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Old 30-11-2011, 02:29   #1
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Sock Puppets

Anyone notice that there are a couple on here? Pity as they detract from honest and open discussion
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Old 30-11-2011, 03:27   #2
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Anyone notice that there are a couple on here? Pity as they detract from honest and open discussion
A sock puppet is a second identity. Usually used by a person to reply to one's own posts for various and usually nefarious reasons. As a retired mod I can assure you duplicate id's are hunted down with all the vigor of spammer hunting and there are many tells and strategies to find them.

A troll usually drops into threads to be purposefully disruptive.

If you suspect a sock puppet please report the user.

The mods here are some of my personal friends and do an outstanding job!
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Old 30-11-2011, 03:28   #3
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Re: Sock puppets

Please report suspected sock puppets. We deal with them harshly when we catch them. We keep a pretty sharp lookout for them, but your reports are always helpful.

Use the "Report Post" button in the lower left corner of the post -- simples. Don't hesitate to do it -- if you make a mistake it's no big deal.
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Old 30-11-2011, 03:41   #4
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Re: Sock puppets

Gee learned something today,never heard the term.Appreciate the def..
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Old 30-11-2011, 03:50   #5
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Re: Sock puppets

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Gee learned something today,never heard the term.Appreciate the def..

I've never heard this one before either.
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Old 30-11-2011, 04:02   #6
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Re: Sock puppets

They are a common problem over on Sailing Anarchy but I hadn't noticed any here.
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Old 30-11-2011, 05:29   #7
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Re: Sock puppets

A "sock puppet" is a fake identity (not necessarily a duplicate) set up to give the false impression of an objective person talking about some issue, product, etc.

For example, if someone at Rocna registered an account which looked like some ordinary cruiser "Baja Cruising Dan", say, who chimed in to argue that he's been through 400 storms with his Rocna and it never let him down, while his three Mansons were all junk and twisted like pretzels -- that would be a classical sock puppet case.

Another classical case would be if a member created a second identity for himself, which he used to agree with himself in arguments. I know that sounds sick ("don't you have a life, buddy?") but it happens all the time.

Suffice it to say that we have tools to detect both types of cases, but your reports are always appreciated.
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Old 30-11-2011, 05:52   #8
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Re: Sock puppets

---so I said to myself, "myself, you are correct as usual, and please accept my congratulations"

Do sock puppets come in sizes, like 5 - 8, 9 - 12 ?
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Old 30-11-2011, 05:59   #9
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Re: Sock puppets

Quote:
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---so I said to myself, "myself, you are correct as usual, and please accept my congratulations"
LOL! It sounds really crazy, doesn't it? But some people really do get so carried away with their virtual lives. Need to sail more often.
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Old 30-11-2011, 06:04   #10
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Quote:
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A "sock puppet" is a fake identity (not necessarily a duplicate) set up to give the false impression of an objective person talking about some issue, product, etc.

.
Aren't all internet identities "fake" - LOL

Yes - the most common use of sock puppets is to agree with oneself, especially when making up absurd "facts"
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Old 30-11-2011, 06:18   #11
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Re: Sock puppets

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Originally Posted by Ex-Calif View Post
Aren't all internet identities "fake" - LOL

Yes - the most. Ommon use of sock puppets is to agree with oneself, especially when making up absurd "facts"
The term is not new. It dates from the earlier days of the internet in the (gasp!) era before there WAS a world wide web.

In the elder days, there was UseNet. UseNet was (and is, though it is perhaps less frequented now that many ISPs don't carry it) a collection of what you might call 'forums' not unlike this one, some were even moderated, but most were open slather. UseNet is made up of Newsgroups on various subjects, with a naming heirarchy something like this: alt.sailing.monohull or even alt.war.nuclear

You didn't use a web browser (though some pay me sites do now) but a Newsreader, usually an email program (such as Outlook Express or Thunderbird) that allowed you to add newsgroups from a News Server, or a dedicated Newsgroup reader. Newsgroups are purely text based and if you can think of a subject, there was/is probably a newsgroup for it.

The term 'sock puppet' or 'sock' for short was first coined when various 'kooks' of one persuasion or another would post outrageous subject matter and have their 'sock puppets' agree with it or post supporting statements for it, thus giving it some (fake) legitimacy.

Usenet: /yoos�net/, /yooz�net/, n. [from ‘Users' Network’; the original spelling was USENET, but the mixed-case form is now widely preferred] A distributed bboard (bulletin board) system supported mainly by Unix machines. Originally implemented in 1979--1980 by Steve Bellovin, Jim Ellis, Tom Truscott, and Steve Daniel at Duke University and the University of North Carolina, it has swiftly grown to become international in scope and is now probably the largest decentralized information utility in existence. As of late 2002, it hosts over 100,000 newsgroups and an unguessably huge volume of new technical articles, news, discussion, chatter, and flamage every day (and that leaves out the graphics...).
By the year the Internet hit the mainstream (1994) the original UUCP transport for Usenet was fading out of use — almost all Usenet connections were over Internet links. A lot of newbies and journalists began to refer to “Internet newsgroups” as though Usenet was and always had been just another Internet service. This ignorance greatly annoys experienced Usenetters.


AussieGeoff - who at one time used a Vax Minicomputer he administered and maintained to access UseNet! (Really showing my age now)
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Old 30-11-2011, 06:22   #12
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Re: Sock puppets

The sock puppets that I have noticed on this board have always been dealt with quickly and decisively. It has, in fact, been a very long time since I saw one detracting from the quality of discussion.
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Old 30-11-2011, 06:23   #13
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Re: Sock puppets

I guess you do learn something new every day.
When I first saw the thread header my mind went right to the gutter.
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Old 30-11-2011, 06:26   #14
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Re: Sock puppets

Wiki on sock puppets...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sockpuppet_(Internet)
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Old 30-11-2011, 06:36   #15
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Re: Sock puppets

Quote:
Originally Posted by AussieGeoff View Post
AussieGeoff - who at one time used a Vax Minicomputer he administered and maintained to access UseNet! (Really showing my age now)
Don't feel bad! I once read usenet groups on a 20 pound "laptop" computer called a Sharp PC-5000, which had a lead-acid (!) internal battery and 64 kilobytes of bubble memory as RAM. It ran DOS 1.0, which seemed a little dodgy compared to the better-established CPM, but I liked the hardware . . .
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