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The Iain Dale Fan Club

The Iain Dale Fan Club started at midday on April 16, 2009, after Iain Dale stood by and allowed me to be smeared as a paedophile*, refused to discuss that, banned me from the comments on his website for daring to press the matter, and then refused to remove further false claims about me published on his website.

[*MINI-UPDATE (22 Apr) - Here's a handy summary of all of that for you.]

Iain failed to understand at the time that the only thing making his ban effective was my refusal to 'sock-puppet' on his Blogger.com-hosted website like so many of his supporters.

So... The Iain Dale Fan Club begins with nine honorary members and nine rules:

The Iain Dale Fan Club Rules

The first rule of the Iain Dale Fan Club is you do not talk about the Iain Dale Fan Club.

The second rule of the Iain Dale Fan Club is you do not talk about the Iain Dale Fan Club.

The third rule of the Iain Dale Fan Club is that membership is by invitation only.

The fourth rule of the Iain Dale Fan Club is that you must earn your invitation by getting Iain Dale to lose his temper and/or delete your comments over a fair challenge to any of his false/misleading/incorrect claims a total of five times (i.e. to earn your five 'points' to start).

The fifth rule of the Iain Dale Fan Club is that you can earn a bonus two points toward your starting five - once - if Iain misses the point and/or loses his temper to the point where he specifically accuses you of trolling and/or of correcting/challenging his false/misleading/incorrect claims only because you want to be a member of the Iain Dale Fan Club.

The sixth rule of the Iain Dale Fan Club is that - if you are invited - you must, when instructed, create an alternative identity (i.e. a sock-puppet) or series of same and only make comments of the following variety on the main website of that notorious blog-cheat and thin-skinned Tory propagandist...

Directed at Iain, his writing, or items that he has endorsed:
- gushing praise
- naive, unquestioning agreement

Directed at Iain's enemies and those who dare question his wisdom under comments:
- childish, puerile and/or witless put-downs
- vicious attacks

The seventh rule of the Iain Dale Fan Club is that you must not 'sock puppet' on any other site ever, ever, ever. No excuses.

The eighth rule of the Iain Dale Fan Club is that the ninth rule will not be revealed to you until an invitation has been issued and initiation is complete.

The ninth rule of the Iain Dale Fan Club is [classified].

Here we go, folks. Hang loose for a few hours or days depending on your schedule. No sense us all turning up at once and being too conspicuous, like.

-

UPDATE - A quick update for non-members from a comment made elsewhere, which is probably worth a mention here given the naked vicar's narrative:

Iain once admitted to me that he often lets comments go live and conversations go on without really reading/checking them (not mine, obviously). Even with moderation on, he will often let through maybe 20 at a time without checking them first (not today, obviously). This is not a very clever, safe or considerate thing to do. I've been on the wrong end of it far too often, and I am now going to make sure that Iain won't be doing it again for a long, long time.

I we don't have to break a sweat or any laws or any Blogger.com rules to do it, and it won't matter if Iain has moderation switched on or off. The people 'auditioning' will look like regular (if sceptical) newcomers, and identifying Fan Club members will be problematic to say the least. If he makes good on his subtle threat to go back to unregistered comments, that just makes life easier.

Iain also once admitted that, despite his many claims of 'NuLieBore' sock-puppetry on his site, he considers himself completely incapable of tracking who is really saying what at any given time, and he couldn't reliably identify a sock-puppet if he tried. In other words, he just yells 'sock puppet' at people he doesn't like and lets his mates get on with being however many people they please.

If you think that sounds like a lousy way to run a site, you're right... but the good news is that this shitty tactic is about to get a lot more complicated for Iain, too.

Posted by Manic on April 16, 2009 11:53 AM in the category The Political Weblog Movement

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