Disruptions on The Patriot Hangout Forum on TapaTalk

[Michigan Swamp Buck]

I just posted this over on ATS. Thought you guys might want to know about this.

The group known as The Patriot Hangout is an active forum with a large membership at "tapatalk.com". I joined it back when Parlor got canceled because I was afraid ATS and other forums like it would get the same treatment. They have so many of the same subjects on the threads there as on here (ATS) that I have been keeping track of it and posting fairly frequently.

Just the other day a member there was having trouble linking through a search engine and got the following message . . . 

Oops, no Groups found under the name 'thepatriothangout'. Would you like to create a new group on Tapatalk?

That member said in that post that they worried The Patriot Hangout was getting the axe by big brother. There was a discussion about another mirror board that they had but rarely checked on. I chimed in with another board of my own that I have on a different server in hopes someone might end up there and get a hold of me if it did get canceled.

At the time I didn't think much about that as I had my own group on Tapatalk and had no problem getting to it or doing anything on it. However, just now I'm getting the same message for the hangout, then after a few tries, the main board comes up but any thread links I try, there is the message again. It doesn't seem to matter how I try, bookmark, directly inputting the address, search result links, using firefox and chrome, whatever. Yet, it doesn't seem to be a server problem as I can still access my group and do whatever I want. The group owner has a mirror forum with another server and just provided the link, one that I can't use when I can even get the main page to come up. Apparently he thought it was important enough to have a standby, I should have found the link and gone to it before when I could have.

I was just wondering if some members here know of this forum group or may be members there and what they have been experiencing. Maybe someone could try accessing the group on tapatalk and see what they get, a search engine will get you the link (thepatriothangout tapatalk).


I posted this to make it clearer . . .

"The Patriot Hangout is (or was) a really well moderated forum, there wasn't anything that radical about the topics, it was all the same current news reports you'd see on ATS. No one voiced any extreme views really, there weren't any serious trolls, just a bunch of good folks that have some brain cells to rub together. I felt very welcome there and never found anything objectionable in the threads.

Many have never heard of it and I never would have found it if I didn't already have a group of my own there. I figured I search that platform first and see what was there, most of the forums I found are ghost towns."


Then this post in reply to another.

". . . that's why I went searching for an obscure forum somewhere that had a large active membership with free speech and topics I like. I figured something like that wouldn't be in the spotlight but it seems to have gotten jacked pretty good somehow. Low hanging fruit perhaps? I've gotten on a few little known forums like that, maybe they are next?"

I hope RN3 isn't next, I'll be running out of options soon.

[Michigan Swamp Buck]

I just got back in the hangout and everyone there is bitching about it. Members are reporting other suspicious things on other platforms. At ATS a mod even PMed on about some strange things too.

The guy running that board just posted this before he provided the backup board link . . .

There's been a Russian bot spammer...LOL....It'll take awhile to clean that up....But it's here if you want to say hi...

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

I just got back in the hangout and everyone there is bitching about it. Members are reporting other suspicious things on other platforms. At ATS a mod even PMed on about some strange things too.

The guy running that board just posted this before he provided the backup board link . . .

There's been a Russian bot spammer...LOL....It'll take awhile to clean that up....But it's here if you want to say hi...

I posted a couple of times of some strange activity here at RN.

I found it odd because it was similar to the oddness that I had at ATS, but ATS was far worse.

Mostly trouble connecting and time out errors.

[Michigan Swamp Buck]

I just got back in the hangout and everyone there is bitching about it. Members are reporting other suspicious things on other platforms. At ATS a mod even PMed on about some strange things too.

The guy running that board just posted this before he provided the backup board link . . .

There's been a Russian bot spammer...LOL....It'll take awhile to clean that up....But it's here if you want to say hi...

I just realized that he was referring to the mirror board, it was spammed to death because it wasn't being monitored. The trouble on tapatalk is a different problem.

[Michigan Swamp Buck]

I just found this thread posted at The Patriot Hangout. 

EXCLUSIVE: MASSIVE Democrat ‘Bot Farms’ Revealed Influencing Elections, War, And Racial Tension — 51,343,790,000 Social Media Impressions Since 2019 — They’re Gearing Up for November & 2024

Article Link

Maybe that has something to do with all this?

