Questions tagged [sock-puppets]
A sock puppet is an extra account created in addition to the user's normal account, especially with abusive purposes.
98
questions
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1answer
100 views
Can you use the association bonus to post a bounty on one of your alt accounts' questions?
I'd like some clarification on the rules for having alt accounts/sock puppet accounts. I suspect I have seen someone doing this, and think it is exploitative.
Account X posts a question on a site.
...
0
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0answers
78 views
Action upon suspected sock puppeting [duplicate]
About an hour ago I received a series of upvotes. All on different, unrelated questions and answers, all within a few minutes window. This obviously raised a red flag.
Should I do anything with this ...
-19
votes
1answer
195 views
How can I get a fresh start? [duplicate]
On stackoverflow I asked questions which were apparently preposterous. I got somehow suspended when creating my recreating my account. I assume this somehow gives me a bad name. Is there any way to ...
13
votes
1answer
121 views
Handling sock puppets farming rep via accepting answers, not upvoting
I've been keeping an eye on two accounts that are pretty obviously sock puppets, and are farming (small amounts of) rep off of each other. I believe they are sock puppets because:
The accounts were ...
-16
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1answer
162 views
How many votes on questions by sock puppets does it take to suspend his account? [duplicate]
If a sock puppet votes on a question or an answer, how many times can it do that before the account gets suspended or deleted?
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votes
2answers
161 views
Would this two-account situation be appropriate? [closed]
Disclaimer: I know self-answers are encouraged. Take extra/illicit/morally reprehensible/dishonest rep gain out of the equation.
This discussion will inform my actions on a similar online community.
...
-23
votes
1answer
505 views
Bad moderators behavior - Account deleted without any reason [closed]
I was deleted from Italian SE, my username was DaniChi, now I see “user5372".
I opened yet a ticket on May, 1st and my daughter (Marybnq) opened one too but for now, we had no response.
My daughter’s ...
4
votes
0answers
63 views
Is this a bug for reputation on 'Top Answers' on my network page?
I was recently suspended on Stack Overflow for a sockpuppet account that I used to upvote my questions and answers. On my network profile, it shows my top answer as being worth 5 vote score, but on SO,...
5
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0answers
59 views
Should we retract badges in case of serial voting by multiple sock puppets? [duplicate]
As far as I know all badges being earned once will be never retracted, e.g. when votes are changed on vote dependent badge like “great answer” etc. But what if the badge was earned by serial voting of ...
7
votes
2answers
132 views
I came across a review item from my family member. What should I do?
I think this is somewhat a rare case. We are allowed to invite friends and family members to join an Area 51 proposal and contribute to the proposal. We can also share a link to Social media plat ...
8
votes
1answer
444 views
What is the meaning of sock puppetry on Stack Exchange?
I have seen the terms socking, sock puppet, sock puppeting, sock puppetry flying around in different questions here, but what do they actually mean? I know what a sock puppet is in the real world is a ...
14
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1answer
157 views
When deleting a sock could the accepted flag set by the sock be removed?
Let's say I have user A with a sock puppet, B. B asks a question, A answers (somewhat poorly) but get accepted by B.
Then a diamond moderator comes along and verifies that B is a sock puppet and ...
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6answers
230 views
Is sock puppetry really that hard to handle?
I, like many other new users, struggle to get enough reputation do contribute in a way that fits us, like upvoting and providing helpful comments (one example here).
One argument for the limits is ...
5
votes
1answer
254 views
Why the name Eggs McLaren?
As you might know, this puppet account asked the first non-deleted question on Stack Overflow and is present on other SE sites as well.
I'm just curious what does the name mean and why that name was ...
1
vote
1answer
131 views
Troll usurps opponent's user name – What to do? [duplicate]
A well-known crank, let's call him "Wolfgang", uses ten different sock-puppets to dump his pseudo-scientific nonsense into several Stack Exchange sites. Every time another user, let's call him "Uwe", ...
3
votes
0answers
74 views
Sock-puppeting and multiple accounts [duplicate]
There's a probability I've made a mistake as Stack Exchange moderator, and I just want to understand if it is indeed the case.
So I've noticed that a particular user keeps posting quite low-...
