DISRUPTORS

Every website has its share of disruptors and Lucianne Goldberg's was no exception. Unlike most Conservative sites however, her disruptors were not just made up of Liberals and Socialists.

She also had to contend with many Conservative posters, annoyed at quotes attributed to Lucianne about rival website FreeRepublic, who enjoyed coming on to make a nuisance of themselves.

One of the first site-pests was a Californian Liberal who used the monicker 'Manson', who liked to hog Lucy's threads, largely to talk about himself. He quickly achieved a Koresh-like following and Lucy's hard-pressed staff were frequently besieged with complaints about his behavior.

Manson, who claimed to be a rock musician, was eventually banned, though he is thought to have returned on many occasions using other screennames. But there were many other so-called site pests to step into his shoes. Many of them were tolerated by staff, because they at least ensured the site got plenty of hits.

Provocative posters included the Los Angeles-based Indypundit, who seemed to spend much of his day on the site, much to the dismay of Conservative posters. Another was journalist/writer Justin Raimondo, an occasional visitor until he left to set up his own tedious website, Antiwar.com.

His articles so outraged Mrs Goldberg that she later made it a banning offence for anyone to post them. Other controversial Lucianne.com devotees included JJ, a New York-based British journalist, who seemed to post on Lucy's site in a permanent state of inebriation, and Australian Socialist KingKangaroo, who was eventually banned for "posting under the influence".

Perhaps rather ironically, as none of the foreigners had the power to vote, it was this Anglo-Australian influence on the site which was to instigate the staff's new get tough approach. Just when Lucy needed him, webmaster Ken Giles, who posted as Navigator, quit Lcom in a huff to set up a number of dismal forums of his own which no one bothered to read.

He was replaced by Robert Graybear, a slightly nutty American Indian whose motto was rumored to be "Pale Faces suck". Graybear was apparently told to give the Aussies a "good kicking" and because JJ shared the same loutish "oi, mate" vernacular he mistakenly concluded the Brit must be an Australian himself as this entertaining thread demonstrates.

Bannings which followed changed the site. And in many people's opinion changed it for the worse.