Color me dense, but what in hell is “sock puppetry?”
To be a sock puppet is to post under an assumed identity. If you were to use a friend’s computer and set up a guest account with another name, that other ID would be **David **Simmon’s sock puppet. Like Shari Lewis and Lambchop.
I think we can all agree that the answer to that mystery is to be found neither in science nor religion. Suffice it to say that phenomena appear that make the Big Bang seem … not so big.
What is the point of having and paying for two accounts if you don’t want to cause trouble with them? :dubious:
(Unless I missed the joke in which case…haha)
don’t look up
Naw, much more significant here, since we occupy circles of adoration for our Perfect Master, who has several books out by now. This God guy, what the heck has he ever had published since his first book? He’s just a one-hit wonder.
Oh, a “second self.” Thanks.
good grief.
Sock/multiple username question: I’ve been trying to get my husband to join. How do we make it clear there are two of us?
See here in How to prove that my husband isn’t a sock?
In a nutshell just send **TubaDiva ** and/or **C K Dexter Haven ** and Email as a heads up.
Jim
Dammit son! Pay attention! Don’t make me put my shoes on.
Now I feel all group-thinkie for asking a question that had just been asked. Oh, the hive mind is definitely growing.
Mr. Simmons, as you might expect sock puppets might have an annoying habit of coming to each other’s rescue, of being able to impart the sense one side of an arguement is held in regard by more than might actually be the case. I suppose you could also have an asshole sock that could carry out an attack on a rival while leaving your character unblemished. Just kind of a nasty business rife with bad possibilities all the way around.
Speaking of Hive Mind, look at the Simul answers with the same Time stamp. Scary stuff. Of course mine included a summary. 
Jim
Oh, he’s a real sweetheart, all right. Not long after I posted this speculation in the “Why was Strunk banned” thread, my email was attacked with a flood of “Thanks for signing up for our surveys!” and “Learn to concentrate better!” type spam, all sent to the email address in my SDMB profile, and all addressing me as EddyTeddyFreddy, or EddyTeddy, and so forth. Also included as an extra added bonus was a vituperative email from the self-identified “Classics scholar” himself. I noted that his email was sent about the same time as all of the spam was generated, by the way. Coincidence? Unlikely.
My spam filter, with a minor tweak, has blocked all further such assaults, for what that’s worth (most of the original flood didn’t even make it through the initial filter of my service provider). This infantile harassment is more amusing than anything else, merely confirming the impression I’d already formed of him based on previous interactions.
Oh, yeh, a helluva guy, all right. :rolleyes:
So are users who suffer from Dissociative Identity Disorder allowed to create one account for each of their personalities?
Wow, he does have some serious issues. I wonder where they came from? He seemed pretty nice here as Pliny.
Yeah, it’s a second self, but it’s a particularly annoying and damaging type of second self. The whole imagery of the virtual “sock puppet” is one person having a conversation backed up by a sock puppet on his hand:
Poster: “I think blah blah blah.”
Poster’s Sock-puppet alter-ego: “Brilliant point! You are the most intelligent amazing person I’ve ever known!”
Poster: “God, Poster X is an asshole!”
SP: “Yeah! An asshole! Pile on! Pile on!”
It’s shoring up your own argument or fight by creating “others” to support or defend you. And it creates suspicion among posters as to who is “real” and who is just some fake annoying construct. It also encourages (or at least permits) bad behavior, because if you can hide behind a sock puppet second identity, then that “person” can be a complete asshole while you remain respected and take no responsibility or blame for “his” actions.
I always thought some Doper came up with the term, a la Og, but apparently not so. (There’s nothing new under teh internets.) Here’s the Wiki on sock puppets, including some notable quasi-famous ones.
Damn, that was a quick banning.