alt accounts

[The Goat Master]

how do people find out about alt accounts?  I can't tell who's who!

[TomUnderSea]

Excellent question.

Unless the user reveals the info either intentionally or not, or if the forum admin chooses to look for duplicate IP addresses, there is no way to positively ID an alt account.

Personally, I consider that a failure of this forum. 

Sure, admin can't catch them all.  However, prohibiting alt accounts with appropriate negative repercussions would go a long way toward reducing their presence. It would also remove the gray area of having a "used only for good" alt account.

In a previous life, I spent a few years volunteering as a moderator on a fairly active forum.  I never saw an alt account being used for "good".  At best they were used to incite activity and typically they were at the edge (or beyond) of acceptable behavior. 

If I were king, I would ban alt accounts and brand the main account with "multiple personality disorder" tag for the next 12 months.

[jackjack]

how do people find out about alt accounts?  I can't tell who's who!

Sometimes they post under under the wrong account when responding to a question. They usually try to cover it up by saying that they have accidently posted in the wrong thread, but it is obviously their alt account.

Examples?

[Moogle]

i've seena  couple like that

depending on the software theres features which list accounts that have the same ip asigned to them etc. makes it easy to catch alts

[odolvlobo]

how do people find out about alt accounts?  I can't tell who's who!

You want to be able to identify forum account owners. Do you also want to be able to identify bitcoin address owners? Anonomity is a feature in this sector. If you don't like it, then perhaps this isn't the right hobby.

[zackclark70]

anyone on my forum that makes a sock puppet account gets a message from me and I tag both accounts linking them to each other 

[RichG]

If I were king, I would ban alt accounts and brand the main account with "multiple personality disorder" tag for the next 12 months.

LOL.

[The Goat Master]

If I were king, I would ban alt accounts and brand the main account with "multiple personality disorder" tag for the next 12 months.

LOL.

I would write +1 but then this would get reported to the moderator, so just pretend that this is a useful comment.

[whiskers75]

Yeah, I've seen that too.

"Oh sorry, I posted using my main account."

If I were king, I would ban alt accounts and brand the main account with "multiple personality disorder" tag for the next 12 months.

LOL.

I would write +1 but then this would get reported to the moderator, so just pretend that this is a useful comment.

* whiskers75 gets out the banhammer

[gourmet]

i've seena  couple like that

depending on the software theres features which list accounts that have the same ip asigned to them etc. makes it easy to catch alts

"Same IP" is of no use for detecting alts:

• There are so many networks that are behind NAT and going out by one public IP for many, many nodes.
• There may be several user accounts on one machine.
• There even exist machines with one auto-login user account that are used by several users.

For those reasons, there can be many false positives.

[TomUnderSea]

Being able to enforce  a "no alt accounts" rule is a separate issue from having the rule.  There will always be ways to fool the enforcement. 

The absence of the "no alt accounts" rule rewards dishonesty.  If there is no penalty for creating an alt account, there is no disincentive to having sock puppets that bump your threads, shill your auctions and anonymously attack viewpoints you don't agree with.

I have not yet seen anyone present a good reason for having an alt account.  So far, every alt account I have become aware of has existed for nefarious purpose.

[chipug]

          brand the main account with "multiple personality disorder" tag

That's actually a great idea for people known to have alts. Like the scammer and untrustworthy titles.

[Gordon Bleu]

Unless you got a Writing Style Fingerprint Analysing Algo, this is not possible
because change ip takes a few seconds if they getting better and reading Headers or
analysing behaviour, that's also easy to adapt to,
only few reveal themselves

Forgot the exact Link for this Forum but you can see the daily Sign ups somwhere.

[odolvlobo]

I have not yet seen anyone present a good reason for having an alt account.  So far, every alt account I have become aware of has existed for nefarious purpose.

Ignorance is not evidence. The fact that you are unaware doesn't mean they don't exist.

Do you also think that people should be required to register their bitcoin addresses? After all, there is no good reason for anonymity. Bitcoin is only used for buying drugs and funding terrorists.

[TomUnderSea]

I have not yet seen anyone present a good reason for having an alt account.  So far, every alt account I have become aware of has existed for nefarious purpose.

Ignorance is not evidence. The fact that you are unaware doesn't mean they don't exist.

This is quite true.  Leprechauns, vampires and mermaids may all exist also.

Perhaps you could consider this an opportunity to present a reason for why it would be good to allow alt accounts.  By "good" I generally mean for the society as a whole, as well as the individual.

Do you also think that people should be required to register their bitcoin addresses? After all, there is no good reason for anonymity. Bitcoin is only used for buying drugs and funding terrorists.

Not sure why you brought this up.  I don't recall taking a position on any of these topics.  I don't really care to now since they don't really apply to the topic of this thread.

[Kluge]

When unsure, your best bet is to simply disregard anything from someone you don't trust. It's discriminatory, creates barriers to entry, and discourages people - but you should be looking out for your own good, not others'. "Giving someone a shot" is not a virtue, but a path toward ruin.

Always put yourself in the situation of someone on the street, and having someone approach you with a proposition. If a stranger came up starting an auction on "authentic Gucci bags" and two other people bid on it, wouldn't you likely walk away, thinking it's probably a scam? You'd instead want establishments - whether they're established individuals or businesses, and you'd want assurances provided by escrow. Always apply that kind of thinking when dealing with unknowns on the Internet, and you'll be better off.