[flotsam] Are You Suffering from Sock-Puppet-Paranoia?

[acco40]

Moderator attempt at humor? Attempt at sympathy? Or is it just a moderator being passive aggressive?

[SRV1990]

All while one poster in the Blues forum turns it into a cesspool with their non-stop garbage. Awesome!

[rangergiff]

Personally love these posts. Funny and some truth to them as well. I love the Blues Talk forum even though there are a few bad apples. I keep my "foe" button handy and just don't respond to their posts or quote them.

[ddierker]

So far I'm seeing off-topic complaints about trolls, oh and the mention of socks, all the while missing the point.


It's very likely the username you think is a sock... Isn't. It's also painfully clear that some folks really missed the points:

Assume everyone is an individual unless proven otherwise. (This is harder than it sounds.)

Let's have a discussion on this...

1. Who's the troll you're talking about?
2. In which forum?
3. Which socks you do believe they have currently active?

If the troll is already banned, find them for me on the Banned Users list, providing me an imprecise name doesn't really help us have this conversation. For any active socks... use the main Members list to find them.

In both case provide a URL to their User Profiles, no profile, no point in having this discussion.

[greyhawk]

LOL - Spot on and good stuff!!!

[11WSChamps]

Sounds like somebody struck a nerve.

[TAFKAP]

So, what you're asking, essentially that I do your job for you. No thanks. I'll continue to use the forum how I've used the forum for over a decade.

[TAFKAP]

I guess they didn't get the response they expected. I'm not doing a moderators ACTUAL work while myself (and many others) have developed our own work around. It's like the geniuses in IT not acknowledging theres a problem while chiding employees for developing a way to do their job without all the IT reporting. We just want them to do their [fork]ing jobs. Unless this isn't a paid position for them. I fully support workers who ignore responsibilities a manager voluntold them they were responsible for.

[We Went Blues]

*Cough* Aesa

[Quincy Varnish]

Are you suffering from response paranoia?

[thetank2]

The best solution is to shutdown the forums.

[Hockey Pete]

What a great post... hat's off to you sir...

[hugeCardfan]

Wow. Well done.

[edwin drood]

Is this stupid post really required in EVERY forum???

[dhsux]

Is this stupid post really required in EVERY forum???

Not funny, not informative....but yet pretty much trolling with impunity.

Really classy.

I'm sure we will both be pushed into off topic like the others so this supreme highly intelligent thread can ride on its own.

[ecleme22]

(Upbeat, slightly-too-peppy narrator voice over a stock image of a concerned family staring at a laptop)
---
(Sound of a record scratch)
---
Are you constantly checking for duplicate IP addresses in your online forums? Do you find yourself muttering "That's definitely his alt account" when a stranger agrees with someone you're arguing with? Do you suspect your neighbor’s cat is a well-funded disinformation bot?

You might be suffering from Sock-Puppet-Paranoia, or SPP.

It’s an epidemic sweeping the internet, leaving a trail of exhausted keyboard warriors and empty coffee mugs in its wake.

The Symptoms:

• Excessive Use of the Phrase "Nice Try, [insert name here]": Even when addressing a complete stranger.
• The "Shadow Council" Delusion: A firm belief that all dissenting opinions are coordinated by a single, malicious mastermind using an army of fake accounts.
• Insomnia: Waking up at 3 a.m. to check if someone's posting habits from 2009 match a new user's. (Hint: They don't. Go to bed.)

The Dangers of SPP:

• The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: By treating everyone like a sock puppet, you start to believe your own hype, isolating yourself from genuine debate and different viewpoints.
• Anxiety and Stress: Your online life becomes a constant game of "whack-a-mole," but all the moles look like the same mole.
• It Turns You Into the Thing You Hate: You start to sound like a conspiracy theorist, which is, ironically, the easiest way to get written off as a crazy person—a fate worse than a troll.

The Cure?
Just like the common cold, there is no cure for SPP. But you can manage the symptoms.

• Step 1: Breathe.
• Step 2: Assume everyone is an individual unless proven otherwise. (This is harder than it sounds.)
• Step 3: Remind yourself that a person’s online behavior is not a reflection of your worth.
• Step 4: If all else fails, log off and do something with your hands, like petting a real dog or building something out of LEGOs. Anything to prove to yourself that not everything is a conspiracy.

This public service announcement was brought to you by the Foundation for the Sanity of the Internet, and by people who are tired of being called sock puppets.

===
Written using Google/Gemini.

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