OOOH OOOH OOOH !!!
I did it right in spite of myself! Let me double check… YUP… 10. (Ya count spaces right?)
And will somebody PLEASE explain what a sock is???
And what kind of lameass bozo just uses his first name and the phonetic spelling of his last initial? Okay, me, but who else?
oldscratch!
What about those containing underscores?
You can’t take my name! I love it, and it keeps me warm at night. You know, the dragons and everything.
And don’t study the American Civil War, with Generals like Alexander P. Schimmelpfenning. Or Galusha B. Pennypacker. Or Pierre Toutant Gustave Beauregard.
Oh, and ten letter names are definitely the best.
Sincerely,
John Corrad
Hmmmmmmm…
::shrugs, shuffles off to GQ::
Thanks Show_Biz! If people think it’s too long (:p) then they can shorten it, I do, to I.Q.
And I too would like to know what a sock is.
It’s obvious you guys just don’t understand the concept of efficiency. Sure it may only take a fraction of a second to hit shift first, but add that up a few hundred times, and that’s a couple of seconds I’ve saved! What’s that you say? I only have to type it here once? Well this is my name everywhere, and if I have to remember to capitalize here, then I’ll have to sign up witha new name. If it came to that I might end up with something crappy like the rest of ya.
Personally, I think the best user names refer to an animal–preferably an amphibian–in its adolescent state. Short, to the point, makes the point “I can use a search engine and come up with a word I almost certainly wouldn’t have known otherwise”… what more could you ask for?
Now hold yer frigging horses. Are you saying, Sue Dunhym, that this is not your real name?
Anyway, 10 characters is clearly the way to go, people.
I subscribe to the theory that people choose long usernames because most of the good short ones are taken. We draw our usernames from the culture and literature we’re exposed to, and for most of us in the Western world, those cultures anddd literatures have a high degree of overlap, thus we’re likely to independently come up with the same username as someone else.
Not everyone has enough knowledge of Greek theological terminology, or exposure to Eastern Christian religion to, for example, abbreviate the phrase haggia sophia into the username agisofia. 
Once a person realizes that the username he/she wants to use is already taken, he/she will then start going for either increasingly obscure references or longer words and phrases in order to find a username that is descriptive without actually revealing his/her secret identity.
So, lighten up, oldscratch.
ehhhh fuck you dude 
I think all user names should include a reference to the posters IRL name… **
[/QUOTE]
That’s a marvelous idea! And the people who complain about the lack of capitalization can just jolly well get over it. FTR, my #straightdope nick is capitalized (i.e. MsRobyn). I’m just too lazy to ask an admin to change it.
Robin
While I agree that ten is the way to go, what’s wrong with being silly?
Ain’t that the freakin’ truth?
Well…duh.
Absol-fucking-utely.
Well, I guess it all depends on how you read it.
Sealemon88! Long time no sea! How ya been?
Close! I use the phonetic spelling for all three of my initials. What a jerk I must be.
A ‘sock’ is generally a shortened version of the term ‘sock puppet’.
A ‘sock puppet’ is a second user name created by a current user, generally in the hopes of making himself look better. The second user name jumps into arguments that the original poster is in (and usually losing badly) to state that ‘he’ completely agrees with the original poster. Obviously, the ‘puppeteer’'s hope is to make it look like, despite how his argument is being torn apart, other people recognize his superior genius and debating style; hopefully, this will convince his detractors that there must be something good with his case, and therefore to stop arguing with him.
I have yet to see this actually happen; usually, the person who brings in a sock gets called out immediately and looks like an idiot and a fool.
The desire to make oneself look more popular isn’t always the reason; the most famous ‘puppeteer’ on this board was Mark Serlin, who created six or seven user names to represent different personalities of his, and his various ‘socks’ rarely interacted with each other. This was less the sad, desperate attempt of someone to dig themselves out of the hole their mouth had gotten them into than it was the sad desperate attempt of someone with serious psychiatric problems to try and indulge his fantasies.
In any case- board policy is that each user can have a single user name. If we find any person who is using more than a single name, usually all of their names are banned. (The exception tends to be people who had problems with their registration and who are not out to actually deceive people into thinking they are two seperate posters. People who are out to deceive the other message board members fall into the category of “jerks”, and therefore get banned.)
And as a general reminder- the Moderators of this board do not really want public accusations of people being socks or trolls. If you suspect someone has multiple screen names, please e-mail one or more of the moderators with your suspicions and your reasons, and we will investigate.
Thank you for your cooperations, friend Netizens.
The anti-sock rule has been in effect for nearly a year.
And what has it done for you? for me? for other posters? for the true trolls?
There’s a lot of serious discussion about that the board won’t allow. Why?
It was a decision, like any other. It can be unmade like any other.
In debate this is known as “trying to poison the well”, to declare the other views as insane, pathetic, etc. Well, it won’t fool anyone here. They have many different view of socks and you can’t change that with obvious lies. You just lose credibility.
What’s pathetic is trying to paint all sock users as pathic losers. It is simply not so. The majority of socks are regular posters.
They were before the rule was added, they are now, and they will be after the rule is repealed, as it should be.
After giving this thread much consideration, it seems quite obvious that the finest names are spoonerisms.
No they’re pathetic too-much-time-on-their-hands obsessed losers.
If you have a beef with “moderators lying” (never heard that one before…) I’d recommend you start a new Pit thread about it, rather than spewing it all over this one. I’m sure it will get the respect it deserves.
[Edited by Alphagene on 01-12-2001 at 12:19 PM]
One point - observations about the futility of sock puppets obviously only refer to DISCOVERED sock puppets. It’s a biased sample. Sock puppets that actually acheived their goal may not be recognized as such. I will concede that most sock manipulators don’t have the subtlety and skill required to get away with it.
Not to nitpick, Alphagene, but it was John Corrado that got on his soapbox here, and it was his comments that got the respect they deserved.