[Ninurta]

We did have a problem with spam bots here, but we set it up so that every new account had to be approved, to keep them from crashing us. Even with that, we at one point were having to deny around 800 attempts to create spam accounts per day. As you can imagine, that got pretty tedious, so that was when we set it to request an account via e-mail. That finally put a stop to the spammer attempts.

We don't care what your politics are, but we do prefer real live people over auto-bots to post here.

.

[Michigan Swamp Buck]

The Patriot Hangout is still up and things seem to have returned to normal there. Perhaps I over reacted and it was merely some server problem they were experiencing.

However, it does demonstrate two things.

1) People who question the story presented by the authorities and exercise their right of free speech are worried (even paranoid) that they will get censored or worse be cancelled. There are many examples of why their concerns are well founded.

2) In forums and social media groups that focus on unsanctioned topics and question the veracity of the official story, the members are aware of the offensive measures being used against them and may even have plans to deal with a crack down on dissidence ideas, but are disorganized and unprepared when their network crashes.

This was the case with ATS when it went down without warning for a week. People there scrambled all over trying to keep the network together. As much as has been done to provide a plan A or B for such scenarios, it was like headless chickens running around.

I see the need to get more active in this regard, other less vulnerable means of communication must be used. Maybe there should be something that can connect the different groups on different platforms? I'm not sure how such connections could or should be established, TOR perhaps, but some vetting process is needed to safeguard such a union of groups into a larger network. There is strength in numbers, on the other hand, the cell approach may be necessary if the heat is really on.

A network tree can be a good idea. One person contacts a few others, who then contact a few each, etc., until everyone in the network has been contacted. Go hog wild and contact everyone you know by all methods available? Maybe a regular meeting place and time on some obscure or abandoned forum, chat room, or social media platform like MySpace?

I want to believe these were merely normal disruptions and outages, not so for Parlor and I'm not forgetting that one ever. So what to do about the eventuality of a complete lock down of all communications? The FCC can do that in a declared emergency. Aren't we in one of those still do to covid? How will we keep the network going when there is no network outside of the internet boards and social media?

At the very least some dedicated people need to step up and create an off line archive of the forum topics to be able to share that information with those others in their personal network. That can be handed off in person or at a dead drop.

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

The Patriot Hangout is still up and things seem to have returned to normal there. Perhaps I over reacted and it was merely some server problem they were experiencing.

However, it does demonstrate two things.

1) People who question the story presented by the authorities and exercise their right of free speech are worried (even paranoid) that they will get censored or worse be cancelled. There are many examples of why their concerns are well founded.

2) In forums and social media groups that focus on unsanctioned topics and question the veracity of the official story, the members are aware of the offensive measures being used against them and may even have plans to deal with a crack down on dissidence ideas, but are disorganized and unprepared when their network crashes.

This was the case with ATS when it went down without warning for a week. People there scrambled all over trying to keep the network together. As much as has been done to provide a plan A or B for such scenarios, it was like headless chickens running around.

I see the need to get more active in this regard, other less vulnerable means of communication must be used. Maybe there should be something that can connect the different groups on different platforms? I'm not sure how such connections could or should be established, TOR perhaps, but some vetting process is needed to safeguard such a union of groups into a larger network. There is strength in numbers, on the other hand, the cell approach may be necessary if the heat is really on.

A network tree can be a good idea. One person contacts a few others, who then contact a few each, etc., until everyone in the network has been contacted. Go hog wild and contact everyone you know by all methods available? Maybe a regular meeting place and time on some obscure or abandoned forum, chat room, or social media platform like MySpace?

I want to believe these were merely normal disruptions and outages, not so for Parlor and I'm not forgetting that one ever. So what to do about the eventuality of a complete lock down of all communications? The FCC can do that in a declared emergency. Aren't we in one of those still do to covid? How will we keep the network going when there is no network outside of the internet boards and social media?

At the very least some dedicated people need to step up and create an off line archive of the forum topics to be able to share that information with those others in their personal network. That can be handed off in person or at a dead drop.

As much as I would hate to lose contact with those that I have grown to know and have come to rely on their knowledge and wit, in a shtf scenario, I would not be looking to the internet for much of anything. 

There is no secure way to pass information on the internet or through any form of media, to large groups of people, especially across forums or platforms.

