Currently, the process of resolving duplicate accounts is to find them by accident and search for other duplicate accounts they may have created. It would be nice if an auto-flag was generated for accounts that are potentially duplicates, or if a tool existed that would list accounts that are likely duplicates. This would aid in consolidating multiple unregistered accounts that were created by accident.
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Perhaps this system could be integrated to a degree that users who had recently created accounts would be unable to accidentally spawn other ones... they could be blocked from posting with a message like "Oops! you appear to have registered an account recently. Did you forget to login to it?"– WugNov 14, 2012 at 18:45
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@Down-voter: any reason why you wouldn't like to see this implemented?– BMitchNov 15, 2012 at 14:39
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1 Answer
If by "duplicate" you mean accounts opened from same machine, you forget shared computers like Internet café or even few family members in the same house. Raising flags for all of those will just create too much noise in my opinion.
If you mean sockpuppet accounts created by same person to earn reputation in illegal ways, there are already scripts to detect that and auto merge/ban such accounts.
All in all, I don't think there's anything to improve or add apart maybe more comfortable mechanism to merge unregistered accounts. (Meaning the user himself can do it)
answered Nov 14, 2012 at 18:55
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1Nope, I'm not looking for just an IP match (there are other pieces of data we can use). I'm not looking for sockpuppets, most of the dups I see are accidental. The only thing a user should be able to do themselves is register. We only need the flag on account creation, so I hope that wouldn't be too much noise for busy sites.– BMitchNov 14, 2012 at 19:21
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2There is no automatic suspension script. Except for the serial voting script, all actions with regards to vote fraud are performed by actual people (mods or SE employees). Nov 14, 2012 at 19:38