#fpc Lazarus-ide irc channels are being ruined by a troll.

[Joanna from IRC]

The #fpc and sometimes the #lazarus-ide irc Channels have a troll whose current details are sh4rm4 (~sh4rm4@sabo.xyz)
He dislikes the pascal language and harasses everyone who comes to the channel to talk about pascal by insulting,arguing or distracting them with off topic discussions. He also likes to spam the channel with off topic website links.

I first brought up this problem over a year ago. Since that time he has been sitting in the channel 24 hours a day waiting to discourage anyone who is interested in #fpc from using the pascal language.I know this because I’ve talked to people he is bothering in private messages. I have put him on ignore repeatedly and he just changes his nickname or ipaddress. Yesterday he changed his nickname to mydick!~blah@sabo.xyz and tried to talk to me with that.  Do I deserve to be sexually harassed because I want to talk about pascal? Read your channel logs from yesterday if you don’t believe me.

It’s possible that someone who wants to get rid of free pascal is paying him to do this, paid professional agitators are a common phenomenon in social media. He skillfully steers every discussion away from pascal and attacks people for talking about pascal.

Why on earth can’t the pascal related irc channels have a competent person opped to solve this problem ? I will gladly volunteer my time to do it since nobody else seems to want to.

If nothing is done he is going to finish wrecking your channel.

[PascalDragon]

I've skimmed a bit through the logs from September for #fpc and I assume you mean the user named sh4rm4^bnc? However aside from tons of non-Pascal related stuff (though that applies to many users there) and some derogatory comments about people with diverse gender identities I haven't found any trolling. Can you point out an example? Maybe in private if you prefer?

[Thaddy]

The #fpc and sometimes the #lazarus-ide irc Channels have a troll whose current details are sh4rm4 (~sh4rm4@sabo.xyz)

You need to analyze the traffic, not the published name. That is often very different and an IP can be blocked.

He dislikes the pascal language

Happens all the time with the ill-informed. But in itself nothing to worry about.

Yesterday he changed his nickname to

That IS very serious!! and a fundamental reason to complain and alert. Especially when it is geared towards you

a competent person  to solve this problem ? I will gladly volunteer my time to do it since nobody else seems to want to.

Well, you need persons, not just a person to decide. I am willing to help (although my on-and-off grumpiness makes me a troll to some  on this forum ) But nobody here will refuse me to moderate non-topics or affronts like you are referring to.
I have nothing else to do and the senior forum persons trust me but many times do not agree with me. 

Your complaint is correct. I suggest to take it up with a moderator in private, as Sven suggested. I have underlined the critical part of your complaint. I have two daughters and a wife so I see your concern.

[Joanna from IRC]

Thank you all for responding to my post.
I don’t know how far back in time your logs go but he has been trolling and chasing away people interested in pascal for over a year. He insults the pascal language and the people who use it every chance he gets, but boy is he enthusiastic when it comes to off topic discussions he will talk your ear off and spam you with endless links. I’ve gone to the channels for the languages he supposedly likes yet he is not in them and the people there have never heard of him. Why he must wreck the channel for people that want to use #fpc ? maybe because he can ?

 I wish you could all come to the channel and enjoy his daily attacks on pascal and off topic tirades yourselves.

When he decided to change his username to something vulgar that is where I draw the line. I wish I had done so sooner.

 If it is not possible for him to be removed I will no longer consider this channel a channel for #fpc it Is now a channel owned by a troll who hates pascal and dominates every discussion that happens while it is awake.

[PascalDragon]

Thank you all for responding to my post.
I don’t know how far back in time your logs go but he has been trolling and chasing away people interested in pascal for over a year. He insults the pascal language and the people who use it every chance he gets, but boy is he enthusiastic when it comes to off topic discussions he will talk your ear off and spam you with endless links. I’ve gone to the channels for the languages he supposedly likes yet he is not in them and the people there have never heard of him. Why he must wreck the channel for people that want to use #fpc ? maybe because he can ?

The logs reach rather far back. Though for anything newer than 2016 you need to manually adjust the URL, cause the comboboxes at the bottom don't support anything newer (no, that site is not hosted by us).

I wish you could all come to the channel and enjoy his daily attacks on pascal and off topic tirades yourselves.

You might have noticed that I joined the channel though so far I only see the username sh4rm4^bnc in there. I'll try to continue joining at least when I'm at home and maybe also at work to keep an eye out.

Please note that offtopic by itself is not a reason to proclaim them as trolling (that's why I asked for concrete examples).

[Joanna from IRC]

Pascal dragon I sent a private message with name of user that he chased out of channel recently. I’m not able to stay connected all the time so I don’t know everything thing he does.

Thank you for joining channel it helps to have witnesses.

[Joanna from IRC]

https://freeimage.host/i/2IZiiP
https://freeimage.host/i/2ItGqP
https://freeimage.host/i/2It1LB

[Blade]

It’s possible that someone who wants to get rid of free pascal is paying him to do this, paid professional agitators are a common phenomenon in social media. He skillfully steers every discussion away from pascal and attacks people for talking about pascal.

I believe you.  In the past year (where I've become more into using Pascal), I've come across numerous odd characters whose sole agenda appears to bash the language and deter people from using it.  I've been amazed at such bizzare behavior.  I'm not sure why this is so, but various zealots of other programming languages act like they are on a holy war/mission against the Pascal language.  I'm quite sure some of them are paid actors or have financial motives for such behavior.

[Joanna from IRC]

I think it’s because it’s free and open source and independent of other languages that seem to be more and more inclined to be used for the purpose of creating spyware.

Another disturbing thing that I have been informed about from a friend who follows the bug fix and patching process is he has seen people trying to sneak bad things into the compiler and ide code itself. Such as things that would cause problems with code operation and copyright infringement.

Everywhere i go people are hostile or dismissive of towards pascal language and conversations end or become hostile the moment I mention that I use it.

I sincerely hope that this destructive troll can be removed from the pascal related channels and banned everytime he tries to come back under different names.

The channel represents free pascal needs ops who understand what a paid troll is and are not afraid to ban it.

[Joanna from IRC]

I wish I had mentioned this earlier.
The troll in the #fpc channel seems to be very skilled at linux related things and has used these skills to ingratiate some of the people in the channel by giving them technical advice.
He doesn’t do it because he is a kind helpful person he could do that in any  Linux related channel. He does it to create a rift in the community and has established himself as an authority figure of sorts.
This undeserved respect has allowed him to stay in the channel and do irreparable damage to the pascal community.

 He is a professional agitator and  his tactics are straight out of the cointelpro playbook designed to create infighting in target groups.

It is really sad to think that there are people who consider  the free pascal community as something that needs to be destroyed.