Sock Puppet people/multiple personalities

About This Message Board
21

My reaction, FWIW – “sock puppet” is a term of art to be distinguished from “troll”, even though trolls may have multiple identities. The troll signs up, posts inflammatory commentary until he’s banned, signs up again wth a different user name, and continues the game, often denying in his new identity any connection with the reviled old identity.

The sui generis sock puppeteer, on the other hand, creates multiple simultaneous identities (the puppets) to bolster his main personality’s assertions. The implication being, of course, that because others agree with him, he must be right; because others defend him, your attack is unwarranted.

Or so it seems to me, anyway!

  • Rick
22

Two questions, Rick, have you ever participated in any other message board to know if this is a common problem, and are there certain characteristics these people seem to share??

It still seems so odd to me, that someone would put such effort into something they have to keep barriers up to hide themselves behind anyway, what is the point of doing it? I think I understand the younger, immature person using attention getting devices to satisfy some craving for being center stage, but Cyberian isn’t a teenager. Though, he doesn’t exactly fit the troll image, he would fit in the multiple personality to hide, or be able to post again without taking responsibility for his former posting habits.

I wonder if this comes in cycles too. Like the full moon phenomenon, think so?? :slight_smile:

Judy

23

Y’all ask some interesting questions on this issue.

Please consider this post the biggest WAG you ever saw. And just my personal opinions, too. This is not to be taken as anything more than just my musings on the subject.

Now, I’m not a head doctor or anything like it, but I do think in some cases mental illness is part of the situation. I’m not talking so much about “imaginary friends” (although we see some of that too), but referring to the degree of obsession some folks display where this place is concerned.

I’m differentiating from Imaginary Friends created to bolster a argument (which is just pathetic) and people who truly buckle on the sword and come to the Straight Dope to fight with all comers.

Looking back through our time online, both here and on AOL, those that have given us the most grief over the longest period of time have been disabled – physically and/or emotionally, mentally. Maybe that’s not wholly coincidental.

Back in the AOL days, one of our more persistent trolls would send around pictures of himself in his wheelchair; how could we be so mean as to pick on a cripple? Another one would say the most horrific things, yet cried that we were abusing him because he was disabled.

We’ve had other problem children who presented with obvious emotional difficulties, though not quite to the incredible heights of the two referenced above. (Thanks be to every god everywhere.)

I don’t discount that it might just be that they’re to home, have a computer and lots of time, more so than the average Teemster.

For those that are forced into a life of the mind by the world’s limitations on them, this little hothouse seems to be just the place to hang. It’s a corner of cyberspace well inhabited by fascinating characters and vivid opinions. It’s very much alive. If your window on the world is a computer monitor, it’s not hard to see this place as your neighborhood, these people as your people. And when you don’t interact well with people in real life . . . this place is not much different.

BTW, this is NOT meant as any sort of criticism or condemnation of anybody with any kind of disease or disorder. One of my favorite people around here has been courageously up front and honest about his struggles and I’m not talking about him at all, so if he’s reading this he can just knock being oversensitive off right now. And we have even had a case where we had a poster with many problems of all kinds and the Teeming Millions helped him turn his life around; we helped him GET a life, outside of his house, away from his computer. Last I heard he was in college and doing fine.

There’s an excellent example of this kind of strange and bad behavior I’ve been talking about. It’s happening right now on the alt.fan.Cecil Adams newsgroup. John/Cyberian is over there now, desperately trying to ignite arguments with combatants from our days on AOL, bringing up old arguments and insults he previously hurled . . . while simultaneously denying that he is/was that poster from those old days. Reading over the threads, it’s like seeing an accident happen in front of you; you don’t want to look, but you keep looking in some sort of horrid fascination. It’s beyond losing your head over a dispute, it’s miles past wanting to have the last word, imho it’s illustrative of someone with some serious problems.

Not all trolls are mentally ill; not all people that are mentally ill are trolls. But sometimes that’s the way to bet.

your humble TubaDiva
(who could probably stand to have her head candled her own self)

24

In my previous message board experience, people did these sorts of things too… but not, as Tuba describes, in full battle mode such as we’ve seen here.

I can’t really offer a view as to characteristics, except to endorse Tuba’s excellent commentary with respect to the idea that when your window to the world is your computer monitor… it’s not always such a great situation.

  • Rick
25

I have been on quite a few message boards, Web boards, (New York Times Forums and a few others). Open to the public boards are, in many ways much more subject to recurring invasions by people with odd purposes. I have some subscription forums as well, and they are far less prone to trolling and sock-puppeting because you don’t have to spend money to get your jollies talking with yourself, or baiting the opinionated. People do resort to name calling and insults, though even in boards purportedly limited to discussions of academic research, and scientific study.

I have also been on AOL boards, Prodigy boards, and GEnie boards, and even some old fido relayed DOS boards, and text based BBS message boards. Everyone has to put up with childish behavior, sometimes even from real children. In one particular case, on an old BBS board the most active fifteen or twenty posters actually did manage to implement a real behavior modification program that worked. No reply to any post which included ad hominem address, profanity, or egregious insult to groups. None at all, not even a tsk tsk. Yeah, the newbies did respond, at times, but since ten percent of the posters provide half the responses, it really shows.

It works, by the way. The trolls still come by, and they type all caps follow-up posts demanding a reply. But they get bored real fast. And they go away. After a year, I noticed that no troll posted more than about seven times. Most not more than three. Think about those numbers. You have a page down key, and on this board it will bring you to a post worth reading, more often than not. Why spend your time providing behavioral reinforcement for some dimwit? Unless you really think you can bring the light of truth to the trolls of the world. Me, I figure if you want to fight ignorance, you start with the folks who are listening.

Tris

Imagine my signature begins five spaces to the right of center.

26

Dear humble TubaDiva, who certainly doesn’t SOUND like she “could probably stand to have her head candled her own self” :smiley:

{{{{For those that are forced into a life of the mind by the world’s limitations on them, this little hothouse seems to be just the place to hang. It’s a corner of cyberspace well inhabited by fascinating characters and vivid opinions. It’s very much alive. If your window on the world is a computer monitor, it’s not hard to see this place as your neighborhood, these people as your people. And when you don’t interact well with people in real life . . . this place is not much different.}}}}}

I finally GET it, with your word picture, it conjured up ‘Rear Window’ with Jimmy Stewart using his binoculars/camera lens as one lonely for social discourse, in this case, what is being used is the computer monitor. Which explains the tenacity and persistence of those ‘visitors’, drawn time and again using lies/excuses or anything else at their disposal ‘to keep hangin’ in the ‘hood’

You encapsulated the ideal answer to the many times my question will be asked by any newbie, it should be cross stitched and hung next to the Straight Dope sign with a P.S. from Tris,
{{{No reply to any post which included ad hominem address, profanity, or egregious insult to groups. None at all, not even a tsk tsk. }}}}

Judy

“Erlich, the woman is a TURNIP!!”
“I know, but my mom always told me to eat my vegetables!”

27

Well spoken, Tris. I couldn’t have said it better myself! :wink:

::Looks up, sees the topic has shifted from sock puppets to trolls::

Now, if we can just get a few hundred regulars to buy into your program, Tris, we’d be all set - I think here, 15-20 regs wouldn’t be anywhere near enough.