I was just reading the BBQ pit for the first time and saw a discussion of “sock puppets” and “troll outings.” I gather that sock puppets involve some sort of misrepresentation, but I’m unclear on the specifics. Could someone help me understand?
A sock puppet is second (or third, or…) registered identity that a person creates in addition to their original registered name. This second name is usually created just to add a “you’re so right” comment to the threads posted to by the original person.
Like I might post my stupid opinion, and then if the next person posting after me (coincidentally named “Losty”) woud post “oh, Lost, you are so right on target, you’re my hero”. Well, then you might think that the poster Losty was a “sockpuppet”.
If you suspect someone of being a sockpuppet, you should email one of the mods or administrators, not create a thread about it.
The admins of this board have ways of researching suspected sock puppets - too technical for me, maybe someone else can explain that part.
It seems to be one of the more useless “priorities” of the board, to catch sock puppets, which is pointless, since the puppets always win, and it keeps them from working on real bugs.
IMHO 
Oh I disagree. First of all, we have hard working techies who work on bugs. They are separate entities from the mods and admins. They do their thing regardless of the number of trolls or puppets.
Sockpuppets were a relatively notable problem not too long ago until we insitituted a zero-tolerance policy for obvious sockpupptery. Posts from blatant puppets were deleted quickly, names were banned. We smushed the sorry little twits so bad that one of them eventually opened a thread in the Pit concedeing defeat and explaining how they used free ISPs to make detection more difficult. Thats why you’ll rarely see sockpuppets in the Pit. They get treated like prison bitches there, if you’ll pardon my use of the vernacular.
Now, there still may be a few sockpuppets around. But if they do exist here, they refrain from acting in such obvious ways (most of the time) since the board in general cares little for their pathetic antics. I think that since we have effectively modified their behavior, we mods and admins are in fact the clear victor.
So nyaaah.
As to “troll outings”, a troll is basically a jerk who posts just to get attention. We ban them, and they sometimes come back under a new name. When a poster thinks that a new member is actually a returned troll, they’ll often feel the urge to create a thread just to let everyone else know: This is a troll outing. Please note that this is very strongly discouraged, and repeated offenses of public “troll outing” can itself even lead to banning. If you have reason to suspect that a poster is a troll, then you should e-mail a moderator or administrator, and we’ll look into it and take whatever action is appropriate. In the meantime, keep your mouth shut about it on the board: At best, it’ll accomplish nothing, and at worst, it’ll tarnish the reputation of an innocent newbie.
Wrong and wrong. The pit is mostly sockpuppets, since the Aphagenes of the board like to hound people. So they just change names and continue. No one has ever left. Least of all the “name” ones of Concrete, Parrot, and Oat Boy. Nor X-files, Mark Serlin, and the list goes on and on. All have been sighted numerous times and “banned” for about a minute.
Just last week a set of 26 alphabetical socks were named, all registering consecutively on the same day, just to prove how easy it is to return.
The only real jerk in the pit is named Alphagene, as can be seen by his lack of civility when he posts “upstairs”.
Surprise surprise, LA King is posting in ATMB just to bitch about the mods. Still haven’t found a constructive hobby?
Care to prove that? If you know specifially which posters are sockpuppets and have decent evidence of that fact, the I’d love to hear about it. Over email of course. Otherwise, save your meanlingless public accusations to yourself.
No. When someone is banned they are banned until we decide to unban them. Sometimes they will attempt to reregister under a new name, which is a no-no. If you have proof that certain people (Like the “Magic 26” you mentioned) are sockpuppets, King, I would recommend that you again come forward over email and name them. And don’t even think of suggesting it’s andros. The IP checks we ran exonerate him, even if I was naive enough to believe a respected poster like him was behind them.
Becuse you suggest that you have intimate knowldege that sockpuppets exist on the board and that you refuse to identifiy them to mods over email seems to indicate that you yourself are just one of these sorry souls whose lives are so hollow that slighyly harrssing an MB gives thme joy.
Face it King, we won and they loss. They admitted it.
We know how easy it is to return, but it’s quite easy to pick out who the puppets are. They tend to show up in anti-mod threads supporting each other’s opinions completely while more respected posters look on in amusement. Hell, we really don’t even need to ban them. The SDMB at large knows well enough to ignore their whines.
Ooh. I’m hurt. Really. I think you’ll find that most of the posters on this board are in full agreement with my position that posters who do nothing aside from whine about the mods and admins on this board are a bore. And your low opinion of me has zero impact on my life, grashopper.
[Edited by Alphagene on 11-19-2000 at 05:15 PM]
This is exactly why we have so many sock puppets around.
A person makes a point and you feel you have to slander him to make yours.
Face it, Alphagene, you have no credibility whatever.
You didn’t before being a mod, and less now.
There was no slandering in my post, Biz.
I simply asked for proof that that Pit is “mostly sockpuppets.” If he doesn’t care to share that proof with the moderators or he lacks proof altogether, then he is guitly of attempting to out sockpupptets. Which you all know by now is a no-no. If he does have proof and cares to share it with us than he doesn’t qualify as a “sorry sould who’s life is hollow”. So there is no insult.
In fact there have been only two insults directde towards posters in this enire thread:
“The only real jerk in the pit is named Alphagene” – LA King.
and
“Alphagene, you have no credibility whatever.” – Biz.
You need to face something, Biz. I respect a tremendous number of posters on this board. You are not one of them. So your declaration of my lack of credibility honestly means nothing to me and probably carries little weight with anyone who contibutes to this board in a manner other than knee-jerk mod-bashing. Most posters like me just fine.
