Sock Puppets

[Don Muerto]

Don't you have more than 5 sockpuppets yet?

[DVD Burner]

now Don I really miss you. nothing better than talking to the master sock talking thumb/banana sombrero that at one time actually made sense.

How ya been? any advise from Dad?

never mind. lets leave him out of this.

[Don Muerto]

Master sock huh? I suppose I am that because I parodied your original obnoxious persona? I posted 4 times over maybe 2 days tops and then retired it as I promised. Don't blame me for *your* disease, buddy.

BTW, I make more sense than the US Mint.

[DVD Burner]

so what brings you back anyway?

[Don Muerto]

I followed a thread back here from 3playa from Kinetic/Tancorix/whatever. I lurk here, but don't post much.

[DVD Burner]

too bad we never finished the conversation. But you would have known what my opinion was.

Because I Know you were smarter than just trashing my message before reading it.

hummmmm?

[Don Muerto]

What conversation is that?

[DVD Burner]

well then.



nevermind.

[Don Muerto]

Are referring to you and Chai Guy earlier in the thread? Your poor use of the English language makes it appear as if you are alluding to an interrupted conversation between us.

And yes, I would have read your message and then trashed it.

[DVD Burner]

club 5 is pretty sad huh?

so y'all have enough time to shoot the shit huh?

[Don Muerto]

As usual, you are making no sense to me. I am sure it is because I am a 'dum dum' or something.

[DVD Burner]

As usual, you are making no sense to me. I am sure it is because I am a 'dum dum' or something.

maybe. do you feel dumb? I would'nt know about that.

You feel like talking I see. Go ahead, talk.




I'm listening.

[juanicoheal]

I find Isotopia's posts hilarious, and I don't think they would be as funny coming from Badger even though everyone knows they are the same person.

Uh, Chai – until the whole missing avatar thing – I had NO IDEA – and even then I was only guessing from that evil robot avatar they shared for a while…


Can I bring a different perspective? At risk of being rude, which is not my intention, the only thing that kept me coming to the eplaya at first was rodent’s dome discussion. I read all the crap y’all were posting at one another, rather to one another, and ignored most threads when I saw them come up. Most everything was petty squabbling and cross pissing, not the stuff to build community on. And since I learned early how to use ‘posts since last visit’ the squabbles were always at the top. <Yawn>



Now, I’ve finally figured out at least 4 of the 5 Defacto siblings, and I know whom he refers to as ‘Club 5’. There must have been some really bad blood early in the posts. Of which I have no time, or desire to go and read BTW.

I started with a sock, because I intended to use Juanicoheal to gather information, and as a joint persona for my wife and myself. Wolverine was designed for me – he even started with an avatar of my pic, BUT I found it difficult to use both. And talking to myself would be too much. So here is JH, know beginning to get known, I think. For better or worse. Maybe Wolverine will be useful someday – who knows. But all the – “so what, you’ve got a sock” – “you’re annoying” – back and forth doesn’t accomplish anything except making people mad at each other. And it scares away newbies.

- When I make it to Black Rock City – and I will one of these days – You better all get your butts to the “Temple of lost socks” and atone for this nastiness. –

I know this post is long, but come on guys, can’t we all just get along. Did I show my Canadian peacemaking side?

- um excuse me Genghis – can I borrow that smite button for a moment?

[DVD Burner]

Are you French canadian? watch out. there are those here that may get on your case for that too.

[juanicoheal]

de furdest ting frum it.
udder coast.

[DVD Burner]

[DVD Burner]

oops!

I forgot, The smilie thing ticks them off too.

[LeChatNoir]

The more I’m here, the more I'm starting to believe that it could be just me and one or two other people. One of which is perhaps in a cabin somewhere the wilds of the Pacific Northwest. Who may well be a Sasquatch.... a lonely, lonely Sasquatch.

As for socks... got no use for 'em, 'cept fer ma feet. I barely have enough time to compose my own long winded posts, much less ones for an alter ego.

Have fun jabbering with your funky selves...

[Tancorix]

Ted Kaczinski's twin perhaps, in a little cabin deep in the Montana wilderness?

One sock is fine, actually Iso sets the standard on how to have a sock and do it with class. (The makeup is another story).

I spent a lot of time thinking about this last night and my opinion (which means nothing) is that the eplaya needs to actively discourage socks. It's just too disruptive. I would like to keep the option for one sock, but there's not a way to track how many someone has...which means there's no checks and balances for keeping the process fair. So level the playing field and ban 'em all.

[Niacin]

No, sir, I don't like them. 90% of socks are nothing but noise.

Cheers,
Max

[Bob]

Sigh.

To me, all your fake online IDs are socks pulled over your real ID's head.

Imagine it must get stinky in there, but I guess you get used to your own stank.

[DVD Burner]

Thank you for confirming what I wondered about. Unlike some who will likely have issues with it and having run "socks" in the past; it takes some work to pull it off and I admire how well you do it.

Anyway I'll drop the issue and move on but I appreciate the honesty.

Not So Long Ago........

[stuart]

<----------------

no socks
(pants though)

[Tiara]

My take on socks:

With the rare exception of a few socks which have been used for humorous counterpoint, they very much lessen my experience, and my overall desire to participate in any online forum.

