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Guerilla Posting 101 Sometimes
you just have to get your message out.
The cause of liberty, especially in these trying times, is at its
core a battle against the State for the hearts and minds of the masses.
The easiest way to participate in this battle is to become active
on Internet message boards. Post
facts, post opinions, challenge the views of others; get them to think.
There are untold thousands, if not millions of people
participating in online discussion forums each and every day; it’s an
open market for ideas. Problems
arise, however, when people seek to curtail your educational endeavors.
It turns out that some
people
like to create the illusion of a free exchange of ideas, only to pull
the proverbial plug on those that offer a viewpoint they don’t approve
of. When such is the case,
one will often find that not only has his or her post(s) been deleted,
their account on the message board has been banned in an effort to
prevent further “offenses.” Not
only is this hypocrisy morally repugnant (especially on so-called
“pro-American” sites like Free
Republic and Democratic
Underground, where free speech should be sacred), it hampers our
efforts to reach people. This
simply will not do. Having
been excommunicated for thought crimes, are you going to simply give up
on the message board(s) in question and confine yourself to less hostile
venues? NO!
More often than not, the sites guilty of such censorship have the
largest audiences, and are also the ones most in need of a little
intellectual diversity. What
do you do? Become a guerilla
poster! Guerilla
posting is the act of “sneaking back in” to message boards that
you’ve been banned from for the purpose of reposting deleted columns,
posting new columns, or publicly chastising the draconian moderator(s).
Sure, the next post you generate that’s deemed “politically
incorrect” will get deleted and earn you another ban, but so what?
Your post will be up long enough for some people to read,
and besides, as a veteran guerilla poster you’ll be able to get right
back in under a new name and do it all again.
Some moderators might even get tired of dealing with it and end
their Nazi tactics. (Note:
This is all perfectly legal.) Getting Started The
first thing you’ll need to do is set up some additional email accounts
for yourself. This is
necessary because your email address is often used as an identifier, so
attempting to create a new login name with the same old email address
won’t work. Additionally,
a lot of message boards now require you to answer an email before
activating your new account, so you have to have a valid address before
you can get back on. In
addition to Hotmail and Yahoo,
there are literally thousands of websites that provide free email
accounts. A simple Altavista
or All-the-web search for
“free email” or “free webmail” will keep you in business for the
rest of your life. Getting Back In Although
easily defeated by the guerilla poster, the most effective means of
preventing an excommunicated individual from posting on a message board
is to ban his or her IP
address. Think of your
IP address as your “serial number” on the Internet.
All you need to do in order to create a new login on any system
from which you’ve been banned is to either change or hide this serial
number. If you’re on a
dialup Internet connection, your IP address should change every time you
dial back in. The only way
to IP ban dialup users is to ban entire domains within their ISP, which
is not likely to happen. If
this does happen, fear not, you can still hide where you’re
coming from with a proxy server (see below.) If
you connect to the Internet through a cable or DSL connection, your IP
address is always the same. Proxy
servers will more than likely be your only recourse, although sometimes
you can manually change your IP (depending upon how your ISP is set up)
by turning off and physically disconnecting your cable/DSL modem from
the outside line for a while (I’ve seen it take anywhere from 15
minutes to an hour.) Make
sure you find out what your IP
address is first, so you know if it has indeed changed afterwards.
If this doesn’t work, or if you don’t feel like waiting for a
new IP, the proxy server method is absolutely guaranteed to accomplish
our goal. Using Anonymous Proxies Without getting into the how’s and why’s, a proxy server is basically another machine on the Internet that allows you to “pass through” it to access other computers (websites in this case.) In so doing, the site you connect to sees you as coming from the proxy’s IP address instead of your own, banned address. Using proxies over the web is incredibly simple, and it really requires no know-how at all. Don’t worry about how or why it works, just know that it does. The only “effort” required is in finding an active proxy. While there are some well-known proxies such as Anonymizer, it’s been my experience that those don’t always work reliably. There are, however, a multitude of websites out there that post proxies on a daily basis. Two of my favorites are: http://www.proxytester.com/page1.html http://www.stayinvisible.com/index.pl/proxy_list Each
of these also has links to other proxy lists, so there’s really no
trouble in finding one that’ll work for you.
Stick to servers on ports 80 or 8080, and never use proxies
labeled “transparent,” as they don’t hide your IP.
Once you’ve picked a proxy (try to stick to ones with a
“fast” speed rating), all you need to do is tell your browser to use
it, and you’re ready to go: In Internet Explorer, click the “Tools” menu Choose “Internet options” Click the “Connections” tab Go
to “LAN settings” or “Dialup setting” (whichever applies) and
check “Use proxy.” Simply
enter the address and port of the proxy you’ve chosen from the list,
and you’re done. (For
older versions of IE and Netscape click
here.) Make sure you use
the “test” links on the proxy lists to ensure your IP is indeed
hidden. Chances are you’ll need to change proxies every day or so, and sometimes the listed ones are so swamped they’ll not work fast enough, but don’t give up. After a few tries you’re bound to get a good one. If you find that all the proxies are running slow, hang in there long enough to post your messages, then simply go back into your browser’s connection options and uncheck the proxy box. It’s that simple. You are now ready to begin guerilla posting. Go back to the lands from whence you were banished and cry freedom! |
