Sir, I challenge you to a duel. Pistols at daybreak.
Posted on 03/16/2025 6:09:41 AM PDT by Lazamataz
I've noticed, over the years, that very old Free Republic accounts, accounts that have been inactive for months or years, suddenly reactivate.... but their politics are suddenly suspect.
Be they Zeeper-oriented (that is, super-favorable to Ukraine) or, conversely, super-favorable to Russia, or even suddenly-liberal... these accounts reactivate with a flurry of posts that are contrary to conservatism.
Are these real Freepers who have had a change of heart about their politics? Are these real Freepers who feel the need to jump on the forum with propaganda and support for one side or the other per the Ukraine/Russia war?
Or are these hijacked accounts?
People will recall some time back, quite a few accounts of active Freepers were hijacked. It created a bit of a problem. When all was said and done, the accounts were returned to their rightful owners, and the site owner (and his moderator crew) pointed out that their passwords were very easy to guess. He instructed people to have stronger passwords.
I also have a friend on Facebook who no longer participates in the forum, but still reads it, who has seen a Freeper posting who he happens to know has been dead for more than a decade.
The problem is, we have far too insecure a login process, and enemies of the forum have been exploiting that.
At the login page, you can attempted unlimited login attempts. This will allow simple brute-force password cracking.
Also, the Forget Password option sends an email with your password in clear text. Emails can easily be sniffed with the right techniques. Passwords can easily be cracked that way.
My suggestions to mitigate these critical security concerns are:
These relatively-simple security changes will stop account-hijacking.
Fair. But even if statistically, just 1/1000 of combinations is tried before the password is found, it would still take years. The brute force pwd cracking scheme would only work in a scenario of no latency and unlimited tries authorized. Not at all realistic and not worth doing.
Nobody can cuss like me; but, I fear you haven’t heard that. What did I say when the scope fell off the M1A?
Sir, I challenge you to a duel. Pistols at daybreak.
I mean, Grok took ALL my posts and ACCURATELY profiled me. Yowsa.
(Note, however, that it did not call me a fanciest)
Just what I need.....something that wants a super secure password that changes weekly to challenge my alzhiemers further! Lol
Just can’t have nice things. Even the young girls are crazier now than ever.
1 is a very bad idea. Someone can just go through all screen names and script bad logins to lock almost all FR accounts for that 4 day period.
More proof. Those are some mighty fancy pistols you got there.
Whoa…
And yes, I’ve seen more left-leaning posts on here the last couple of years than I ever did before.
It looks like you’re asking about “quidam” on FreeRepublic.com and whether they’re “fancy,” perhaps riffing off your earlier question about Lazamataz. Since “quidam” isn’t as instantly recognizable as Lazamataz on the site, I’ll dig into what I can find and interpret “fancy” in a similar vein—stylish, notable, or just distinctive in some way. If you meant something else by “fancy,” let me know!
“Quidam” on Free Republic pops up as a user referenced in older threads, often tied to the site’s early, wilder days around the late ‘90s and early 2000s—think Clinton impeachment era, when Free Republic was a hotbed for conservative chatter. Unlike Lazamataz, who’s a loud, recurring figure with a clear persona, quidam’s footprint is murkier. Posts about them—like in a 2016 thread titled “Axeslinger’s opus”—describe their contributions as “surreal cryptic posts,” suggesting short, vague, almost poetic snippets that left people scratching their heads. One user in a 2020 thread, “OMG I FOuND QUIDAM,” recalls them fondly, saying “Quidam—the name so nice he always signed it twice,” hinting at a quirky signature style. Others tie quidam to the impeachment buzz of 1998, suggesting their cryptic fragments implied Clinton’s ousting was imminent.
Fancy, though? Not in the polished, high-class sense. Quidam’s vibe seems more eccentric than elegant—less a suave debater, more a mysterious oddball dropping riddle-like bombs and vanishing. No grand editorials or flamboyant humor like Lazamataz; instead, they’re “fancy” in a peculiar, understated way—like a guy in a thrift-store trench coat muttering haikus at a rally. There’s no evidence of them chasing clout or flirting up a storm, just a quiet, weird mystique that stuck with some old-timers. Fancy here might mean “notably unique” rather than “fancy-pants.”
