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Since I have been checking what SO has under Android tag I've come to notice that a couple of the most prominent profiles belong to a company, to a brand.

High reputation, getting many answers, many more upvotes. Isn't that contrary to what SO stands for?

I do believe that this requires a bit of attention since new users may not realize that this is a community knowledge sharing if they see brands getting most of the attention. I am also curious if SO can properly handle the issue of multiple accounts giving upvotes and pitching questions; after all the members of such company are truly a different user than the corporate one.

Part of this was discussed here But I would like to know if this is indeed recognized as an issue and there's something being done about it.

Not to point fingers (please edit if this is improper) but the top answerer of Android tag ("CommonsWare" ) is the most evident example

EDIT: Commonsware is not "the most evident example" as commented and answered below.

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  • You seem to be mixing up two different things: singular accounts being run by multiple users (CommonsWare is, AFAIK, not such an account), and multiple accounts voting for one another or a single other account.
    – BoltClock's a Unicorn
    Sep 4, 2012 at 17:16
  • You seem to be assuming that display names on accounts match the owning organization or person. That's not always true. We have had "Bill Gates"s and "Barack Obama"s before. If you really like cola, you can set your name to "Pepsi." I'm not saying your question is invalid, just that you can't always take names at face value. Related: What are the rules governing display names and avatars?
    – Pops
    Sep 4, 2012 at 17:17
  • Thanks for pointing this to me, I did not realize that CommonsWare could be an account run by an individual; just by judging for the logo and the third person description. Is it the first impression it gives to most users? this could be a derived question
    – quinestor
    Sep 4, 2012 at 17:27
  • As long as they aren't link dropping, and they are giving actual useful answers, I don't see a problem. We actually want authoritative answers here, why wouldn't we encourage program authors to answer questions in their niche? Or am I missing something?
    – JimmyPena
    Sep 4, 2012 at 19:46
  • I bet his profile views jumped up slightly because of this
    – Robotnik
    Sep 5, 2012 at 4:32

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Other than naming his account "CommonsWare" I don't see any evidence that more than one person has access to that account. As near as I can tell from his answers, the account is controlled solely by Mark Murphy, the founder of CommonsWare. Since there are no rules governing what you name your account (other than prohibiting profanity and other offensive content), you're allowed to name it after your company (or, I don't know, your blog) if you choose to.

I am also curious if SO can properly handle the issue of multiple accounts giving upvotes and pitching questions; after all the members of such company are truly a different user than the corporate one.

Yes, we can definitely handle the issue of multiple accounts giving upvotes to one another. I don't know that "pitching questions" is an issue if they're coming from multiple accounts. I know for a fact that multiple people from both Microsoft and Google ask and answer questions here, and it doesn't present a problem.

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