LovePotion9 has refused to cooperate with our Sock Puppet Investigation

You got it. That's why we were surprised when they refused to do it even once. Of course, if their account was indeed a sock puppet, doing it once would be enough for us to confirm that fact, which is why we found their refusal suspicious. Again, we still don't have evidence they are a sock puppet, but their reaction was in line with how a sock puppet would react.

It's the example KewlJ provided. Yes, we also looked into the accusations against KewlJ and you and didn't find evidence of sock puppetry.

Since very few members connect via Proxies, that means most are connecting with their real IP. So if they were to have momentarily disconnected their Proxy, we would have seen their real IP, and we would have been able to check if their real IP matched the real IP of another member.

 

No, we would ask them to connect without a Proxy so we could determine their real IP.

No, members can connect via Proxies, but if we ask you not to once so we can determine your real IP and you refuse, then your account may be limited.

No, because we could ask them to connect via their real IP at any moment.

This is a good idea. Thank you for the suggestion.

Perhaps, but they still refused to show us their real IP.

No, because we may ask for your real IP at any time.

The problem is that it's easy to hide credible evidence when using Proxies.

All they had to do to clear their name was show us their real IP. But they refused.

This is why we want to set a precedent now regarding Proxies and potential Sock Puppets. Sock Puppets are not safe here, not even if connecting to them via Proxies.

Our investigations are rather quick because most folks don't connect via Proxies, or at least don't connect exclusively via Proxies as LovePotion 9 has.

We understand your concerns and we aren't taking it as a defense of LovePotion9, but rather as a defense of fair and transparent rules and we hear you.

There is no perfect solution, but what we certainly want to avoid is folks using Proxies as plausible deniability for Sock Puppets. We want to be clear that if we ask for you to connect with your real IP and you refuse, then your account may be limited. That's why we like your idea of advising our members of this when they register so that they are aware of the rules.

The word "investigation" makes it seems more complicated than it really is. Our site has built-in features to detect potential Sock Puppets and it takes literally just seconds to "investigate" a member. In the case of LovePotion9, we actually privately messaged them when we noticed they connected exclusively via Proxies, and that's when we noticed their responses weren't adding up. We won't go into detail to protect their privacy, but we've been running Forum communities for a long time and we have a pretty good understanding of when someone behaves as a Sock Puppet. Again, we don't have evidence LovePotion9 is a sock puppet since they refused to cooperate. That's why their account is still active, but limited. We wouldn't even ban them if they admitted to being a Sock Puppet as long as they publicly confessed and clarified why they did it.

Just remember the alternative of this admittedly harsh rule: if folks can connect via Proxies without ever being required to show their real IP, then anyone could create virtually unlimited Sock Puppets and we would never be able to prove which accounts are real and which are fake. This would be absolute chaos, especially as word started to spread that we permitted such plausible deniability via Proxies.

 

If they did this, then as soon as we asked for their real IP, they would have to rinse and repeat the entire process again, each time losing credibility for everything they posted under the new account on top of having all their posts split under different usernames. It would be a colossal waste of their time with little benefit, but no, we would not be able to 100% prevent this without drastic measures, so it's a constant game of cat and mouse. Of course, if we wanted to put a complete end to this, we would simply prohibit connecting to our site via Proxies, but we aren't there yet and have no plans to get there.

 

We see no evidence to support you have a Sock Puppet here.

 

No, we are simply using a gender-neutral pronoun since we do not know their gender.

There are several ways to attempt to circumvent this since there is no fool-proof method for prohibiting Sock Puppets, and someone committed to keeping Sock Puppets could simply fly to a different city each day of the week to maintain different accounts and we would never be able to stop them. So our focus is on making it as difficult as possible for them in order to not make it worthwhile to maintain Sock Puppets here in order to minimize the problem while knowing full well that no Forum community can rid themselves 100% of Sock Puppets. We certainly don't believe the world is black or white, so we don't think the solution to not being able to eliminate them 100% is to just allow them free reign. We believe the more difficult we make it for them, the less Sock Puppets there will be, and the better off our community as a whole will be.

With regards to Proxies, keep in mind that we always reserve the option of asking someone we suspect of being a Sock Puppet to stop using a Proxy altogether if they wish to participate here. Or at least asking them on a regular but random basis to connect with their real IP and they will have to keep jumping through hoops (e.g. bothering their neighbors, relatives, etc.). At some point, it just won't be worth their while if they are indeed a Sock Puppet. To be clear, we did not go into our investigation of LovePotion9 thinking they were a Sock Puppet. It was their reaction to our respectful request, and their behavior in the several messages thereafter, that lead us to limit their account until they cooperated.

Not since we exchanged several messages yesterday. That channel of communication is still open if they wish to cooperate with us to clear their name.