Have you ever used an alter ego/sock puppet on the internet?

Inquiring minds want to know! :)

But, only one per forum and they've all been me.

I don't usually succeed for long! :-)

I don't post under more than one though.
Actually, I think one other is still active, maybe I should go check...

It took me a while to settle on a screen name to use and I "auditioned" several.

I potrayed myself as a wingnut asshat, but I still got banned. :shrug:

:)

Especially playing at a highly camp, blatently gay conservative - winds them up loads.

unless you REALLY have too much time on your hands.

I spend an enormous amount of time online.

and to even want to spend time disrupting doesn't make much sense to me. I spend an enormous amount of time online myself, and it would seem like an inordinately larger amount to develop alternate identities.

I guess that's why I don't really post in other forums, because I'm more interested in reading when I'm not posting. I just don't understand the sense of sockpuppets.

a forum belonging to a dear Friend of mine. I spent hours observing him and making notes. Months later I'd decided his enormous ego was his weakest spot and I opened a parody site with another account. It was weeks before he found it, but when he did it drove him crazy!
He deluged their Management with complaints and eventually his forum and account were deleted.

I've been part of, unless it was for a "party" or something (like games I've done on other sites for Halloween or New Year's Eve parties), but about 8 or 9 years ago, I needed to reinforce some things I was saying, and there were some wholly ignorant jackasses around who wouldn't listen to me, so I "became" another poster to put some lead in their pants. They were appalled anyone would talk with them like that, and when they found out it was me, I was harassed interminably. But other than that, I'm pretty much who I am now since I've been online.

I'd venture to say most have.

but never at the same place. I always come back to this one...my very first username from when I first went online about 10 years ago.

I get confused enough as it is without trying to keep up with more than one identity. :crazy:

I could never keep track of "alter egos."

There are a few places I've used anonymous screen names, for very valid reasons, but I hate it, I hate it, I hate it...

"Hunter" is one of my relaxed semi-anonymous names, on the 'net or off, and it's the only name I use on DU. ( So far... ;) )

If you know just the right words to put with "hunter" you can come up with me on google, but you don't need to do that, just ask me. (In return, I might like to know who you are but it's not a deal breaker.)

In fact, my account name there is my real name. I also put my general location on my profile there. I'm not too concerned about anyone harassing me. There's nothing they could do that hasn't been tried before.

My username here is also the one I use on the SkyScraperPage.com boards.

They weren't fully developed alter egos or anything. They were users names that I used because I didn't want to post the thread under my name because the thread would seem out of character or would reveal something about my life which I did not want to reveal. Those were at board, which at the time allowed for guest posts (non registered). For my out of character posts, I would post as a guest and usually as a different guest each time, unless it followed a theme.
For example, on a board that allowed sex threads, my user names never posted sex threads or commented on them. I was even more private about my sex life than I am now and didn't want any of that connected with my user name as they knew me.

A couple of females were talking about me on a conservitive web site, so invented a female persona to go over to flirt with them.

I had fun messing with their minds for a few days, and several other DUers were in on the joke, but I was starting to creep people out, so I came back to DU to be myself again.

Still, I managed to get 65 posts and no once questioned my gender over there.

difficult thing to do.

and quite well, too--they still haven't dug up my account. I don't use it though--I can't stand that website's design.

Other than that, no. I find it's easier NOT to fabricate my life.

for a while. Eventually I had to post on one! :)

I was entirely public when I changed my name on DU in March 2004. I posted under another name occasionally, not as a sockpuppet, but because my ex got a bit stalkish with me having to search and read all my DU posts (issue now over and resolved). It wasn't about sock puppetry though.

Back when I was a freshman/sophomore in high school I used to post quite a bit in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum forums, which I believe were shut down a couple of years ago.

I had a lot of fun messing around on there and posted under a half-dozen or so names (a few I remember were "Tollie Atco", "Roothead", and "Charlie St. James"; basically just random stuff). I didn't take it seriously and don't think I really did any harm. I mostly did it because I liked staying "obscure" and also liked having other identities to help out in my defense of the bands I liked, which a lot of people loved to dump on. (Music-obsessed people can be pretty scary and hardcore!)

However, since I started posting in political forums I've kept only one identity. On the old TurnLeft discussion board where I first started posting about politics I was "Tollie Atco" and since I started posting on here more than three years ago I've been "last_texas_dem."

a wrestler identity to help me out of a tight! :)

I made a character whose job was never to say anything nice, and tried to see just how odious my posts could get before they caught on. They never did, and I just got sick of playing with them.

I use the name GideonsMom sometimes, especially on bird-related sites, but it's not a different persona; all the info about me is the same.

Tucker

Then I realized there was no depth to which I could sink that wouldn't have them agreeing, and I got kind of sick thinking I might actually be feeding their hate.

Tucker

placed in that exact position.

to make someone up other than myself.
And really, if I didn't have a notepad with notes, I wouldn't be able to keep myself straight.
I am who I am and I don't pretend to be anything other than that.
I'm an independant, who refuses to call myself anything else. I'm also moderate on many things, but I have hard core democratic beliefs on certain things. I'm the middle. And though one person said "all the moderates I meet in Texas are really republican" I'm not a rebublican by any means.

the hard part is getting other people to realize it. The guy who said the thing about Texas moderates are really republican was a transplant from Ohio or something like that. He just didn't know that when I said independent moderate, I mean it.