The old eplaya is the first chat/forum I was ever regularly involved in. What drew me in was that it was a way to meet people who I was then able to connect with in real life. My personal taste (and please note that I'm not assuming this is the same for everyone) tends away from purely electronic interactions. I'm simply not interested in spending time "getting to know" someone who is a construct. Nor am I interested in playing the part of guinea pig in the "social experiments" of anyone orchestrating multiple online personas.

Yes, words and pixels are the basis of our interaction here. But their value to me is the insight they give about a real person out there who is, or may become, a friend.

[Bob]

By its nature, the eplaya assumes that users value familiarity with the conventions both of Burning Man and of online forums in general. This should include an understanding of and respect for self-sufficiency, responsibility, and of participation without interfering in other people's experience to an extreme degree.

The anonymity and multiple login identities allowed active users on the eplaya reflects that employed by many active Burning Man participants, who may choose to present others with a particular radio alias, or maybe a complete change of identity & costume simply on whim.

On the playa or the eplaya, I figure all this is not for me to judge -- abuse of the board is mostly a separate issue. Here I value staying on-topic and nominally informative in threads related to Q&A about the event, balanced by wider latitude in areas such as General Discussion.

So, I don't care what alias someone uses here, as long as they don't persist in being abusive of others and of the value of the board for Burning-Man-related communication, for Newbies, lurkers, & active posters.

[technopatra]

So predictably there is a mixed reaction to sock puppets, tho it certainly seems to lean heavily in the socks-hinder-my-experience category.

When we decided to go with this product, we made a conscious decision to require only an email, and we felt requiring anything else would be a big deterrent to use of the boards.

Later on, when we experienced the socks full force, started getting complaints, and began wrking on the CG and TOS, we found that :

a) except in the most outlandish of cases (stopbmorg, the allanons, the digimans) it's pretty damn difficult to determine whether someone is a true sock, or simply an ornery troublemaker hiding behind a username. Even folks "outing" themselves on the list are not necesarily telling the truth.

b) some of the socks were really, really funny, enhancing the user experience of the boards.

Now I personally share Tiara's opinoin that I don't want to waste my time with figments of someone's imagination - I came here to connect with real people, and it is my goal for the eplaya to connect Burners with real Burners.

Now, the only way that I can think of to disallow socks is to require more personal information upon registration - REALLY personal info, like a credit card number that can be validated but not charged.

I was, and still am, not ok with this for a few reasons:

a) many Burners don't have credit cards

b) many folks simply are not comfortable giving out their cc numbers

c) it creates an even bigger security issue for us to manage

So that's really not an option.

Basically I agree with Bob - it is only by having a culture of ignoring flammable sock puppets, and contributing to better covnersations, that we can reduce their impact on the eplaya.

So the big question is - who's with me? Who is up for vowing to check their own responses, and not feed the socks?

[Isotopia]

So the big question is - who's with me? Who is up for vowing to check their own responses, and not feed the socks?

I'm just waiting for the PLONK option. That take care of 95% of it for me.

[Alpha]

Admins should not have to play sleuth just to determine whether or not someone should be able to post here.

It's just a fucking, BBS.

(same sentiment goes for the panty-wadding going on in the Case Studies thread -- why would anyone want to admin this board when all they get is shit from the users?)

[DVD Burner]

Admins always get shit everywhere. Doesn't matter what company they are with.

From the days when I was working with cp/m and RPG I, II, III, IBM 360-380 (during those times Admins were called system operators, sys opps.) to now, the complaints were generally the same as they are today. The only difference is, then, it was mostly the owners that were complaining. Usually because they had no idea what the computer could do and how computers could be implemented into their company.
These days with the added GUI, a better and easier way to work with computers, it amazes me how and why the complaints still keep coming.

Socks,

When socks first were used on this new version of the board, I found the prospect of using one rather amusing. Thus my creating a thread to that affect months ago. IMHO socks were going ok, (Alice, Isotopia, Mr.K. and I.) because they were not used in a malicious way up until the DIGIMAN.,DUFECTO and allanons appeared. The user and the sock got blurred.
I think the issues at that time should have been addressed. Things got out of wack so to speak. What I consider to be my socks, I don’t use much. (I'm sure no one has noticed.) A select few see DVD and DF to be my socks. They are not. They are just extensions of me.
I think the few that have problems with DF/DVD are not sock issues but a point of view issue. They have confused it. It should be, they disagree with my point of view. That's ok. It's America; everyone is entitled to do so. IMHO, users will always complain even after the plonker is deployed. Either you'll get a complaint about the plonker or you'll get a complaint about something else. And usually it will be from the same indivisuals, and this is from my experience as an Admin for 20 years, experience that includes being an Admin/consultant for the Goldman Sachs Admins to being an admin for Glide memorial. All walks of life. It's all the same.

As far as socks goes, I really don't think you'll see much of that on this board as it evolves. It will take a diffrent direction from what I'm seeing.

I think enthropic put it best.

[allanon2]

[quo.,DUFECTO and allanons appeared. The user and the sock got blurred.



this is just were it gets sad

i am myself
was always myself

had someone mock me. (do epopel think that the other allanon was me? wow thats scary

if peopel cant tell hat i never had a sock then you will never be able to identify most socks. as you thought i was a sock

ohh well. did you knwo peopel think that black rock rick. BRR was me
we are totaly differnt people. along with all the other peopel that thought they were socks of me

so in short. peopel here are horrible at identifyign who is or is not a sock. thus ppeople will always be parnoid of a potentialsock. i would love to take a poll and see if those people beleive in conspiracy therories?

ttyl
rex