990ebeaf38b446?dmode=source
Then the next day he posts as Ed Gin - all the same characteristics as
before.
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent/msg/7c0e9f18c16f9314?dmode=source
I'll stop saying "all the same characteristics" from here on. Just keep
in mind that all of these messages are being posted with the same
software, the exact same model computer, under the same provider, and in
the same city - and no other messages other than these during these 18
months matches either the computer model number or the posting software.
Also, the majority of these messages follow the typical Monkey Island
format, praising the Nocom, and trolling everything else.
Anyway, next is another anonymous troll, Snoop Dog.
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent/msg/bf577c343732a331?dmode=source
Then its another troll, Harry Burns, posting a false message by Rich
Pinto (of Bacchetta)
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent/msg/03c00b3fce1a0a35?dmode=source
Then we get the first message by Johnny Nocom, (message ID
[email hidden] ) which was erased from the Google
archives probably because of fact that he used a fake bentrideronline
address, which caused people in other groups to think the troll was
associated with bentrideronline, and some of these people voiced their
complaints to companies that advertise in BROL.
Then after a huge number of Johnny messages, he forgets which alias he
is using, and posts a bunch of messages as "Rich Long", but signs them
"Johnny Nocom" - Remember that "Rich Long" had also signed as Ed Gin before
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent/msg/1a7a3e4b33ed99b2?dmode=source
plus many others all posted within a few minutes.
Then he realizes his mistake, and goes back to posting as Johnny
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent/msg/2204fc74448ae58f?dmode=source
Then "Johnny" tries to convince us that there are many people different
people posting with the same software and computer model as him, when in
fact the only posts in 18 months in this group coming with either that
software or that model computer all come from the same internet
provider, all from the same city, all follow the same exact pattern of
trolling, and we have several examples of messages are posted under one
alias but signed as a different one.
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent/msg/5b2ad2a22dae0ac5?dmode=source
Ed Gin? If you read this, and in the astronomically unlikely
possibility you are not this troll, please post a response. And if you
are, do you really think that acting this way will will help you sell
your Nocoms?
Anyway, I feel like I've just wasted 15 minutes of my life.
Joao "at least I have the balls to sign my own name when making
accusations" de Souza