So I noticed something.
When OP disappeared for about a year, then returned fairly recently as some sort of strangely militant alt-right socio-nutter Trumpist (a complete 180), ...a few of us actually noticed it. Some of us said it was kinda inevitable, but to me the tone was always completely different. I'm still not completely convinced it's the same person.
Look at the erased OP and subsequent posts--all replaced with blank posts on the same date, May 10, 2018 of this year. Nearly a year after he made this thread. Whoever (whatever) hijacked the OP's account and went about posting fake troll nonsense has left a bit of an obvious trail.
Remember when TDP or whatever his account is, had his account hijacked? Nearly every post in that account, going back years, was suddenly edited to include only links to porn download websites or something like that. Bshole seems to have been hijacked by one of Slow's Russian buddies.
I've been thinking his posts were out of character lately.
I've noticed this about a few posters, well I didn't delve into their posts to see if old ones were edited but there's been at least one or two that I remarked about (I think at one point I even said something like "did the forum get compromised again?" because there was an influx of it) as being noticeably different from how that person used to post. But, as with the fake social media accounts, its tough to tell who just genuinely turned into a raging shithead due to rhetoric and who got hijacked. Either way, its not a good development.
I can't even remember who they are now but there were like 5 of them that I was because there was a noticeable change. One was...Hugo Drax I think? Which, granted I might not have paid much attention to a lot of their posts, but they seemed to partake in pretty genuine honest discussion in religion threads (I'd often get them and Cerpin Text - not sure that's the right name - as they both would wade into such debates without losing their cool but still offering biting criticisms to people making moronic arguments). And then he's become a "women are able to ruin guys lives by claiming rape!" type of posts. It wasn't just the content, the tone of their posts in general seemed to change as well like someone entirely different was using the account.
Oh and TallBill where he used to be a fun, affable guy that I don't recall ever talking politics beyond basic "politicians suck" but then became a willfully obtuse dumbfuck that sure wanted people to explain to him why Turmp was bad because, well, he just couldn't see it himself. And he couldn't figure out why people wouldn't partake in honest discussion when he was spouting right wing shithead phrases (TDS which he basically immediately resorted to using - in spite of him claiming that he had been in Germany and was oblivious to what had been happening in politics back in the US...) and admitting that he didn't know jack shit but that he was qualified to be able to dismiss everything people offered to him. I think he might've even resorted to the "well if you can't explain it to me, then you're obviously wrong" method of "argument" (which is to say, that's his way of dismissing facts provided to him) that I've noticed consistently crops up with returning banned member trolls.
But considering the way we've seen some people go off the deep end on here, it could just be that their mental state changed and that can explain things. I've definitely become more of an asshole since posting in P&N. I try to make sure its focused properly though. There were months where I wasn't posting here though and I think I was more acerbic when I did come back, so I could see someone feeling like I'd changed what and how I posted in a way that might be suspicious. Like I said, tough to tell if the accounts are hijacked or just rhetoric or other explanation for it.
I've also noticed some great posters that I haven't seen lately. There was Gibsons (I'm not sure about the exact names), and there were like a couple of people using University of Wisconsin avatars. All of those people tended to post on scientific topics and knew their shit and could provide good discussion and information. And they weren't dicks about it either. But I noticed them posting less and less as some of the more fucked up people started posting stuff (I recall a thread where people seriously were going "yeah well the woman might be Ronda Rousey!" which arguing that MMA training could make a 100lb woman kick the shit out of a 300lb fat nerd is baffling to me, since professional fighting has pretty rigorous weight classes for a reason but you know, the women might be Jason Voorhees in disguise or something? And that's their arguments for why they should totally be able to beat the shit out of a woman. They even literally used the phrase "if they want equal rights they have to accept equal lefts"). And then there's shit like waggy (which considering I recall him saying his sister in law was making up stories about him being a pedophile really makes me go what the fuck). Makes me wonder if rudeguy is in prison for something since he was a right wing dumbfuck and seemed to have a serious rage problem and couldn't be a bigger dumbass when it comes to politics (which there's been several other conservative dumbfucks that have definitely tried to outdo him - I've pointed out its like they're having a competition for who can be the biggest dumbfuck).