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Question as above. There's a new thread where there appear to be a half-dozen of the things posting:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/558463.page#6402340

The Games and Gears KS thread also had "darkeldarcrone" who appears to be a G&G sockpuppet. I even caught what I believe was the G&G guy posting from the wrong account (in my quoted bit):
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/810/520449.page#6357875

IP checks should be reasonably easy. However, it just seems to be tolerated/nothing is done. Which seems a bit odd.

I believe you are only allowed a sockpuppet in the event one account is a personal account, and the other account is to represent a business that is active on Dakka. For example, Empchild would be allowed both Empchild, and an account for Battleroad Games, Mister Justin and Secret Weapon, Nosegoblin and Dreamforge Games, that sort of thing.

Anything else should be reported to Legoburner and he will take the appropriate action.

It looks like Alpharius already posted in the store thread and made a certain comment, so I'm guessing moderators are already watching it.

And talking in their sneaky little moderater forum.

Long live the Fascist Moderators!

It's always pretty obvious what they're doing.

Yeah, though it makes me wonder why the IPs aren't simply crosschecked, banhammers applied to the sockpuppets, and the real account owners given a friendly word of caution.

 Azazelx wrote:
Yeah, though it makes me wonder why the IPs aren't simply crosschecked, banhammers applied to the sockpuppets, and the real account owners given a friendly word of caution.

Because we don't have time to cross check the IP addresses of every poster in every thread... we generally only notice it if it is really obvious, or there is some other reason to go comparing posters.

And because IP addresses aren't always a giveaway... two posters having the same IP address isn't always proof that they're the same person, and two accounts belonging to the same person won't always have the same IP address.

We do have other ways of comparing accounts, though, once we know to do so.

Don't be so ridiculously facetious. Nobody is suggesting that, so don't throw a straw man in for no reason. There are times when it's either obviously very suspicious and/or other posters bring it to the attention of mods.

Two posters having the same IP address while constantly posting in the same thread when one is a vendor and other(s) are incredibly enthused "customers" is a pretty good sign, and I'm as aware as anyone else that there are ways to defeat having the same IP address.

Aside from the post that Alph posted in that I linked above, you might want to look at the other pair of account(s) I linked. In the G&G Brushes thread dec is claiming that they're better quality than W&N Series 7(!). (As well as all his friends - who we also heard about in their other KS thread...) If it's a G&G personal account then that's one thing, but it appears very sockpuppety.

None of the ones you mentioned have matching IP addresses - they had been looked into. There are other checks we can do when we are annoyed and want to punish people doing aggressive sockpuppeting, but most of the time they are distinct users. When it comes to reviews of things companies will often ask other supporters to chime in on threads rather than being literal sockpuppets by the same person. Typically we'll leave those sort of posts alone rather than digging deep because the community quickly identifies it and responds accordingly, doing more good for the thread than we would by axing the company and 3-5 potential new users.

Obviously if there are any that are just taking the mick we'll compare in more depth and will take them out. Sockpuppeting in a fair discussion is much more harmful and annoying than a product or store announcement for example.

Sockpuppeting is of course prohibited, so if we detect it with no doubt, we uphold the rules.

May I ask what is dakkas policy on having two accounts, for example the other one for mobile use and the other for desktop if it is clearly labelled that it is the same person using both accounts?

Seems like there is zero reason for that...

Sienisoturi wrote:
May I ask what is dakkas policy on having two accounts, for example the other one for mobile use and the other for desktop if it is clearly labelled that it is the same person using both accounts?

This is a no-no, in my experience if someone is suspected of sock puppeting with pretty good evidence the person is (from what I can remember Chowder telling me) if you cop to the fact you are using 2 accounts then you get a few days vacation from Dakka. If you don't cop to it, then you get a permanent vacation from Dakka.

There is no reason for anyone to have 2 accounts. "Mobile Use" and "Desktop Use" doesn't matter as the theme dakka uses isn't reliant how you're logged in. I use Dakka regular at home and on my phone, and when I browse at work, I'm on Dakka Printer friendly.

And it's not like you have to log in every time you change device.

I'm permanently logged in on my phone, my tablet, my home PC, my work PC, and I'm probably still logged in on my grandmothers computer in Germany!

There is no justifiable reason for 2 accounts for different devices as most thematic features are independent of the login system.

We tolerate a personal account and a business account from wargaming companies provided they are pre-authorised so that the 'person' can give their true thoughts without reflecting badly on their 'company', but that is literally the only instance in which two accounts for one person are allowed and even then astroturfing is watched and forbidden.

