About Reveille

[Edgewood]

We have not discussed this as a group - so, maybe. We certainly would not promise to publish it without seeing it first.

As a purely personal opinion, I'd have to wonder if it would accomplish anything. He has clearly been manipulating people here for many months, his credibility is pretty much shot. How is anyone going to know the difference between a sincere statement, and one last attempt at manipulation?

It is possible that he really does need help - while we do like to make sure folks can get support here, we also recognize that the internet is not a qualified mental health professional. If things are that bad for him, he needs to talk to flesh-and-blood with training, not us.

This.

Reveille's issues are beyond any of us.

When I read the very first post from "Rev's Mandy" I spotted several red flags in the wording. As a police officer I frequently obtain and review statements from many people to aid in detecting deceit or falsehoods. I'm kicking myself now for not advising the mods about this because the first post revealed to me that it was not entirely truthful.

At any rate, Rev needs to take the first step in getting help, and I'll wager that he has family that will at least help in that regard. Other than that I hope he gets it because all too often I see those that do need the help fail to realize that they require it.

 

[Boregar]

I'll begin by saying that I'm not a regular poster on here, and that this is my first post in a long while (for reason's that will be mentioned shortly), but I thought I had to say something about this.

Several months ago, I had a health scare that put me in hospital for a week, and I still have on-going memory problems as a result. My wife and I are both regulars on an Ice-hockey discussion board, and during my hospital stay and while we have been dealing with my problems, she was posting updates about my progress on there. She says that it has been very helpful to her during this time, not just knowing that so many people were sending us good wishes and support, but even just the process of writing things down made them seem a little easier to deal with. And reading back through it recently also made me feel much better too.

I guess what I'm wanting to say here is that, in real circumstances, threads like the one posted by 'Rev's Mandy' do actually provide a lot of help and comfort, and I would hate to think that something like this happening would make people more reluctant to post on a similar thread in the future. Showing concern and compassion is a positive trait, and should be encouraged, and I'd like to hope that the majority of people in what seems to be a good community here, will still be willing to reach out to any other member of our community who might need it in the future.

Edited to add - Thanks to the admins for the 'Happy birthday e-mail' that gets sent out, or otherwise I would never have rediscovered my user-name on here.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Reading over the list of alts in the Hive thread, I've actually started to wonder if the Desert Hare alt was supposed to be me. It seems that his alts were most often created to be a charicature of another poster, and the names are modified versions of real screen names. I'm not a hiver and haven't really interacted with Rev on the boards, so I don't think I'd be worth making a parody of, but I can't think of another screen name similar to Desert Hare. Does anybody know who this alt was supposed to be? Am I just being paranoid?

I only read a couple of threads that DH posted in, so I don't have enough post-ual info to see if he was trying to sound like me. I do remember him sounding like a bit of an ass in the Watchmen thread - which makes me a little nervous. It makes me strongly consider rejoining as a Community Supporter just so I can use the "Find more posts by" feature.

I don't think he was trying to imitate you. From memory Rev was from Arizona so that's probably where the Desert part of the username came from. As for the Hare bit, your guess is as good as mine.

Olaf the Stout

 

[jaerdaph]

I was about to say that if you were a fake, it was the most well executed fake I'd ever seen, and the deception would have gone back about a decade.

LOL! And considering the amount of detail and mapping that has gone into the World of Kulan, it would be the most elaborate ruse ever!

Never doubted you for a moment, Knightfall.

 

[catsclaw227]

As a purely personal opinion, I'd have to wonder if it would accomplish anything. He has clearly been manipulating people here for many months, his credibility is pretty much shot. How is anyone going to know the difference between a sincere statement, and one last attempt at manipulation?

I suppose I was thinking that there could be some closure for people. Even though what he posts as an apology letter could be just as disingenuous as the original hoax.

It is possible that he really does need help - while we do like to make sure folks can get support here, we also recognize that the internet is not a qualified mental health professional. If things are that bad for him, he needs to talk to flesh-and-blood with training, not us.

Yeppers. 100% true.

I'd also raise this same point about the "let him write an explanation letter" idea. I'd expect there to be all manner of emotional turmoil within it (whether true or not). I would imagine that this would not be able to be factually verified. I do not see further emotional exposure as beneficial to the community. Closure is important. An unverifiable emotional letter would lead to less closure, not more.