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votes
6answers
215 views
Avoid being banned when introducing others to SE
In order to get my girlfriend to join Stack Exchange, I sometimes write questions using her account and upvote these question with my own account.
I'm not doing this because she is my girlfriend and ...
1
vote
0answers
100 views
What to do about harassment? [duplicate]
This morning I happened to disagree with some newbie user on the best way to resolve a question. He suggested that it is absolutely the best way to directly access a static field in another class; ...
8
votes
1answer
227 views
Why am I merged with a totally different user?
My account (JM97-https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/users/23944/jm97) has been merged with another user (previously named "moderator") on the suspicion that the latter was my sock puppet, but this is ...
15
votes
3answers
725 views
Suspicious activity in the Area 51 proposal for Roblox
It is interesting to notice that a similar suspicious activity for the same proposal has already been reported in 2013
Yet, it has started again. It is the Roblox proposal again. It has surprisingly ...
17
votes
2answers
172 views
How can I flag illegal reputation farming?
How can I flag a person who is trying to earn dummy reputation?
Today I have seen 2 people who are doing something along the lines of this: One is asking and the other is answering and vice versa.
...
2
votes
3answers
278 views
Is it appropriate for a mod to use sockpuppets? [duplicate]
Yesterday in a SE site there was an answer claiming that the accepted and upvoted answer was blatantly wrong and there was a gross mistake.
The poster revealed that the accepted answer was by a ...
-11
votes
1answer
133 views
Can't you hack the upvote system in overflow?
I just noticed something from the Mathematical Community. I had a question with 2 downvotes, (and I had 1 reputation before), making me still have 1 reputation. Then, for some reason, this random ...
1
vote
0answers
30 views
Can team members vote for my posts? [duplicate]
The situation is as follows: there are 6 people in the team, we work together and come up to an answer/question. They all have legit profiles - they are not sock puppets. However, sometimes we do ...
7
votes
2answers
134 views
Should I let someone I know login to Stack Exchange from my machine?
So there's this girl I know.
She's kind and funny and sweet and basically kinda awesome, and as we've gotten to know each other better, my participation in Stack Exchange has come up as a topic of ...
5
votes
1answer
139 views
I'm 99% certain there's some sockpuppet activity on a site, mods are unable to detect it, is there a higher level of escalation?
I don't want to go into any detail whatsoever on here, I just want to know the procedure for contacting an SE employee to discuss this further.
Who would be the appropriate person to contact, having ...
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votes
1answer
92 views
Require a minimum rep to edit
Currently, there is no minimum rep required to edit a post, although low-rep user's edits become "suggested" edits and need to be approved to take effect.
However, such approved edits generate 2 rep ...
37
votes
0answers
297 views
Allow moderators to define reputation-limiting relationships between users who consistently display targeted voting
On Ask Ubuntu we've got a bunch of users who we believe to be friends at school together.
They ask questions for each other to answer
They vote for each other (and recently also against each other)
...
13
votes
0answers
178 views
You answer my question, I answer yours [duplicate]
Recently while visiting a question, I saw two users on Stack Overflow and found uncanny activity. So I visited their profile and saw that these users might be committing vote fraud. One user is ...
36
votes
1answer
1k views
What do to with ultra-sophisticated voting ring?
EDIT 3 Added a picture as a "proof" of what's going on (which may help other users catch such "advanced" voting rings):
In a twisted and weird way, now that my question has gotten 20+ upvotes here on ...
25
votes
1answer
316 views
Active bounties allow sock puppet gold to be hoarded
Background
As a result of another meta question highlighting suspicions of sockpuppety one user was recently suspended and another 2 were deleted. However, 3 hours before this happened (possibly ...
12
votes
1answer
277 views
Suspicious accounts copying my bounty answer
I've just had quite unpleasant experience with this question:
How can I highlight elements that match a regex in CKeditor?
First there was a guy who plainly copied/pasted my answer and got 2 instant ...
21
votes
1answer
164 views
Can SE codify or clarify sockpuppeteering in the Terms and Conditions and rules?
So as a moderator on Ask Ubuntu yesterday, I found a sockpuppet account and nuked it from orbit. I then suspended the puppeteer account through the standard moderator messages interface.
Usually when ...