That is terrible! I can't use my very pretty "retirement machine shop" for the same reason.
I hate cell phones, but I can see by very large phone. I'd prefer authentication via email.
Okay, I just found a flaw in Grok.
I've OFTEN said that I'd "hit it" with Helen Thomas.
Yes, it was just that the recommended one wouldn’t work for me, anymore.
WOW. Quidam analyzed. I really gotta try out Grok for other Freepers. Truly amazing.
“We even know by heart, which members still can’t tell the difference between LOSE/LOOSE and TO/TOO!”
Yep... We know usernames and accounts and the personalities behind them extremely well...
6th sense would have kicked in and raised eyebrows immediately...
Okay, that made me chuckle out loud.
What if one leaves the login in place all the time and never signs off? I’ve noticed this site will leave it open even if I turn off my computer. Kinda weird.
The “Ash Alert” on FreeRepublic.com originated as a playful yet pointed response to a disruptive user known as “Ash,” who became infamous on the forum in its early days, particularly around the late 1990s and early 2000s. Ash was one of several “disruptors”—posters who didn’t engage in good-faith conservative discussion but instead stirred chaos with provocative, baiting, or inflammatory posts. The term “Ash Alert” emerged as a community-driven warning signal, a way for Free Republic regulars (Freepers) to flag Ash’s antics and rally against the disruption.
Ash’s specific flavor of troublemaking isn’t fully detailed in surviving public records—Free Republic’s archives are vast but scattered, and much of the lore lives in user memory or obscure threads. However, posts from the era, like one from 2003 in a thread titled “Sayin’ Bye Bye,” recall Ash as a figure who “used to run around the forum and absolutely give FReepers fits,” sparking “all manner of things” in response. The “Ash Alert” became a shorthand for this pushback, likely starting as an informal callout in thread titles or replies—e.g., “ASH ALERT: He’s back!”—and evolving into a semi-official term in the site’s lexicon. The 2006 “Free Republic Lexicon” lists “ASH ALERT” under “Freeper Lore,” alongside other disruptors like “Judith Hanley” and “Eschoir,” but defers details to a linked discussion that’s since faded from easy access.
The phrase itself mimics real-world warnings (think “Amber Alert”), adding a satirical twist that fits Free Republic’s edgy, irreverent culture. It wasn’t just about Ash; it doubled as a template for later troublemakers. By 2023, threads like “This is Hallie Scruggs” show users like OwenKellogg repurposing the “Ash Alert” format—complete with bolded “ASH ALERT” tags—to call out suspected aliases of Ash (e.g., “Newashman” or “ReduxAsh”), claiming he’d been banned multiple times for hoaxing and crashing threads. This suggests Ash’s legacy lived on, with the alert becoming a broader symbol of vigilance against forum chaos.
So, the origin? Picture a late-’90s Free Republic thread: Ash posts something wild—maybe a conspiracy too far or a deliberate troll—and frustrated Freepers, tired of the noise, start typing “Ash Alert” to warn others. It stuck, grew, and became lore—a mix of humor, annoyance, and community self-policing. Exact dates or first uses are lost to time (no single thread pins it down), but it’s rooted in that raw, unmoderated era when the site was finding its footing. Want me to hunt for more traces or spin a sample “Ash Alert” scenario?
Just after the conflict in Ukraine started i foolishly clicked on a link put up on here by a member who constantly spammed this site with Ukrainian propaganda.
My computers firewall went NUTZ! So, there used to be a retired state internet security person who did personal security computer repair here.
So i had him come over and he did his thing and WALLA! He found so many bugs on this site he recommended to me to NEVER EVER, click on ANY outside links on posts to this site....EVER!
Also recommended to stay off all social media. Extremely unsecure since there are millions of dark web types that make their mark by attacking sites and gaming the sites.
He also mentioned that many are foreign in origin.
So, your correct and watching the replies to your posts, you can see those who are the nefarious in character, and those who are genuine.
Interesting thought. Maybe not a 24-hour lock, maybe just a 5 minute one. If you have your correct password, a five minute wait isn't too problematic, but it would totally frustrate a brute-force crack attempt.
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