You could be right, but he's sorta been "on trial" here, with many of us his jurors. He should get a right to speak his peace, even if it is all BS.

NOTE: I think the mods have handled this amazingly. He's not on trial, per se, like his fate is being decided by the community. Nevertheless, many of us (me included) are judging him.

I do not wish to see a policy shift. There is nothing productive to be gained by having the mods sniff every request-for-prayers post for mischief, and much to be lost in goodwill toward others. I am fine with the occasional hoax. I am ok with being had, for so cheap a price. Similarly, I would not like to see such posts be met with pages of speculation. I think it's enough to accept things at face value and permit them a reasonable level of discussion, until such time as the post submits evidence of being a hoax. It is better to be tricked, than to withhold compassion, and better to be a site that is too-trusting than one in which charity of spirit and well wishes are forbidden.

QF(some)T, but for some, this affected them in different ways. I imagine there are people here that would disagree with the "for so cheap a price" categorization. I do agree that I prefer to be an optimist than a pessimist and I look at people as good and trusting, in general. And sometimes there are those that prey on this trait.

It might be worthwhile to have a thread in Meta that simply links to known hoaxes. This would serve a historical purpose, as well as fostering a reasonable level of caution and skepticism, without encouraging pessimism. It would say, "Yes, this does happen." That's all that really needs to be said in the long run.

Interesting idea.

 

[Filcher]

Add my voice to the "Good work, Admins," chorus. They've respected Rev's privacy, and given the community a way to vent. I'm done, but if I've learned anything, it is that the ENworld admins take their "job" very seriously and do an amazing job at it.

 

[vic20]

Where is the Alt List?

I keep hearing reference to a list of all of Rev's alts, but I haven't been able to find it by searching the boards.

Can somebody please link to the post with the list?

 

[Treebore]

I'll begin by saying that I'm not a regular poster on here, and that this is my first post in a long while (for reason's that will be mentioned shortly), but I thought I had to say something about this.

Several months ago, I had a health scare that put me in hospital for a week, and I still have on-going memory problems as a result. My wife and I are both regulars on an Ice-hockey discussion board, and during my hospital stay and while we have been dealing with my problems, she was posting updates about my progress on there. She says that it has been very helpful to her during this time, not just knowing that so many people were sending us good wishes and support, but even just the process of writing things down made them seem a little easier to deal with. And reading back through it recently also made me feel much better too.

I guess what I'm wanting to say here is that, in real circumstances, threads like the one posted by 'Rev's Mandy' do actually provide a lot of help and comfort, and I would hate to think that something like this happening would make people more reluctant to post on a similar thread in the future. Showing concern and compassion is a positive trait, and should be encouraged, and I'd like to hope that the majority of people in what seems to be a good community here, will still be willing to reach out to any other member of our community who might need it in the future.

Edited to add - Thanks to the admins for the 'Happy birthday e-mail' that gets sent out, or otherwise I would never have rediscovered my user-name on here.

Don't worry, I for one won't stop praying for fellow board members. I spent a solid year fighting for my life, and part of why Charles/Rev angers me so much over this is that I wish I could have had people praying for me and sending me well wishes like Rev got over completely false pretenses. It was literally a year of Hell for me, but it was back in 1993 to 1994, so this board didn't even exist back then. Its amazing the kind of strength and hope you can get from such things, especially when its truly bad and life threatening like Rev pretended it was.

So I can forgive Charles if he were to ever ask it, but I would never trust him again, his betrayal of our trust was just too fundamentally deep for me to ever trust him again. Which also means we will never be friends. I have to be able to trust my friends.

Honesty is hard for many people, which is why I have so few friends, but intentional and planned betrayal goes to a completely whole new level.

 

[Piratecat]

I keep hearing reference to a list of all of Rev's alts, but I haven't been able to find it by searching the boards.

Can somebody please link to the post with the list?

http://www.enworld.org/forum/4709291-post116.html

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Don't worry, I for one won't stop praying for fellow board members.

QFT.

So I can forgive Charles if he were to ever ask it, but I would never trust him again, his betrayal of our trust was just too fundamentally deep for me to ever trust him again. Which also means we will never be friends. I have to be able to trust my friends.

Again, QFT.