You have the trifecta....

Old account

High EE rating

High/decent post count (this can depend but for an influencer might be something they look for as a premium)


I think you need to re-evaluate your worth....

comparatively speaking my account....

It's all a grand conspiracy.

Someone tried talking me into selling my account a few years ago.

Hello fellow firearms enthusiasts!!! How do you feel about {Insert;table1A}"Current thing"?

I've been lurking since 2009, created an account in 2013 because GUN BAN GUN BAN I guess, and since my fellow 13'rs made such a grand name for ourselves, I decided to mostly just go back to lurking.

Yup

More likely email accounts being hacked and all the useful stuff being sold online.  Darknet Diaries has some good episodes on the lengths to which people and groups will go to steal your stuff just to sell it for a few bucks.  It’s not like it’s some kid plugging away to hack single accounts, it’s all automated.

I don't think I have seen very many 2023 accounts that arent a troll or retread.

The term used is "hijack".  

The old, unused accounts get hijacked and used by the hijacker.

I often wonder,  how pathetic a man's life could be to have +50k post on one forum on the internet. Then I laugh at the comments regarding hacked accounts because so many of you are in disbelief that life does exist outside of the internet.
Get out of moms basement and live life a little of live a lot.

LOL

Yup. But nothing to see here.

I read at least four days a week, I just don’t have a lot to say anymore.

17 year old account averaging one post every six months. That's got to be a record or very close to one.

Kind of makes OP's point, though, an account with posting statistics like this that suddenly posts political
content at odds with the typical conservative tone of the site a few times a week might generate some
side-eye from folks.

Retirement and boredom in my case has me thinking about hanging around.

Not that interested in arguing politics.

I kinda doubt that.
There's enough muckraking here in a normal week already.

Good to see you!!!

Pretty much.  When you spot a 20-year-old account with a .25 ppd average suddenly going on a posting bender exclusive to topics of controversy and doing so with positions that don't generally mesh well with the long-term interests of the site and community it should raise some eyebrows.

Watching the watchers. I have witnessed the death of the 1st amendment here on ARFCOM and know who the murders are/were.

There has been a trend for many years now by psyops of various groups/actors/orgs/nation states  to register accounts on forums and other social media and just sit on the accounts until one day they might be useful.

You will see old accounts come out of the wood work with very few posts and go active for one topic, maybe 2. This is classic hallmarks of psyops. They are everywhere and fighting to influence me and you.

Define "old" and "low post count."

Good to know.
Thanks.

people who talk a lot often don't have much to say that's worth listening to

This guy understands.

I went to one and looked, ONCE, GTFO'd was not into what was going down in that place.  Was a mad house.

No thank you.

This place was a lot better community "Back in the good ole days.".

Society is definitely on the decay.

They'll just assume you're a retread instead.

i dont know but old accounts with a really low post count is pretty fishy.

Exactly this.

These days, those are the same thing

GD was much more civilized in the 90’s.

Attached File

My guess, too. Especially the old paid membership accounts, the .gov credit cards paying for avatars and green arrows.

In Soviet East Germany, 1/3 of the populace was working for the Stasi. Human nature hasn't changed that much in these few decades.

Where have you been?! @WhatsGnu have Gnot seen you post in awhile

I’m just here for the gang bang.

I was a daily contributor to this site from 1999 until about 2011.  12 years!  Then I had advanced into some national roles in my career, traveling and working constantly, got married, had a wife and two stepkids to prioritize.  I also burned out on Obama's bullshit.....we could always commiserate about all his team's fuckery on this site, but I just got burned out it was getting so pervasive and just fucking nuts, with nothing we could really do about it.

Kids launched successfully, and as Obama's rule drew to a close, I renewed my membership about 2018 or so and started to get more involved again.  

But the membership has deteriorated significantly.  We have so many "conservatives" here now, who, when they join the deep discussions, are clearly leftists, commies, and statists, that it blows my fucking mind.  It's like the most recent generation or two who have joined the site, are fucking clueless.......or malevolent.  

