10

This question is about this user on TeX.SE.

He is suspended network-wide for one year, from 23 April 2019 to 23 April 2020, after a conflict on TeX.SE Meta.

As I read in this article, he can't vote, ask, answer and comment.

However, looking at his activities, he can still post questions, answers and comments, like any unsuspended users.

How can it be possible? Is there a hole in the system?

This is only one particular case. I believe there are many other cases across the network.


From this answer by Jeff Atwood, he probably posted as a new user and then had his accounts merged. I think there should be something to fix this bug (this is definitely a bug), by e.g. not allowing account merging on suspended users, or only allowing account merging on any user a limited number of times. Otherwise, the suspend system clearly no longer works, and that is not something we want.

21
  • 2
    Why exactly would preventing a merge into a suspended account be useful? Ultimately, it really matters zero. As long as the new account is caught and prevented from participation, what does it matter how that is completed?
    – animuson StaffMod
    Oct 4, 2019 at 16:53
  • 2
    @animuson Then if I am suspended, I can still do everything as if I weren't suspended. In that case, what is the suspension system for? I am able to do something "illegal" by doing a series of "legal" things, how can it be?
    – Someone
    Oct 4, 2019 at 16:54
  • 1
    No suspension system can perfectly prevent everything.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Oct 4, 2019 at 16:54
  • 4
    @animuson well "Someone" just found a hole that should be looked into and fixed. We can't stop them all isn't really a great answer. Oct 4, 2019 at 16:55
  • 1
    @StephanS There are tons of ways to get around all sorts of systems. It is impossible to cover them all. We can only catch on and resolve the problem after they do so.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Oct 4, 2019 at 16:56
  • 1
    @animuson Agreed. But the suspended user needs to post something using the new account, not the suspended one. By seeing a suspended account posting, I lost all trust to the suspension system. It needs to be more strict, clearly.
    – Someone
    Oct 4, 2019 at 16:56
  • @animuson Now they have done so. We need to prevent them from doing so in the future, as the past can't change anymore.
    – Someone
    Oct 4, 2019 at 16:57
  • "We can only catch on and resolve the problem after they do so" well this is a user pointing out that somebody did it......... Oct 4, 2019 at 16:58
  • 1
    @Someone We have done something. We merged their account to prevent them from participating with it anymore. Nothing more we can possibly do here. Will they likely create another account with another email on another IP? Probably. That cannot be prevented. You just have to accept that, and report it when they (probably will) do it again.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Oct 4, 2019 at 16:58
  • 3
    @animuson My opinion is that: we should not merge the accounts. Let the suspended be as it is and the new account run normally. The user can do whatever he wants to with his new account. If he does something bad, he will have 2, or 3 suspended accounts.
    – Someone
    Oct 4, 2019 at 17:01
  • 5
    You seem to have very unrealistic expectations of the suspension system, and I'm not really interested in discussing that further with you. There's no bug here, everything is working as intended, and there's nothing that needs to be done about this type of situation.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Oct 4, 2019 at 17:04
  • 2
    @animuson So it is official policy to just merge the accounts and suspension length won't be increased? (just asking for a friend...) Oct 4, 2019 at 20:38
  • 4
    @samcarter Not sure of the policy, but I've seen that when two accounts that are already suspended get merged, the resulting suspension is the sum of the remaining times on both. For instance, if one account's suspension expires in 3 days, and the other account's expires in 5 days, the merged account will have a suspension that expires in 8 days. Oct 5, 2019 at 6:42
  • 3
    The newest incarnation of this user now even makes fun of being blocked from the site: tex.stackexchange.com/questions/514304/… Oct 31, 2019 at 12:05
  • 1
    @samcarter, if you see this, please flag for moderators, with evidence they are the same.
    – D.W.
    Nov 13, 2019 at 20:30

1 Answer 1

6

There is not a hole in the system. It is not a bug. It is not realistically feasible to completely prevent sock puppeting. To be clear, this behavior does violate Stack Exchange rules. Creating a sock puppet to evade your suspension and post while you are suspended is a clear violation of Stack Exchange rules. However, it is difficult to proactively prevent someone from doing this. We rely on users to report instances of ban evasion. Enforcement is based on detection and reaction rather than prevention.

If you see future instances of this, please flag it for moderator action, and provide as much evidence of the connection as possible.

Some tips to help you provide evidence of sock puppeting: From what I have seen, this user is repeatedly creating new accounts to evade their suspension. The new accounts are often listed under usernames like Mdayq or Mdayq7. Sometimes the user explicitly reveals the connection in their post or comments. It might be useful to know that this user goes by user49915 at Latex.org. Moderators have tools to investigate alleged sock puppeting, but the more evidence you can provide them, the more helpful your flag will be and the more likely that they can make a good informed decision.

Be prepared that moderators will have their own criteria for whether to act or not. Many moderators might act only if they are certain that this is a case of sock puppetry, as the consequences for getting this wrong are not good.

Some tips for moderators: If you find evidence of ban evasion, I recommend unceremoniously deleting the sock puppet account with the reason "This user was created to circumvent system or moderator imposed restrictions and continues to contribute poorly".

Separately: This user often cross-posts the same question on both Stack Exchange and on an external site. We don't have a policy forbidding that on Stack Exchange, but if you hold the personal opinion that this is detrimental to the site, you are free to downvote such questions; you always have that right, and it may send a signal over time.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .