Loki tries to pull a fast one. (Please see comments below). In a few places in the excerpts, you'll see the words "name withheld by request". That isn't a record of some of the members of the mob being considerate. It's a courtesy on our part, on behalf of the dissenting participant on alt.religion.wicca, who doesn't want his name used in connection with anything Pagan, and says that he doesn't know why he was ever willing to take Wicca seriously enough as a religious movement to engage with a dialogue with its practitioners.
First, one can see from Loki's posts that she is using Inlink.com as
her ISP. That provider would seem to be out of business now, but, like so
many other things, the
staff directory page for Inlink lives on in the Internet Archive. (Click
here if that link is down, and try another copy). Note that the area
code for Inlink's staff was 314. Now, look at this archived page listing
jobs
with the city of St. Louis, and look at the area codes for the numbers
at the foot of the page. 314. Therefore, the 314 area code puts Inlink's
office in the St.Louis area and, given that it was a local ISP, its
customers as well. Now, working with the limited resources we have in
the Archive which, unfortunately, doesn't store all pages, we look at
this
archived page from the city of Clayton, Missouri in 2001. Note that
the city is in area code 314, and when you go down the page you find that
it is advising people to call Southwestern Bell with questions about phone
service. To the satisfaction of any reasonable person, we've
established that Southwestern Bell was serving the city of St.Louis,
because each area code was served by one, and only one of the Baby
Bells. As we see on this
archived "SBC brands page, Southwestern Bell was a subsidiary of SBC,
which was to go on to absorb a number of its subsidiaries, ending their
existence as distinct corporate entities. (If that last link is down, try
one of the
others).
Simple enough? This much, our dissident had discussed online, first reporting what he had been told, later on going
into a little more detail. Technology has advanced since then and,
more relevant in this case, so has cooperation between the different phone
companies, alleviating some of the chaos that was created by the breakup
of AT&T. But, as we can see in one
of these archived pages from the Nynex homepage, if we chose one
early enough (like one from before 1999), there were problems involved in using Call Trace
between different regions, which wouldn't be resolved until a few years
later. To find the relevant documentation click on residential services" and
look for Call Trace. One couldn't ask for a more solid rebuttal to the
individual who came on, claimed to be an engineer, and claimed that no
such problem existed. Nor could one ask for more reason to do as "Joseph" did,
and call customer service at the phone companies in question, and ask if
what Loki was claiming was possible.
Nobody, aside from Joseph, did that. Loki went on, after his departure
from the group, to use Hitler's technique of the Big Lie, much beloved
on Usenet, and make a post
in which she claimed that he had gotten the name of St.Louis' phone
company wrong (which, as you can see, he didn't), along with a certain
amount of other nonsense. Reasons to think that Loki
may have wished to turn over a new leaf have since been seen, but, as
a matter of record, we have yet to hear so much as a word of apology
offered by the woman for attempting to drag his name through the mud for
telling the truth.
Travel the above links, and there is no escaping the fact that Loki was
lying. If the tone, here, seems harsh, ask yourself how this could
possibly be an innocent mistake. Incidentally, before somebody tries to
spin doctor this any further, please remember that Southwestern Bell was
the local subsidiary of SBC Communications in St.Louis, as we have already
seen.
But, upon being confronted with these facts, Loki and her friends on
alt.religion.wicca merely became more determined to get their way.
Never underestimate the energy, persistance, or ingenuity of a group
of pathological liars on Usenet. The latest routine is to claim the
existence of a technology that existed in 1997 that would do what Loki
claimed call trace did. Nice try, folks, but Loki threw out a lot of
specifics early on. Here, it is made clear that punching * 57 is how she
was claiming to have done the trace. Thus, any reference to other
technologies or resources, is simply beside the point. See the copies of
the posts below.
There have also been some snotty references to Joseph's alleged use of telco ad pages
as a source of technical information. As an engineer, he wouldn't do that.
However, in the past, when he's told people where to go for information,
be has reportedly encountered either
- A refusal to do so, and a demand that he "prove it",
when he mentions what the source states. ..... or
- Someone who claims to have gone to the source, and then
lies about what it says
This would largely tie anybody's hands, and limited him to resources that have urls.
As it happens, there aren't a great many on this subject. However, how
much of a theoretical buildup does one need, to lead to the word "no"?
Besides which, who knows better what a telephone company's equipment is
capable of, than the phone company?
Someone, at some point, when we finish this account, will wonder why
we'll be leaving it as sketchy as we will. The reason is this. Look at these
people. Do you blame Joseph or us for wanting to get them out of our lives, and our minds? We don't need the distraction from our work, and our interests, and simply put, none of us want to have to think about this crowd any longer than we have to.
Click here if you wish to bypass these next few
posts, and go on to the next matter.
Re: .. Loki would seem to be fibbing
Author: .. loki <[email protected]>
Date: .. 1997/10/16
Forum: .. alt.religion.wicca
Posted on: .. 1997/10/16
Message-ID: .. <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: .. alt.religion.wicca
Organization: .. Inlink
References: .. <[email protected]>
<[email protected]> <[email protected]>
In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...
