Dawn Elannah is alive and well

Actually, I have a friend from Pakistan whose name is "Shaista." Not uncommon at all.

And dayum the middle schoolers sure came in to play over this whole Elannah debacle. Yowza.

I'm even more confused now, but that's my fault for never watching Harry Potter! However, I am very relieved to hear that Shasta the pony was rescued from the fairground :-)

I could not disagree more.  If you (general you) don't have the balls to say something under your own ID, you (again, general you) shouldn't be posting it!  I'm only talking about call out type posts, not creating an alter to ask for advice on a personal situation.

A much better option is just to contact the board admin with suspicions/proof. The board admin can check for verification on certain things, and then decide on how she wants to handle things: quietly or through a public announcement, and any other actions she thinks are necessary. 

When people need to be "outed" publicly on a board, it's usually best if that is done by admin and not another board member.

I disagree that these are the only two options. A middle ground is possible where nasty pile-ons with name-calling and personal attacks are not allowed, but respectful disagreements that focus on issues are allowed. 

It takes a lot of effort to get a board to a place where that is possible, but it can be done. It does take some heavy-handed moderation at first, but only toward those who can't manage to leave the name-calling and attacks behind. When you remove their posts consistently, they either learn to follow the rules, stop posting in those types of threads, or leave the board. In all three cases, the board conflict is gone, and respectful disagreement can continue.

I've even had some former troublemakers who changed their ways contact me later to thank me for enforcing those boundaries. It helped them realize they had some unresolved personal issues that they finally realized they needed help with. They eventually returned, changed their posting habits, and became valuable board members.

Should it be handled that way?  Absolutely.  But will it be?  Highly doubtful.  Some of us enjoy the "gotcha" moment too much.  I'd imagine there are some of us positively salivating at the thought of being the first to spy if Elannah comes back and be able to say "Ta-Da" and pat themselves on the back.  There are probably some who are mighty curious about some of the anonymous new members who are clearly alters asking for help.

Depending on the motivation and intent, and how it's handled, I believe that so-called Pea Detectives can provide a much needed service in protecting our community from trolls and two-faced individuals.  Admin is a very busy Pea and things are going to slip past her at times.  That's not a slight, more of a strong probability.  This site can't be easy to run.  And because we love it here and are grateful for what she's done, we should police ourselves like grown adults. Clearly she and I will not agree here, but I do think we should be made aware of when we are being fooled or played with.  I'm not saying people who've been "run off" for non-nefarious reasons should be outed, just the trouble-makers.  There's a gray area open to interpretation there though which I can see being problematic.

And I too would be interested to hear how an admin keeps track of people and IPs. It doesn't seem to me it would be that difficult to just go to the library or hit up free wi-fi at various places to avoid using a known IP.  Also, my router keeps randomly changing our IP as if it's possessed. It seems like these factors would make her job more difficult. 

Admin seems nice and dedicated.  We don't want that to change into overbearing as I've seen on other boards.  I'm not saying we play nice all the time, it wouldn't be the Peas otherwise. I think it's how we handle those occasions that will make or break us here.

I've been to Mt. Shasta (quite a few years ago), and I agree, it IS beautiful. Coincidentally, I was just looking at my CA trip scrapbook yesterday and was reminded how much I loved the pages I did about Mt. Shasta.

Never knew a person named Shasta, though.

Yes, it is beautiful! 
My friend in Cali lives in Shasta County. I spent March out there visiting her and there were a ton of places with Shasta in the name. Mt. Shasta, Shasta County, Lake Shasta, Shasta Lake, Shasta everything pretty much. I told her I am just going to call her area Shastaland. 

People need good friends like you. ( said honestly with no snark or sarcasm) .... But isn't it sad that I feel the need to add that info?

From the Shasta (soda) website: "Shasta! It hasta be Shasta!" While you've probably heard the slogan of the 125-year-old soft drink manufacturer -- born on the base of Mt. Shasta, California..."

So I guess if someone was named after the soda which was named after the mountain, they're really named after the mountain!

Or a Shasta daisy maybe?

Also named after the mountain!

I have a scary Mt Shasta story. Want to hear it? Ok here it goes. As a kid, my family used to drive from L.A. to Oregon via I5 every summer. My dad always wanted to drive straight through. We were driving through/ over Mt Shasta late at night. All of a sudden, a lady jumped from the southbound side to the northbound side of the freeway. She had long white hair, and looked like she was wearing a hospital gown and no shoes. We all screamed, my dad slammed his breaks and missed the lady. She didn't stop, and disappeared into the woods. Who knows where the hell she was coming from, or why she was running? It scared the crap out of us though.