Multiple user registrations: the "sockpuppets" among us and what's going to be done about them

[Lee Enfield-Burke]

People,

When you signed up for the Forums, one of the rules you said you would follow -- when you clicked on the little box that said "I understand these rules and promise to abide by them" -- was this one:

"One registration per user, please. Our system records your IP address, so we can tell if you've registered more than once."

However, over the course of the past ten or twelve weeks, the Forum admin staff and I have noticed a number of you who, well, aren't really a number of you. You're one or two or more of you, pretending to be three or four or five or six of you. Your IPs as recorded by the system (which also gives us enough information to know the physical locations of those IPs), and in some cases, your login times, confirm it beyond any doubt.

In the world of the Web, a person who isn't really a person, but someone else already on the board using another identity to "play with" or fool other members, is called a "sock puppet". Sockpuppetry usually starts out as a game, but it can quickly turn annoying and/or nasty, and has become the plague of some online communities.

I have no intention of letting sockpuppetry become a nuisance here. In the past there have been only isolated incidents on our Forums: they haven't lasted long, and I've let them pass as the members involved grew out of them or got bored with the game. But the number of incidences is starting to grow, as our membership has been doing...so it's become time to do something a little more proactive. The sockpuppetry is going to stop now: or, rather, it's going to start stopping.

In the short term, here's what's going to happen.

Today is Friday the 4th of August. The weekend is before us. If you are a manager of more than one online identity on the YW forums, I am going to give you until the weekend's over -- specifically, until Monday morning, August the 7th, to send me a PM here, or to email me and "give yourself up." If you do that, no further action will be taken against you. You'll decide which of your identities you want to keep, and the others will simply fade away. (Because I have no desire to embarrass anybody, I won't delete those "sockpuppet" memberships, which would give away your secret to anyone who went looking for that member to see if they were still in the roster. I'll just lock them so they can't be used again, and that member will be assumed to just not be showing up any more.)

However...if you do not give yourself up...then starting on Monday, August 7th, all your identities will be locked out of the Forums until you email me and come clean. If you want to argue the case with me, saying that all these identities are real, or are different people, there's a really simple test that I (or Peter or kli6) can administer to you to discover whether this is the truth. Anyone able to satisfy us by passing this test will be readmitted to the Forums without delay. Anyone who doesn't pass the test will remain locked out (and their IP also will be locked out) until they choose to tell me the truth about what's been going on. If you can't go along with the relatively few rules we have around here, I don't want you on DD's forums (and by the way, on this subject, she concurs).

Again, I have no desire to waste time chastising you folks. Some of you may have been unclear about the rules. This is a chance for everyone to get clear about this particular rule, and to make sure everyone's complying with it.

I will be attaching a note about this message to the Forum login procedure, and in a few other places, so that everyone will be sure to see it and will have a chance to confirm that they understand this policy.

Now the ball's in your court. Please do the honest thing, and save us all some time.

Thanks.

[Slash]

Thank you Lee for saying that ... MISSY that should inform you that YOU ARE also WINTER!

[Snuffleupagus]

I know that you stated that we should PM addmissions, but I don't think this is really an admission, but I'm not sure. Several months back I changed the password and the e-mail on TheClone to unidentifiable garbage (think, asagjaigjionerh@jaihjafdoihja.com for the email and rougly something similiar for the password) so that I wouldn't be able to log on or send a lost password request. Stupid, I know. Either was, as I was not able to log into that account or get my pasword changed, I made this one. I'd much prefer to be using my old name (TheClone) to be honest. Either way. . . I don't think this really is what you were talking about but I'd rather be on the safe side.

[Char]

to see if they were still in the roster

Well, a bit off topic, but I've been wondering if we actually have a roster. It would make finding people in my area who read these books a little easier. I think Peter told me we don't have one, but now I'm confused.

[Lee Enfield-Burke]

Originally posted by Snuffleupagus:
I know that you stated that we should PM addmissions, but I don't think this is really an admission, but I'm not sure.

