"Whistleblower or criminal?" asks the teaser on The New York Times' Opinion page. It's the question of the hour—speaking, of course, about Ed Snowden, whose leaks of top-secret documents from the National Security Agency (NSA) began dribbling out last week via two newspapers, The Guardian and The Washington Post.

Whether Snowden is a hero or a traitor is a matter of opinion. But one thing that's become clear as a matter of fact in the past few hours is that Snowden was an active Ars Technica reader and poster in our forums.

His username, "The True HOOHA," was revealed in a profile of Snowden published by Reuters earlier today. That was the name he used on an anime site, which corresponds to the Ars username TheTrueHOOHA. Under that username, posts went up that strongly suggest the user is Snowden.

The user who appears to be Snowden registered with Ars in 2001. At that time, Snowden would have been just 17. His first post on Ars was about how to set up his own Web server. "I want to be my own host," wrote TheTrueHOOHA. "What do I need?" He signed off: "Phish, the one true Hooha, EDitor, 7xGM." Beneath his signoff he wrote: "Real programmers never die, they just GOSUB with no RETURN."

There are many signs TheTrueHOOHA is Snowden, some of them already noted by Buzzfeed. Posts made by that username indicate the user is male and the same age as Snowden (22 in 2006), has the same educational background (no high school degree), and has worked for the government in an IT capacity. TheTrueHOOHA mentions his old workplace, Ryuhana Press. He mentions being in Geneva in 2007, a time when the Swiss embassy has confirmed he was an attaché with the United States Mission to the UN in that city. Finally, there are photos of a young Edward Snowden posted in an Ars forum back in 2006.

Snowden's last post on Ars was in May 2012. His posts spanned many topics: from online anonymity, to the government, to the NSA. TheTrueHOOHA also talked about things a lot of other folks like to chat about in Ars forums: he talked about gaming, about anime, about his sex life.

Snowden on agnosticism, anime, gaming, guns, and government

In 2003, Snowden was chatting about being an agnostic with Ars writer Peter Bright and Ars editor-in-chief Ken Fisher (referred to by his username Caesar):

First, for Peter: quote:

One can be happy and peaceful but not free (one's happiness need not be conditional on freedom).

This is no more true than GWT's statements. This is entirely dependant on the individual -- as is the definition of freedom. Freedom isn't a word the can be (pardon) freely defined. This is the case with so many words, and I think your disagreement with Gwt is a testament (giggle) to this. Further, on the topic of your quotation: Haven't you ever heard of an American? The saying goes, "Live free or die," I believe. That seems to intimate a conditional dependence on freedom as a requirement for happiness. Unless you're a part of Heaven's Gate, I guess. And Peter, as an aside: Dear lord (heh)! You have over thirty thousand posts! Take a moment and stretch! ...

However, I feel that, as Caesar was quick to point out, individual belief is not something that we can be without.

The same year, Snowden was looking for ways to surf the Internet more anonymously. He posted:

Alright, I'm familiar with the layman's version of how remote proxies can be used to make yourself more anonymous. However, while I have a fairly deep understanding of networking, I've got some serious holes that need to be filled (without pr0n references) regarding how the different protocols come into play with each other ESPECIALLY when you've got a slightly masked IP address. Fellow Arsians, further my education! Question 1: Is it possible to reroute -all- traffic through a remote proxy? By all, I mean traffic such as SMTP as opposed to the standard HTTP/FTP/SSH/Socks. How could you go about doing this (Is special software required)? ... That's about it for now... Ultimately, my goal is to further my own understanding of what would be logged at any given point during transmission. I wouldn't want God himself to know where I've been, you know? Collective thanks,

-HOOHA

He was an avid gamer. Back in 2003, when Snowden would have been 19, he offered a review of Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. "Graphically, it's par for the course," wrote TheTrueHOOHA. "The storytelling really saves this game. The plot, while very noir and angsty, is exciting with rock-solid pacing. I finished the game in one sitting."

In 2008, TheTrueHOOHA started a thread in Ars forums in which he announced he "had... a vision." HOOHA continued to give himself a new gamer name:

I woke this morning with a new name. I had had a vision. A dream vision. A vision righteous and true. Before me I saw Gamers, Gamers shrouded in the glory of their true names... Step forth, and assume your name in the pantheon. It's always been there, your avatar's true name. It slips through your subconscious, reveals itself under your posts, and flashed visibly in that moment of unrestrained spite; in the indulgent teabag. You've felt it, known it, recognized it. Now realize it.

I woke this morning with a new name. That name is Wolfking. Wolfking Awesomefox.

In 2006, Snowden/HOOHA was talking up working in IT at the Department of State:

Work yourself up to Europe. Say, Department of State. They're understaffed right now, but Europe posts are competitive, but you can get in the door much easier if you express an interest in going to near-east hellholes. Once you're in, tough out the crappy tour and you should be able to pick from a list of preferred posts. Alternately, get a clearance. If you're cleared, have a lifestyle, and have specialized IT skills, you can go anywhere in the world right now. Thank god for wars.

At one point in 2006, Snowden/HOOHA joked about how one user's Xbox 360 is "NSA's new surveillance program." The strange clicking noise that another Ars user heard coming from his console? "That's the sound of freedom, citizen!"

On another occasion, TheTrueHOOHA talked firearms; he owned a Walther P22 and "love[d] it to death... I don't intend to be in combat anytime soon." But he "could still use it to put ten tiny holes in important parts of a home invader if necessary, though." In addition to owning his own gun, he played Airsoft, a kind of paintball-like activity with realistic-looking guns.

He also worried about corporations and government actions that could make society less free. In 2010, Snowden responded to a post about a system built by Cisco, meant for government wiretappers, that was found unsafe. He wrote:

It really concerns me how little this sort of corporate behavior bothers those outside of technology circles. Society really seems to have developed an unquestioning obedience towards spooky types. I wonder, how well would envelopes that became transparent under magical federal candlelight have sold in 1750? 1800? 1850? 1900? 1950? Did we get to where we are today via a slippery slope that was entirely within our control to stop, or was it an relatively instantaneous sea change that sneaked in undetected because of pervasive government secrecy?

Mr. Snowden, if you're reading this—we'd love to reconnect. Ars readers would have a special interest in hearing from you. Drop me a line.

[This story was updated to remove an inaccurate reference to an email address.]