APE screenshots: this is how they play to win

[Anonymous]

This is OOP again. Admin Jeff just wrote up an account of this thread in the "most commented" daily post, and accused me of being a sock puppet. And I'm going to do something that APE can't do:

ADMIT IT!

Yes! I respond to myself to drive discussion! Especially on threads that I start! I don't particularly feel sorry for it, but I don't think my troll tendencies are on the same level as someone going to other districts' online forums to solicit public comment to drive their group's own self-serving advocacy either.

While distrusting of their motives, I am rather indifferent to APE and their members themselves. They advocate for things I don't particularly care about. Including cellphone policy. Yes, I want them out of classrooms like everyone else, but I don't particularly care if 16 year olds want to pull them out at lunch or between classes.

While I wasn't expecting Jeff to call me out, I'm glad he did. APS can definitely track IP addresses just as Jeff did to me. Probably really easily. And maybe while they would be cautious about discounting anyone's opinion in the DMV, it would be curious how many comments they get from rando places too.

So mea culpa, beeches.

[Anonymous]

OP you’ve got issues. You need to step away from the keyboard and unclench.

Or go post on AEM. Not going your way so far is it??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP you’ve got issues. You need to step away from the keyboard and unclench.

Or go post on AEM. Not going your way so far is it??

She posted there too.

[Anonymous]

Hahaha I hope Jeff bans you, sock puppet.

This whole thing is such a red herring and obviously some kind of personal vendetta the OP has. In her own words, responding to her own post, Jeff tells us: “Oh wow wow WOW. I admit that I was a bit confused before at all of the comments, but that link changes everything!"

It changes nothing. Maybe we can actually talk about real issues facing APS one day.

[Anonymous]

Congrats, or something, Arlington!

Next was a thread titled, "APE screenshots: this is how they play to win" and posted in the "VA Public Schools other than FCPS" forum. "APE" is "Arlington Parents for Education" and is an educational advocacy group that prominently, and often controversially, lobbies the Arlington Public Schools (APS) on various issues. The group has a number of detractors and there is sort of a cottage industry of posters starting DCUM threads to complain about things posted in the APE Facebook group. In this case, while it wasn't immediately clear to me, the original poster is complaining about posts in another Facebook group, one belonging to Alexandria parents. Just to be clear, Alexandria is not part of the Arlington Public Schools system. The original poster linked to two screenshots that she had made of posts in the Alexandria forum. The posts were from someone associated with APE and in one the author discussed a proposed cell phone policy that is currently under discussion within APS. The APE representative asked members of the group to submit responses to a survey being conducted by Arlington Public Schools. The original poster considers this to be encouraging outside influence on an issue local to APS and roughly equivalent to former President, current cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump soliciting election interference from Russia. Put simply, the APE representative is accused of basically saying, "Alexandria, if you're listening, I hope you are able to game our survey." Some of those responding in the thread are happy to have outside assistance. Others are quite appalled and if, like Trump, APE could be impeached they would surely support it. Instead they settle for demanding that APS no longer have dealings with APE. A lot of the discussion in this thread deals with attitudes towards the proposed cell phone ban which could prohibit phones for the entire school day or for most of the day — that is what is being discussed. Posters whose position is closer to APE's are less concerned about the input from Alexandrians. Others, however, consider APE to be a right-wing association and call anyone supporting the group "MAGAs" and "Trump supporters". There were repeated attempts to divorce cell phone policy from the issue of APE soliciting outside support, but those were mostly unsuccessful. Because the original poster framed this topic as a matter of ethics, I am compelled to point out her dalliance with sock puppeting. I removed one of the original links because the original poster had not redacted the name of one participant in the conversation. The original poster later reposted a redacted version in the thread. But she then replied to her own post saying, "Oh wow wow WOW. I admit that I was a bit confused before at all of the comments, but that link changes everything!" Obviously, the original poster had not been confused and the link didn't change anything as far as she was concerned. As if this wasn't enough, the original poster followed up with another sock puppeted post thanking herself for posting and claiming to have been newly converted by the screenshot. As for APE, one of its board members posted saying that the original post that caused this controversy had been poorly worded and not meant to say what everyone thought that it did. Moreover, the board member strongly agreed that only Arlington residents should participate in the survey. I don't have a dog in this fight either way, but I do suggest an alternative to APE named "Sockpuppets Imitating Anybody", or SIMIAN.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is OOP again. Admin Jeff just wrote up an account of this thread in the "most commented" daily post, and accused me of being a sock puppet. And I'm going to do something that APE can't do:

ADMIT IT!

