UPDATE: Voat Admin Conspiracy! Putt Returns? Possible Gag Order / Defcon 3 Edition (whatever)

submitted ago by SaneGoatiSwear

~~>{now 1/8th the size!}<~~

refer to this post for all the info and links: original megathread link

THINGS WE KNOW

(updated and condensed)

  1. the admins @atko and @puttitout and the slimg devs (@technician90 and @crispykat) dissapeared a little over a month ago.

  2. atko (sort-of) returned a little less than two weeks ago (as did technician90), and

  3. atko has been asked repeatedly what's going on in all venues, from pms to front page posts to comment pings where puttitout is, yet

  4. atko has said exactly nothing regarding puttitout's whereabouts. also, there's been no response to various requests for greater transparency, nor really any dev-related discussion from the admins since their dissapearance. generally, there has been a great silence.

  5. puttitout is still missing, - there is only heresay - HOWEVER

  6. he upvoated ONE submission earlier today, and there has been no proven other communication with him. sadly i never screencapped his page before the voat, so at best there's activity, otherwise it's still NUTHIN outta putt :(

-- in any case, we are very concerned this is a purposeful silence,

leading us to believe there IS A CHANCE that there has been a gag order placed on our admins, (as the current warrant canary lacks information on the half-dozen other types of gag orders, there's a chance a non fisa/NS letter gag has been placed, and, alas, even with a fully formed deadmanswitched canary, warrant canaries aren't legally set in stone yet)

thus
we directly ask @atko and @puttitout: what in goat's teeth is going on? what's going on regarding voat finances, employees, this "transparency," the state of and future of voat, the canary being full of holes - and we want timestamps on pictures of you two goats! - but most importantly, what's goin' on with your absence and your silence?! is this just what you consider "hands-off"?

until they respond, defcon 3 goats! be ready to go, we're at heightened awareness:

"hey @puttitout and @atko what's going on?!" "why won't you answer, @atko and @puttitout?" "are you in mitch hedburg's trunk rite now, search party of voat? @atko and @puttitout"

Laurentius_the_pyro ago

Read the post.

Laurentius_the_pyro ago

I think someone is projecting...

DoomMantia ago

Would you say it's time to jump ship? Or not yet?

SaneGoatiSwear ago

no. we're at defcon3, we're past just gathering info (defcon4). now it's watching vigilantly. next be ready(defcon2) and finally defcon 1 jump dat ship.

pr0nw4r ago

Jew takeover alert?

Alias_Unknown ago

Keep up the great work.

BottomLine ago

They took a good look at the site they created and what kind of people now hung out here, and decided to just get the fuck out.

Downvote this as much as you want, it doesn't change that this place is turning into the reverse SRS.

LlamaMan ago

Eh fair enough but it feels like you're grabbing at straws to me.

p0ssum ago

puttitout then maybe?

SaneGoatiSwear ago

uh viv. it's not ness. true the first intents of atko with whoaverse were for freeze peach. it may well have been no peach spaces he was trying to create, but possibly changed it; have no source, just goats talking.

also,

he could fucking respond!

Cum_control ago

Yeah this is only a side project after all and we are all the lab rats, but you knew that coming in soooo

SaneGoatiSwear ago

go read the post.

like actually read it.

MCVoat ago

American's vastly underestimate the length of a European vacation.

WhiteSoIMustBeRacist ago

Seems maybe more likely they ran out of money and are losing interest.

p0ssum ago

Seems maybe more likely they ran out of money and are losing interest.

I might lose interest if I ran a website where people regularly called for the death of people practicing my religion.

Dangus ago

It's because the admins allowed + were Hecho. Hecho even made a post about me, I'd love for the feds to talk to me. I have so much information about this site and others.

Tommstein ago

Pretty sure you mean DEFCON 1. Anyway, have you considered the possibility that they saw that what once had so much hope turned into a shitty Trump campaign website with little prospect of ever going anywhere, and they decided to stop wasting their time and energy on it as unpaid Trump campaign volunteers?

SaneGoatiSwear ago

pretty sure i don't. look it up. before, we were just heightened intel gathering (defcon4) now we're at heightened ready to go, defcon3. in a certain undisclosed period of time if there is 0 admin response, we will move to defcon 2, and begin preparing readiness actions to prepare for incoming voat annihilation. defcon 1 would quite literally mean the worst: voat's gagged, free speech is dead, we know, and we're out.

so no it's not defcon1 yet.

also, why yes, i have, and it doesn't explain what's going on.

Tommstein ago

Very well then, DEFCON 3 it is.

p0ssum ago

Ouch, there's no need to be so truthful here.

brucethemoose ago

anti-racism laws

Looks at default front page.