Plan A, B, and C, should be A = family and neighbors: B = church and community, C = safe route and plans for bugging out.

The lost of the internet will not be the worst thing that happens during the collapse. In fact, we will have so much trouble just trying to tread water, that we will not miss it.

Just my opinion.

[Michigan Swamp Buck]

Good stuff NightSkye, I don't argue any of that but I'm talking about a situation where those in power shut down the dissenting forums and social media sometime before the SHTF, like a total crack down on free speech.

Maybe you consider the lost of basic rights like free speech to be a SHTF scenario, but in my mind that isn't it for me. It will take a total meltdown of society under martial law or from being under attack by a large armed force or some huge natural disaster to make it to the SHTF levels for me.

What I'm suggesting is that right now, while we still have a little time left, is to get organized and strengthen our networks, share information, and keep it safe from those who would try to erase it all and replace it with lies and propaganda. Ultimately it will help the cause IMO.

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

Good stuff NightSkye, I don't argue any of that but I'm talking about a situation where those in power shut down the dissenting forums and social media sometime before the SHTF, like a total crack down on free speech.

Maybe you consider the lost of basic rights like free speech to be a SHTF scenario, but in my mind that isn't it for me. It will take a total meltdown of society under martial law or from being under attack by a large armed force or some huge natural disaster to make it to the SHTF levels for me.

What I'm suggesting is that right now, while we still have a little time left, is to get organized and strengthen our networks, share information, and keep it safe from those who would try to erase it all and replace it with lies and propaganda. Ultimately it will help the cause IMO.

I am sorry. I misunderstood what you were suggesting.

Finding, or creating a secure site on the internet to share information, before everything goes belly up, may help in building strong holds for some, to make it through the rough days ahead.

I just don't trust the internet enough to put out any information that may make it any easier for those that wish us to fail, by assisting then in that endeavor.

The internet is a great place for learning and sharing of ideas, but it is quickly becoming more of a threat than a tool, for our benefit.

Everything we post, everything we buy, every word we speak, everything we do, is becoming data, that is being stored into the global matrix. Cell phones, cameras, and satellites, cover almost every inch of this planet.

How it will be used will be forever changing, but I am willing to bet, that it will be to the benefit of the overlords, far more than it will ever be to the benefit of the masses.

Going off grid will be key to survival, and it will be damn near impossible. 

Again, just the way I see it.

[Michigan Swamp Buck]

NightSkye - I agree, off grid, out of sight, unplugged from the matrix, that will be safest at some point soon.

I do try to be the Gray Man with most things, however, with the internet, I speak my mind and totally blow my cover. That has all been traced back to yours truly without a doubt, but I must exercise and defend the right to free speech, my own and everyone else's. I won't let go of that, even if I have to write my posts on toilet paper and pass it around to the other cell mates imprisoned along with me for expressing unsanctioned ideas.

The network doesn't need to be that primitive though. It could be more like thumb drive pen pals. There are dead drops where you can plug into a thumb drive out in the public that is hidden (embedded into a concrete wall for one example). A digital drop can be made easier by using the blue tooth app, a WiFi Hotspot or even QR codes posted here and there. All that can be encrypted in a number of ways as well. Then there are private mesh-net networks that function like a private internet. These can be found in urban areas mostly, here and in Europe.

The digital age need not be abandoned while trying to keep our online networks functioning. They will simply have to become underground networks, rather than open internet ones.

[Michigan Swamp Buck]

Try this QR code app from your smart phone. The code generator can put together text and links . . .

QR Code Generator

For instance. You scan a QR code that gives you the location of a blue tooth drop area like a coffee shop along with the times and the names of devices you can pair with. It can appear as an advertisement for the shop and go unsuspected. These methods can be used in combinations.

Or, if in a rural area, you could transmit Morse code generated from text on your computer via a freeware program and two-way radio like a CB. I tried this and it works.

ETA: If you are worried about the security of any text used with these methods (like QR or Morse code), there is a freeware program that encrypts your text messages using the Vigenère Table, a method of using alternating substitution alphabets. It requires a key and is hard to decode and the key has to be as long as the message. So you'd have to keep those messages short to use that method.

There are other ways to send coded messages with text of course and there are probably a number of apps available for that purpose. Use your imagination here.