How Many Sock Puppets Are There on a2k?

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If you have a day with nothing to do, try monitoring a thread for a few hours. You will see the votes for that thread go up and down. Not as dramatically as on abuzz: the software will not allow it.

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Type: Discussion • Score: 11 • Views: 3,427 • Replies: 20

[+4] - ossobuco - 07/11/2010I admit to a relatively boring life, but there... I will not go.
[+3] - Robert Gentel - 07/11/2010You are right. This software tries to discard attempts to vote multiple times while Abuzz would let you vote as many times as you wanted and made no attempt to stop sock puppetry at all.

@plainoldme,

You are right. This software tries to discard attempts to vote multiple times while Abuzz would let you vote as many times as you wanted and made no attempt to stop sock puppetry at all.

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@Robert Gentel,

Although I am not able to program, I can recognize when the platform software is doing or not doing something.

There is a poster who has been demanding to know if I vote his posts down. Interestingly, I didn't read any threads on which he posts for several days because I was too busy. When I did return, his posts had rather "high" negative numbers. I had nothing to do with the voting!

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@plainoldme,

I admit to a relatively boring life, but there... I will not go.

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@ossobuco,

If a person creates sock puppets in order to agree with himself, that person must be an adept liar . . . or a meticulous record keeper with the sock puppet's bio at his fingertips.

But a sock puppet or two created solely to vote for one's own posts is relatively easy to accomplish. Strange and obsessive, but easy to do.

personally, I don't have the time for that sort of nonsense.

However, when someone asks me more than once a month if I voted his post(s) down, and, if, I have a day when I check on my own posts more than once and I see the votes go up and down and know that only two people have posted, I do suspect that the worried poster has alter egos that were created to make him look better than he is.

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@plainoldme,

theres another new term for me. Ive never heard the term sock puppet in this context before.
I oresume that a sock puppet is someone who is in love with his/her own posts , so he/she dons different identities to "vote/ respond favorably/ commend" his/her own thread material. Is that correct?

I always suspected that "Mathos"was such a being, conjured up by SPendi to promote discussion. Of course that was not the case because the wrong one is still here and MAthos left because (I believe) he grew tired of spendis inane comments.

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@farmerman,

Well, being in love with one's own posts is part of it. Why else would some folks be so hell bent on demonstrating they are right without ever giving concrete evidence.

Speaking of concrete evidence: the same people criticize me for posting the writing of others which I feel supports what I want to say and demonstrates that I am not alone in my beliefs AND for never "supporting" what I say! Cracks me up!

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@plainoldme,

I've never heard the term before, so did a bit of Googling discover what it actually meant.
Got it!:

Quote:

A sockpuppet is an online identity used for purposes of deception within an online community. In its earliest usage, a sockpuppet was a false identity through which a member of an Internet community speaks with or about himself or herself, pretending to be a different person,[1] like a ventriloquist manipulating a hand puppet.

In current usage, the perception of the term has been extended beyond second identities of people who already post in a forum or blog to include other uses of misleading online identities. For example, a New York Times article claims that "sockpuppeting" is defined as "the act of creating a fake online identity to praise, defend or create the illusion of support for one's self, allies or company."[2]

The key difference between a sockpuppet and a regular pseudonym (sometimes termed an "alt" which is short for alternate, as in alternate identity) is the pretense that the puppet is a third party who is not affiliated with the puppeteer or acting under their control for their benefit. ....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sockpuppet_%28Internet%29

1 Reply

@msolga,

So BVT is an "alt" whereas Massagato and his several identities are "sock puppets".
Seems too cumbersome a word for such a dum thing. I think "meat puppet" would be far more descriptive and accurate.

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@farmerman,

It seems a bit tragic to me.
Why would anyone bother? Confused

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So were the first sock puppets pioneered by Plato, Keirkegaard, or Orson Scott Card? If I were to create another me to augement my already impressive net presence I think I would make it more of a panty hose dummy to look all bandit/burgarler like, it could be my fashion impaired bad boy side. My socks sort of smell bad anyway.

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think of sock puppets . . . an extension of self!

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@plainoldme,

But back to the original question:

How Many Sock Puppets Are There on a2k?

Hmmmm ....

I'm guessing 15?

Close, do you think?

1 Reply

@msolga,

(OK, I'll be honest now. I made that number up. I really have no idea at all. )

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I have no idea, either, or that anyone would bother Smile

But I think JTT is HighSeas's sock puppet Smile

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@GoshisDead,

GoshisDead wrote:

So were the first sock puppets pioneered by Plato, Keirkegaard, or Orson Scott Card? If I were to create another me to augement my already impressive net presence I think I would make it more of a panty hose dummy to look all bandit/burgarler like, it could be my fashion impaired bad boy side. My socks sort of smell bad anyway.

Shari Lewis?

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@Mame,

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/gismonda/pupsocks.jpg

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@farmerman,

I have no clue, don't get the appeal.

So, I suppose I'm a sock puppet victim.

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@Francis,

That's a great cartoon!

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I'd never heard this term until a facebook friend posted this
http://www.shinyshiny.tv/2011/07/poll_sock-puppeting-have-you-done-it.html so I searched forums to see if it had been mentioned before and this is the only thread that's ever mentioned it - the other thread has a sock puppetry tag that I assume some attached because they suspect some of it's happening (pretty innocuous thread though).

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How Many Sock Puppets Are There on a2k?

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