Who & where is RLR? [Archive]

skippy66

05-08-13, 16:11

RLR is something of an Internet legend and I'm trying to track down what happened to him.

In the depths of my health anxiety I was getting very bad heart palpitations, and there was a message board run by a chap named Rutheford Rane, a retired MD in his 80's.

Along with this website, RLR was crucial in helping me through the darkest days of my HA. He would regularly provide medical reassurance about palpitations, their causes and prognosis to lots of sufferers. I now know that reassurance seeking is not the way to cure health anxiety but it can work wonders in the short term - it was especially good from RLR because he really sounded like he knew his stuff: he used medical terminology and was obviously a very well educated person. He knew how to reassure people suffering from heart palpitations.

A few months back RLR vanished. No sign of him on that messageboard anymore, and none of the other admins on that board had any idea what happened to him. I'm not one for speculation over the whereabouts of an Internet forum member but this case is a strange one. I've done some digging and can find no reference to any Rutheford Rane in any online medical journal, website or other publication. He was a neurologist I think. The admins as I said have no idea who he was or what happened to him. There was no proof that the man was even who he said he was - there is no apparent reason why anyone would lie about their true identity but it does happen online. I hope he hasn't passed away or become ill though this is certainly a possibility given his reported age.

I am desperate to uncover the mystery of what happened to RLR as he was such a great help to me in my time of need. I know he posted on this forum a few years ago in his usual reassuring style - perhaps the mods here have access to his IP address from which we can garner a rough location - we have no idea what country he lived in such was the mystery surrounding this poster. A location, a city or state would give us another clue and I would dig deeper into this. If RLR has passed away I think he deserves a fitting tribute for the work he did to help others.

If anyone has any further information please post it here and hopefully we can unravel this mystery.

Thanks,

Mike

nomorepanic

05-08-13, 16:18

We have been unable to find him either Mike

He was on here in April but as you say he seems to have disappeared since then.

I thought he was American?

mummyanxious

05-08-13, 17:50

The forum is still going and I've been back through loads of the posts lately to help me come to terms with mine. It's a treasure trove.
It is said he was in his nineties though so it is entirely possible he has passed on. I do hope the forum will stay for us to see as its really helped me.

skippy66

05-08-13, 18:31

We have been unable to find him either Mike

He was on here in April but as you say he seems to have disappeared since then.

I thought he was American?

I assume he's American as he referred to himself as a retired MD, which is an American acronym.

If you can see his IP address (most forums show the IP address of a poster so it can be banned if required) then we can almost certainly narrow it down to a particular city in the US. Then I would contact the local hospitals to see if they had any record of him working there.

nomorepanic

05-08-13, 18:50

I can't give out that info though Mike due to Data Protection and privacy etc.

skippy66

05-08-13, 20:54

You're right - have sent you a PM Nic.

swajj

06-08-13, 13:29

He either passed away or he never actually existed in the first place. People don't like it when you suggest either possibility though. Just check my posts over there to verify that if you need to.:winks: I wear a different dress on that site. I'm sto12 over there. That's assuming they haven't deleted my posts. Lol I haven't been there lately. Most people over there are just waiting for him to show up again one day. I hope he does but I don't like the chances of that happening.

skippy66

12-08-13, 15:20

I have done a bit of research, and have come up with a few interesting findings re RLR on my blog:

http://www.healthanxietyhq.com/who-is-rlr-and-what-happened-to-him/

Mike

swajj

13-08-13, 09:54

Hi Skippy. I read your blog and found it interesting. I did some research too and could find nothing. I did consider that RLR may have never written anything for any journals and that could be the reason that his name does not come up during searches. Also, he probably practised during a time when the Internet was either unheard of or very new. I could find no death notice for anyone with that name. I just accepted that the name he used was in fact his real name so you raise an interesting possibility. He did regularly visit the childrens hospital and I tried searching for hospitals in the US that were actually called that but I gave up because I wasn't sure if he was referring to childrens hospitals in general or a hospital that actually went by that name. I doubt that we will ever know who he was or what happened to him. It's sad in a way.

zilly84

22-11-16, 08:06

I wish his forum was still viewable. Even though he's gone, he wrote so much that could help people. Is there any way to get his site working for people to view?

nomorepanic

22-11-16, 13:42

I wish his forum was still viewable. Even though he's gone, he wrote so much that could help people. Is there any way to get his site working for people to view?