That could be a problem.

ginx2666 ago

I'll repeat it once again - voat is registered in US. With current political climate, do you really think there have been no attempts to silence and sabotage it?

SaneGoatiSwear ago

i think there have. but i also think a stalwart defender of free speech would speak up if there was a successful one or might about to be a successful one.

ginx2666 ago

With how Dumbfuckistan deals with people they deem problematic (raiding their homes even on foreign soil, accusing them of rape/paedophilia and planting false witnesses and victims, putting them in Guantanamo without trial, or simply murdering them in broad daylight), would you risk all of that just to keep up one website for social outcasts without any real influence or power, for maximum of one day? Or to send a message that will quickly get disregarded?

Voat isn't a website vital to any aspect of life. It isn't a wikipedia, which if taken down would make 40% of students fail their assignments or not submit homework. It isn't youtube, which if taken down would cause riots. It's literally a small carbon copy of reddit, but leaning to the right instead of left. Not worth risking your life for.

SaneGoatiSwear ago

you may not value free speech enough to defend it in any sphere, but others do.

ginx2666 ago

There are other, safer, more anonymous and definitely more difficult to subvert and take over/down means to communicate and organize, but they're too difficult to understand for a typical retard that can at most create an account and spout idealistic bullshit. Voat definitely serves a good purpose, but it also is an easy target.

If you're going to "defend" free speech, you should learn how and where to allocate your resources to win, not to simply fight a losing battle on multiple, hopeless fronts.

Anchy ago

That was a good read. Thanks :-)

Alias_Unknown ago

You bring up a good point that they may simply be busy with the rest of their lives.

But you're such a God dammed cunt about the whole thing, I just felt it necessary to tell you to go Fuck yourself.

SaneGoatiSwear ago

the points' been brought up, and by those capable of actually backing up a point, and it still doesn't explain so much of what's going (and not going) on.

AlwaysInService ago

I think we're all kind of assuming that if @puttitout didn't say anything recently, it's just better to try to ping @atko

LlamaMan ago

To touch on your last point he did kind of post a picture and say hey look guys I'm on my motorcycle vacating...

SaneGoatiSwear ago

on one hand what you say is legit.

on the other, it doesn't address any of voat goats' requests for transparency amidts this silence.

this is a platform for discussion. people discuss things.

Get over it.

does atko really strike you as the type to not respond? i mean you love this "silly" "fucking" website, rite? you would know! atko would nonchalantly pop a comment like "he pops in sometimes"

https://voat.co/v/whatever/comments/1225872/6054030/10#6054030

bikergang_accountant ago

I know for a fact that warrants have been issued here. Why? Because atko sought out the authorities in relation to some CP at some point I believe. It's all fine and well that he volunteered data but usually the law wants more assurence of complience than that so they would still issue a warrent. That also consolidates the types of paper trails. Data suggesting criminal act (even if it is all the data) -> warrant -> data obtained from warrant.

Alias_Unknown ago

When did this happen? I know Atko has taken a 0 tolerance stance on CP. But I never heard of that whole situation.

CrazyInAnInsaneWorld ago

SRS and some other SJW's tried to plant some incriminating shit, just like they did with Fullchan, iirc. It's also part of the reason Atko made an exception and banned /v/jailbait, despite not technically breaking any laws.

Of course, it's late and I'm tired, so that may just be some wires crossed in recalling 8chan and their shenanigans.

Alias_Unknown ago

I remember when that false flag occured. Slimg came under fire as well for hosting it.

You might be getting details a bit mixed as well as I might have missed what you're referring to.

SaneGoatiSwear ago

heh, yes.

SaneGoatiSwear ago

collegetoker ago

Someone could always host a reddit clone on the darknet, but that comes with its own set of problems. I think we all came here with the knowledge that there was going to come a point when this site was burned... I just didn't expect it to happen so soon.

BustyChicksFTW ago

Or they're just on vacation because they need a break. You know, the less crazy theory.

SaneGoatiSwear ago

https://voat.co/v/Conspiracy/comments/1246080

go through, and see what you think. look for yourself.

p0ssum ago

I think you guys are fucking nuts. I think thats WHY you post to a place called v/conspiracy. I think you idiots see a conspiracy behind every tree and bush. I did look, I think they probably went on vacation....

BustyChicksFTW ago

"e. atko has announced a vacation before"

They aren't your bitches on a leash. They have lives outside of Voat too you know. Same as me. I used to post a lot but I'm in Engineering and I have a job. We can't all have all the time in the world to elaborate tinfoil hat bs like you man. Atko and PutItAll seem even more busy than me. I have no idea how they even manage this website.

Baconmon ago

I agree that some thing seems very weird that BOTH of them are suddenly silent.. Being burnt-out on the site means taking a break for a few weeks, not abandoning the site for eternity and never coming back..