Yes! I respond to myself to drive discussion! Especially on threads that I start! I don't particularly feel sorry for it, but I don't think my troll tendencies are on the same level as someone going to other districts' online forums to solicit public comment to drive their group's own self-serving advocacy either.

While distrusting of their motives, I am rather indifferent to APE and their members themselves. They advocate for things I don't particularly care about. Including cellphone policy. Yes, I want them out of classrooms like everyone else, but I don't particularly care if 16 year olds want to pull them out at lunch or between classes.

While I wasn't expecting Jeff to call me out, I'm glad he did. APS can definitely track IP addresses just as Jeff did to me. Probably really easily. And maybe while they would be cautious about discounting anyone's opinion in the DMV, it would be curious how many comments they get from rando places too.

So mea culpa, beeches.

I am LOLing at the irony. Sure, you’re really indifferent to APE sweetie. Jesus Christ on a cracker this is fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is OOP again. Admin Jeff just wrote up an account of this thread in the "most commented" daily post, and accused me of being a sock puppet. And I'm going to do something that APE can't do:

ADMIT IT!

Yes! I respond to myself to drive discussion! Especially on threads that I start! I don't particularly feel sorry for it, but I don't think my troll tendencies are on the same level as someone going to other districts' online forums to solicit public comment to drive their group's own self-serving advocacy either.

While distrusting of their motives, I am rather indifferent to APE and their members themselves. They advocate for things I don't particularly care about. Including cellphone policy. Yes, I want them out of classrooms like everyone else, but I don't particularly care if 16 year olds want to pull them out at lunch or between classes.

While I wasn't expecting Jeff to call me out, I'm glad he did. APS can definitely track IP addresses just as Jeff did to me. Probably really easily. And maybe while they would be cautious about discounting anyone's opinion in the DMV, it would be curious how many comments they get from rando places too.

So mea culpa, beeches.

Omg

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahah

So cringe

[Anonymous]

Aww… did you delete your AEM post?

[Anonymous]

DCUM lasts forever, beeches!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the hostile APE dad who screamed over people at a SB meeting have kids in APS now? His kids were in private last I heard.

He’s one of the co-chairs on an APS advisory committee.

That's Truly Terrible.

Totally inTolerable

can we be friends please?

[Anonymous]

I know the individual who posted in the Alexandria group. She is truly an incredibly nice and wonderful person. Shame on any of you calling her names. You have zero clue about her true intent. I don’t think there was any big or nefarious plan. She lived in Alexandria at one point and has friends there. Perhaps some of them are in the Alexandria group. I know I share things with friends so maybe she thought that’s all she was doing? I am sure all of us have friends who post things on their FB pages to vote in polls —. “Please vote for Ms. Smith for teacher of the year - you know how good she is for my little Timmy!” I can see how the rabid anti-APE folks would grasp at this since it’s not the best look but c’mon it’s really not the end of the world. Yes she is passionate about this issue. Have you ever thought that maybe, just maybe, she has seen how damaging devices can be to someone close to her? I am mad that anyone is judging her on her right to advocate on this issue. And before someone calls out that I am APE I will confirm that I am, indeed, in APE but I am not speaking for APE. I am just a friend who saw her friend being unfairly attacked and I had to speak up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Congrats, or something, Arlington!