Not unless someone took it over for him which I doubt if it no longer exists.

ServerError

22-11-16, 14:13

Is this guy something of a big deal? Never heard of him until this thread.

MyNameIsTerry

22-11-16, 22:50

Is this guy something of a big deal? Never heard of him until this thread.

He was stated as a doctor, cardio, of many years. He gave out lots of excellent advice on anything palp related. If you search for RLR you will find all his posts & threads on here.

He was very old so the most likely reason is he has died.

His old website expired. I'm not sure about rolling back and gaining ownership. Perhaps all these people that keep asking could approach the last provider and bring a solicitor in to deal with a takeover, if needed. Maybe a good case for crowd funding? Maybe set up a social enterprise or similar to own the rights so a few people are legally responsible?

swajj

23-11-16, 12:08

I wish you could still view the site too. There was a lot of information there. He may have been a neurologist but he also had an almost unrivaled understanding of health anxiety.

MyNameIsTerry

23-11-16, 12:15

I wish you could still view the site too. There was a lot of information there. He may have been a neurologist but he also had an almost unrivaled understanding of health anxiety.

That was nagging in my mind when I said cardiovascular, I think I got that wrong it was just he had a lot of knowledge of that area so I assumed.

Can't they retrieve the site? I wonder how long the rollback services keep the last views?

swajj

23-11-16, 12:21

I don't know Terry. I don't even understand what you said to be honest. Too techy for me :doh: But it sounded like there was a slight chance we could get it back so I'm listening. lol

ServerError

23-11-16, 12:25

I read a few of his posts last night before bed. What an asset he would be to this forum were he still posting.

swajj

23-11-16, 12:36

He has either passed away or he is no longer capable of maintaining an online presence. My guess is he has passed away. He was in his 90s. His posts are gold. You would have loved his forum.

MyNameIsTerry

23-11-16, 12:41

I don't know Terry. I don't even understand what you said to be honest. Too techy for me :doh: But it sounded like there was a slight chance we could get it back so I'm listening. lol

I don't understand it either, swajj, I would have to look into it. But I know from reading about a few sites in the media that there are rollback services which basically take a snapshot of a site which can be used to view it or retrieve it. It's something that has been done to out people in political campaigns where they have sneakily closed their sites hoping journalists won't see what they used to do.

It may be something that the web hosts do? I bet Nic would know this as it's essential to be able to do it when sites crash or when rolling back changes that cause problems.

The question might be how far back they go.

ServerError, aren't you an IT guy by profession? Do you know about this stuff? I know this is the case for companies and their IT in general, I've had to rollback many a system change years ago, but Internet services were not my thing.

swajj

23-11-16, 12:48

this is the website

palps.chemicalforums.com

it just comes up with an error message

ServerError

23-11-16, 12:51

I'm the last guy who should work in IT! I think I'm the most useless person under 35 with computers. I've always used them for work, but I have literally no patience with them and I mostly feel that they're all against me (not in a schizophrenic way).

swajj

23-11-16, 12:53

randomforeigner

23-11-16, 13:12

I have done a bit of research, and have come up with a few interesting findings re RLR on my blog:

http://www.healthanxietyhq.com/who-is-rlr-and-what-happened-to-him/

Mike

There seems to be plenty of Google hits if you add the search word cardio or cardiologic etc. etc., assuming he's a specialist, and/or if you limit it to certain domains (like with switch site:uk). How do you know whether MD stands for 'managing director' or 'doctor of medicine'?

swajj

23-11-16, 13:14

He was a retired neurologist. He stated it many times.