Alfndrate wrote:

Sienisoturi wrote:
May I ask what is dakkas policy on having two accounts, for example the other one for mobile use and the other for desktop if it is clearly labelled that it is the same person using both accounts?

This is a no-no, in my experience if someone is suspected of sock puppeting with pretty good evidence the person is (from what I can remember Chowder telling me) if you cop to the fact you are using 2 accounts then you get a few days vacation from Dakka. If you don't cop to it, then you get a permanent vacation from Dakka.

There is no reason for anyone to have 2 accounts. "Mobile Use" and "Desktop Use" doesn't matter as the theme dakka uses isn't reliant how you're logged in. I use Dakka regular at home and on my phone, and when I browse at work, I'm on Dakka Printer friendly.

legoburner wrote:There is no justifiable reason for 2 accounts for different devices as most thematic features are independent of the login system.

We tolerate a personal account and a business account from wargaming companies provided they are pre-authorised so that the 'person' can give their true thoughts without reflecting badly on their 'company', but that is literally the only instance in which two accounts for one person are allowed and even then astroturfing is watched and forbidden.

Understood

Interesting question. If a user was also a GW employee, or say a writer for the Black Library, would they be able to get special permission to have a second account? Say Dan Abnett was on here, I could see it being reasonable to have one account for official Dan Abnett-ness, and another where he could be anonymous and post stuff like how he wants to teabag Ben Counter. (Or something along those lines...)

That would only work if one of the accounts was for them to post as an official representative of the company. Which, so far as I'm aware, GW wouldn't allow.

For that matter, the last I recall hearing about GW's internet policy, employees weren't supposed to visit forums at all, officially or not.

I had never heard of astroturfing, had to google it:

http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/A/astroturfing.html

Turns out it's pretty close to sockpuppeting, but more hiring others to say things for you. Who knew!

 insaniak wrote:
employees weren't supposed to visit forums at all, officially or not.

How the hell do they think they can police that??

 Snrub wrote:

 insaniak wrote:
employees weren't supposed to visit forums at all, officially or not.

How the hell do they think they can police that??

1) Monitoring site traffic through the company servers. This combined with site blocking to prevent employees at work looking at certain sites or accessing them.

2) General awareness of the internet scene and identification of individuals posting information online. Certain information only some employees will be officially aware of; if those details appear online tracing the source of that information can reveal where an employee is breaking their contract by releasing information.

They might also use other resources like painted models.

That said I've no idea how strict their policy is and its likely that they discourage but can't outright ban except on company owned computers. What is strict is the non-disclosure so any GW employee would be unable to disclose any GW information without risking disciplinary action.

Yeah at work I can completely understand. But at home?


Also are you referring to people who work at GW HQ? Or just your standard red shirted grunt?

Some former store employees have said in the past that they were 'discouraged' from visiting forums, but I'm sure I recall at least one of the Dev team saying that they were flat out told to stay away from them.

Having said that, Paul Sawyer did post on several forums back in the day, and more recently ADB seems to get around a bit.

I'd imagine Fat Bloke can do what ever he damn well pleases

I remember a thread on /tg/ where they mentioned one of the BL authors (could have been ADB) crediting multiple fan forums including B&C, /tg/ and I believe Dakka with giving him ideas and inspiration. Can't imagine head office would have been too pleased about that.

It's probably an easier policy to say "stay away" firmly rather than "well you could sort of stay away please".

Most of it is understandable, they want to protect their information and its all to easy for a person to talk when socialising. When it happens down the pub its fine as only one or two people hear about it - online the whole world does and reactions to information can be unpredictable and often very rapid.

On the subject of inspiration that's a nightmarish area of copyright theft. Many an author is told to not read fanfiction in case they end up copying sections and leave themselves open to challenge.

It's completely understandable to ban internet use at work for several good reasons.

It's impossible to ban it for off duty staff.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
It's completely understandable to ban internet use at work for several good reasons.

It's impossible to ban it for off duty staff.

Yes and no. It's not unheard of for companies to have clauses in their contracts that forbid certain behaviour even when not at work, on the whole 'bringing the company into disrepute' sort of argument. There was a rather high profile story here in Oz a few years back of a female police officer who was fired for getting her gear off in a men's magazine.

It would be difficult to police off-work forum visiting, but not entirely outside the realm of believability for them to ban it, particularly when they recruit people based on their abilty to do what they are told over actual work skills...

Query:

I have a blog thread with a character I have created (Hissy):
[url]
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/538944.page[/url]

Is it allowable for Hissy to post "as a personality" as it were? Perhaps in Tyranid related threads?

No, that's not okay.

Ok, got it