How Catfishing (Sock-Puppetry) Might Affect Autistics

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In the introduction to the previous (now locked) thread (which intro is all I ever got to write) I stated very explicitly that my intent was not to name particular people and made it very clear that the point of that thread was to look at catfishing as a phenomena and how this phenomena might affect autistic people, either negatively or, positively, so I am asking the moderators to work with me on this one. If I am saying anything not appropriate in this intro let me know, and I will gladly edit this or any of my future comments according to your specification. If I turn the picture kind of sideways I can see why that thread was locked, but it is necessary to be very careful with censorship, as the locking of that particular thread also implies that I am disingenuous and was not going to write about what I clearly stated I was going to write about and was going to write about what I clearly stated I was not going to write about. That is actually a subtle kind of perception issue, which is the kind of topic that is very interesting to me, and if people have read what I written on WP it is obviously a subject I am referring to in many if not even most of my posts. Now I am hesitant regarding this thread here, which is why I am asking for help..Also the implication of all the responses was that such catfishing can be stopped, and the point of that thread was to do that..That is a nice thought, but personally I do not believe it is even possible to stop it, so though I would like to see it stopped, personally I would not make a whole thread and use my precious time trying to do that.

Anyway, the intent of this thread is not to try to stop or even point out any instances of catfishing that may (by my perception) be occurring on this system, though I will state that personally I am morally against doing it and think in general that it is harmful, but it also should be noted that in some ways it can probably be helpful. Somethings things are not so black and white, but there are very subtle gradations and shifts.

well, i look at it this way.

on the one hand, learning to discern what is BS and what is not, and not getting caught up in the BS, and having decent boundaries around that stuff and knowing when to walk away, is an invaluable skill for anyone planning to participate in a forum. in twenty years, i have yet to participate in a forum anywhere that didn't have trollers and sock puppets/catfisheries. i have been on some h eavily moderated boards where it was minimized and which i appreciated. i have occasionally had my own posts removed or censored, usually with a polite note from a mod, which i have always accepted gracefully as in the best interests of the board.

i do think how we deal with this issue is a good topic for discussion.

i do think ASpenites have a particularly hard time discerning truth from fiction, since we tend to expect truth. i know this trips me up constantly IRL.

i have for whatever reason an unnaturally sensitive ability to detect false advertising in the written word so i actually have a much easier time online.

but i still get sucked in from time to time.

does it do actual harm though? i don't really believe we can be harmed by this thing. experience uncomfortable emotions, yes, but that's part of learning. we are never going to change the nature of this beast, so i think it better we turn our attention on ourselves and how we deal with it.

i have not found confrontation to be particularly helpful and tends to degenerate into a war zone. so i try to use humor and honesty, i try to keep in mind what i can see and understand about the person who is posting (for instance, their age) and where that doesn't seem useful i just walk away. "don't feed the trolls" as it were. it costs me nothing but perhaps my pride, which isn't all that useful anyway.

Opi wrote:

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. Do not have much time to write now, but it could be harmful or helpful, depending upon the context it is put into, and this is the nature of shadow land from which various kinds of shamans and also shysters tend to operate (and I saw on some video the other day, I think one of Alex's documentaries, that there is even (at least one) autistic shaman:-) But the key point on this thread (for me, though of course people are free to explore different angles) is using one thing to say something else, so metaphor and allegory and how this can affect human brain function. I know one writer you are interested in who we discussed on the Faith thread explored explored thissubject quite a bit. Maybe I am getting kind of old, but forget his name right now..

i forget too!

this is an interesting perspective. i have to go out for now, but i will try to get back to this thread later and after i've had a little time to research the neurological effects of metaphor (which is where i'm inclinedd to start) and post some thoughts later.

What's sock puppet/catfishing?

It's when somebody has more than one account and pretends to be different people (for a whole host of reasons).

Thank you for telling me.

theres a number of people here who know a bit about the sockpuppeting incident was involved in, had been groomed,mimicked/life copied for pity and attention reasons, and then severely bullied and threatened by a large number of sockpuppets on WP [and the blog and other disability forums]- this community believed them to be innocent users;they werent innocent they were manipulating public belief with the use of SP acounts.
am not going to name their most memorable accounts because theyre now banned and as far as know this is against the rules to do,but they were an individual who pretended to be female,a person who was able to drive and work in a hospital with sick kids and yet severely classic autistic [which speaking from experience they woudnt be allowed to do so because they woudnt have the mental capacity required],they recently logged on under their sockpuppet account which they used to pretend to be 'their boyfriend',some users commented on that accounts sudden disapearance after posting a thread which unknown to users here was a provoking attack at KoR/self.

was recently sectioned,largely due to the impact this twisted predatory scumbag has had on life,as he never considered the effect of picking on someone who didnt have the mental capacity to fight back and get help,that shows how pathetic they are.

