I think there is no doubt they are the same especially with the forensics posted above.
It is sad that so many posters are so sensitive to a little humor/ribbing (or whatever else) ticked them off, that they have to remove themselves but I do appreciate that many people have thinner skins than I do. I miss @Chowseeker1999 and @ipsedixit quite a bit and do occasionally lurk on HO to see what they are up to.
I know CS99 got quite upset with me because of fly-gate and smog-wash. C’est la vie.
Perhaps I am just very jealous because he very rarely added @CiaoBob to his run on lists of people who need to try something. He was too busy adding @TheCookie all the time
Haha… I didn’t get any reciprocation out of the deal. He mostly ignored my reports except to throw the occasional shade. You had mosquito-gate. I had Majordomo-gate.
@Chowseeker1999 would never copy and paste his old reviews to ek. that would definitively link the two and he doesn’t want that.
when the innocent topic came up about the similarities between cs and ek, he was over-the-top apologetic, feigned ignorance and went as far as claiming plagiarism (even though nobody accused him of that) and volunteering to leave entirely. after he was “convinced” to stay he poses the question to reformat his reports and downplayed his own writing and vocabulary.
but I think it’s pretty obvious now, that he’s been disingenuous and this was all just a cover story.
I steadfastly dispute your steadfast dispute, and offer myself as proof. When I come across my early FTC reports I notice how my writing and reporting style has evolved but keywords and key elements of my personality remain.