The 'outings' of 3As members on the Prime Minister's website - and an apology to Pat/bonnybraes and Ms Marbles

Recently the subject came up of the occasion earlier this year when the real names of dozens of 3As members were publicly 'outed', along with their user names, on the Prime Minister's website.

I had wrongly been accused of doing the 'outing' myself. So I've revisited what happened.

Shortly after the revelation that this had been going on, I pointed the finger at Pat/bonnybraes and MsMarbles who now run the 'JustAThoughtYouKnow' Forum as a likely source of this reckless damage.

I now accept that this was misplaced.

I've never been asked directly by either of them to apologise for wrongly accusing them but I've been made aware that my finger-pointing at them still rankles, understandably so. I'm happy to apologise now, as I am sure now, from all that I have seen, that they are not the kind of people to perpetrate such an act, and did not do so.

Here is the background.

In January 2009 Elizabeth Woolnough began a petition on the Prime Minister's website asking the Prime Minister to instigate a thorough review of British police actions in the Madeleine McCann case. The target was to get 500 signatures, the necessary number to trigger a response from the Prime Minister. The Madeleine Foundation actively supported the petition.

As progress was being made towards the target, all of a sudden the usernames of 3As members were posted up as petition signatories on the PM's website along with their real names.

As I recall it (I'm open to correction) the main actions I took were (1) to warn 3As members that they were being publically identified on the PM's website and (2) to write to the No. 10 web team asking them to remove these bogus signatures (which, after a while, they did).

More such names appeared, at least twice, and it was necessary to write again to the No. 10 web team and ask them to remove those additional names.

There was outrage from many of us that a petition concerning Madeleine should have been trashed in this way and that 3As members had been so publically 'outed'. It appeared to be a deliberate attempt (a) to disrupt the petition and (b) to disrupt 3As.

At the time, as I recall, bonnybraes and Ms Marbles had set up a forum which was bitterly attacking Brenda Ryan and those still running 3As. They and I think three other Mods/Admin had been 'sacked' in another of those bitter rows that erupted from time to time on 3As amongs the 'Mods'. It seemed to me most likely therefore that the 'outings' on the PM's website were coming from that source.

I admit now that I was wrong to point the finger at those two. It's never been disclosed who did this. I suggest it can only have been done by someone who at that time had complete access to the 3As database. I would dearly love to know who did that.

Now, I may have cross-posted a few names on to 3As at the time, or someone else might have done. If so, whoever did so, it was not an 'outing', it was merely revealing on 3As that these names were already visible by millions on the PM's website and that therefore swift action needed to be taken to remove those real names. Several individuals were upset enough with their names appearing on the PM's website to write to the No. 10 website themselves.

That's how I remember it.

I preserved most of the names, copied and pasted from the PM's website.

Here's a selection of names - usernames only of course - of those who were publicly 'outed' at the time. It was quite a list:

· PhiloPastry
· Amber08
· W.H.OisNext
· Arbiter
· Vimes
· HawkEyes1
· zodiac
· alanw69
· weissnicht
· Mairy Hinge
· maebee
· notdeadfred
· Scribbler
· Southernbelle
· frankie stein
· likeastudentOD
· dazedandconfused
· dogrose
· daftbat
· Finmental
· abuela
· Ishouldcoco
· earthspirit
· ali1966
· TheAcademic
· Proof_Reader
· Vancouver1
· Georgicat
· Enigma
· littlepixie
· Miss Scarlett
· Frencheuropean
· kezwalk
· Djorn
· axa
· Lilemor
· Obsessed
· FSoares
· sloppingout
· Uil
· KatzenWaffe
· dumouchelwlf
· ReggieDunlop
· A_T
· Ian
· Groom1
· Stevo
· doristhemod
· CaptnMorgan
· Chrisp
· carmencurlers/annaraccoon
· Coldwater
· arsenalgirl1705
· LogicMan
· mandelifeboats/sock
· Beachy
· kazlux
· HumptyBumpty
· Payge
· Princess_leia
· Gestalt
· Photon
· jjptheswinger
· rammy
· slyfox
· diddy
· upcloseandpersonal
· Highlander
· plath
· clouseau
· maz2007

Why are you posting their usernames up again? Surely any outing of anybody, intentional, or unintentional is best forgotten and left to pass.

Time to move on maybe.

I agree with Vaguely.

Mr Bennett, were I Mr Balkwell, seeing you caught up in childish point scoring and he said she said nonsense, I'd be horrified.

Get a grip and grow up.

Perhaps the source of all the real evil in the Madeleine case comes from the real ownership of the 3A. Who is Brenda Ryan or more importantly who is behind Brenda Ryan? All the antics and horrible threads did Madeleine no favours.

I am personally gutted that I did not make the list of outed people. But then I guess I was never so silly as to pm or email anyone any personal details. Good old Blondie2 and her ever presence on the Welcome thread was everyone's best friend when they first joined. She seemed to be best friends with Laffin and both so protected by Brenda. A concerted effort was made on that site to discover who the real people behind the posts were.

Did you not ever wonder why Brenda became Debs best friend along about the same time photon became your good friend and defender. Were they just keeping close tabs on both of you and fueling a fight. I understand the Irish love a good fight and the owner's of 3A sure did like to engage in forum wars.