This isn't quite what I meant, but don't worry about it. PM me and we'll sort it out.

[Raeinar]

Ok I cant figure out how to PM but:

A friend of mine and Mythbusterfan's couldnt create an account (apparently AOL addresses aren't accepted? "it says my e-mail address has been band" )Anyway, I was making it for them using one of my e-mails and I was just going to have them login and change the e-mail to there own but I forgot that each member is manually approved by an administrator.

So the moral of this story: I am not a sock but just so you know I did create the user "rach29" for someone else who couldnt join.

I would like to help them join anyway I can but if the name needs to be removed I understand.

Either way I would appreciate a response on how to help them join the site.

[Kathy Li]

To PM someone, you can click on the login by their post, and one of the selections will be "Invite ____ to a private topic". If you want to have more than one person in a private topic, go to your Personal Zone's Buddy list (Go -> Personal Zone-> Buddies), and click on "Add Users" and add the folks you want to invite. Then, click on "Private Messaging", click the "New Private Message" button, and select the folks from your Buddy list.

AOL and hotmail addresses can't be used for registering accounts, so your friend is going to need access to another e-mail address. If having AOL is a parental limit, then maybe suggest using one of the parent's e-mails for registration, or a non-AOL e-mail account that's parent-accessible.

[calliope]

Would this apply to siblings who use the same computer?

[Alexis]

^That was my immediate thought too, upon seeing the new rules... what if my sister were to join the site too? Would I have to e-mail in for "permission"?

[Lee Enfield-Burke]

Originally posted by calliope:
Would this apply to siblings who use the same computer?

Not normally, if we get a sense that they're genuinely two different people. Some of our sockpuppets have been using this as a cover, though, so we've taken to asking the two people to arrange a time when one of them can be on the home computer and another of them can be somewhere else, usually on a friend's computer or library/public computer in the neighborhood. Normally, when they're really siblings, this isn't too tough to sort out. The sockpuppets, though, normally start suggesting all kinds of reasons why this is impossible.

[Cyber Mirage]

It would still theoretically still be possible for a person to get himself and a sock into chat.

In my case, I have two.. no.. three computers sitting right next to each other. It'd be simple to just log in as different users on each comp.

Not that I've done this or anything. I was planning on creating a second acount to push the limits on how well the system keeps two accounts from being logged in on the same comp when this ban came in. Unfortunatly I never got the chance.. T-T

I can no longer get into chat. Seeing as I only have one account, although my brother may have one inactive one that he never uses under the name fred-somethingorotherthatIcan'tremember. This may be the cause, and I would like to let you know that you may delete the other account on the same computer, because my brother never uses it anyways, and if he does, well, he's in for a beating (or not, as that is sibling abuse and pretty illegal). This is not a sock puppet account, Deeling can speak on my behalf, but the result of my little pain-in-the-tush, copycat of a brother being a twit and wanting to get involved, even though he's never touched any of DD's books. Okay, I'm getting angry and going into rant mode. Just thought I'd mention this, and tell you that it is cool to destroy. Even if he has used it, he shouldn't be on here. Hopefully, I'll be able to get on again one day, as I do enjoy the chat here, no matter how rarely I frequent it nowadays. Love and hugs, minnasan!

Holy bejesus, fangirlese. Well, English homework to attend to. Just like last year, minus the Romeo and Juliet and Great Expectations. Oh, thank goodness for that. *strangles many a male member of the classic literature list cast. And a few of the girls, too.*

[Kendra*and*moon*]

I made a new one, without relizing what I was doing.'Cuz my name confused people, (Kendra*and*moon) My name is Tanith, but Sometimes when I am unconfterable with my name to strangers, i type in a random one, But now i know a few ppl. If the vampiresoldier one gets up and running, could i still delete this one so people will not be confused to my name?

[Dragon Writer]

ok...You know you could have just requested to have an admin change your name, rather then creating a whole new account, right? *goes off to another days worth of posts and hopes no one already responded to this, since i'm doing posts from a few days ago*