> .. In <[email protected]> [email protected]
> ..(Raven (J.Singleton)) writes:
>.. > .. What you apparently missed was the explicit mention of
>.. > .. using Call TRACE (*57), not Caller ID, which is a
>.. > .. different service. Too bad, so sad. Start over.
> .. Call trace uses the same mechanism as Caller ID. If one works
> .. the other will. If one does not either will the other. In
> .. any case Joe got some inaccurate information from
> .. the Service Rep he talked to. Both services do work
> .. between phone companies in the areas in question.
> .. Blessed Be
> .. Mark
Exactly. Thank you, Mark for setting that bit straight. I have a package
from Southwestern Bell that is called "The Works". I have their little
booklet on it's features in front of me. It includes Call Waiting, Three-Way
Calling, Caller ID, Call Return, Call Forwarding, Call Notes, Call Blocker,
Call Trace, and the lovely Anonymous Call Rejection which I've just decided is
a lovely thing. With the last one if someone calls me and they have blocked
their number from my Caller ID display unit then with Anonymous Call Rejection
I can keep my phone from even ringing. I've activated it and it's lovely. 
I can also block calls from certain phone numbers. So, armed with this nice
package I'm expecting no further problems.
Loki
(end of post)
Note : for confirmation purposes, here is the original copy on Dejanews.
Message 2 of 2 for search 57
>> Return to search results help
Re: Raven, hold on to this one
Author: loki <[email protected]>
Date: 1997/10/15
Forum: alt.religion.wicca
Posted on: 1997/10/15
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: alt.religion.wicca
Organization: Inlink
References: <[email protected]>
<01bccf9a$8b4ca320$49060a26@delilah> <[email protected]>
<[email protected]> <01bcd07d$2a779260$c17f0a26@delilah>
<[email protected]> <01bcd0de$8f7296e0$6a7f0a26@delilah>
<[email protected]> <[email protected]>
<[email protected]> <[email protected]>
<[email protected]> <[email protected]>
In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...
> .. Joseph (name ommitted by request) wrote:
> | ........
Now that it looks like Loki has attempted to pull a bit of
> | ........
fraud, here, you might want a copy of this post, before
> | ........
she has a chance to change her story, again.
> .. Story doesn't need changing, Joseph. You got *two*
> .. significant details wrong.
>
> .. (1) .. You asked about Caller ID. Loki is referring to
> .............. Call Trace (*57).
> .. (2) .. You asked Southwestern Bell about Caller ID in Missouri.
> .............. Message below refers to calls received in Illinois,
> .............. an Ameritech area. Snipping:
He got it wrong everywhere. We do have Southwestern Bell here in St. Louis MO
and I *do* have *57 capability. I don't have a clue what phone company Joe
here called. I don't know who gave him incorrect information if he did call
SWBell. Plain fact is I do have it and I also have other lovely little
options with "The Works" package from SWBell. Yes, it costs extra but
it's worth it!!!!!
Loki
(end of post)
And here, is the original copy on Dejanews of this particular post.
Aside : If we had had any doubt prior to this that Loki's ethics were
nonexistent, they would have vanished after this post. To say
nothing of Mr.Singleton's: Loki was not the only one alleged
to have received harassing phone calls from Raven Blackbane.
Elfrey was said to have received such calls as well, and Elfrey
was living in the Ameritech calling area. Joseph reported
checking with both Ameritech (Elfrey's provider) and
Southwestern Bell (Loki's provider); to read the commentary made
by Singleton, one would think that he had called only
Ameritech. J.Singleton, quite clearly, was trying to play the
familiar online game of confusing the reader about what precisely
it was, that his opposition had said. A familiar game, but an
unethical one, all the same. As for Loki...
Joseph had never denied that Loki had Call Trace, and Loki knew this,
though someone reading her followup without reading Joe's post later
on, might not. He merely relayed the report that * 57, at the time,
couldn't do what she claimed it did.
He was dealing with a pathological liar. It wasn't the first time.
It wouldn't be the last. Especially on alt.religion.wicca.
Some, to this day, will defend what was done to Blackbane.
This should be no surprise on Usenet, given that this is the
place where even the Unabomber had an online fan club, until he got
caught. So, what would we say to such a person?
If one is about to act supportive of an attempt to put someone else
in prison for a few years on a possibly trumped up charge, a few
minutes of one's time is not too much to ask for one to be sure
that one is doing the right thing. The very fact that you've
just seen Loki lying through her (?) teeth, is adequate grounds
for suspicion that she may have lied about other things as well.
Yet, when we look back, we see that this is exactly what the
group refused to do.
But, in the end, we can't force you to look, any more than we could
force them to look, nor can I keep others from claiming to have
looked, and lying about what the page says.
We can give people access to the truth, but they have to be willing to
make an effort, themselves. We're not going to do any spoonfeeding
here.