PS. Thank you very much to all the super cool and kind Hatrackians who offered to send me money or help during the coming of Hurricane Rita when I lived in Houston.
Lots of people offered to help, it was one of the things that always allows me to believe at the core of Hatrack is kindness.
Posts: 262 | Registered: Oct 2008
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posted
They're one of those things that can be used both constructively and destructively (and also in a neutral, playful sort of way).
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Tee hee. I forgot about most of these. The majority of them don't even make sense to me any more. I'm guessing this one was from some Peter discussion.
ETA: Oh, I love the past posts function.
Posts: 4 | Registered: Oct 2003
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quote:Originally posted by PSI Teleport: Really? I think I have about 12.
Yeah. It was a completely serious suggestion.
I understand the appeal and fun of creating throwaway alter egos to make a joke or play a prank. It can be funny and is probably usually harmless.
But one of the pranks you can play is pretending to be someone else. This is not always harmless. It can damage the reputation of another poster.
The problem with letting people make as many accounts as they want is that when the new throwaway ID shows up and starts posting in a style that seems familiar, there's no good way for the community at large to determine which, if any, existing accounts really have a connection to the new one. If you know the other posters IRL, then you can figure it out. But the "real" account can post "that's not me - don't be fooled" and people would have no way to know if that is true or if it is part of the prank.
Of course, we have no way to ensure that most other members are really real at all - but it's manifest that the majority of active forum members have some commitment to their identities and standing in the forum, and aren't going to throw away their reputations lightly.
"Unicorn Feelings" would appear to be trying to convince us that he is "Thor" aka "Danlo the Wild." Some people are calling it out as a prank/deception. However, Unicorn showed up when Danlo said he was leaving for a while. Danlo might not be around to comment one way or another. What if it was a really good deception? The prankster could alter the reputation of the 'real' person. This, IMO, is bad for the community.
So...I just think on balance it'd be better if people were required to stick with one posting ID. It'd be difficult to enforce but the moderator would be able to use IP addresses to catch some violations, and the existence of the rule would be enough to get most members to comply in good faith.
Sorry to get preachy but co-opting the identity of someone else can really be damaging, to the extent that online identities actually matter. Multiple accounts on the same forum make this really easy to do (even in plausibly deniable ways).
Posts: 4287 | Registered: Mar 2005
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I think I remember an occasion where someone who had previously been banned from Hatrack was caught using alters to post. He was using them for harmful purposes, and I think I recall that they ended up banning the IP address to keep the poster from trolling Hatrack.
I think that unless as a whole, we start abusing the ability to post with multiple usernames, individual violators should be punished in the same way that they have been in the past. After all, who punish the masses for something that few have done?
In the interest of full disclosure, I have two other handles, FriendlyNeighborhoodWitch and Satyagraha. Speaking of which...
Posts: 701 | Registered: Jul 1999
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I don't disagree with you, scifibum. I don't think that it *would* be enforcable (even aside from people intentionally spoofing an IP address in order to maintain multiple logins, there are couples here who post from the same computer, and could be unrelated people posting from behind the same proxy server).
I do agree that masquerading as another poster is damaging, and that a Cedrios can have a pretty damaging effect on the fabric of the community, but I don't think that, in practical terms, there is a lot to be done about it.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote:They're one of those things that can be used both constructively and destructively (and also in a neutral, playful sort of way).
I can't think of a single constructive way in which frivolous alts might be used, independently of the "neutral, playful" way also mentioned.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
The constructive way that I was thinking of when I wrote that was their use to give an established member a way to put a question to the forum that they otherwise wouldn't be able to ask. It doesn't happen a lot, but it has happened more than once since I've been here.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
And just to be clear, my two handles are Orincoro and Hello-Yes, and I am NOT the person who is posting as Thor, or whomever.
Speaking of which, could someone clue me in on how they know which alt is "thor" and why it is this Thor person? I remember thor, but how many alts has he had?
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote: I've only ever had two... do you use yours alot?
Nah. They were mostly created for specific activities, like mafia or Talk Like a Pirate Day, or a specific thread, like "Flayed Squirrel" was, or are a version of my "real" screen name. Not-PSI was a handle I was using while avoiding a landmark that I never wrote. I don't regularly switch back and forth, and it bugs me when people do.
Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Danlo seemed old. Didn't really fit anymore.
I forgot, I have changed, the world has changed, hatrack has changed.
Maybe some time I'll tell you the hilarious story of how I walked out to my car and found some gents gaining access to the inside without permission. What was it? Two weeks ago.
Dangerous world out there. And it is filled with a bunch of American Idol MTV hyenas. Snip. Snip.
Posts: 262 | Registered: Oct 2008
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quote: I'm sorry to hear you've passed away and are now with God.
Oh, that's good. I was pretty sure it said, "I am God. I feel snake words."
(Double posted!)
Pretty sure it's "I sense(perceive/feel) wise words"
Concerning it being "I am with god", it's an ablative. It could have been made more clear with cum, but I suppose that it is the only ablative that it can really be here.
quote: I think I remember an occasion where someone who had previously been banned from Hatrack was caught using alters to post. He was using them for harmful purposes, and I think I recall that they ended up banning the IP address to keep the poster from trolling Hatrack.
I remember this too. New posters kept getting in arguments with him, because they didn't realize what he was doing... he would just thrive on the drama. And that's how we knew it was him every time.
Posts: 7877 | Registered: Feb 2003
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this is one of my "other accounts" that i just rememberd about![[Cool]](cool.gif)
