VHL 20 in 20 #2: The Faceless Man

[sterling 1,997]

The Faceless Man

In the VHL's 3 year, almost 20 season history, there have been some truly great members. However, there are members who gain notoriety for a different reason. There is no greater example of this than the legendary Scott Anderson. Over the course of several seasons, Scott Anderson created several new accounts with several players. Why did he do it? What gave him away? Most importantly - what did he do to get people angry at him in the first place? People didn't like Scott Anderson, even before he gained notoriety. I was always fair with him, and after a while, I even supported his return. This built me a nice rapport with Anderson, and allowed me to get an interview with him that would have otherwise been impossible. That's not to say I was nice to him simply because of this series, because I had no idea I'd end up writing this. I simply thought he was misunderstood, and genuinely wanted to put the past behind him and be a part of the VHL. Unfortunately, nobody would give him a chance.

http://jungcurrents.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/shadow-curse-bevel.jpg
Who is Scott Anderson?

This whole ordeal started in season 2, when a guy named Heman Ho signed up for the league and declared for the corresponding draft. Naturally, nobody thought anything of it. This was just another new member in the league, interested in hockey and the simulation itself, and willing to do point tasks every week to make his player better.

"Being a big Canucks fan, I first got a link to the North American Hockey League (NAHL) from a post on the Canucks.com forums by Sandro Desaulniers. I realize there were a lot of leagues that had a name along the lines of NAHL, but I can identify the exact league with two things I remember. First, the commissioner was at a public library in Ontario on the night of the inaugural draft and got snowed in and couldn't make it home in time; the league then died halfway through the draft for a reason I don't remember. Second, one of the teams was called the Alaska Express. Shortly after that league folded, I then got the link to the VHL through Lennowitcz Schalkwinzz." - Scott Anderson

Heman Ho was drafted 13th overall by the Toronto Legion in the Season 3 Entry Draft. Again, everything was running smoothly, even when a player named Scott Anderson joined up and declared for the Season 4 draft, while Heman Ho was already in the league. Naturally, nobody suspected that the two players were managed by the same member because this had never happened before. Nobody was on the lookout for a duplicate account because nobody thought that anyone would make one. Scott Anderson was drafted 7th overall by the Hamilton Canucks in the Season 4 draft, which is still considered to be one of, if not the weakest draft the VHL has ever seen. However, what did Scott Anderson do that drew the ire of VHLers everywhere?

"Honestly, I don't have a clue." - Scott Anderson

Luckily, Commissioner Sterling Labatte seems to have an idea of what happened.

"He originally had a bad rep because he was annoying. He spammed a ton of threads and acted like a dick to a lot of people. Then, one day, he posted pretending to be his college roommate. He insulted the original Scott Anderson, and called him a loser. He had made multiple accounts and that's why he was banned, but he was ever so persistent!" - Sterling Labatte

http://blog.joehuffman.org/content/binary/IMG_0378Web.jpg
Scott Anderson getting arrested

Personally, I figured that Scott Anderson was banned simply because he was caught making multiple accounts, which is not allowed. There was a rumour going around that he had threatened to hack the VHL on another site, but I never saw proof that this actually happened. Still, the people who told me of this are not the type to lie, even if it was in regards to someone they disliked. Either way, Scott Anderson was no longer welcome in the VHL.

But as we all know, that didn't stop him.

"Originally it was just making new accounts with new usernames and new email addresses, but then the need for proxies arose when I started getting my IP addresses banned. As a side note, ChinaGrows.com and LibertyBell.biz were two of my favourite proxies." - Scott Anderson

Instead of accepting his banning and leaving the league, Scott Anderson decided to create multiple alternate accounts. Aside from the first two accounts (Heman Ho and Scott Anderson), you may also remember names like Kaspar Schweinsteiger, Nina Sun, and Terry Lau. All of these were players created by Anderson.

"I would say I have created around 150 to 200 accounts, with about 60 or so getting validated, and a total of 15-20 players having been entered into the league database. Among the most notable are (of course) Scott Anderson, Heman Ho, and Terry Lau." - Scott Anderson

So why did he keep creating players? Many people thought he was just being annoying, and wanted to "watch the world burn", like The Joker in the Batman universe. However, my talk with him revealed a different response.

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Scott Anderson is no Joker

For the most part, I really wanted to be a part of the league. You could tell by how active I was with doing my point tasks and reading all the posts and everything. I think people kinda got ticked off that I was just posting everywhere, and that's one thing that, to this day, I have still not been able to fix 100%." - Scott Anderson

Now, it's easy to see that Scott Anderson broke a few rules. He made multiple accounts, and tried to sneak back into the league while still being banned. This is not allowed. However, did the VHL act appropriately? This is where my opinion might differ from many. There are two things that I don't like with regards to how the Anderson situation was handled.

