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Impersonation of VSBW Staff and the Importance of Confirmation

Mr. Bambu

Suffer-Not-Injustice Bambu
VS Battles
Joke Battles
Super Moderator
Administrator
Calculation Group
22,785
22,312
Hello all. I discussed with my fellow administrators, who felt it would be appropriate to make an announcement on this matter, in an attempt to stop it from happening further.

I was recently made aware of individuals using my namesake on certain external sites and messaging platforms, who used my name to either vindicate their own actions by making them supposedly "official" by the standards of VSBW, or to generate a community under the banner of a staff member of VSBW. This announcement aims to clarify that these people, whoever they are, aren't me, and are using my name to further their own ends.

I have been made aware of a community on WhatsApp run by an individual who claims to be Mr. Bambu, administrator of VS Battles Wiki. I have also been made aware of someone amongst our Indonesian community members who has claimed to have support from such an individual, despite my lack of involvement with them. I feel it is important to clarify that the only community I have ever run (for VSBW purposes, that is), is a small Discord server for friends. It should be easily verifiable whether you have my real Discord account or not, as the real one is listed on my Fandom profile. Beyond Discord, I currently only have a single form of active social media related to the moniker Mr. Bambu, which is a Twitter account I've used recently during the process of deleting SCP. This account is called "theycallmebambu", any other account claiming to be me is attempting to deceive you.

A good policy, I reckon, is that if you see someone claiming to be VSBW staff offsite, ask them onsite if it is them. I'm certainly not the first staff member to have this issue and I really doubt I'll be the last, so just approach such situations with an ounce of skepticism.

I think that's about it. Thanks for reading, don't get tricked.

Edit
I originally posted this thread on June 5th, 2024. I am returning to it on August 20th, 2024, to add to it.

It has been asked that I expand the spirit of this thread to cover further things beyond my specific scenario. I have decided to acquiesce to this request, bearing in mind that I would point it out explicitly.

An important enough addition that it bears mentioning is that as this is the world's largest site for a hobby of particular ferocity, the site and its staff are often targets of harassment. Many of you may not have been here when this was a more frequently occurring campaign- videos uploaded to NSFW sites bearing our usernames, gorn uploaded to the site and sent to message walls... people did a great many unsavory things for petty, awful reasons.

I add this today because I am aware that from time to time such atrocities and campaigns do occur still. The unfortunate truth is that they are unlikely to ever stop, so long as people of a certain loathsome psyche continue to exist with access to the internet and a stern belief that we either wank or downplay their favorite characters. So to add to the above, original message, I say this: if something seems outlandishly incorrect or wrong, I'd take it with an obvious grain of salt or three.

Negative elements will mangle the truth beyond recognition given the opportunity. Do not let these perversions of reality confuse you.

That is all.
 
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Yeah, I am pretty sure there are plenty of false impersonators out there that pretend to be some of us just to promote things that are a no go around here. And it's really nothing new as plenty have done the same thing to Antvasima or impersonated VSBW staff while uploading **** and gore. I think this is just a double reminder that staff member impersonation is a serious rule violation here and permaban worthy offense. And if someone offsite is claiming to be one of us while advertising a platform of any form that may not line up with VSBW wiki plans or even outright go against it, it is important to notify the staff member and question and to ask for confirmation that that person isn't us before trying anything.
 
Don't know if I can reply in here, but we should also clarify what off-site accounts does the administrators have other than this

Cases like this are mostly happening on discord, back then before all of this I met a guy who was apparently "Ultima" and somehow my friend which we will call "Zain" here believed it and you know the rest in which it spreaded like a wildfire but thankfully it wasn't known that much and everyone just thought "Zain" here was joking.
 
It's up to each staff member whether they want to reveal offsite accounts or not. I'm only publicly stating mine because a community working under someone claiming to be me, is a big issue, in my book. I doubt all staff members would be so forthcoming, although many do have their Discords listed on their Fandom accounts.
 
BasedNecoScaler also got in trouble for impersonating Ant, however that case was a bit more extreme due to what they did in particular.

Point is, just beware out there.
 
This is kinda why I change pfps on my most used sites every month for this "JohnConquest1" alias of mine. Barring Reddit and YouTube.
Whatever works as an excuse to shill good Fallout Equestria art.
 
Don't know if I can reply in here, but we should also clarify what off-site accounts does the administrators have other than this
I understand the thought behind this suggestion, and I respectfully disagree. Stopping trolls and impersonators is important, but if staff are forced to give out personal details publicly then that's just punishing the staff, and opening them up to more harassment. Bambu's suggestion of exposing the suspicious person and finding out if they are the staff member they claim to be or not is the better option.
Cases like this are mostly happening on discord, back then before all of this I met a guy who was apparently "Ultima" and somehow my friend which we will call "Zain" here believed it and you know the rest in which it spreaded like a wildfire but thankfully it wasn't known that much and everyone just thought "Zain" here was joking.
Best to ask the staff here, as Bambu said, and if they say it's not them, then expose the impersonator for what they are, often and loudly. In particularly egregious cases it might be sadly required to mention on the Wiki and forum that the other stuff isn't the staff member. The Wiki has been through this before, with some very egregious examples.
 
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BasedNecoScaler also got in trouble for impersonating Ant, however that case was a bit more extreme due to what they did in particular.

Point is, just beware out there.
That's among the absolute worst examples. Impersonating Antvasima while writing suicide encouragement letters is not only permaban worthy offense, but he should go to prison for the rest of his life for doing that.

But yes, staff should not be made to reveal private information; if an offsite user is doing or saying questionable things and appears to have a username/avatar combination and/or claiming to be us. We should always take those with a grain of salt and view our staff be as innocent until proven guilty. The standard assumption should be that impersonation may be involved in some way or form, though it may be unknown if it is someone here or some random troll who doesn't even have an account here and/or was already permabanned. And it is solely up to individual staff if they wish to reveal offsite accounts and what not.
 
That's among the absolute worst examples. Impersonating Antvasima while writing suicide encouragement letters is not only permaban worthy offense, but he should go to prison for the rest of his life for doing that.

But yes, staff should not be made to reveal private information; if an offsite user is doing or saying questionable things and appears to have a username/avatar combination and/or claiming to be us. We should always take those with a grain of salt and view our staff be as innocent until proven guilty. The standard assumption should be that impersonation may be involved in some way or form, though it may be unknown if it is someone here or some random troll who doesn't even have an account here and/or was already permabanned. And it is solely up to individual staff if they wish to reveal offsite accounts and what not.
this has to be some kind of a felony
 
That's among the absolute worst examples. Impersonating Antvasima while writing suicide encouragement letters is not only permaban worthy offense, but he should go to prison for the rest of his life for doing that.
Yeah, I know. It was horrible. I do not condone that at all. I was just bringing it up because it's very important to be aware of stuff like that because of straight up criminal activity under their names. No context is that fine at all. I'm also saying this in case I become unlucky and get hacked myself because even though I'm new and have no power or history to confirm, I will let it be known that I will NEVER do something like that.
 
Onsite Impersonators who are outed for being the ones doing the impersonation will be punished yes, that much is obvious. We are also aware of accounts may be hacked if someone who seemed like a nice user suddenly appeared to have their accounts doing some typical cybercriminal offenses. Staff members have also had their Discord accounts hacked before.
 
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