For now, we can only speculate, and can't know for sure if they are being silenced or not.. And there is a chance we may not know that information for a LONG time..
Therefore, as much as we love voat, I propose that we give atko and puttitout a deadline of some sort to respond by (maybe 3-6 months?).. If NEITHER ONE of them have responded at all by that deadline, we should start thinking about possibly creating a new website, because if atko or puttitout never return, eventually you will have SJW mods infiltrating every major subverse, and it will turn in to reddit where any thing against the narrative is censored, and no one will be here to remove those mods..
And remember: Just because we create a new website doesn't mean you instantly have to abandon voat at the same time; you can use both.. But with out a way to remove SJW mods, the whole site is a ticking time-bomb waiting to descend in to hell just like reddit.. It is like an airplane put on auto-pilot and both the captain and co-pilot have jumped out, leaving the plane on a course that will eventually descend in to the side of a mountain.. There HAS to be a reason they are both completely mute now.. Kind of an eerie feeling..

SaneGoatiSwear ago

PicowattBulb ago

Does their disappearance coincide with just shortly after the release of the wiki DNC email leak? Could it be that they're forced into handing over censorship because of the leaks that we were seeing in here and prospective leaks to come? That leshit website didn't come close to the quality of posts with source documents like we did. Do we know of any court cases against them?

EdSnowden ago

@atko @puttitout can we get a tiny update?

SaneGoatiSwear ago

yes i know. i'd prefer to let the concerned community goats do the pinging.

someone just suggested my writing style include the @ symbol. i don't like it, do you?

BB-3 ago

You could try the /u/ instead of @, that way it'll link to the user, but not ping them

SaneGoatiSwear ago

good call. but on voat, it's user/ ? so weird. u/ sounds reddity

BB-3 ago

/u/SaneGoatiSwear
/user/SaneGoatiSwear

Only one of those automatically links for me...

SaneGoatiSwear ago

true!

FPSFairy ago

there's a chance a non fisa/NS letter gag has been placed

For those of us who don't know about these types of "legal" things, can you elaborate what this means/might be?

SaneGoatiSwear ago

sure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gag_order#United_States

for one quick example, gag orders can be part of investigations.. they aren't limited to FISA nor NS letters..

"In the United States, a court can order parties to a case not to comment on it but has no authority to stop unrelated reporters from reporting on a case. "

"18 U.S.C. § 2705(b) (the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 / Stored Communications Act) also provides for gag orders which direct the recipient of a 18 U.S.C. § 2703(d) order to refrain from disclosing the existence of the order or the investigation."

"18 U.S.C. § 3123(d)(2) (the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986) also provides for gag orders which direct the recipient of a pen register or trap and trace device order not to disclose the existence of the pen/trap or the investigation."

and the rest through the link :)

so, gags happen for all sorts of reasons,

but they all do one thing: gag ya!

so when a place like voat has admins that go dead silent on any important subjects may well be party to or part of an investigation, even though they may not have received a NS letter or have gotten a FISA request ( i think those are the technical terms :), it's quite suspicious.

i'd rather not speculate haha as was done in the v/conspiracy original post. now i just want a friendly hi from the admins explainin' and for all this to be one big laugh and no big deal. 8D

Alias_Unknown ago

Alright,

puts on the tin foil hat

Conspiracy theory time.

Hecho has been inactive for quite some time now. One of the last things he posted was that the feds were in to him.

What if his activity on Voat is being used as part of the investigation/court case?

This really doesn't explain the majority of the other goings on. But some of those may also be simple coincidences.

But if there is some sort of investigation regarding Voat. I propose that this would be the best case scenario.

@Atko, I think you would really put a large portion of the communities fears to rest, if you gave some insight into what's been going on lately.

SaneGoatiSwear ago

occam's razor is in your court. that theory + they went on vacation. simple enough and fits the whole bill. they're staying silent during an ongoing investigation they're party to, by a gag order.

still leaves out what's the larger picture re: voat's future, why they won't say where putt is.

ashekchum ago

What if putt's alt is hecho

MrPim ago

And Atko is Amalek!

HarveyHarveyJones ago

Maybe Atko is Putt and so forth.

ashekchum ago

Maybe we are all atko alts?

Alias_Unknown ago

It seems like certain aspects are being blown out of proportion.

I am very taken aback by Atko's silence. In my experience he's been very chatty and forthcoming with details in regards to transparency.

Perhaps they're simply burnt out on the shit pile that Voat has become.

Tommstein ago

Perhaps they're simply burnt out on the shit pile that Voat has become.

We almost certainly have a winner.

SaneGoatiSwear ago

i'm trying my best to stick to the facts in this one. the last post was v/conspiracy so it was made to fit. this is v/whatever, and comes from exactly where you express: a reaction to the silence.

if they're burnt out, let's all talk about it, right? 8D

Alias_Unknown ago

I've been watching your posts over the last few days, and aside from some of the outlandish theories in the conspiracy post. I definitely agree that something is up.

