Trolling 101: A Lesson for Clueless Moderators

It's another Tale from CE we'll be telling tonight, because we just couldn't turn down covering a recent double standard that has reared its ugly head. -Gavirulax- has once again taken the mods for a ride, played them like a fiddle, and took the time to openly gloat about it.

Who is Gavirulax? WikiFAQs notes:

Gavirulax is a former class 1 KoS user who has accumulated more than 900 confirmed banned accounts since joining GameFAQs...Gavirulax recieved a Cease and Desist order from CNET and was told that if he ever acted out again, they would sue...Gavirulax has since stated that the entire Gavirulax persona was an act, and he's really nothing like his online alias...He also offers money to people and asks them to do things.

So it should be pretty obvious that if anyone's a troll at gamefaqs, it's this guy, right? Sorry.

The recent drama began in a topic by another account, "To the people here considering joining Gavi's clubs, reconsider" in which the person urges unnamed individuals not to take part in some arrangement Gavirulax was planning. As the topic progressed we learned about a scheme to pay people for filming pornographic or embarrassing actions. Smoking-Man, one of Gavi's alts, said that the deal would be off anyway because the TC was gay.

I acknowledge the following:

- You sent in a PM a while back claiming that you "wanted" to know more information about this;
- We then spoke on Facebook about it, I explained it entirely to you with claiming you were straight;
- I flat out said the following: "while they're AGREED on, you don't need to do it, you can back out obviously."
- You agreed to all the terms outright with the lie in which you claim to be straight, which is being mendacious
- You flat out acknowledged a private message 676607 that "You were gay"; which I had previously asked (more than once) and you denied for the sole fact that if you were it would invalidate the entire thing anyway, and before anyone even THINKS of marking/moderating me for revealing the content of a Private Message, I then I suggest you read post 4 in this not that long ago archived topic which is posted by a Lead Moderator:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/573081-hellhole/69581880 - POST 4

From: #4 | Error1355 (Moderator) | Posted 7/6/2014 1:24:32 AM
It's not against the rules itself to post PMs that you received as long as the PM itself doesn't break the rules.

Note to any moderator that may think of moderating this message (yes, that means you if you're seeing this message either in the queue or thinking of marking it):

I will AGAIN state this because I already have moderation on record on another account because a moderator chose not to read (or didn't know any better), you simply cannot moderate (and if anyone marks this message they should be forewarned in case they are suspended for marking abuse) a post for something a moderator, let alone a LEAD moderator has said is allowed which I will quote TWICE (once above and once at the bottom of the post) for record so it cannot possibly be a mistake if this "is" deleted.

POST 4 IN THE FOLLOWING TOPIC CLEARLY SAYS I CAN REVEAL THE CONTENTS OF A PRIVATE MESSAGE BY A LEAD MODERATOR AS LONG AS NOTHING IN IT VIOLATES THE TOU WHICH THIS DOES NOT IN ANYWAY

Cheers. <3

From this message, we can conclude Gavi wanted a homosexual act performed from a straight guy, but was disappointed that the TC then privately claimed to be gay and backed out. We also know that Gavi is a vet at this and was worried about previous moderations he got for divulging private details. It's perfectly understandable why he put this much effort into defending himself, because he's pretty much outing a gay guy or calling the person gay for having backed out. Is it taunting or baiting to say mods can't touch it? Not on this inconsistent site.

As the topic progressed, users familiar with past Gavirulax tricks and rumors asked questions like "Isnt Gavi that weird guy who sexually assaults people?" and talked about things Gavi allegedly paid people to do in the past. Gavi denied the sexual assault rumors but claimed that was two of his relatives. As for his personal life...

There's also such a thing as surrogacy (which is what actually happened), which my sister was in that case (which a lot of people know about) plus it also meant the kids were related (since my bf artificially inseminated one of my sisters) thus the kids are related to both me and my bf.
Science is awesome ain't it? <3

Reference from just after it happened: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/573081-hellhole/67132424 (see, just like magic).

Me and my hubs were very lucky she was willing to do it, now I (with all my money and brilliant ability to not practice any religion) are free to raise 3 healthy kids with fantastic genes that are connected to both of us, marvelous aye? <3

That Hellhole topic links to a story about how he and his boyfriend had two kids on Father's Day through his sister, and then a third one unexpectedly appeared. He tells us he has named them Jessica, Milagro and Jubair.

Remember that little thing we talked about up above? "Gavirulax has since stated that the entire Gavirulax persona was an act, and he's really nothing like his online alias." Did we not get this?

Why am I going through all this, you ask? This is where my frustration with the mods come in. I'm a conservative on board 261. For this mods call me a gimmick and say no way there's someone like you out there, no way someone can make political arguments like that, you must be a troll. Maybe if I claim to have 3 kids with my tranny husband and name them Larry, Curly and Moe the mods will start to take me more seriously.

By the way, it wasn't too long ago that Gavi quite openly trolled 261 (as Molamelerieth) and admitted to it over on Hellhole, but like the mods did let's ignore that shall we. Moving on.

As for that CE topic, we'll just note that Burgess showed up so a mod did see the thing, didn't matter.  He wrote "This is one of the worst topics that I have seen in a long time." And the mods left it at that. Well, they left Gavi alone. Other people, not so much.

By the time the CE topic was locked, Gavi made another topic titled "This topic is closed. - Took you long enough mods...." knowing as many of us do how slow and ineffective the moderators are, Gavi laid out exactly how he trolled the last topic and provoked others into getting moderated:

No, seriously, it did.

RIP all the suspended (or warned, which is ironic coming from me atm) people that devoted their low karma accounts to my cause.

Tyvm. <3

Tempest-Rage - Suspended
MOTTIN - Warned
EnigmasQueue - Suspended

Which again, just goes to show how moderators always seem to miss topics like these, but are quick to call other people "trolls" over the smallest things. We've noted before how the definition of trolling over at gamefaqs is getting someone else offended enough to flame you. So while this rule has been strictly applied to people who didn't mean to provoke anyone, here's a topic that openly does what the Terms were written to prevent and the mods are MIA. When a troll flames, the user is blamed for trolling. When a troll trolls, the users are blamed for "flaming" (in this case, calling BS and noting how terrible a poster Gavi is). We say mods are inconsistent, but the only time they seem to be consistent is when they routinely get it wrong.

the moonlight knight made an excellent observation not too long ago, and it applies here:

GameFAQs' mods and rules end up becoming an arm of troublemakers and trolls, just another instrument to use. Couple this with how little overhead/accountability there seems to be for mods and the apparent 0 incentive for mods to not troll and antagonise users, and how some mods are actually very...supportive of trolls...well, it's a bad time. The system isn't just inept at punishing trolls, but is actually actively supportive of them.

In the end, it's Gavi who marks other people, running to the mods to do his bidding. Gavirulax has been doing this for a long time and he knows how the game is played. All you have to do is "come out" and claim people who don't believe or agree with the wacky narratives you tell are homophobes for calling out your nonsense. Gavi's also been on the Hellhole circuit recently, being sure to tell visitors why they're wrong and the mods were right to take down their violations. So despite Gavirulax's past, apparently it goes a long way if you claim special group status and start sucking up to the mods over at Hellhole. Trolls take note, maybe you can ride this formula out as long as Gavi has.