The site operation has deteriorated as well.  I recently got an account warning that really just didn't make any logical sense.  Either people have a limited grasp of the finer points of written comprehension, or the "reason" was just stitched together and acting on the complaint of a low IQ social warrior looking for the slightest hook to complain about.  Regardless, you might as well express your opinion on a modern college campus at this point, because we get the same results.  Accused of a violation of some form of Political Correctness, and Censored.  

So, I will be participating less again.  My posting is going to drop off, a bunch.  I'm tired of arguing with people who think we should all be sacrificing our kids and grandkids financial future to fund the elites trust funds, and fund the use of corrupt proxies to continue the Obama team's dream of militarily and socially defeating the second largest White Christian nation outside of the United States in their multi-decade pursuit of a global defeat of the Advanced Western Civilization that that demographic built.  I'm tired of "you've been here long enough to know you can't refer to black people as Amish", when I didn't.  Let the butthurt leftists, thug apologists, and government information warfare types run all the long time contributors off, and supervise the site based on political correctness and low IQ interpretations of the written word.  It can only increasingly dumb down the content across the site and continue to divide and conquer rational people among the Bill of Rights supporting, America loving, Western Civilization participators that this site used to be for.  Eventually, the original demographic will all be gone.  Replaced with a different membership.  It is a consequence of going "for profit".  It has to mirror society to continue.  

From the perspective of a right leaning, but more libertarian than Republican, white male American Christian who is 100% accepting of people of all races, colors, creed, religion, etc. BUT has a specific set of beliefs about what constitutes proper individual and group behavior in a peaceful and progressive society, underpinned by Personal Responsibility and the Bill of Rights, society is sliding off the cliff.  It is being driven there by the political class with the help of government, NGOs, and SJWs utilizing Fascist media tactics, Propaganda, and political correctness.  Because it has to cater to broader society for it's continued existence and success, to an extent this site reflects that trend.    

There are likely places on the internet that will draw a line in the sand, and say "the constant societal push by and toward the left into censorship and regressive insanity ends right here for us, we will hold the line right here", but this site isn't it.  For many of us, this is extremely disappointing, as this was our cultural stronghold, our redoubt.  But it isn't any longer, and it cannot be because the establishment that is driving the slide into oblivion, has absolute control of the infrastructure that hosts it.  

Yep. Seeing that the last coupla years led me to believe .gov owns a lot of accounts here.

I would agree on a combination of retirement, nostalgia during troubling times, and coordinated activity.

I do have a good understanding of organized influence campaigns,  but I have not put any time or effort into seriously looking for any of that activity on this site, or obtaining access to data to do so.  Offhand, I'd say it's highly likely that there are small campaigns running here.

The left is full of vegans, if I were to sell my account I'm sure folks would wonder what's up...

Couldn't have said it better myself. I had an account in the late 90's when I built my first AR before they switched to the new website. I used to be a dyed in red Conservative until I stopped listening to Right Wing media and started thinking for myself. Most of my first thousand posts were in the tech forums. I make knives and posted a lot in the knife forum for a while. I think it's lost on a lot of the newer users that this is first and foremost a gun forum.

And to anyone who doesn't believe I've been around that long, tell me the name of the user who used to make dioramas about mods and site staff using dolls?

Checking in.

Throwaway troll accounts/retreads.

Sounds like the position a hacked account would take...

you all entertain the hell out of me but I only occasionally join in. I started off joining and sticking to the tech forums. Then team as I eventually started being a paid member. I also enjoyed the EE. I took a hiatus for a while as life got complicated (the curse). I only started hanging out in GD within the last few years. Now I usually just take a spin through GD for entertainment and usually see things here first before they wind up on the news a day or two later. The rest of the time I'm actually doing shit off of the computer.

Because, I had a real life with wife and kids. Kids are grown and gone, still deciding on the wife.