As far as talking about it. What's the point? It's the vast community of Voat itself that's the problem.

This place couldn't go a single day without posting some thing about muslims, Jews or black people. Certain individuals would likely implode if that were the case.

Voat has strayed quite far from what I assume Atko had initially planned. Hell, the difference is abundantly clear from when I joined. Did you know that Atko initially forbid hate speech? He eventually changed his mind, but I can't help but wonder if he regrets that decision. I personally would feel very conflicted if I ran a website that called for my death multiple times an hour for simply being Muslim.

The niche subject subs are struggling to survive by nothing more than the mods perseverance. The vast majority of them have fallen to abandonment because the community isn't interested in niche stuff. They just want a platform to soapbox their hatred.

Sorry, I kind of went off on a tangent there.

brucethemoose ago

Not all of us are like that.

There are literally dozens of us.

p0ssum ago

For you.

Alias_Unknown ago

Yup, there's some users here that really do make this place special. @articdweller @LockeProposal @silversurfer are a few examples off the top of my head that I see posting awesome, unique content. There's many more, and I'm always thrilled to upvote some good ok OC.

I

p0ssum ago

Hear hear, Im hoping after the election things will tone down a bit. I doubt, because then they are going to be all worked up about President Hillary and the shitstorm of stupid will continue unabated. I had great hopes for voat, until stormfront took over.

Alias_Unknown ago

It seems that the moderates of this website feel as disenfranchised as the alt right does everywhere else.

p0ssum ago

The Alt-right has their sites, but they all get pigeonholed, just like is happening to voat. Soon this will be just another niche racist hangout. Lord knows I've tried ... but I too have given up and taken to just trolling trumpsters.

Cum_control ago

Fuck niggers.

Alias_Unknown ago

Well at least I know that there's literally dozens of us.

p0ssum ago

Got that right!

LlamaMan ago

You hit the nail on the head with this post man, I hope people stop downvoating you for having a different opinion than them because it is extremely well thought out. You have a great point and I'd really like to see the circle jerk start to fall off. While I agree with the viewpoints it is literally all I see when I come here unless I put effort in to going to other subvs.

I think Voat has an issue with the way it is coded though. For example if you subscribe to any subverse you will see mainly that subverses posts on the front page if you aren't subd to anything else. Subbing shouldn't cause so much of an effect imo because if I sub to one sub, unless I sub to 10 more at the same time with equal viewing I'm only going to see juicetown.

Rant.

Alias_Unknown ago

Thank you, it's something that I've been kicking around in my head for a few days now.

I'm not surprised at the downvotes. Every time someone goes against the circle jerk or calls out the hate subs, that's always the result. I think that's another factor that's killing vote. Simple lack of discussion. Three people didn't like what I said, but didn't spend the time to express their reasons why.

As far as subbing goes, I exclusively browse all/new. So subscribing is more along the lines of blocking. Which I reserve for low effort content subs that seem to just want to be edgy. Naziniggas and hitlerwasright was two subs from just today that I ended up blocking for those reasons.

I think a major issue is the vote farming aspect. Why submit to a long dead sub, some OC of legit content, only to receive 1-3 upvotes.

When you can simple submit a post to niggers that says "DOE hate niggers?" and receive hundreds of upvotes?

The algorithm may be at fault. But I think the community itself is more so. I don't see Voat as a sustainable platform because it's main draw is hatred.

Personally I refer to Voat as "a forum board I frequent". Because I don't want to be associated with the awfulness that is rightfully perceived with this place.

Voat has some really cool moments, but over all that's just how it is.

A few years ago I was balls deep into reddit and constantly recommending it to my friends.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this train of thought. But I don't see Voat lasting for more than a year from now at its current state.

Free speech doesn't mean you have to squat down and shit all over everything.

LlamaMan ago

I hear ya. While I'm very much okay with hate sub's and I'm very much a part of them the discussion shouldn't dominate Voat. It currently does. I think the main reason is people who come here generally stick to reddit and fat people hate or nigger on Voat making it a pit of shit.

I'd much prefer to see Voaters. The only time I ever use reddit is when I'm curious about a game, so I'll go to /r/titanfall for example. Otherwise I'm here or on forums. Everyone else seems to get there anger out on Voat then go to reddit. Fuck that. Reddit is a totally paid for shill site and it drives me nuts, just yesterday my friend showed me this "homeward bound" scene on /r/movies.... The top comment was "definitely somethig to rewatch, so many good scenes" and there was a comment replying to that showing where to buy it.... People are so dumb. Ranting again.

SaneGoatiSwear ago