Thursday, October 27, 2005
AN OLD DOG LEARNING A NEW SOCK
SockPuppets. I thought they were those things my kidlet used to play with. Ah no. Not anymore.
A sockpuppet is an additional OnlineIdentity used by someone who already has another OnlineIdentity for participating in a given community, particularly when done in a non-transparent manner and where the identities interact with each other in some way. The term originates with the metaphor of carrying on a conversation with oneself using a puppet in each hand.
This is the reverse of a DramaticIdentity. With a DramaticIdentity, multiple people might post under the same moniker. With a Sock Puppet, the same person posts under multiple identities. Some of the alternate identities may be automated "bots", but more often they're under manual control.
Now how many of you knew that? (Don't answer that! I'm not ready to be the only naif in St. Blogs.)
I remember a sockpuppet who used to have conversations with himself on a message board a few years back. One day he got the right sockpuppet on the left foot and the game was over, while his enormous ego got seriously deflated when I pointed out his error. After that he settled for one screen name, but it certainly crimped his arguments.
Always have to chuckle at the word "sockpuppet".
Well. Anyway. I'm going to bed now, one word smarter.
Sleep well out there in cyberland.