You know there are many different reasons a person could be cat fishing. For instance a person interested in psychologiy could be doing it to help people. This is just one example. That is what this thread is intended to be for---to discuss the broader implications of being in subjective shadow land and how it can affect brain function to believe in or not believe in this or that.

For instance, should people who tell their children there is a Sana Claus and even pretend to BE Santa Clause be banned from doing this, and is it even bad? I am discussing this Santa thing also on the Faith thread. By the way, I am in no way suggesting that I approve of catfishing, but to me the notion of banning people who are caught doing this (and I am not saying they should not be banned) and thinking that doing this will solve such a problem is kind of over-simplistic and naive.

I believe that by looking at your post in the other thread and the responses to it, that it is clear why that thread was locked.

If you need it spelled out: In the topic as well as the post itself you mentioned you had observed specific instances of sockpuppeting. Whatever else you may have said, it was not clear at all that your intention was not to discuss specific WP members.

I know at least one person who did sockpuppets. She was a very troubled member and she got tired of being called a troll so she created three new accounts and pretended to be different people in her threads. One member spotted it because she only posted in her own threads and the member noticed those three people never posted in other threads except for in the OP's threads so she knew they were all her. The person who created sockpuppets thought it would make her situation better and stop people here from calling her a troll but all she did was made it worse. This was years ago in 2008. Then she came back and impersonated a WP user here she liked.


Also catfishing just meanings pretending to be interested in someone and pretend to be someone who they are not regarding online dating. Are we changing the definition of the word now?

I've seen sockpuppets wreak considerable havoc in forum communities when they're not managed early, or despite how obvious they are they're granted the benefit of the doubt.

I am always skeptical when I see people accusing someone of being another person or the same people. Have you ever gotten that accusation? I have. Sometimes I find it hilarious. Better than getting upset about it.


I know a member here who would accuse people of being her stalker she knew on another forum. She even accused one of my WP friends as him and one of his friends too as him and I knew they were different people because I have talked to both of them and see their pictures and have them both on facebook. Of course the mods checked into it and saw they were different people. No doubt she had a stalker but I think it got her paranoid so she thinks she sees him everywhere.

I know of a banned member here who also accused people of being someone else on another forum and it was hilarious because none of it made sense and she had no proof that person was him or her. She also did false accusations even though it was be obvious the person didn't do it because there was proof right there in the open. Like she accused me of impersonating her on the forum but if she would look back in her thread, she would see it wasn't me doing it because the person had stopped impersonating her and changed his name again on the forum. She was the most annoying troll ever and no one could seem to ignore her but when you would ignore her, she would start trying to provoke members by posting provocative messages to get people to respond so we couldn't win. We found out if we just post off topic stuff in her threads and junk, it would get her to back off and leave and stop her crap. Some people thought she was a paranoid schizophrenic but I think she was a troll. Even a member on here asked the mods here to unban her so she would leave the other forum but they removed the thread instead because it broke the rules.

same here,the one that have posted about on this thread wrecked the bbcs disability forum beyond repair and it ended up removed as everyone stopped going on it.
the forum ended up just being him with his sht ton of sockpuppets filling entire pages up with his make believe pity parties,and several genuinely not lying/disabled individuals who hadnt had their trust of others and blind faith destroyed by people like him.

itd make more sense for ASD or disability forums to require some form of proof that the account belongs to a specific person, such as the user having to post a photo of themselves holding a sign of their username and date.

I'm guessing very few people would be willing to do that, and not because they're sock puppets.

In general, it is harmful, and many Autistics may become distressed by it as in most cases it is used as a form of social/emotional manipulation.

However, I will admit that I once used a sockpuppet account here. It was during a time in which I was sexually-confused and too afraid to post certain things (some of which were bizarre/disturbing fantasies) under my normal account. While this did help me to a certain extent, I feel guilty for having done it as it I lied to the membership of the site.

In nearly all cases, sockpuppets are used to troll and otherwise cause distress to people, so in general, I am against them.