First of all, commissioner Scotty Campbell once informed me that he had traced Anderson's IP address back to his exact location. Soon, we knew more about Scott Anderson than we did about most members in the league. Through these methods, we learned his hometown, his real name, his age, his ethnicity, and how he was doing in school. At the time, I honestly didn't care too much about the whole incident because I figured the admins could deal with it and didn't need my help. However, in retrospect, I think the VHL overstepped its boundaries with regards to the banning of Scott Anderson. We VHLers enjoy sharing facts about our personal lives with each other, and we're at a point where many of us know each other by name. However, we want to reveal these facts and stories about ourselves on our own terms, and not have them be revealed for us by someone else. Scott Campbell did a lot of great things for the VHL to a point where we can never repay our debt to him, but I think tracking Scott Anderson's IP address (though I'm not sure if it was he who actually did it) was somewhat of a blemish on his record.

I'll let Anderson introduce this next part.

"I actually don't have a clue how the administrators found out almost right away that it was me, or how the Sloboradar was so successful. It may have been because, born in Hong Kong myself, I used Asian names a lot." - Scott Anderson

The "Sloboradar" that Anderson discusses is what we used to refer to Brett Slobodzian's uncanny ability to track Scott Anderson accounts, even before he got around to posting anything else. It was gutsy, but Slobodzian was right more often than he was wrong. The only problems arose when other members decided they wanted to try their hand at tracking Anderson also. Instead of a welcome, new members were introduced with "Hey Anderson" or, if they were lucky, with "Are you Scott Anderson?". Naturally, new members had no idea who Scott Anderson was, and would usually respond with "Who is Scott Anderson?" For some odd reason, not knowing who Scott Anderson was became a telltale sign of a Scott Anderson proxy account. I have no proof for this, but I can't help but feel that the league may have lost a couple good members who legitimately signed up to have a good time, without any hidden agenda, and were forced away because of this. Still, the Anderson witch hunts continued for a while, until Anderson disappeared for a few seasons.

http://stuytownluxliving.com/lux-living/images/tishman-speyer-witch-hunt.jpg
Artist's depiction of a VHL witch hunt

"I checked in a lot for the first few months after I got banned, but prior to just this last week, I think I hadn't popped in since April. As most of you probably know, I'm a perfectionist. I've been really addicted to Baseball Mogul for the last half year or so. It's not that I've given up or lost interest, as I still like the whole concept and idea of the VHL, as well as the community in general It's just I thought that a break would be the best for everybody until I matured as a person. I've also been tied up with high school graduation and the like; I finally passed Social Studies 11 and English 12, for those following." - Scott Anderson

Scott Anderson's been busy, and from talking to him, it really does seem like he's changed. I have always maintained that if we let go of our previous grudge against him, we would have an active member on our hands. Would he ever get a job in this league? Probably not. I believe that his past would bar him from having any position of power in the VHL unless those in charge were truly certain that he was a new man. However, Scott Anderson was always quick to do point tasks just before he got banned, and perhaps enough time has passed since his incidents.

"I would let him join as I've let others who left on bad terms come back. I think the kid really just wanted attention more than anything. He was pretty harmless and provided some entertainment." - Sterling Labatte

"Sure, why not? I've always wanted to be a part of the VHL and there was even one time I came back, only telling Fong and Zero himself who I actually was. It somehow got out that I was Anderson, and everyone started hating on me even though I don't really think I did anything wrong that time. It was also the time Zero wrote the article "Signed, A Disgruntled Member" - Scott Anderson

I agree. We've let other members come back in the past, and I believe Scott Anderson made a mistake 3 years ago that, for some reason, we aren't willing to forgive. As one of the VHL members who is closest to Anderson, I really do think he's changed, to a point where I'd even put my own membership on the line for him. I understand why he was banned in the first place, and why he continued to be banned every time after that, but it's been a long time.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vQXAPuCa8aw/TLrbgDwIHzI/AAAAAAAAIgw/HMPTPJBQfhI/s1600/forgive-and-forget.jpg
Is it time?

This league has encountered death threats, anti-American sentiments, gender discrimination, and racial confrontations. We've had people get chewed out simply because they wanted a signature, and we've had people get made fun of simply because they weren't as experienced in GFX as others. Dead relatives have been made fun of, religions have been attacked, and disturbing pictures have been posted. And, of course, we've encountered general douchebaggery from just about everyone in the league. Are we really going to stay mad at someone who created multiple accounts because he simply wanted to be a part of our great, yet incredibly dysfunctional, league? I'll let you answer that question yourself.

Meanwhile, Scott Anderson (the player) went on to have a wonderful VHLM career.

End of Part 2
Special Thanks to Scott Anderson and Sterling Labatte

 

[a_Ferk 766]

[.sniffuM 1,741]

On 10/7/2013 at 10:07 PM, sterling said:

anti-American statements

 

Can we get an update that changes this to sentiments?

[sterling 1,997]

Did Anderson ever come back again?

[solas 1,951]

54 minutes ago, sterling said:

Did Anderson ever come back again?

He came back as Gudnason/punkhippie in the mid-50s. Was GM of Cologne for a little bit.  Hasn’t returned since then as far as I know, which seems like it’s probably better for his sake.

Edited February 3, 2021 by solas