I've never bought into tin hattery and actually almost all of the nasty behaviour, lying, banning, intimidations blah blah, forum wars nonsense are all perfectly explained by nasty people getting together and their 'nasty' increasing exponentially, plus they are not very bright.

So who do you feel may have been responsible, then Tony?

paranoid people. very paranoid people.

makes for appalling behaviour.

Aas a footnote, BB has graciously accepted TB's apology over on JATYK

Pussycat wrote:Aas a footnote, BB has graciously accepted TB's apology over on JATYK

I bet she has, if she makes a fuss people might start remembering that she was perfectly happy to sit back and watch while others were outed when she was a mod, even to go so far as to join in the hilarity on some threads.

As i remember Bennett gleefully posted up the names with no care whatsoever because of the petition so he could show how succesful it was. I do not think he noticed the names on it.
As for who did it....look towards Stevo

Paranoid indeed Vaguely. It's the paranoia which bolsters their justification for their nefarious deeds. Having to conquer the 'Dark Forces' and all that.
It was Photon (or whatever she's calling herself today) who said that she would rather enjoy putting the frighteners on one of her targets.
Enjoy? How could a sane, balanced mind enjoy such an exercise?
And yet they must enjoy all this warped game-playing, because they keep on doing it.
Outing, stalking, trolling, nosey-parkering, harassing, frightening -- not most people's idea of enjoyment.
In fact many would regard those traits as components of a personality disorder.

Madeleine Mccann - case unsolved.

Ruby wrote:So who do you feel may have been responsible, then Tony?

All I or anybody can say, I think, is 'someone who had access to the 3As database'. The wide range of names displayed shows that the breach was extensive.

But I published the usernames for one or two reasons, and perhaps others will be able to help here.

I always had the feeling that the usernames who were outed were all what I would call 'abduction-doubters', or 'antis' as some would say.

I cannot recall many or indeed any 'McCann-believers' or 'pros' being on that list.

In other words, the 'outing' was far from random.

Now, if I am right about that, that would surely give us all further clues as to who was really behind this public 'outing'.

As the Romans would say: 'Cui bono?'

'Who benefits?'

Tony Bennett wrote:

Ruby wrote:So who do you feel may have been responsible, then Tony?

All I or anybody can say, I think, is 'someone who had access to the 3As database'. The wide range of names displayed shows that the breach was extensive.

But I published the usernames for one or two reasons, and perhaps others will be able to help here.

I always had the feeling that the usernames who were outed were all what I would call 'abduction-doubters', or 'antis' as some would say.

I cannot recall many or indeed any 'McCann-believers' or 'pros' being on that list.

In other words, the 'outing' was far from random.

Now, if I am right about that, that would surely give us all further clues as to who was really behind this public 'outing'.

As the Romans would say: 'Cui bono?'

'Who benefits?'

That's because there wasn't any bloody pros left on the forum.

Paranoia.

why would a pro put there name to the petition?

So obviously the only names that were outed were the nutters.

Perhaps it was to let some of the antis know a fraction of what it feels like to be outed by somone on a forum, to know that you have fallen under someone radar and they are unhinged enough to a. even care who you are and b. willing to scare the living poop out of you simply because you happen to believe in justice rather than vigilantism.

Or perhaps it was by someone who felt slighted by 3As and wanted to pay back the members and if the blame happened to fall on so-called pros then so much the better (they had a history of doing that).

out of 5000 members - how many non antis were left to be outed?

It's not a pro or an anti thing.

It's a WUM thing and I would have imagined that someone of Mr Bennetts age and experience would have been able to see that.

Or is there a reason to carry on the division Mr Bennett?

Was the petition successful by the way?

Oouch!

Letter from PM Brown - who knows - I may have missed it.

Our troops dying everyday overseas,Our economy in shatters,the NHS on it's knees,youth knife crime running riot, people losing their pensions,unemployment going through the roof, our elderly rotting in care homes with no cash to fund them, and the governments time being wasted with a petition full of false names.
Shame on the lot of you who were involved.
Hopefully my Mothers saying was correct: God does pay debts without money !

Stephanie wrote:Our troops dying everyday overseas,Our economy in shatters,the NHS on it's knees,youth knife crime running riot, people losing their pensions,unemployment going through the roof, our elderly rotting in care homes with no cash to fund them, and the governments time being wasted with a petition full of false names.
Shame on the lot of you who were involved.
Hopefully my Mothers saying was correct: God does pay debts without money !

Online petitions, utter waste of time full stop.

You address your post as if you think the people involved are reading this forum.

I only queried a letter - not the state on the union!

vaguely wrote:

Stephanie wrote:Our troops dying everyday overseas,Our economy in shatters,the NHS on it's knees,youth knife crime running riot, people losing their pensions,unemployment going through the roof, our elderly rotting in care homes with no cash to fund them, and the governments time being wasted with a petition full of false names.
Shame on the lot of you who were involved.
Hopefully my Mothers saying was correct: God does pay debts without money !

Online petitions, utter waste of time full stop.

You address your post as if you think the people involved are reading this forum.

I personally dont give a stuff if they are or aren't , Timewasters the lot of them !

DCB1 wrote:I only queried a letter - not the state on the union!

Lol DCB1 , I apologise but it makes my blood boil it really does.