# A question about socks **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [March 22, 2021, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-socks/938431 "2021-03-22T13:16:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2021, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-socks/938431/61 "2021-03-27T19:32:34Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > We have at least 3 blank white squares. Raising my hand, I’m one of them, but just one. Where are the other two? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2021, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-socks/938431/62 "2021-03-27T19:42:49Z")
You’ve got a picture for an Avatar. I meant **kaylasdad99** , **Gatopescado** and someone else I noticed today. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2021, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-socks/938431/63 "2021-03-27T19:51:50Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > You’ve got a picture for an Avatar. :whoosh: I know. I’m white, see avatar picture that’s really me; my brain is blank a fair amount of the time I call on it; I’m a boomer (DOB 1950) so I must be hopelessly square-blank, white square. That sound you hear is the :whoosh: echoing. ---
**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2021, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-socks/938431/64 "2021-03-28T01:19:46Z")
Would that be me? ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2021, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-socks/938431/65 "2021-03-29T01:25:01Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > This is why I think Tachy Goes to Conventry should be the final moderation option in such extreme cases. [If Discourse has such an option of course] Final? I’d go a step further. If someone gets suspended twice for being a jerk, their next suspension is a stealth banishment to Tachy for 2 weeks, with a catch: If/when they PM the mods to ask why nobody’s seeing their posts, then the 2 week cool-off begins at that point. If they never recognize that they’ve been banished, well, let sleeping dogs lie. Some of the subforums on Reddit have practices like this, and it works great. With explicit suspensions and bannings, when we wag our fingers in a stentorian voice and say “YOU HAVE BEEN SUSPENDED FOR TRANSGRESSION XYZ”, lots of defiant folks climb over themselves to log back in to make their case or to grief the object of their ire in some passive-aggressive way. However, lots of folks are perfectly happy to take silence as a sign that their pearls of wit and wisdom must have sailed over the heads of the hoi polloi, or that the software has glitched. And like I said, if a person never notices or cares that their posts are muted, well, doesn’t that sort of make the case that they’re not our best and brightest anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-socks/938431/66 "2021-04-02T04:30:46Z")
The difference between Coventry and a Box, would be that Coventry is like muting the poster - they yell into the void, unknowing - and a Box allows Board posters to interact with Box denizens in the Box, but not vice verse. Is that about right? If yes, could we have a Box? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-socks/938431/67 "2021-04-02T06:38:16Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > …they yell into the void, unknowing… Really? And what stops them from knowing, when everyone all of a sudden quits responding at the same time? You would have to be pretty damn dumb not to be able to figure that one out. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-socks/938431/68 "2021-04-02T06:58:31Z")
People don’t respond to the majority of posts, I’ve found. But if you want to keep it a little lively, just to hook them longer, you could throw in some bots that would quote their post and give some generic outrage statement, or, if, in the Pit have them generically insult them. Or, heck, outside the Pit, have them be insulted, and a mod bot to Warn the person for insulting them. Still, Coventry doesn’t have to hold people forever to be useful. For one-off trolls just coming to have fun and seeing if they’ll get a reaction, it might be enough that they’ll forget about the place after a bit. But, sure, for more concerted trolls, it might not hold them for long. But any delay in noticing they’ve been banned is a delay in them coming back. The main issue is if it makes them more angry–which was actually the problem on Reddit. It’s why sitewide bans are no longer shadowbans, except for spammers. That’s where shodowbans and Conventry really come into their own: spammers. As long as you can keep them from seeing the real site, you can keep them away. It doesn’t work if they know you use those techniques, as they’ll just check the real site and see their comments aren’t there. But the basic spambots aren’t that smart. Then again, I would not be surprised if this is already built into forum software as part of how it filters out spam–spam the mods don’t even ever see. I’m pretty sure @codinghorror said there was some level of automatic spam mitigation, though I don’t know how it works. Still, saying all that, I do kinda like the idea of a Coventry/Box combo, where all bad posters get shoved off to a Box unknowingly, and trusted posters can go in and have some fun with them, helping keep the illusion alive longer. I admit I had a bit of fun with a very recent sock (possibly the one who inspired this thread) deciding that was better than getting mad at them. It’s a tactic I’ve used to shut up trolls elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-socks/938431/69 "2021-04-02T09:11:35Z")
