Who is This Guy? Glitch? Hacker?

Hey. This is really odd. I was just reading THIS thread and the second comment on that thread (SHOWN HERE) caught my eye because there is a Green ONE OF YOUR FRIENDS banner over his name.

The thing is... I don't even know who this member is and have never even seen them around ATS before. He is already banned but this is odd because I went to look at my list of people I have added as friends just to be sure but he most definitely is not on my list. Furthermore, I quickly scanned the friends list of people who have supposedly chosen him as friends but none of them had as far as I could see.

The member's profile in question is found HERE. If the mods are already aware of this or if this member was a hacker I don't need an explanation. He is already banned so that must mean something but it is startling nonetheless and I wanted to point it out just in case. Thanks.

Yeah it says I picked this person as a friend too and I did not. How could someone do this with out having access to my account? I noticed that all the "friends" are Christians. I think this was an anti-Christian shill.

reply to post by Bigwhammy

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I noticed that, too. 'Coincidentally' their friends are some of my best friends on this site. Edit: Also, I don't think we were hacked because then wouldn't they show up as our friends? Like if they had logged in as us and added themselves? I don't know how it shows we chose them as a friend when we never did and how they don't show up on our list of friends.

Side Note to the Mods: I just got a weird comment on my profile. I will be deleting it as soon as I get help from a mod but can we do an IP check to see who that is? It must be an older member who made a new account on the 15th because their comment doesn't make any sense if they are a true newbie. Thanks.

Edit Again: Ok. Second issue resolved privately and I deleted the profile comment. Thanks.

[edit on 6/17/2008 by AshleyD]

UPDATE: First issue resolved privately as well. Thanks to the staff member who helped me on both accounts.

There is a problem with the friend system that I have noticed in the past, and it was mentioned to the staff but never fixed. If you have two profile names that are similar they sometimes end up with similar friends in their lists. You have a member with the word “Thought” in their profile name listed as a friend, look at how many similar friends that they have to the supposed hacker. That is where the problem is, its an SQL thing I am pretty sure. There are a couple other Defcons listed under members, and at least one of them shares the same friends list that I do, as it’s a non-functional member it really does not effect much in my case.
See this is not me but he has my friends list:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by defcon5

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Thanks, Defcon. I see I am on that guy's friends list too but have no idea who he is! Anyways, that is what the staff member told me in private as well. When there are matching words in people's user names, their friends lists can get mixed up.

And just out of curiosity, I looked up the member 'Ashley.' What do you know? She has my friends and foes!

Problem solved. Thanks, everyone. I've been a little overly paranoid lately.

I have just noticed I have a similar problem and the similarity of the name that Def suggests doesn't explain it either. Any other feasible reason? They're not on my list of friends but on their profile I am down as having picked them. I haven't and quite honestly wouldn't.

reply to post by KilgoreTrout

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What is their user name?

Let's say their user name is 'Bob.' Then you might show up on their list if you have a friend named 'SuperBob.' I think the 'base' name is what causes the problem. Like Defcon to Defcon5, Ashley to AshleyD, Thought to Pause4Thought. The system picks up on the 'base' alias and gets the friends lists crossed.

If you don't want to mention their user name here, look at their user name to see if it is a 'base name' and to see who on your friend's list shares that user name's base. That should answer your question.

Trust me, I was paranoid too until it was explained to me!

[edit on 6/18/2008 by AshleyD]

Thanks AshleyD, that helped in the end, took some working out though. I don't want to name names but in my case the cross over occured on a name like jimbobpeter, with the person 'not my friend' having the name bob. But the list of those that have picked them as a friend are identical. Quite a strange glitch but its quirky enough to be coincidence - it'd take special kind of derangement to dream that up.

reply to post by KilgoreTrout

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Oh oops! I should have checked this thread before my U2U's. I showed you how the two names you mentioned got mixed up because I didn't realize you already figured it out. Yes, it is a strange glitch but at least now we know! Now I feel silly for being so freaked out but in my defense I did have a good reason to be paranoid in light of some recent board drama. lol

But if me looking like a tool answered this mystery for other members facing the same problem then it was worth it.

I'm not sure abot the friends system. I've never added anyone to my friends list and yet it shows a few people are my friend, doesn't really worry me though

There is a glitch with the coding of the user profile.

People will appear as your friend if you have added someone with a similar name as yours as a friend.

For instance:

The user 'biggie' has the same exact friends and foes as I do, but has not visited since 2004.

That means whoever adds me as a friend or foe, adds him/her as well. Whoever I have added as a friend/foe with a similar name will also be added to the list, even if I didn't add them.

How come three of the four are friends AND foes on this character's account?

reply to post by jackinthebox

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It looks like Rilence and Bigwhammy legitimately foed him, there is no way I am looking through Yahn's 1,700+ foes to see if he legitimately foed him ( ), and NeoChristianMystic shows up because she/he foed the member Pause4Thought so their name crossed over.

It's just a glitch due to base names. They were either legitimately foed, cross over foed, or cross over friended.

Check out the profile of the member Jack. His base name causes your friends to cross over with his along with any other member who has 'Jack' in their user name. Or the member Box.

reply to post by ImaginaryReality1984

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Oh, it wasn't a case of me being worried that someone I didn't know added me as a friend- I don't recognize the names of many members who have friended me. It was a matter of me being associated with someone I never selected as a friend but who the system shows me choosing as a friend. I was recently post banned for forum ganging so I am terrified to even talk to the people on here I love an care about... nevertheless being associated with someone I never even heard of... nevertheless someone who was apparently such a poor contributor they got banned.

That is the reason why I panicked and made this thread. I was afraid of getting in trouble again via association. It also scared me because some of my best friends from here supposedly chose him as a friend when they did not.

[edit on 6/19/2008 by AshleyD]

I had some problem as well with the friend system. I had a message that I had been added as a foe when in fact I had been friended. I never did figure that one out, but it wasnt terribly worrying. I can see in your case why it would be.

Sorry to hear you got post banned. I disagree with some of your views, and might end up on the opposite side of an argument from you due to that fact, but I dislike the way "gangs" are defined here. I think it overlooks the fact that like minded people coincidentally visit the same threads and post the same views. I understand that some of the time there may be actual collusion on the part of members, but I think it is rare and the ganging policy has hurt more feelings and intimidated more members than the problem merited. I also think the current "gang" definition is biased against people who belong to groups, (Christians, the Masons, etc.) as their views are naturally and predictably going to be very similar. It was too heavy handed a method for dealing with what just didnt seem on my end to be such a big problem. (And I have been in a couple heated threads with some pretty passionate Christians.) Just my two cents.

I don't know your situation but is it possible the member meant to add you as a friend but accidentally foed you instead? That actually happens pretty often on here. My klutz fingers have accidentally hit the wrong button before, too. It might be a glitch or it might have been as simple as them pressing the wrong button.

I had some guy say he put me a as a foe, but nothing shows up on my profile. I have no idea, maybe he was just full of it.

reply to post by Tomis_Nexis

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The only person who has selected you as a foe is ET_Contact. Is that the same person? If it is, then there you go. If not, then the person you are talking about was full of it.

Edit: My apologies. I was testing to make sure the HTML in a comment I wanted to submit in a forum where we are not allowed to update would work and thought I would try it here. Please ignore.

[edit on 8/13/2008 by AshleyD]

reply to post by AshleyD

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You know I just saw the 'friend' banner on someone I've never even talked to and I checked his profile and there I was as if I had added him as a friend. However he wasn't on my profile as a friend. Strange.