The phantom car

It's really not in the style of this blog to focus on specific anonymous message board posters. After all, there's rarely any direct proof that these are anything but earnest, if horribly deluded, people who genuinely believe what they're saying.

But every now and then, some of them cross the line, and when one does so in such a grandstanding manner it becomes hard to ignore.

Such is the case with poster "N. Dixon" of Silicon Investor, who is presumably one and the same as "N_Dixon" on the Yahoo boards, and whose writings have been the source for the bulk of this week's entries.

Dixon has been a longtime advocate of REFR on the message boards, dating back to the very early days of the Yahoo boards. Dixon, who claims the "N" stands for "Nancy" (therefore I will use feminine pronouns) claims to be an REFR shareholder dating back to 1992, which, not really surprisingly, featured some of the lowest prices at which REFR stock has traded (on a split-adjusted basis, even lower than this year's lows).

As of late, Dixon has confined herself to Silicon Investor, where she posts away with less voluminous rebuttal than she would encounter on Yahoo. The reason for this "exile" may well be what follows.

It all began with what seemed a joke. Dixon said she planned to ask, at the 2004 REFR annual shareholders meeting, "Which 2005 vehicle with SPD glass do you think is the most attractive?"

She subsequently clarified that she meant the 2005 model year.

Then she went even further: "Already picked out my SPD-Smart equipped vehicle for purchase next year."

And then later: "SPD ALREADY in 2005 production vehicles and in aircraft."

She later added that she believed that the Mercedes GST would include SPD by Spring 2005, but did not specify that this was the car she "ordered".

Dixon went on to take the show to Silicon Investor:

"I'll let you know how I like my 2005 auto with SPD glass."
"I've ordered [my vehicle with SPD]."
"SPD in production vehicles. I've ordered mine!"

Later, with the 2005 model year winding down and no source of SPD film, much less a finished product, in sight, the tale changed:

"I have ordered my car with SPD. I get updates on it. It was scheduled for manufacturing in 2005 so it might be a 2006 model."

Requests for further details, such as make and model of her order, went predictably unanswered.

So apparently we are supposed to believe that Dixon ordered a car without knowing the model year, to be manufactured more than a year later. I'd sure like to know the dealer that would take an order like that.

No, the conclusion is unavoidable that the whole tale of an order of a 2005 model year automobile was quite simply made up out of thin air. And it seems likely than, rather than have to face a derisive mob anytime she attempted to say anything, Dixon retreated to relatively calm waters of SI, where no more than two or three people will be pestering her about it at any given point in time.

Rumors that Dixon has verbally denied being a crook, meanwhile, remain unconfirmed.