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.
I’ve personally just tested multiple login attempts. I encountered no limitations. Brute-force login cracking code is readily available. This is perhaps the single most important security hole that needs fixed.
I’m glad you posted this, if for no other reason than letting me know it’s not just me. I’ve been wondering about this phenomenon for a while. When I see an “odd” post by a name I don’t recognize, I often check to see when they joined FR. And invariably, their profile shows them joining between 1998 to 2002.
I was able to do 10, manually. I bet a script could try thousands a minute, or more.
Most common Freep password is “password” followed in close second by”123456”.
Yeah, sniffing emails is a huge vulnerability. A skilled hacker can do this. My password is sent to me in clear text by email, when I request it. Big no-no.
Quick story: Once I sent my credit card information to myself. Within a day, I suddenly 'bought' Air Italia airline tickets and several expensive suits in Milan.
I've never been to Milan.
“How do we know that HASN’T happened? We would never see the fallout. “
Yes we would... This place is like a family. Everone has their little clan they are friends with. They know each other like the back of their hand.
Someone would have already said “Hey you are supposed to be dead!???”
Or jumped someone because they absolutely know by posting habits, sarcasm, etc. that the user is not who they say they are.
There is just too much “you don’t seem like yourself today, you feeling bad today?”
Folks here are very close and know each other very well, they know their syntax, posting times and habits. favorite colors, how many Grandkids they have, what they do for a living, what their favorite topics are, how they respond to certain content, etc.
Why, Laz is a card-carrying member of Anti-Fancy!
Those guys, the bad-password people, were all curated by the crackers in that one event that happened back in the mid 2010’s.
“ dare I say your comments appear authoritarian and fanciest.”
Well Laz…I think you’ve always been a fancy fellow. LOL
It's true. They have AntiFA, we have AntiFancy.
Its more likely an admin account got hacked than multiple user accounts.
Maybe try enhanced security there and see if it makes any difference.
“I love FR, but the whole platform is stuck in the 1990s. The tech is dated and it shows.”
Which is one of the things I love about it. It looks exactly like it did when I joined over twenty years ago.
But I think Laz has a very good point. Updating the log in security is certainly prudent, and it need not change the look and feel of the site.
“I was able to do 10, manually. I bet a script could try thousands a minute, or more”
Sir, I challenge you to a duel. Pistols at daybreak.
You could extend that to, people who used to be vehemently in support of President Trump aiding Ukraine and castigating Germany for dragging its feet, rest of EU NATO who weren’t stepping up... And pointing out that Russia is not our friend.
Several of those posters are now arguing the polar opposite... Europe stepping up is “warmongering”, any suggestion of Europe being involved in peacekeeping is “escalating” the conflict, and we’re risking World War Three even by providing humanitarian assistance.
This year was the first time I was called nasty stuff. I don’t think it was warranted. I thought it was against the rules. The person should have been zotted, but wasn’t.
According to Grok:
It seems like you’re asking whether “Lazamataz,” a user on FreeRepublic.com, is “fancy.” Since “fancy” could mean different things—elegant, sophisticated, or just a quirky way of asking about their style—I’ll take it as a prompt to explore who Lazamataz is on Free Republic and whether their presence fits that vibe. You also mentioned “fancy” in quotes with “lazamataz” and “freerepublic.com,” so I’ll keep it light and interpretative unless you meant something more specific!
Lazamataz is a long-time, well-known poster on Free Republic, a conservative forum where users debate politics, culture, and everything in between. From what’s out there, Laz (as they’re often called) has been active since at least the early 2000s, racking up thousands of posts—some serious, some satirical, and many downright irreverent. They’re not just a lurker; they’re a personality. Think of them as a digital provocateur who’s part serious commentator, part court jester. Their posts range from sharp editorials (like “How to Save America”) to absurd humor (e.g., claiming to be an Amish velociraptor in a wool suit). Fancy in the traditional sense—like polished or highbrow? Not quite. Fancy as in standout, memorable, or uniquely themselves? Absolutely.
Their style leans more toward raw energy than refined elegance. One post from 2013 has Laz mock-quitting the site in an over-the-top “opus,” railing about “waycism” and praising their own greatness—pure theater. Another thread accuses them of “annoying female Freepers” with relentless flirtation (e.g., offering to “hit it” on every woman’s photo except Helen Thomas), yet supporters call them “sensitive” and “eloquent” for their haikus. They’ve even got a “Sometimes-Funny, Sometimes-Disturbing Ping List,” which screams personality over polish. Fancy here might mean flashy in a rough-edged, unapologetic way—like a loud tie at a dive bar rather than a tux at a gala.
No hard data ties Lazamataz to “fancy” in a literal sense (no mentions of them wearing monocles or sipping champagne), but their flair for dramatic, witty posting makes them a Free Republic icon. They’re not fancy like a diplomat; they’re fancy like a firecracker—bold, chaotic, and hard to ignore. Does that match what you meant by “fancy”? If you were digging for something else—like a specific post or trait—let me know, and I’ll zero in!
If the numbers make brute-force cracks less likely (and shorter passwords could be cracked, I bet), I still hold that email-sending of passwords in clear text is a major violation of security. I, personally, was stung with someone who sniffed my email when I sent credit-card information to myself.
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