One of my Partners there says Nixon changed him from a Republican Conservative to an independent moderate, and * sr. made a Democrat of him.

and I read All the President's Men a few months ago. Though I'm definitely not a Bush supporter, that book changed how I viewed things a lot. I'm first to admit I'm a nieve young thing, and I'm still learning a lot in regard to politics and how the world works. I like to think that we couldn't have another president like Nixon, but I know that we can. I like to think the best of people/situtations, but the more I learn the more disgusted with Bush I become.

I'll never call myself a democrate (or god forbid) republican or libertarian, because I like to look at everything before I make a decision. And I (knowing myself) would hate to define myself to something, and feel that I could not disagree with "party line." That's why I'm an independent. And though, I do agree with the democratic party on most things, I won't call myself that because I do disagree on certain things.

And what's your forum? PM me if you please, because I'm about to go to bed, but I would like to have a look at it. And I hope that this makes sense, I'm a bit tired a I have had few drinks tonight.

:)

I think. :shrug:

professional/union, jobs & career oriented sites. a little whining & wound licking perhaps, but it is by & large networking along those lines; there is no room for some of the silly shit you see here @ du.

with respect to the various post' herein this thread? you may not want to 'sock puppet' the source of your next paycheck after all

on their time.

Mostly I'm me - a middle-aged gay man. Ocassionally, I've been a teenage girl. I did it more as an experiment than for any other reason - and found that I was treated very differently. I would sometimes say the same thing to someone in each persona. I found that men were the worst - when I was a man they would argue with me, debate me, treat me as if I were an honorable opponent. As a girl I was almost always agreed with but shown how I was basically wrong. They wouldn't argue with me, much, but they condescended like hell .Women tended to take the argument on it's merits without regard to my supposed gender.

I've tried that experiment several times... changing my race, national origin, religion, etc. It's very enlightening.

Khash.
(or Madeliene, Kurt, John, Damon, Suzy, Achmed, Jonah)

It could make a fascinating topic for a book.

I'd suggest trying the experiment to everyone. If you are white post as a black person, if male post as female, if straight post as gay. You'll learn a hell of a lot.

Sometimes when you don't expect to, actually. For example, the screen name I use is Khashka, which is Arab (Well, Persian actually but most people don't know the difference). Even to people who don't know that, it has a certain flavor which tends in that direction. I support the state of Israel but have been very critical of the Israeli government. I get a lot of flak for that.... until people learn that, in fact, I'm a Jew. Then everything changes.

(I'll say this, I rarely get that response from actual Israelis - some agree with me and those who don't debate me intelligently, even with the misperception that I'm of Arab descent.)

So I suggest try it - be what you are not. You don't have to lie all that much or be a hypocrite or manipulate people. It does give you a chance to step into another person's shoes. And learn.

Khash.

my forum was accused of anti-semitism for her strong critique of some of Israel's actions. We were close to banning the poster. It was only later when things had cooled down she revealed to him her husband is of Jewish descent. :)

We really know very little about each other than what we tell each other (or what we learn from each other's profiles). Really all we have are our words and thoughts. But we still make assumptions about each other

Some of mine: you're white, male, fairly well educated, heterosexual. Somewhere between late thirties and late fifties but I'd guess mid forties - old enough to have some experience and to have learned from it, but not actually old yet. All of which is probably completely wrong - you're either a 17 year old Native American lesbian highschool dropout or a middleaged mom with kids.

But I'll never know unless you tell me or we meet (I would like to know how right I am or how wrong.)

The point being that the internet might be the most truly democratic space ever invented. And so we should use it.

Khash.

14 years of education, heterosexual, and 59 years old. I have a wide range of work and life experiences and a fondness for the written word in all its forms.
Yes, the internet is an amazing thing. It's my playground now. :)

You're a vet... VietNam.

You have a thing for Harleys - which proves you have good taste (ever had sex on one? try it you'll like it!).


You live on the Gulf Coast, as I do.


Ok, I cheated. This time :)

Khash.

write a novel and be done with it!

:)

:hi:

I am so funny! it's late, I'm sorry. Bed....need bed.

:)

bird lover! :evilgrin:

Haven't seen you much lately, have you been away, or have I just not been very observant?

edited: because I did some searching to make sure I was correct, I was!

On a small board I mod, I maintain a sockpuppet to assist in anti-troll 'undercover work'.

Never really used him for anything serious yet, but I still maintain him a few posts per month just to keep his history steady and to keep him looking eager and impressionable.

NATURALLY, I do this with the FULL knowledge of the ADMIN and other MODS.

I have a few different ID names that I use in other forums but always the same ID name for each one.

Sockpuppets are only meant to deceive... there's no other point to them. I'm not into being deceptive. It destroys trust, and once found out, nothing you ever say in the future will ever be as highly regarded even by those people that are in agreement with you.

People who use a sockpuppet to back them up on something when no one else seems to be doing so have no gonads. If you can't stand alone by your statements or convictions, you won't be respected, and frankly, are undeserving of any respect. If you show yourself to be undeserving of respect, your statements and convictions will always lack a certain level of merit even to those people who are in agreement with your statements and convictions.

If you can't always be yourself, I have zero interest in anything you have to say whether I agree with it or not... you might as well just put a sock(puppet) in it.

I barely have time to hang out in the Lounge. But, sometimes I have felt like I need an alter ego to say what I really think!