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[kaijyuu]

I know someone who actually made up to 60 different multis for a game, maintained all of them constantly, on different IP addresses, to support his political agenda in-game.

...the fuck?


I mean, I knew this stuff happened occasionally, but damn. I thought sock puppets and whatnot were mostly urban legends, only ever effectively employed by people with money and time to blow.

[Johuotar]

I know someone who actually made up to 60 different multis for a game, maintained all of them constantly, on different IP addresses, to support his political agenda in-game.

...the fuck?


I mean, I knew this stuff happened occasionally, but damn. I thought sock puppets and whatnot were mostly urban legends, only ever effectively employed by people with money and time to blow.

Apparently both are not required. O.o

[kaijyuu]

Apparently!


Maybe if I do it well enough, I can convince Toady to implement my desired features. "Burning wood items to ash/charcoal is of vast importance, and these 100 or so other new, completely unaffiliated accounts agree with me!"

[palsch]

Ever browsed freelancer.com? The actual astroturf section is empty because people realised it hurts your cause to publicly advertise for astroturfers, but the forum posting section is jumping.

[Loud Whispers]

Ever browsed freelancer.com? The actual astroturf section is empty because people realised it hurts your cause to publicly advertise for astroturfers, but the forum posting section is jumping.

ROOOBOOOT D:

[palsch]

Ever browsed freelancer.com? The actual astroturf section is empty because people realised it hurts your cause to publicly advertise for astroturfers, but the forum posting section is jumping.

ROOOBOOOT D:

Sir/mam this user is not a bot. Such insinuations shal not be tolerated. Insinuations are a major problem in your internet life. reputation management can help relieve internet insinuations and make you're life more comfortable.

[Lord Dullard]

Lol, there's a term for that? I've been doing it a little. Had about 5 fake online personas who pass background checks because of the high ranking wordpress blogs hold (though Facebook has been a bitch with the phone number thing). They only last about 3 months in contact with other people, but that's enough for a lot of stuff. I know someone who actually made up to 60 different multis for a game, maintained all of them constantly, on different IP addresses, to support his political agenda in-game. Was eventually caught on a bout of stupidity, but it was pretty fricking amazing.

Actually this sounds like a fun job. I think I'll work on some online persona management software and try to sell it to politicians. And then later sell software that fights them. Or make money as a whistleblower to a newspaper later. The best thing about all this is that it's not illegal unless you're doing identity theft or something.

My girlfriend maintains something like 50 different neopets accounts. She has a spreadsheet of her account names and crap just to keep track of them.

[EveryZig]

Just having multiple accounts for the same thing is

so, this is like that legendarycraft owner, who made a load of MCforum accounts to 'support' his server?

although, his attempt at astroturfing failed, because he used the same IP all the time.

I think that would be more sockpuppeting than astroturfing. Astroturfing usually refers to a political agenda (and sometimes involves hired people rather than multiple accounts), where sockpuppeting is the more general practice of pretending that your other accounts are different people who support you.

[FuzzyZergling]

What's the term for when you make separate accounts for the sake of a joke?
Like that Mexican Heliman, or Fluffy Wambler. That was amusing.

[zchris13]

What's the term for when you make separate accounts for the sake of a joke?
Like that Mexican Heliman, or Fluffy Wambler. That was amusing.

It's called breaking forum TOS.

[Xune]

Here's one:

"Hey, it sure seems like there are a lot of people in here now, how about we each post a picture of ourselves to prove we're human. Remember to hold up a recent newspaper."

Right, so... if somebody on any random forum you happen to post on said 'hey post a picture of yourself right now to prove you're human', you'd actually do it?

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

I've seen posts on other forums coming right out and asking for birth dates, pet names, schools names and people just hand them over.

[Loud Whispers]

Exhibit B

I've seen posts on other forums coming right out and asking for birth dates, pet names, schools names and people just hand them over.

What's worse is that it was done by an escaped luny who registered just two days before...

[Xune]

In a similar vein, I couldn't help laughing when I saw this thread pop up over at the RPS forums a few months ago.

What a shame.

[Tautou]

Exhibit B

I've seen posts on other forums coming right out and asking for birth dates, pet names, schools names and people just hand them over.

What's worse is that it was done by an escaped luny who registered just two days before...

This is horrifying.

[Flying Dice]

Exhibit B

I've seen posts on other forums coming right out and asking for birth dates, pet names, schools names and people just hand them over.

What's worse is that it was done by an escaped luny who registered just two days before...

This is horrifying.

Not particularly. Gender, ethnicity, and occupation are all things that could easily be pulled from forum profiles or general conversation. Not to mention that it was largely a tide of "14-28 yo caucasian student/programmer", which is a reasonable guess for anyone on the internet.