Be careful ... Sockpuppets may look normal and appear cute, but they are very dangerous ... Do not attempt to "feed or encourage" them.
By the way, do you know who you're communicating with over the internet? Sockpuppets will hit internet sites as a single person or, more recently as pairs or multiples. They claim to be "new" and they make friends on the site with "themselves" under a different name. They tend to compliment themselves in order to gain respect from those who are not aware or familiar with the tactics that they use to attract an audience.
In the abstract theory of social networks and reputation systems, this is known as a sybil attack.A 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 or blog to include other uses of misleading online identities.
For example, a New York Times article claims that "sockpuppeting" 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."
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 or acting under their control for their benefit. The earliest known usage of the term was on July 9, 1993 by Dana Rollins in a posting to bit.listserv.fnord-l, but the term was not in common usage in USENET groups until 1996.
Notable examples involving public figures in recent years include:
John Lott, author of More Guns, Less Crime, who, between 2000 and 2003, posted under the "sockpuppet" name of "Mary Rosh", praising Lott's teaching, and arguing with Lott's critics on Usenet. ",[4] The name was also used to post outstanding reviews of his books, and panning books of rivals on online book sites. Lott admitted he had frequently used the name "Mary Rosh" to defend himself, but claimed the book reviews by "Mary Rosh" were written by his son and wife
Lee Siegel, writer for The New Republic magazine, was suspended for defending his articles and blog comments using the user name "Sprezzatura". One such comment, defending Siegel's bad reviews of Jon Stewart: "Siegel is brave, brilliant and wittier than Stewart will ever be."[5][6]In 2006, a top staffer for then-US Congressman Charlie Bass (R-NH) was caught posing as a "concerned" supporter of Bass's opponent Democrat Paul Hodes on several liberal New Hampshire blogs, using the pseudonyms "IndieNH" or "IndyNH". "IndyNH" was "concerned" that Democrats might just be wasting their time or money on Hodes, because Bass was "unbeatable".[7]
In January 2007, the press secretary of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Peter Ragone, admitted that he posted pro-Newsom comments to the blog SFist from his computer variously as "John Nelson" (a friend) or as "Byorn." The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Ragone stated that "he answered Newsom's critics using others' names because being online 'was fun — it's where people are having fun.' "[8]
In 2007, the CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey, was discovered to have posted on the Yahoo Finance Message Board, extolling his own company and predicting a dire future for their rival Wild Oats Markets while concealing his own relationship to both companies under the screen name "Rahodeb".[9]
On January 13, 2009, a councillor from Bournemouth, England Ben Grower was exposed by the Daily Echo newspaper for repeatedly posting comments praising himself, and fellow Labour councillors, on the newspaper's website using many sockpuppets, one of which was named "Omegaman". When questioned about the matter Grower was initially ambiguous in his response but later he admitted it was true saying "I have done nothing against the law. And probably next time I will just use a different pseudonym."[10] The story of Grower's sockpuppetry was covered widely in the media.[11][12][13][14][15]
In April 2010 the British historian Orlando Figes was exposed as having written critical reviews of books by professional rivals on the Amazon website under the name 'historian'.[16][edit] Strawman sockpuppetSockpuppets may be created during an online poll to submit multiple votes in favor of the puppeteer. A related usage is creating multiple identities, each supporting the puppeteer's views in an argument, attempting to position the puppeteer as representing majority opinion and sideline opposition voices. In the abstract theory of social networks and reputation systems, this is known as a sybil attack.
A sockpuppet-like use of deceptive fake identities is used in stealth marketing. The stealth marketer creates one or more pseudonymous accounts, each one claiming to be owned by a different enthusiastic supporter of the sponsor's product or book or ideology.[21][22] A single such sockpuppet is acting as a shill; creating large numbers of them to fake a "grass-roots" upswelling of support for a cause is known as astroturfing.
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 in conflict with Drew's daughter. After "Josh" ended the relationship with Megan, Megan committed suicide.
Drew's conviction was for misrepresenting her identity, in violation of the MySpace terms of service. The Los Angeles U.S. Attorney successfully claimed that this was covered by federal computer fraud legislation against "accessing a computer without authorization via interstate commerce."[23][24] Drew 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."[25] On 3 July 2009, the appeal was tentatively upheld.[26]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sockpuppet_(Internet)
more words for the day ~Making Mischief on the Web - more words ... "Newbie", "Troll", "Concern troll", "Sock puppet", "Sex bait", "Author Avatar" ....
Word for the day ~ "Confidential" ... Word for the day "Misinformation" ... Word for the day ~ "Name-dropping" ...
