Merc sports columnist Tim Kawakami reports that Warriors executive director of public relations Raymond Ridder was the author of an anonymous comment posted to the WarriorsWorld.net fan site that defended Warriors management.

In the comment, signed as “Flunkster Dude,” Ridder wrote that he appreciated a season-ticket-holder conference call, conducted by GM Larry Riley, team president Robert Rowell and broadcaster Bob Fitzgerald. “I actually enjoyed the call and appreciate their honesty,” the Flunkster Dude wrote.

The managers of WW.net traced the comment’s IP address to the Warriors offices, and they passed that information on to Kawakami, who confronted Ridder. According to Kawakami, Ridder owned up to posting the comment without hesitation.

“It was 100% me. And I’ll take 100% responsibility, if anybody thinks I did anything wrong,” Ridder said. “It was completely on my own. I’ve never been told to do anything by anybody here. It was just me.

“It was nothing malicious at all. I just wanted to get the conversation going in a positive direction–I thought we had a good conference call, I had some good conversations with some season-ticket-holders, then I got to my office and I looked on the internet and all I saw was negative comments, complaints, nothing positive.

Ridder also told Kawakami that he has posted four other comments to WW.net anonymously defending management or otherwise trying to get the conversation going in “a positive direction.”

Kawakami also pointed out that Ridder never asked to have his name removed from the story or to blame the postings on an unnamed “Warriors official.”

“I’m the one who went into my office and wrote what I wrote,” Ridder said. “I’ll take whatever comes of this.”