how many identities are from the same person on this forum?

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Isn't it easy for alex to deal away with the sock-losers? Shouldn't it say that an IP or email account has registered twice and then auto-ban both?

You can't register the same e-mail account twice.

Yes but getting unlimited new e-mail accounts is easy. Using many web browser to
avoid sharing cookies and using proxy servers to get a different IP address . So in
theory its absolutely impossible to detect sock puppets.

From a practical point its pointless to use sock puppets. The truth is not a popularity
contest. A thinking person looks at facts not number of posts.

A person should be judged by their post content if they are in violation of the TOS they should be warned or banned. I think Alex has been fast to remove such people.
But as I said before its impossible to detect new puppets so naturally they will be
detected and removed when the violate the TOS again.

wow. i really can't believe that there were so many responses to this!

the real reason i'm asking has to do with my previous experiences w/ online forums.
i knew a handful of people who 'sock-puppeted' all the time. and with gusto to boot.
they were proud of all the various identities that they came up with, like they were 'pulling one over on me'.

granted i was much younger at the time, and knew rather little about computers, but i always thought it was strange that they felt the need to hide thier identities this way.

i can't say that i do this, or have done this. i don't see much of a point in doing so.

eventually, your real personality will be exposed anyway.

Definitely only post under this name which I use on many of the forums I post on.

I have a personal reason for believing that sock-puppeteers should be regarded as international criminals: I had a close e-friendship with a member on another site (which shall go unnamed, but socks are such a huge problem there that I now think of it as "Sock Puppet Theatre") whom I PM'd with, e-mailed with, and even chatted online with for nearly a year, whom I finally figured out to be nothing but the online alter ego of another member there — and they weren't even of the same gender (it was a guy pretending to be a gal, I'm humiliated to confess); thank Christ that it was purely platonic.

I'll never let myself get that close to anyone on the internet again.

It wasn't an Aspie site, btw.

If we indentified people by their Internet Protocol Address, it would be a lot easier to tell.

Ive never understood that whole paranoia people seem to have on the internet that the person they are talking to might not be the gender they claim.

If the person is fun to talk to and you enjoy their company what does it matter?

If you start trying to pursue a real life relationship with them and find out it wont work because they are not a gender you find sexually attractive why does that make you mad instead of disappointed?

Is it because you feel like they wasted your time? If you enjoyed their company and talking to them how could that be a waste of your time?

It went beyond that: this NT piece of sh!t had a big behind-the-scenes feud going on with someone else there (whom I never really had anything to do with, so had never had any real feelings toward one way or the other up to that time) that he lied like crazy to me about through this alter, and so when he finally got into a huge flame battle on the board (that resulted in this other person leaving the site for good): I felt compelled to enter into the fray on the side of this sock out of loyalty; so when this guy took time off from posting through this sock, to make it appear to me as though this fake character were staying away from the site for awhile to let things cool off after that, I was stuck with having to do the same as myself.

This guy played on my feelings of loyalty to this fake character to get me to do all kinds of things on that board that I would never have done otherwise; he should have his eyeballs dug out with spoons.

Anyway, even if he hadn't tricked me into so many things: I just can't stand being made a fool of period; I don't believe anyone here does, and I really can't understand your attitude, quite frankly.

Last edited by Enigmatic on 29 Nov 2006, 4:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Made a fool of?

How so? I dont think your name in real life is Enigmatic does that mean me calling you by that name means your making a fool of me?

My stance on the issue is kind of unique since Im bisexual so its difficult for me to understand why it matters.

My real life name is Bruce, for what that's worth; but I only post as "Enigmatic" here (I originally registered as "Enigma," but that was too similar to someone else's username here, so I re-registered under a variant of that).

People should only post under one screen name, and not post through alters; particularly of the opposite sex (this guy even lied about what country he was in through the sock puppet in question).

People who mis-represent themselves online to such a degree are just sick, and should be banned from having internet access.

Why?

On here you are who you say you are just as much as everyone else. You could be lieing or maybe your telling the truth.

The point is it doesnt really matter because whether its the truth or a lie its who you are here and a shared perception is a subjective reality as real as any other.

Sounds like your problem is more indignation over being manipulated rather than a general hatred towards people who take a vacation from their real lives to be someone else for a while.

If they arent hurting anyone or anything why should anyone care if what they claim about themselves is true or not?

Also dont forget most of us females on the internet have to toss out a little disinformation here and there to prevent stalkers does that mean we're maliciously making a fool of people?

I've said all I'm going to say about it, except: wait'l it happens to you.

People who pretend ONLINE in my opinion are using other people for fun - however - when they carry that offline than what is their dishonesty hoping to accomplish? I really have no admiration for liars and deceivers. This should have nothing to do with sexuality - how does misrepresenting yourself have to do with that. I know before when someone posted a very negative story claiming to be an autistic person when in fact they were neither autistic nor the gender they claimed to be some got all upset and tried to make it a gender issue and refused to look at the damage done by the falsehoods.

Yeah I think Im more confused over the rampant homophobia on the internet these days than the actual disdain for deciet which is a trait I share.

I hate people lieing but I hate people who hate others for lieing about their gender because of such irrational fear and insecurity even more.

It wasn't just that they lied about their gender — it's that this guy created such a fully fleshed-out character that I believed it to be an actual person; which goes way beyond just posting under a different screen name.

That did damage to me (I already had serious trust issues).

Homophobia had nothing to do with it, if that's what you're suggesting; as I said: it was purely platonic.