It's sad that some people are incapable of taking responsibility for their own actions, but there you have it. I now consider this matter closed.

Racists make me sick.

So don't eat them :)

Besides which, there's no 'AOL IP issue'. Any decent proxy system will hook you up with the nearest proxy (lowest ping). The IPs in question are assigned to "Reston, USA", pings are ~93ms for both and traceroutes bring up almost identical paths (hops 17 and 18 are different, different path through same network on hops 8-11). Rather, the two proxy servers used are right next to each other.

From what info I can find on it, apparently the AOL proxies are only used by AOL software to begin with - that is, Nero, Steve and "White Power Atheist" all use an AOL browser, which apparently has a marketshare of less than 0.5% right now. (I can't find a concrete number, it's usage does not appear to be tracked anymore. Best I can find is "0.82% - Other" on wikipedia.)

Regardless, I think AOL began using X-Forwarded-For HTTP headers at some point. If those are available the originating IP behind the proxies can be identified. Not that 3 users all using an incredibly rare browser, sharing two physically adjacent proxies and commenting on the same website isn't enough to confirm it. (HTTP headers also usually contain other semi-uniquely identifying information like OS & version, browser type/version/language/charset, accepted media types / encodings, etc.)

At any rate, this isn't a court of law, it's the internet. Ebonmuse doesn't have to give you a fair shake, he doesn't have to give you an opportunity to redeem yourself, he doesn't need to do anything he doesn't want to do because this is his sandbox. If you're interested in continuing to participate in this community after the dust settles from these shenanigans, then he's given you a way to do that; but please don't complain that it's a tough row to hoe, because it's always harder to reestablish trust than it is to establish it in the first place. Here's a thought: if you wanted to pull a stunt like that, howzabout asking the guy in charge if he's OK with it first? Seems like that would have saved you a lot of grief.

BTW: Ebonmuse "controls and censors" the comments submitted here because this is his personal blog. If you'd like to start your own Fatima Rant blog, you're welcome to do that, and I'd likely be among your readers!

I would do some grammar, spelling, use of punctuation and phrase comparisons but that would be superfluous. Nero says "Does he even exist?" - despite Nero and Steve both being awfully familiar with one another, what the other is doing and whether or not they're racists. So, a quite high level of inter-reference between Steve and Nero, but no communication between them in this comment thread (Steve's not surprised that Nero's defending him, nor does he direct any comments at him).

The highly suspect behaviour, and inconsistency of familiarity between Steve and Nero, is enough to narrow it down to 'odd, probably English or learning challenged, but good friends' and 'sockpuppets'.

This should prove our innocence. Sorry if it offended anyone

Do I have to point out that it makes no sense for "Nero" to be uttering this comment? He admitted responsibility for writing the racist comments as part of an "experiment". How can he now present evidence which he claims will prove his innocence when he's already confessed his guilt?

That said, this comment would make perfect sense coming from Steve. Perhaps someone has gotten his alternate identities confused.