# How do you spot socks? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 27, 2020, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spot-socks/847054 "2020-01-27T16:21:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2020, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spot-socks/847054/81 "2020-01-28T22:45:59Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > I can easily think of ways to ensure that I never raise suspicion. Log on in different places (work versus home or LTE), so surely there has to be more to a final decision than just “inconclusive”. Many places have IP port forwarding similar to how it works at your house. At your house, the router has the external IP and the devices inside the house are on a local network. From the outside it looks like the single IP is making all the connections. It often works the same way with internet at your worksite, public wifi, the library, etc. All the devices connecting from within the location will look like they all have the same IP. So if two people at your workplace are both on the SDMB, the SDMB will probably think that both logins are coming from the same IP. If the SDMB bans the IP of your worksite, then no one from your worksite could get to the SDMB. Because the IPs are often connected like this, they couldn’t just use the same IP on two logins as indication of a sock. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2020, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spot-socks/847054/82 "2020-01-28T23:51:31Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I definitely remember posts where he was accused of being Terr. Please cite them then. I can find no such posts. (I do find a post where you accused a different poster of being a sock of **Terr** , but it wasn’t **Okrahoma**.) > [@](#): > > Admittedly, they were much more recent the other accusations, but I don’t think they were just the day before. Actually, they were the day after.😉 There’s a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking going on here, with people remembering that they thought it was obvious that they were the same, when no one ever made such a report or public accusation (as far as I can determine). > [@](#): > > The thing for me is that mods [del]yell[/del]express extreme frustration at people for repeatedly incorrectly identifying socks or trolls (even to the point of making special GD/Election “guidelines” about it) so I don’t usually like to report my suspicions before I’ve brought it up to other posters first. If they are making or implying public accusations in GD, then they should rightly be warned, and not just yelled at. > [@](#): > > So that’s what I use the Pit thread for. It’s both a sanity check and so I have more people to back me up so it doesn’t look like I just have a personal beef with a poster. Heck, often I assume someone else will report because they are clearly more sure than I am. (Plus the mods clearly read that bread and react to it.) Perhaps that’s a bystander effect situation. > > … > > Point is, if you want more reported suspicions, I can do that. I just think there might be reasons people feel more comfortable posting their suspicions in the troll thread first beyond “showing off.” As I said, I do check the troll thread, and sometimes have gotten good leads from it. But the quickest way to see action is report your suspicions to a mod. But if you find you are making a lot of accusations that turn out not to be supported, you might want to calibrate your sockdar. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2020, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spot-socks/847054/83 "2020-01-28T23:54:23Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > When a sock account is discovered, do they ban the original account as well as the sock account? Yes. We’ve occasionally discovered long time posters to have a sock, or to create a sock after they joined. In such cases both (or all) names are banned. But by far the most common motive for socking is a banned poster trying to return. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2020, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spot-socks/847054/84 "2020-01-28T23:57:54Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > It’s a lot easier to compare two people, than to compare _everyone_. Right. We may strongly suspect a newbie of being a sock, but we can’t compare them to everyone. Once we have a name, we can compare them. And posters who have been engaging with the poster may notice specifics that we don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spot-socks/847054/85 "2020-01-29T00:03:08Z")
Most often, socks are of someone whose other account had already been banned (the reason for the sock being to get around the ban). But in the rare case where someone has two accounts, and no other offenses, yes, they both get banned (though there are exceptions to this, if it’s an accident, or sometimes if the sock comes clean before we find them). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spot-socks/847054/86 "2020-01-29T00:04:49Z")
Oh, and in our internal documentation of folks we ban, there are an awful lot with notes like “Troll, probably sock of \_\_\_\_\_”, or “Troll, and suspected of being a sock of an unknown other troll”. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spot-socks/847054/87 "2020-01-29T00:08:59Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > But in the rare case where someone has two accounts, and no other offenses, yes, they both get banned (though there are exceptions to this, if it’s an accident, or sometimes if the sock comes clean before we find them). Right. Occasionally someone accidentally creates a duplicate account when registering, or comes back after years away and can’t remember their original username and creates a new one. We’ll be lenient if we decide the account wasn’t created with a nefarious purpose. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spot-socks/847054/88 "2020-01-29T00:26:57Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > (I do find a post where you accused a different poster of being a sock of **Terr** , but it wasn’t **Okrahoma**.) Checking further, that’s the only case I found of _anyone_ being accused of being a sock of **Terr**. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spot-socks/847054/89 "2020-01-29T00:28:52Z")
