You’ve produced something for public consumption (book, song, website, whatever) that has your RL name attached to it.
Someone at the SDMB posts a comment about your work, not knowing that you’re also a Doper.
Now, if you respond to this comment, do you feel you have an obligation to identify yourself as the author of the work being discussed? If yes, would you consider not doing so to be a form of sock-puppetry? After all, you’re using two separate identities, even if one of them isn’t involved beyond being the subject of the initial post.
What if you chose to use your Doper identity to flame your RL one?
No, I don’t think it’s sock puppetry. The dishonesty with sock puppets is falsely building up support for yourself. I don’t feel this is an issue if someone else, unknowingly, provides a cite of your work.
If you chose to use your Doper identity to flame your RL one maybe you need a hobby or, better yet, a psychiatrist.
Cool thread, Sublight.
I don’t think it would be classified as sock puppetry.
Somehow, though, I’m not sure I buy the “hypothetical” disclaimer in the OP:
“Uh-yeah-I have this-uh-friend who doesn’t pay his taxes… Hypothetically, how many years in the pokey are we lookin’ at here?”
(just kiddin’!)
While I phrased the OP to take into account both good and bad comments, I was thinking more about the case of having your RL persona flamed by someone who didn’t know you were also a doper. If someone’s just citing your work, or saying “Hey, that book’s pretty cool,” then there’s not much need to do more than sit back and smile.
OTOH, if somone posts something like:
You’d probably want to answer these accusations, but how would you do so if you didn’t want to ID yourself? “I have this, uh, friend, who knows John Doe real well and he says your wrong.”
I suppose you’d have to choose between coming out and identifying yourself or just sitting there and taking it.
Well, you could just argue the points in the offending post and use only quotes from “Wellspring of Hope” to back up your position. But if you went beyond public knowledge, posting something that only the author would know, then you’d have to make that choice.
I would say that if you wanted to say ‘as a person who has read or heard said work I have to disagree with you and here is why’ I would say stay annon.
But if someone came in and said Wellspring rocks!
Then you just went on a Yeah! It Rulz! It RULZ! sort of kick, that would be sockypuppetry-ish.