MyNameIsTerry

23-11-16, 13:18

this is the website

palps.chemicalforums.com

it just comes up with an error message

I traced it through a domain look up company and the main forum is a chemistry one that is still live for some time yet.

Your palps site is a sub board that they had and I searched the site and turned up a thread with people talking to Admin about it:

http://www.chemicalforums.com/index.php?topic=69795.msg299730#msg299730

So, if you contact them (maybe join so they can talk to you? ) then maybe it's still there and the address is just wrong and needs sorting. They say it's a rarely used board so they won't know loads of anxiety sufferers may be after it and perhaps have decided not to bother but if they can, maybe they could retrieve it and transfer anything on it? And maybe they will know who this guy is since these guys seem to own the place?

Registration data (this might be the hosting company, but I think I saw that Mitch on the forum so have a look)

Email is associated with ~91,610 domains
is associated with ~8,789,055 domains
is associated with ~4 domains

Registrant Org Mitch Andre Garcia is associated with ~7 other domains
Registrar NAMESECURE.COM
Registrar Status clientTransferProhibited
Dates Created on 2003-10-01 - Expires on 2021-10-01 - Updated on 2014-04-16
Name Server(s) CLOUD3.MONTECARLOHOSTING.NET (has 156 domains)
CLOUD4.MONTECARLOHOSTING.NET (has 156 domains)

IP Address 66.185.26.147 is hosted on a dedicated server
IP Location United States - Wisconsin - Franklin - Wisconsin Cyberlynk Network Inc.
ASN United States AS21554 CYBERLYNK - Wisconsin CyberLynk Network, Inc., US (registered May 23, 2001)
Domain Status Registered And Active Website
Whois History 142 records have been archived since 2004-04-12
IP History 9 changes on 6 unique IP addresses over 11 years
Registrar History 2 registrars
Hosting History 4 changes on 5 unique name servers over 13 years
Whois Server whois.namesecure.com
Website
Website Title Chemical Forums - Index
Server Type Apache
Response Code 200
SEO Score 84%
Terms 1115 (Unique: 408, Linked: 268)
Images 27 (Alt tags missing: 0)
Links 123 (Internal: 100, Outbound: 22)
Whois Record ( last updated on 2016-11-23 )
Domain Name: CHEMICALFORUMS.COM
Registry Domain ID:
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.namesecure.com
Registrar URL: http://www.namesecure.com
Updated Date: 2014-04-16T04:21:25Z
Creation Date: 2003-10-01T04:00:00Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2021-10-01T04:00:00Z
Registrar: NAMESECURE.COM
Registrar IANA ID: 30
Registrar Abuse Contact Email:
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.8888012112
Reseller:
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: Garcia, Mitch Andre
Registrant Organization: Mitch Andre Garcia
Registrant Street: 1925 Delaware St.
Registrant City: Berkeley
Registrant State/Province: CA
Registrant Postal Code: 94709
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: +1.5106848092
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email:
Registry Admin ID:
Admin Name: Garcia, Mitch Andre
Admin Organization: Mitch Andre Garcia
Admin Street: 1925 Delaware St.
Admin City: Berkeley
Admin State/Province: CA
Admin Postal Code: 94709
Admin Country: US
Admin Phone: +1.5106848092
Admin Phone Ext:
Admin Fax:
Admin Fax Ext:
Admin Email:
Registry Tech ID:
Tech Name: Inc., NameSecure
Tech Organization: Namesecure Inc.
Tech Street: P.O. Box 785
Tech City: Herndon
Tech State/Province: VA
Tech Postal Code: 20172
Tech Country: US
Tech Phone: +1.5707088418
Tech Phone Ext:
Tech Fax:
Tech Fax Ext:
Tech Email:
Name Server: CLOUD3.MONTECARLOHOSTING.NET
Name Server: CLOUD4.MONTECARLOHOSTING.NET
DNSSEC: Unsigned
URL of the ICANN WHOIS Data Problem Reporting System: http://wdprs.internic.net/

---------- Post added at 13:18 ---------- Previous post was at 13:16 ----------

I'm the last guy who should work in IT! I think I'm the most useless person under 35 with computers. I've always used them for work, but I have literally no patience with them and I mostly feel that they're all against me (not in a schizophrenic way).