I personally don’t get too hung up about someone creating a sock. If someone get’s their jollies by making a second fictitious persona to their already first fictitious persona, well more power to ya! Sure if it makes you feel empowered to make comments from your second persona to support your first persona, Yea you! In the real world we call that a mental disorder. But as we all know this is not the real world, and some people need to feel good about themselves or it gets really sad where they live. But I don’t make the rules, and we should all abide by the rules that were laid out when we joined. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spot-socks/847054/90 "2020-01-29T00:32:51Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Sure if it makes you feel empowered to make comments from your second persona to support your first persona, Yea you! While this is the original meaning of sockpuppet, such socks are exceedingly rare on this board, as far as we can tell. Most socks are created by bannees to avoid the consequences of their behavior. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spot-socks/847054/91 "2020-01-29T00:35:50Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > While this is the original meaning of sockpuppet, such socks are exceedingly rare on this board, as far as we can tell. Most socks are created by bannees to avoid the consequences of their behavior. Meh, if a person feels that their lives are empty without posting here, I say let 'em. We may have saved such a person from getting banned from Twitter. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spot-socks/847054/92 "2020-01-29T00:48:31Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Meh, if a person feels that their lives are empty without posting here, I say let 'em. We may have saved such a person from getting banned from Twitter. 😉 Then in that case let’s not ban anyone, if you can circumvent a ban with no effort or consequences. And since banning is the only real form of enforcement on the boards, we can just give up on rules and let this be a board where anyone can post anything anywhere. Though that sounds dramatic, it isn’t. I’ve held a banhammer in a few places and maintaining enforcement is essential to having a functioning message board. When you stop using it you eventually stop having any kind of structured discussion and the board doesn’t serve much of a purpose anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spot-socks/847054/93 "2020-01-29T01:00:57Z")
Well, maybe Twitter ought to be more ready to ban troublesome people. I can think of one Twitterer in particular. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spot-socks/847054/94 "2020-01-29T02:21:46Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Meh, if a person feels that their lives are empty without posting here, I say let 'em. We may have saved such a person from getting banned from Twitter. 😉 We’re more concerned with people who are not jerks not having to put up with jerks, rather than the right of jerks to be jerks. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spot-socks/847054/95 "2020-01-29T03:03:31Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > On Wikipedia, sock puppets investigations (SPIs) are all done on a page anyone can view. I don’t believe there are any “private” spaces on that site. There are places that restrict editing, but not reading. So everyone can see the results of an investigation. > > But that’s tough for people doing the investigation. Because when I give my conclusions, I need to say why I arrived at my decision. How do I do that? If I say “this guy always uses single quotes” then he’ll skip doing that in the future. So I try to be vague saying something like, “there are distinctive communication patterns shared between known socks”. > > It’s always a balance between how much info you disclose to justify your conclusions… Like Penn and Teller on _Fool Us_. Kind of lame for my 10,000th post, but oh well. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spot-socks/847054/96 "2020-01-29T14:49:59Z")
Now I’m tempted to make a sock just to see if anybody recognizes my posting style. It’s too much work though, and I’m not that obsessively vindictive. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spot-socks/847054/97 "2020-01-29T16:09:03Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > Now I’m tempted to make a sock just to see if anybody recognizes my posting style. Given that most of your posts are in Thread Games, they don’t give a lot to work with. I would be bored to tears before I could read enough to detect a pattern. (Not intended as a criticism, just that disjointed short posts don’t make interesting reading if you’re not participating in the game.) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spot-socks/847054/98 "2020-01-29T16:21:06Z")
If I made a sock, then I’m very sure I’d be spotted immediately. Or maybe I’m just too familiar with how I write and assume it is distinct. I think it would be sadder if I wasn’t spotted immediately. _beep_ ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spot-socks/847054/99 "2020-01-29T19:25:07Z")
I was trying to find a _Cheers_ quote about a psychiatrist complaining about treating multiple personality disorder, but [this cartoon](https://s3.amazonaws.com/lowres.cartoonstock.com/medical-counselor-psychiatrist-multiple_personality_disorder-seven_personalities-bored-ear0394_low.jpg) seems to summarize the same idea. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spot-socks/847054/100 "2020-01-29T20:21:53Z")
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