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I am a sockpuppet account of Josh, AKA The Unhandled Exception. I am going to help him test the XMPP chat integration system he's building.

Am I allowed to exist? I promise to behave, and never leave Meta or Meta's chat. If so, may I please have enough rep to chat?

EDIT BY JOSH: I have drawn a freehand circle for my sock: Alt text

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  • 14
    I forbid it. Sock puppets are the most horrible things imaginable.
    – Welbog
    Commented Sep 24, 2010 at 21:17
  • 5
    Also I see absolutely no freehand circles.
    – Welbog
    Commented Sep 24, 2010 at 21:17
  • 4
    I can only give you half, just cause you're clean
    – juan
    Commented Sep 24, 2010 at 21:18
  • 2
    @Toronto: He can't draw freehand circles. He has no hands...
    – The Unhandled Exception
    Commented Sep 24, 2010 at 21:18
  • 3
    @Josh: I'm just a head in a jar and I still manage to draw circles. He has no excuse.
    – Welbog
    Commented Sep 24, 2010 at 21:19
  • Toronto: Heads are better than feet :-) I have drawn a FHC on his behalf.
    – The Unhandled Exception
    Commented Sep 24, 2010 at 21:21
  • 4
    I would upvote, since you are good enough not to skip half the issue and upvote yourself. But I'm too busy enjoying the sad existence at being just shy of 20 reputation.
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Commented Sep 24, 2010 at 21:23
  • I am crying @Grace!
    – Josh's Socks
    Commented Sep 24, 2010 at 21:24
  • 3 seconds... this new alert system is quite fast. Neat.
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Commented Sep 24, 2010 at 21:24
  • @Grace: I feel that, by not upvoting my sockpuppet, I am demonstrating that I have honorable intentions here!
    – The Unhandled Exception
    Commented Sep 24, 2010 at 21:25
  • 13
    Whach out or you're sock puppet will accumulate more rep than you've got.
    – Georg Schölly
    Commented Oct 14, 2010 at 20:03
  • @Josh'sSocks, In what ways are you used to test XMPP integration?
    – Pacerier
    Commented Apr 13, 2016 at 22:15
  • Related MSO post: What are the rules governing multiple accounts?
    – starball
    Commented Dec 26, 2022 at 20:47

1 Answer 1

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Warning label: the following post is written tongue-in-cheek. Read carefully.

I haven't been banned for it yet. And only a small handful of my accounts have been unceremoniously deleted. So I say, go for it!

To clarify: I do stupid, dodgy stuff with my sockpuppets, including (but not limited to) posting bogus answers, impersonating other users, impersonating other sockpuppets, and answering JavaScript questions. If you do these things, you may well find your accounts removed. If you abuse the voting system (voting up posts from one account using another account, voting twice on the same post using multiple accounts, awarding bounties from one account to another, etc.) you may well find your accounts merged and/or deleted, and yourself suspended. If you avoid such behavior, and are careful to avoid any obvious overlap between your accounts, you'll be fine.

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  • 9
    "small handful of my accounts have been unceremoniously deleted. So I say, go for it!" Wait, why would you have more than one?
    – TheLQ
    Commented Sep 24, 2010 at 22:15
  • 4
    @TheLQ: various reasons. Some I use just to have a low-rep account for testing behavior that only exists for low-rep users, or to remind myself what answering questions is like for the same. One was created to re-ask questions that I didn't feel comfortable editing. And some were created for jokes on Meta.
    – Shog9
    Commented Sep 24, 2010 at 22:35
  • 41
    Wow. I had no idea you had so many sock puppets. I dare say you're a... socks machine.
    – user27414
    Commented Sep 25, 2010 at 1:08
  • 2
    Ouch. @Jon. Just... ouch.
    – Shog9
    Commented Sep 25, 2010 at 1:25
  • 3
    Thanks @Shog9! I promise I won't abuse the voting system.
    – Josh's Socks
    Commented Sep 25, 2010 at 13:08
  • 18
    "I do stupid, dodgy stuff with my sockpuppets, including ... answering JavaScript questions. If you do these things, you may well find your accounts removed." --- wait, what?
    – John Dvorak
    Commented Aug 16, 2013 at 12:52
  • 2
    Should probably be read with an implicit "most or all of the above"...
    – Shog9
    Commented Aug 16, 2013 at 15:32
  • 1
    So you're actually allowed to have multiple accounts provided that they don't involve any cross interactions with each other?
    – puretppc
    Commented Jan 27, 2014 at 5:10
  • There's no explicit support for it, but provided you don't do anything harmful there's no hard rule against it either, @puretppc.
    – Shog9
    Commented Jan 27, 2014 at 5:17
  • @Shog9 This is because I have classmates at my school who are interested in Stack for help. I've warned them that if they attempted to touch any of my posts, they would get banned and vice versa. I'm hoping that they could ask their own Q's
    – puretppc
    Commented Jan 27, 2014 at 5:23
  • 1
    You shouldn't have to worry - just remind them that this isn't a social network: vote for posts that are useful, not people who you know. @puretppc
    – Shog9
    Commented Jan 27, 2014 at 5:28
  • 1
    "To clarify: I do stupid, dodgy stuff with my sockpuppets, including (but not limited to) posting bogus answers, impersonating other users, impersonating other sockpuppets, and answering JavaScript questions." That's hilarious!
    – John Militer
    Commented Jul 12, 2016 at 2:28
  • @Shog9 if it is the school's wireless network wouldn't you also be able to do some form of reverse IP lookup to determine the posts are only partially occurring at a public location? After all, friends at school will also end up using their home internet for stack exchange as well. Honestly, I've never understood why people can use that excuse nowadays. I might go ask a question about this fact.
    – user64742
    Commented Oct 4, 2017 at 18:24

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