Next was a thread titled, "APE screenshots: this is how they play to win" and posted in the "VA Public Schools other than FCPS" forum. "APE" is "Arlington Parents for Education" and is an educational advocacy group that prominently, and often controversially, lobbies the Arlington Public Schools (APS) on various issues. The group has a number of detractors and there is sort of a cottage industry of posters starting DCUM threads to complain about things posted in the APE Facebook group. In this case, while it wasn't immediately clear to me, the original poster is complaining about posts in another Facebook group, one belonging to Alexandria parents. Just to be clear, Alexandria is not part of the Arlington Public Schools system. The original poster linked to two screenshots that she had made of posts in the Alexandria forum. The posts were from someone associated with APE and in one the author discussed a proposed cell phone policy that is currently under discussion within APS. The APE representative asked members of the group to submit responses to a survey being conducted by Arlington Public Schools. The original poster considers this to be encouraging outside influence on an issue local to APS and roughly equivalent to former President, current cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump soliciting election interference from Russia. Put simply, the APE representative is accused of basically saying, "Alexandria, if you're listening, I hope you are able to game our survey." Some of those responding in the thread are happy to have outside assistance. Others are quite appalled and if, like Trump, APE could be impeached they would surely support it. Instead they settle for demanding that APS no longer have dealings with APE. A lot of the discussion in this thread deals with attitudes towards the proposed cell phone ban which could prohibit phones for the entire school day or for most of the day — that is what is being discussed. Posters whose position is closer to APE's are less concerned about the input from Alexandrians. Others, however, consider APE to be a right-wing association and call anyone supporting the group "MAGAs" and "Trump supporters". There were repeated attempts to divorce cell phone policy from the issue of APE soliciting outside support, but those were mostly unsuccessful. Because the original poster framed this topic as a matter of ethics, I am compelled to point out her dalliance with sock puppeting. I removed one of the original links because the original poster had not redacted the name of one participant in the conversation. The original poster later reposted a redacted version in the thread. But she then replied to her own post saying, "Oh wow wow WOW. I admit that I was a bit confused before at all of the comments, but that link changes everything!" Obviously, the original poster had not been confused and the link didn't change anything as far as she was concerned. As if this wasn't enough, the original poster followed up with another sock puppeted post thanking herself for posting and claiming to have been newly converted by the screenshot. As for APE, one of its board members posted saying that the original post that caused this controversy had been poorly worded and not meant to say what everyone thought that it did. Moreover, the board member strongly agreed that only Arlington residents should participate in the survey. I don't have a dog in this fight either way, but I do suggest an alternative to APE named "Sockpuppets Imitating Anybody", or SIMIAN.

Nothing gets Arlingtonians going like APE. I don't like APE at all. I could go on and on about why. So I guess OP sock puppeted but they also weren't the only one posting in this thread. I know this because I am not OP and I also commented on this thread. I found it both disturbing that APE is gaming APS surveys. But also these people create their own train wrecks and no I can't look away.

The funniest thing about this whole thing may be the APE board member's super quick response (confirming that APE spends a lot of time on DCUM) and their lame attempt to excuse the poster. We are to fall for the excuse that it was poorly worded and not meant to say EXACTLY WHAT SHE SAID IT MEANT?! How gullible does APE think we are?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know the individual who posted in the Alexandria group. She is truly an incredibly nice and wonderful person. Shame on any of you calling her names. You have zero clue about her true intent. I don’t think there was any big or nefarious plan. She lived in Alexandria at one point and has friends there. Perhaps some of them are in the Alexandria group. I know I share things with friends so maybe she thought that’s all she was doing? I am sure all of us have friends who post things on their FB pages to vote in polls —. “Please vote for Ms. Smith for teacher of the year - you know how good she is for my little Timmy!” I can see how the rabid anti-APE folks would grasp at this since it’s not the best look but c’mon it’s really not the end of the world. Yes she is passionate about this issue. Have you ever thought that maybe, just maybe, she has seen how damaging devices can be to someone close to her? I am mad that anyone is judging her on her right to advocate on this issue. And before someone calls out that I am APE I will confirm that I am, indeed, in APE but I am not speaking for APE. I am just a friend who saw her friend being unfairly attacked and I had to speak up.

What are you talking about? Who called her names? Didn't see that. Did see criticism of her actions. We know her true intent because she broadcast it. It was to get people outside of APS to vote her way in an APS survey. That is very clear. As for devices being damaging to someone close to her, if that's the case, she doesn't even have kids in high school, so why is she trying to influence high school policy? APS is already doing away for the day in her own kid's school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hahaha I hope Jeff bans you, sock puppet.

This whole thing is such a red herring and obviously some kind of personal vendetta the OP has. In her own words, responding to her own post, Jeff tells us: “Oh wow wow WOW. I admit that I was a bit confused before at all of the comments, but that link changes everything!"

It changes nothing. Maybe we can actually talk about real issues facing APS one day.

Huh? This actually happened.

It's good that OP started this thread to spread awareness of deceptive tactics that APE will use to further their cause.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Aww… did you delete your AEM post?

Or did the group owner delete it? I was just reading comments there when it disappeared.

Sus.