8
votes
0answers
261 views
I have a sockpuppet. Please delete/merge it [duplicate]
I have to say that, I made another account and upvoted this account twice (I don't remember if I did it three times). One was to get out of the ban and the other was to get the association bonus. But ...
8
votes
1answer
130 views
Getting a vote up by someone on the same network considered “a sock puppet”?
I am an intern at a company where a colleague knows my Stack Overflow account and he just upvoted a question of mine. I was wondering whether this is considered a "sock puppet". I told him not to ...
8
votes
4answers
262 views
Where is the “correct” location to store my Sock Puppet (hat)? [closed]
I recently obtained Socky and I have no idea what to do with him!
He is is so rambunctious and volatile...
He complains that he wants to be placed on my head... but that is just wrong, so wrong, ...
21
votes
1answer
391 views
Is there a way to safely sock puppet a banned account?
I'd like to look into the user experience of being question/answer banned for a bit, but I'd like to do so without jeopardizing the standing of my main account. Knitting some socks for this is risky, ...
5
votes
0answers
103 views
How to report a potential rep-farming sock-puppet? [duplicate]
I've just found a pair of users, one who only asks questions, one who only answers.
Both are low rep new users, and almost all the askers questions have accepted answers by the answerer. The answers ...
39
votes
1answer
542 views
Suspecting Sock Puppets - what now?
I stumbled over the following which made me a bit puzzled:
A user (quite low rep) asked a question whose solution appeared immediately tricky, but unfortunately it was quite unclear, ambiguous and ...
9
votes
2answers
178 views
Is there a feasible way to invite flatmate to Stack Exchange? [duplicate]
I rent a room, I don't need a whole apartment for myself and I prefer to save some money to party ;) Same with internet connection, we are rarely at home at the same times, so no need to pay separate ...
6
votes
2answers
265 views
Can I use one account to up-vote an answer from another of my accounts?
Like many SE users, I have multiple accounts. I am wondering if I am allowed to write an answer with one, and vote for it with another?
I suspect the answer is no, but not being one to pass on rep, I ...
29
votes
1answer
236 views
A mod-only section of the help center
Most moderator tools and policies are public, and should be discussed in public for the sake of transparency. But there are a few aspect that cannot be discussed in public, this concerns mostly the ...
3
votes
2answers
199 views
Sock puppet edit? [duplicate]
I just rejected this suggested edit from a user that seemed to be a sock puppet... although both accounts have 1 rep and were created 4 days apart, it just felt awkward to see the two user names ...
19
votes
2answers
329 views
Curiosity fell over the cliff (aka what happened here??)
Once upon a time there was a user named Curiosity.
That user got fair share of questions with what appears to be fair upvotes:
Examples: one, two, three
Then came this question where a user ...
asked Aug 28 '13 at 7:50
Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask
142k25 gold badges330 silver badges685 bronze badges
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1answer
789 views
Sock-puppet attack on GameDev Stack Exchange - Exploits!
We've been having a sock-puppet attack on the GameDev Stack Exchange site over the last few days. I am not fully aware of the details but there seem to be two exploits being used:
First - the ...
23
votes
2answers
622 views
Potential sockpuppets of a troll that don't seem to be trolling themselves. What should I do?
Background
There is a known troll (Python Newbie aka Python Questions) who, along with his various sockpuppets, is very easy to identify, because:
He always asks questions along the lines of "How do ...
38
votes
1answer
492 views
Could we have two types of account deletion?
Relevant TL thread: http://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/9390241#9390241
Related dupe: Delete softly when using the big stick. You may want to read that first, Andrew's given a much ...
23
votes
1answer
351 views
Suspicious voting + answering duo
There is some pretty bizarre voting going on over on this question. Normally, I'd just leave it alone, but there are a few things that are really weird about this case:
this answer [10k only] is ...
8
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0answers
152 views
Something weird going on with this question
I was browsing the New answers to Old Questions 10k queue, and came across an odd, new answer, so I went to the question:
Wake app at regular intervals while using UIBackgroundModes=location
While ...
3
votes
0answers
52 views
Encouraging usage of SO within a large company - potential problems [duplicate]
A reference question: Using SO as a interoffice tool
I'm exactly in the situation as the author of the question cited above. I work for a large sw company and I've been thinking of encouraging fellow ...