:doh: I must have got that mixed up with someone else then. But I bet most IT guys would agree with you on their almost AI abilities to annoy us!

swajj

23-11-16, 13:19

Wow you went to a lot of trouble Terry. I might try to track it down. But not tonight. I have 28 kids to deal with tomorrow. :)

MyNameIsTerry

23-11-16, 13:56

Luckily I had to do some tracing on a few websites a couple of years ago so know where to look. It's a five minute job then. Luckily they left that thread live!

Good luck with 28, I would struggle with one! :biggrin:

swajj

23-11-16, 13:58

I get paid to be with them. :)

MyNameIsTerry

23-11-16, 14:36

Nic, let me know if you want some of that editing out. It did come off a free to access domain checking site so it is public domain data really.

---------- Post added at 14:36 ---------- Previous post was at 14:17 ----------

I get paid to be with them. :)

If they are teenagers, I remember what my school was like, it must be tough having anxiety to cope with to? Looking back, we must have caused some for our teachers. :noangel:

nomorepanic

23-11-16, 17:52

It's fine Terry

Not sure about this rollback thing though. We just take backups so would just restore to one of them.

As an aside have you looked at the "wayback machine" - that is quite fascinating.

MyNameIsTerry

24-11-16, 05:23

Yes, that looks a great tool. I didn't know about that so thanks for mentioning it. I wish I knew about that a couple of years ago, it would have helped me with a project.

The RLR situation should be resolvable now since it turns out that forum was a board on somebody else's forum, which still exists, but they never corrected what messed up the link. If they don't want to do it though, maybe this machine you have found will have archived it prior to any break in the link? I wonder how large that sub board is though and whether it can be extracted/moved elsewhere? I guess that also depends on compatibility, migration programmes are a pain with data, I remember those projects with billing systems I worked on...

swajj

24-11-16, 11:30

Can we try (read that as can you try because I don't have a clue). :winks:

I teach primary school Terry. When I was having my last bout of HA the only time I wasn't anxious was when I was at work.

I don't actually have HA at the present time. Well there was the eye thing a couple of weeks ago...but I didn't go to the doctor about it and I haven't had anything else since. But I'm here and I still I don't know why. We'll see :scared15:

SLA

29-11-16, 08:12

I contacted them completely unaware of the developments in this thread.

They said they don't have a direct backup, but one may exist somewhere in the server backups.

Seems like a lot of work. Also, they said the forum wasn't written in SQL, but in YaBB.

Sounds like they are confused though, or trying not to give themselves anymore work.

Having had many years experience as a SQL developer, and running phpBB forums, I would have been up for the challenge too.

But... i'm not sure we'll get anywhere.

Also the Way Back Machine only archives pages if I remember correctly?

I'd doubt it'd have a full archive of their DB. That would take up so much memory for every site on the net!!!

swajj

29-11-16, 08:30

omg SLA you have gone to a lot of trouble. Did you ever read RLR's forum. It was an absolute goldmine. Even if we could only find bits and pieces it would be like finding nuggets of gold. His site was kind of dedicated to heart palpitations but he went way beyond just giving advice on palpitations. He addressed many facets of health anxiety. I have read ever single one of his posts on NMP. I am willing to help in any way I can. :)

MyNameIsTerry

29-11-16, 08:36

swajj

29-11-16, 08:54

I wish I'd copied and pasted it all into a word doc but it would have taken forever. There was a lot of information. The forum was active for many years before I joined it.

