Question for Mods: Multiple identities

[_Chap]

Over on the other board, one of the first signs that a critic is going to get zapped is when he or she starts being accused of being a 'sock puppet'.

Now over on MAD this term usually seems to refer to a new identity assumed by a Banned Person in order to sneak back on to the board and continue their work of spreading lies and distortions about the CoCJoLDS. Fortunately Juliann and co have Priesthoood Powers of discernment which enable them to unmask such persons and kick their sorry asses right offa the board.

However, If I recall correctly, a 'sock puppet' in more general net parlance is an extra or alternative identity assumed by a poster, which is run simultaneously with a pre-existing identity which is not given up when the sock puppet is created. The poster is thus in the position of being able to talk to him or herself when times get dull, either to pay compliments "That's a great point you have just made! And another thing ..." or to create pseudo-conflicts with easily defeated adversaries "No! The Prophet never told a lie in his life!".

We don't get sock puppets in the MAD sense here, because we don't ban people. However, are we allowed to create sock puppets in the more widely accepted sense? There seem to have been one or two of those going lately. I am not referring to Coggins pupating into Droopy: that was an openly declared identity change, and although it seems an odd thing to do it is hard to think of any reason against it.

But do the mods want us to refrain from appearing on the board under more than one name, perhaps posting different opinions under each name, or perhaps interacting with ourselves in ways that non-aware board readers may be confused or even deceived by (see above)? There do seem to be some good reasons against that, but how strong are they?

I am just asking.

[_JonasS]

Shh...

Lol. I have a sock puppet for a reason and that is not to argue with myself.

I am Imwashingmypirate, Imapiratewasher and JonasS.

My reasons are. I had Imwashingmypirate from the start when I first came here and as somepeople know I wrote lotsa blogs. Some of those bloegs were only viewed by myself and were more like a personal journal that I had discussed with a member of this forum (my "Cybermom"), for security reasons I made my blog so that only people I chose could see it, but then wanted to allow some of my friends who weren't members to view some blogs so I had to change it to be viewed by guests also, but in doing so I screwed it up and for several weeks everyone could see all of my blogs including the very personal ones and as I have about a hundred I felt it would take too long to go through them all and wait fot them to edit. So I created Imapiratewasher which is so similar that not many people would notice so that I could create a new blog that everyone could see and made my blogs from imwashingmypirate only visible to me so that I could take time to sort them out whilst posting new blogs, but I have been somewhat busy lately, I haven't had the chance.

JonasS was something I did in a semi conscious state. I felt people don't take me seriously as Imwashingmypirate and even by pass anything I write. I guess due to my own fault as I do not often discuss seriously and I have my reasons for that, but I wanted to be able to discuss more seriously now that my thoughts are beginning to be more lateral again and didn't want the stigma of pirate behind my posts and thus this moniker, but I was caught out pretty quickly which wouldn't be hard because I apparently write differently. I just wanted to be taken seriously, but also have pirate too because of my blogs and I kinda feel I have a connection with pirate.

I have already been asked by Shades to choose one and he will delete the other two, but I want to sort my blogs first. So hopefully I can buy some time.

I don't think socks are much appreciated.


Pirate.

[_Dr. Shades]

Please do not create sock-puppets.

It artificially inflates our membership numbers, which I don't want to have happen.