I’m getting the impression this board is like 7 people each with 20 socks. :dubious:
If you use them more, it’s because you’re a sock who’s trying to throw folks off your scent of a sock. And if you use them the same, it’s because you’re a sock who doesn’t recognize his/her own tell.
That’s the trouble with ellipses. They’re like beating your wife: you can’t quit even if you haven’t started.
I could never be as charming and intelligent as Eliahna.
This (and all the other posts remarking on similar ideas) makes sense. Much of this is stylistic stuff I’m not very good at perceiving. (I never look at join dates; maybe I should learn to!) This is all indicating to me that others are much more perceptive than I am! Thank you!
Hear, hear…
If anyone could solve this mystery, it’d be you!
There’s also a bit of confirmation bias going on by the people who think they can flawlessly identify socks.
Poster: Dude’s a sock.
[not a sock]
Poster: Oh, this one’s obviously a sock.
[not a sock]
Poster: I can tell this one is a sock.
[banned for being a sock]
Poster: Wham, first try!
…and for the win…
That’s not an ellipsis. That’s just some lint.
Sometimes it’s a little bit more like:
Poster1: Dude’s a sock
NotASock: What is a sock?
Poster2: Clearly a sock?
NotASock: What? No I’m not!
Poster1: That’s what a sock would say
NotASock: Fuck you, you fucking fuck!
[Banned for personal insults]
Poster1: Called it
POster2: Back of the net!
Further giveaway:
Being a tube of usually knitted fabric with a closed end, designed to be worn over one’s foot.
You may one day take my ellipses, but you will never take my parentheses!! (because I use them so often, you see…)
Just in case, here’s the explanation from the SDMB FAQ:
No, I’m real. The rest of you are imaginary.
Being named Lamb Chop or Hush Puppy is a big clue, also.
Lamb Chop is a three-star general in the USMC, whodathunk?
That’s somewhat comforting, actually. The word “clearly” isn’t always true. Sometimes, but not always.
Fortunately relatively rare here!
I and my exclamation points agree with you wholly!
And Kermit the Frog is highly suspect!
Huh? Wozzis? Whoosh?
The differences in various message board cultures are interesting. Here, socks will register while the original handle is still active, and - as has been pointed out - indulge in self-flattery or other forms of “conversation.”
On my other board, this is exceedingly rare. We get a few shills from time to time, but sock-enabled “conversations” don’t happen (as far as the mod team has been able to tell). What happens regularly is that someone gets banned and comes back under a new name. There are several repeat offenders who do this constantly. The moderators are always catching them, and one tends to assume that a few more might be getting away with it. The question for me is: why on earth would anyone bother? I mean, if you get banned from a message board under 5 names, doesn’t it seem pretty pointless to come back a 6th time when it is obvious your posting will eventually lead to yet another ban? That’s gotta be one of the most pathetic on-line behaviors I’ve seen. Anyone got any theories?
Li’l fluffy Lamb Chop – an officer in the Marines! Ooorah!
I can’t figure it. I can, at least, understand a flaming glorious suicide by mod. “Yer all a bunch o’ effing no good bewonks and poo on ya!” Blaze of glory. But creeping back in under the fence, to try to pretend to be a new chum, going through the act of learning the jargon and meeting everyone for the first time… Nuts! I don’t see any possible gratification there!
I’ pretty sure that it varies from person to person. I feel certain that one type of repeat sock has such a limited social circle of friends that the SDMB is their life. They have no life in real life.
Then we get the true mentally ill.