SLA

29-11-16, 08:55

Yeh, restoring a server back-up and hunting for the data is a good afternoons work. I asked one of our IT guys to do something similar last week and he groaned. :D

I've run a poker forum for over 10 years, and the last time I had to move that to a different server it was complete ball ache.

I will ask them if they have a quiet hour to try and dig out a dump of all of the data, but it doesn't look promising.

omg SLA you have gone to a lot of trouble. Did you ever read RLR's forum. It was an absolute goldmine. Even if we could only find bits and pieces it would be like finding nuggets of gold. His site was kind of dedicated to heart palpitations but he went way beyond just giving advice on palpitations. He addressed many facets of health anxiety. I have read ever single one of his posts on NMP. I am willing to help in any way I can. :)

Hey thanks!

I think you are right. If we could get the data the best way to preserve it would be to pick out key posts, and to maybe make a page dedicated to the best responses he gave. A best of RLR page would be pretty useful. I've read some of his stuff, and he really had an amazing way with words. Very inspiring.

Restoring the whole thing would be more hassle than its worth.

MyNameIsTerry

29-11-16, 09:08

I asked one of our IT guys to do something similar last week and he groaned.

No, that's trained in their degrees...if asked to do something, always groan like someone has asked you to build a new internet! :roflmao:

If they can retrieve it, how compatible will it be with this place? For instance, could the data be dumped onto threads?

SLA

29-11-16, 09:18

swajj

29-11-16, 09:34

SLA I know you will try but don't worry if you can't make it happen.

When the forum became inaccessible I tried to pm a member here who I know was very involved in RLR'S forum. "typer" was her nic. I received an automated message saying that she hadn't posted her in x amount of days (don't remember how many but it was lots). That member was quite worried that the forum might close and all the information would be lost. It occurred to me that she might have saved the info. Unfortunately, I have never received a reply to my pm.

---------- Post added at 19:04 ---------- Previous post was at 19:00 ----------

If you do have any success I am willing to help in any way I can. I am no computer wiz by any stretch of the imagination.

Maybe I could award a mark out of 10 for effort. lol

MyNameIsTerry

29-11-16, 09:37

In theory yes.

However, the problem you would have is the "referential integrity" of the data. There would be loads of problems integrating the users of that site with this one, and linking all of the threads to their accounts.

It'd be easier to just re-instate the YaBB forum for a while, have everyone cherry pick the best responses and create a thread/page on here dedicated to it.

I'm not sure of the best course of action. Ultimately hinges on whether they can find the motivation to dig it out.

:D

Since a load of it is likely replies to others, just listing it like a Q&A page (well, probably a fair few) is probably the easier way than migrating. I've never worked internet migration but I've done billing systems and external company data migrations across national networks (BA, SME roles)...the ones that can take years...so whatever is the quickest & easiest is better than nothing. RLR still has an account on here so Admin can surely access it and put it in his name.

---------- Post added at 09:37 ---------- Previous post was at 09:34 ----------

SLA I know you will try but don't worry if you can't make it happen.

When the forum became inaccessible I tried to pm a member here who I know was very involved in RLR'S forum. "typer" was her nic. I received an automated message saying that she hadn't posted her in x amount of days (don't remember how many but it was lots). That member was quite worried that the forum might close and all the information would be lost. It occurred to me that she might have saved the info. Unfortunately, I have never received a reply to my pm.

---------- Post added at 19:04 ---------- Previous post was at 19:00 ----------

If you do have any success I am willing to help in any way I can. I am no computer wiz by any stretch of the imagination.

Maybe I could award a mark out of 10 for effort. lol

Maybe looking through and putting it in pots would be useful? So, things that are related are put together and then they can make up sections with some order. It depends how much, it depends on NMP too though as it would make sense to put data here for people if it doesn't add to their costs?

nomorepanic

29-11-16, 13:31

I don't really know what the answer is to be honest. We may not have the "rights" to copy and paste chunks of their forum on to here.

If you come up with a solution and need to know if I can do what you suggest then let me know.