As usual, I need to remind people that crisitism against moderators belongs in the Pit. For some reason, certain posters seem to forget that. Is it the prison-bitch thing?
Have you ever noticed that the only people invoking the “respected” poster on their side are people with guttermouths?
The last one was this
I think a lot of people respect Show_Biz.
He helps a lot and has never critized anyone but you that I can see.
Saying he never contributes to this board and is just a mod basher is an outright lie, and you should be ashamed of it.
Who does get respect around here? Handy, Arnold Winkelried, CKDextHavn, and the others who avoid your pit and its insults. Claiming the respected posters support you seems pretty self-serving.
And saying you haven’t insulted people when you have won’t win you any laurels. We can see what you were doing, even if you did edit it.
None of these posters did what you say.
None of them were showing up just in anti-mod threads.
Check them yourself.
Here’s the link to all of them.
** Scylla - You are a fortune teller - What does this mean?**
They were posting quietly until banned, just for being socks, not for any other reason.
And they had 365 posts among them, more than the vast majority of posters. So they were simple honest posters, nothing like the monsters you describe. So why rule out Andros, when he knows so much about them?
The fact that Andros uses a different IP for “his own” posts doesn’t mean he can’t get a second, third, or hundredth free IP every day of the week, does it?
Anti-Alphagene is not anti-mod. Anti-Alphagene when Alphagene is wrong is simply Fighting Ignorance, the same as when anyone is wrong.
You guys put up with all this nonsense and all you get for it is a coffee mug?
I just realized there is no way I could ever be a Mod because unlike you, I do not have the patience of Job.
I believe all the nonsense was started by the mods here.
I just said I thought it was a waste of time to ban socks.
I said nothing of trolls.
And it is a priority, and does take somebody’s time, and is a waste.
Wow! Thanks for the info. Honestly, I just skan over those posts that merely support a previous poster.
A guttermouth does not a unrespected poster make. Posters who jump at the chance to post on any and every thread that contains the word “troll” or “sockpuppet” (or “Duck Duck Goose” for some reason) only to whine about the administartion and what they should and shouldn’t do while otherwise contibuting little to a board rich with fantastic ideas and coarsing with pure knowledge make someone an annoying poster.
Then that’s great. I’m just suggesting that I dont exactly lose sleep over one poster thinking I’m a jerk.
But why andros? What made you select him out of the 10,000 posters whe have on board? No one knows what the hell you are talking about. If you have specific evidence against andros then show us. If you have a specific petty grudge against andros then spare us. Put up or shut up already. And keep it over email.
My Pit? Yeah, I invented the Pit around the time Gore invented the Internet. Please. You know what? Noodles and Dex have my respect and they respect me. As much the the “Pit and its insults” revolts your sensibilities, its where mod bitching belongs.
How about letting those whose time is allegedly being wasted worry about that. OK, grasshopper?
I’m sorry a small percentage of you are unhappy here. And I’m sorry three or four posters out of 10,000 feel threatened by our desire to squash single users with multiple usernames. Feel free to find another MB that doesn’t find that kind of stuff tiring.
Honest? Honest people don’t post under 26 different names.
Why rule out Andros? I guess that innocent until any evidence says otherwise might apply. The only thing implicating him was that No Bones decided to accuse him. I searched and couldn’t find any reference to Andros actually ever commenting on those names.
Anyways, I have no pity for those who are banned for deliberately breaking the registration agreement, and I doubt that more than 1% of the people here (not screenames) do either.
While Andros being all of those names is not entirely outside the realm of possibility, that doesn’t exactly provide evidence to indicate that he is in fact any of them. There is no reason to assume that Andros is in any way involved.
In case you’re illiterate, Alpha was the one that was called a jerk first. Were you at all interested in being objective, you’d also chastise that poster. But you aren’t, you are only interested in criticizing the mods here.
Handy gets respect? I like the guy, but his reputation around here seems to be as someone who posts indiscriminately, and off-topic, often with incorrect information. Why don’t you stick to declaring who gets your respect, as you are obviously unqualified to determine who gets respect from others around here? You speak for an incredibly small and insignificant minority around here. That’s all.
Man alive, am I the only one who feels a nauseating sense of deja’ vu?
Perhaps we should have a “micro-forum” just for the periodical “the mods are blah blah blah, they do blah blah blah, respect blah blah blah” threads.
Damn. It’s times like this that I wish this boaard wasa a democracy. Then we could get a quick show of hands and get No Bones, Do Z, Show_Biz, and La King banned before sunrise Monday. ah well.
Just for the record and in the interest of relieving ignorance …
slander - (noun) - the utterance in the presence of another person of a false statement or statements.
I think the word you are looking for, Show_Biz is libel.
And, Mr. Bones, according the user agreement, this is reason enough. You seem to be awful familiar with the situation though.
No, I believe the “nonsense” was started by you, Bean, with a comment on how we choose to run this message board.
And finally, La King, you also show an extraordinary familiarity with the situation. Unless you’re just blowing smoke up our asses, please come forward with you information. There’s a large number of mods/admins to which you may e-mail evidence of your assertions. If you just wanna snipe from the sidelines, we’d rather you keep it to yourself.
Man, it’s just monday! I thought Mod-Bashing 102 was scheduled for thursday afternoon. I forgot my text book, and my homework isn’t done yet.
Why oh why do these people continue posting on a message board that oppresses them so much? It boggles the mind.
Show_Biz, I know 95% of your posts are in ATMB, but you’ve been here long enough to know that complaints about moderators don’t belong in this forum. As your particular complaint was a rather weak one, I wouldn’t advise you to repeat it in the Pit either. You are, however, free to do so of course.