We've just recently had a case of a user creating multiple accounts to troll at least one discussion with psychologically manipulative posts. The user deliberately played deceptive mind games on vulnerable members and provoked emotional responses.
Please watch out for unethical people/trolls/spammers on the boards. As the community grows the number of people with questionable agendas will also increase.
One of the effects of trolling is a loss of trust and confidence in a community. If people constantly doubt who can be trusted it can cause the breakdown of the society.
I'd be grateful if an admin or mod could look into having something put into the forum rules about the acceptability of multi accounts. I know some people can have multis for genuinely honest reasons and make their identities known but there is nothing to cover for malicious users.
Please watch out for unethical people/trolls/spammers on the boards. As the community grows the number of people with questionable agendas will also increase.
SockpuppetA sockpuppet is an online identity used for purposes of deception within an online community. In its earliest usage, a sockpuppet was a false identity through which a member of an Internet community speaks with or about himself or herself, pretending to be a different person,[1] like a ventriloquist manipulating a hand puppet.
In current usage, the perception of the term has been extended beyond second identities of people who already post in a forum to include other uses of misleading online identities. For example, a NY Times article claims that "sock-puppeting" is defined as "the act of creating a fake online identity to praise, defend or create the illusion of support for one’s self, allies or company."[2]
The key difference between a sockpuppet and a regular pseudonym (sometimes termed an "alt" which is short for alternate, as in alternate identity) is the pretense that the puppet is a third party who is not affiliated with the puppeteer....
U.S. legal implications of Lori Drew verdict for misrepresenting identities online
In 2008, 49 year-old Missouri resident Lori Drew was prosecuted and convicted in Los Angeles for creating a fake MySpace account where she claimed to be a 16 year-old boy named Josh Evans. Drew's goal had been to create a relationship with Megan Meier, a 13 year-old girl who had been fighting with her daughter. After "Josh" broke up with Megan, Megan committed suicide.
Drew's conviction was for misrepresenting her identity, in violation of the MySpace terms of service. The Los Angeles US Attorney successfully claimed that this was covered by federal computer fraud legislation against "accessing a computer without authorization via interstate commerce."[22][23] Drew has appealed the verdict, saying that her use of a false identity did not constitute unauthorized access to MySpace, based on a 1973 breach of contract dispute where a court of appeals ruled that "fraudulently induced consent is consent nonetheless."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet))In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response[1] or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.
One of the effects of trolling is a loss of trust and confidence in a community. If people constantly doubt who can be trusted it can cause the breakdown of the society.

I'd be grateful if an admin or mod could look into having something put into the forum rules about the acceptability of multi accounts. I know some people can have multis for genuinely honest reasons and make their identities known but there is nothing to cover for malicious users.
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