Gab Chronicles
An Inkompatible Adventure
One mans (mine) adventures through the growth of Gab Social over a five (+) year journey to include some history and some lessons/knowledge learned along the way.
A by year account of technical dilemmas, admin/user drama, de-platforming, de-personing, de-financing, doxxing, DDoS attacks, scripts/bots, ads, muting/blocking, bans/shadow-bans (oh my!)
*Plus any other neat stuff I can remember etc...
Mission Statement: Over the last few years there has been a large influx of new users who have no idea what Gab.ai was like in the beginning or how it evolved into what it is today. (2022)
I'll be posting information in chronological order as I experienced it throughout my adventures, in an attempt to provide some history and transparency from my personal perspective.
My intent isn't to trash Gab or Torba, it is only to share my experience.
Introductions:
About me: I've been a computer enthusiast since the early 90's (TRS 80 Tandy DOS) and started programming specifically for Windows OS's as a hobbyist in the mid 90's (Win95/Visual Basic).
In 2006 I finished a 2 Yr. Associates Degree (Lib.Arts (blech! )) w/Vocational Certs. in IT and emphasis in programming (VB6) with Fortran, Cobol, Turbo Pascal, and D/HTML/Ajax/Asp inclusion at a somewhat local community college. ( 1 yr. full time and 2 yrs. nights )
( 3.87 G.P.A. ( I'm not the brightest crayon in the box, but the dunce cap doesn't fit either ))
I'd never before registered to any social platform other than some mIrc/superchats/ICQ and a few MMRPG/BBS etc.. I've coded in VB6 and Php for small chat servers, done some beta testing and Mod work at a couple sites deploying BuddyPress (thoughts.com) and BBS (prisontalk.com). I've written Rats, keystroke recorders, chat/onlineMMRPG bots, DNS resolves for DNSPoisoning vulns., designed GUI 'skins' for chat clients etc. and many other 'things' over the years, but never had a MySpace, FaceBook, Twitter etc. that would be currently considered 'main stream social'. All that being said to give you an idea of where I 'come from' on the technical aspect of things during my adventures. When I found Gab, I hadn't really coded much of anything in a year or two, as I was actually adventuring into Linux BackTrack5 and it's transition into Kali Linux.
Personal: I'm a certified aquaholic w/an expired Z-card (MMD) and licenses/endorsemsents from the U.S.C.G. and I traveled extensively in several capacities in the maritime industry.
Including just outside war zones in the Persian Gulf on a tanker full of Naptha (jet-fuel) while lightering off to govt. transport re-fuelers for carriers under foreign articles and have traversed both major canals (Panama/Suez) as well. I've been around for a minute in more ways than one.
I live in Texas and that's about all you get for now, lol
*INTJ - If you're not the 'architect', then question everything. ~Ink
Finding Gab: In 2016 I was running my usual news feeds on Drudge, Brietbart, Ycombinator etc. and farming victims while running my active MMRPG game-play bot on Monsters World 6.
Yes, I wrote it. (VB6 source code available upon request via contact page)
Then, something caught my eye between hunts. I ran across an article sourced to the Wired Magazines site concerning Andrew Torba being removed from the Ycomb. network and him starting a new platform called Gab.ai after being told to 'build his own network/platform'.
I'm familiar w/being kicked off servers for writing bots and having opinions that don't fit 'the narrative', so I was intrigued and decided to check it out.
That folks, is where it all started. I sent a request to beta test and was approved in a couple days and given access to Gab.ai in mid November of 2016 as user Inkompatible@SeaKnight, one of the first 150k or so. I'm ink compatible (tattoos), incompatible with main stream social/media and an ex/semi-retired U.S. Merchant Mariner.
Stay tuned for the upcoming first in a series of G-Chron articles.