False Identities

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Portable Antiquity collectors love secrets. They love searching for hidden things. They love creating secrets and hiding things. They often hide on their forums and websites behind ridiculous pseudonyms (see for the example the member list of UKDFD). They do not want people finding out who they really are - as though they have something to hide. The PAS goes along with this 'don't ask don't tell' approach.

An effect of this is that one never knows to whom one is really talking in tekkiedom. "Candice Jarman" is a prime example. It turns out that the people commenting on "her" blog are not quite what they seem either. I have suggested earlier that the manner in which the comments of this individual echo the blog author's words could suggest that the latter may even be writing the "Legs" comments himself. It is also notable that the profile of another of this blog's commentators, "lmpoar" is actually the same address as that of "Legs". So "Legs" is pretending to be Candy's imaginary friend Impoar to make it look as if more people are supporting the anti-Barford blog. In one of the early posts this "Impoar" says:

"This looks like an excellent blog you've started here, Candice. Speaking as a metal detectorist in the Gwent Detecting Club, Paul Barford is well known to us along with his radical views and questionable credentials. I sincerely hope this blog will help serve to reveal the truth about this person and his agenda. I look forward to reading the next installments. (Leighton) "

Leighton (aka "Sexy Legs" - for a possible origin of the pseudonym see here and here) is well known on Welsh detecting forums. It is an interesting coincidence that when the guy hiding under the name "Buffy the Ham Pie Slayer" started a few years back the "Barfordisation" hate-blog which has very similar composition and content to that of "Candice", that author's profile originally said that he ("Bufet") lived in Monmouth (Gwent), which was then changed, and its author started dropping geographical "clues" which placed him further east (in fact pretty near where "Candy" now claims to be based) to mislead the reader.

But this phenomenon is more widespread in tekkiedom. Over on Heritage Journal there is a thread on the "depth advantage" which some new detectors provide. At the time of writing it has received 21 comments, but it turns out that:

on this thread alone, we have “Harrismatrix man” implying he’s an archaeologist but giving three different versions of his name and having the same email address as both “Jennifer Grey” and “Geoff”, and the same IP address as both “Bozwaldo” and “Maximus”.

So one metal detectorist impersonating five different people contributing to the same thread. What is the matter with these people?

My name is Paul Barford and I write what I think. I don't need to impersonate another four people to say "I agree with him" to make myself feel more secure - why would anyone? Why actually do people want to express their views but not as themselves? What are they hiding from whom?

Who took "Candy's" Photo?

It seems to me that the last bloke who did a "blog about Barford" of the same style as "Candy's" made the mistake of remaining anonymous, which rather reduced his credibility as a critic (well apart from the fact he actually had nothing to say and contented himself with sniping). In this second attempt the author (I think the same one) obviously learnt a lesson and has adopted an identity. One I think which he calculates the reader will sympathise with. He adopted a gay identity hoping (I assume) I'd make some homophobic/ sexist remarks which he could then play on. He dropped that when it was pointed out that gay people do not use the sort of phrasing he'd adopted, but the original profile is cached.

So having decided he's going to portray himself as a secretary, he needed a face. He could have used photos of his sister or girlfriend, but that might put her in the position of being recognised in the street as a metal detectorist, which might be embarrassing.


But there is a photo on "Candy's" profile, isn't there? But isn't it oddly grainy, like a blownup scan from a magazine or other source? Now where would one find photos of attractive young ladies that you can download and use for free and probably not have anyone after you for pinching their photos?

Have a look at this photo of "Candy", long blonde air, makeup, simpering. And her left shoulder. Now of course maybe there are people out there that pose naked or topless in an office for a photo they use on the profile of their website, maybe Candy is one of them.

But it is difficult to avoid the suspicion that the photo used on this profile is a photoshopped chunk of a photo of a young lady (secretary?) reclining a la Rokeby Venus from a porn mag or a website.

"Candy" has shown you full length photos of me "drinking beer" and others which she claims are me in different places and situations. So perhaps it is only fair that she shows us another photo or two of herself. I'm sure we'd all like to see a photo of her on Bournemouth seafront holding one of her PAS-recorded Bronze Age axes (or an identifiable book on "collecting the Bronze Age"). We've seen "Candy the simpering office girl", now let us just see what "Candy" the collector looks like. Prove you are not a sock puppet.

Oh, by the way, since Candy is so fond of jumping on other people who do not say where all the illustrations on their blog come from, why does she not lead the way by providing the appropriate credits for her own illustrations, like where the photos used on her blog which purportedly show me come from, and who took the photo used in the Candice Jarman profile?