It was a bit of poetic silliness… ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-socks/938431/70 "2021-04-02T11:09:14Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I admit I had a bit of fun with a very recent sock (possibly the one who inspired this thread) deciding that was better than getting mad at them. > > It’s a tactic I’ve used to shut up trolls elsewhere. Please do not feed the troll. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-socks/938431/71 "2021-04-02T12:01:07Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > ’m pretty sure @codinghorror said there was some level of automatic spam mitigation, though I don’t know how it works. Most every morning i see some messages to the mods saying “this poster was muted by the system because the system thinks it’s a spammer”. The system is usually right. Oh look, an ad for something completely unrelated to the thread, posted by someone in India! The mods need to finish the process, but the system auto-hides the posts until the mods have a chance to review them. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-socks/938431/72 "2021-04-02T15:35:40Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Please do not feed the troll When, in the history of message boards, has that been effective advice? Between the people that don’t identify the person under scrutiny as a troll, the people that have a need to insult the troll just to show off their cleverness and those that never see that “advice” to begin with, it is pretty much useless. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-socks/938431/73 "2021-04-02T19:59:46Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > > [@BigT](#): > > > > I admit I had a bit of fun with a very recent sock (possibly the one who inspired this thread) deciding that was better than getting mad at them. > > > > It’s a tactic I’ve used to shut up trolls elsewhere. > > Please do not feed the troll. I do not believe I fed the troll. Feeding the troll, as I have always understood the term, is giving them what they want. That’s falling for their deception and/or expressing outrage. The method I was talking about is mocking and antagonizing the troll. I know the old Internet maxim, but I’ve never seen it work in practice. Usually by the time I notice someone is trolling, they’ve already hooked some people. My choices are to let people know that they’re being trolled—which I often do—and to frustrate their intentions. I find antagonizing and mocking them for how bad a troll they are tends to do both, and is cathartic to boot. And it seems to actually work a whole lot of the time. I’m not kidding when I say I’ve seen it shut up the troll. I’d even say it worked this time: the guy escalated to the point of absurdity, where it was so obvious no one could be fooled. He essentially burned his account. ---
**Author:** ![Chingon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chingon/32/17645_2.png) [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-socks/938431/74 "2021-04-02T20:57:24Z")
Trolls want the attention, that is all. You think you’re antagonizing them with your razor sharp wit, but they’re actually toying with you. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-socks/938431/75 "2021-04-02T21:30:42Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > but I’ve never seen it work in practice I have. It’s pretty hard to get a whole message board to ignore someone. But I’ve had trolls targeting me. And I’ve seen trolls targeting other people. And just ignoring them actually works pretty well. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-socks/938431/76 "2021-04-02T21:49:00Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > > [@BigT](#): > > > > but I’ve never seen it work in practice > > I have. > > It’s pretty hard to get a whole message board to ignore someone. But I’ve had trolls targeting me. And I’ve seen trolls targeting other people. And just ignoring them actually works pretty well. Ah. I wasn’t considering that situation. It’s not one that comes up for me. I’ll ignore someone if they keep making me upset, without worrying about whether or not they’re trolling. And, once I ignore them, I have no idea if they actually ever stop. It just doesn’t matter. I guess I always think about trolling as someone trolling other people. And, in that case, I’ve never found it to help if _ **I** _ personally ignore it. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2021, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-socks/938431/77 "2021-04-04T03:48:47Z")
A small vote for wishing socks were allowed in some circumstances. I do NOT feel anonymous with my user ID and the identifying information I have shared. And there are threads and subjects that are of natures that are more … private and sensitive. I’m not going to share some things in a public venue under an ID that I feel is easily associated with me in real life. So I don’t participate there so much. A more anonymous sock account would be give me an option for privacy that I opted out of otherwise long ago without much forethought. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2021, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-socks/938431/78 "2021-04-04T04:16:51Z")
I’ve often thought there should be a generic “@Anonymous1” account that anyone here could log into just for the purpose of posting something overly personal anonymously. Maybe 2 or 3 of them. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2021, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-socks/938431/79 "2021-04-04T04:46:45Z")
Sounds like a nightmare for the mods if it’s truly anonymous. They’ll be constantly deleting insults and trolling and threadshitting by @Anonymous1. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2021, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-socks/938431/80 "2021-04-04T04:47:39Z")
I’ve been a mod on a board that allowed something close to that. It was troll heaven and mod hell. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-socks/938431.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-socks/938431.md?page=5)