When you get one of those, try to ping or otherwise inform us if you think of it, okay? We have had the very same experience. As a result, Hellinahandcart is now keeping a ping list so we can attempt to keep track of this phenomenon. Personally, I think a lot of those "I'm related" or "I'm from the town mentioned in the article" posts are by the same person--someone who has multiple names on here. I'm keeping a list of the names used by this person, and so far I've got over 30 names on it. If you check out any of these names, you'll usually find that the name was only used for one thread. This weird disruptor changes names all the time.
His most consistent attribute is that he will claim to somehow be an insider to the news story that the thread is about. For this reason, we have taken to calling him "the obligatory insider".
Just a FEW of the names this spurious poster has used are:
bbaby091, nashvilleguy, hicksmokey, pris, afk, KevinsUncle, SweeTY2004, banglanta, katia, BeBeATLsFINEST, Tony08540, KKRN, Hagitay, gigi6, Furhouse, alwayshavesomethingtosay, sparkl, Stenson63, dasani,bothsidesnow, heathrnd... the list goes on and on. A lot of these names are not banned, but the disruptor seldom goes back and re-uses a name--just starts a new name for a new thread. Weird.