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Members leaving and rejoining under new aliases + false pretenses?


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Guest Anonymous

Seeking best-practice advice for you all ere on RPG-Init! How do you handle members leaving your site and rejoining under new aliases, BUT with the added false pretense that they are an entirely different person?

 

I'm not against rebranding, members changing their aliases in general, taking breaks and leaving then returning, etc. — what I have an issue with is when a member joins the site, becomes integrated, takes want ads, etc., ghosts the site, and then almost immediately re-joins the site...same IP and all, except under a different name. Historically, I don't approach after a single incident and figure they had their own reason for doing it (I have had to change my own alias on sites before due to personal security/privacy matters involving an abusive ex, but I never pretended to be a different person entirely?); but when the member is a repeat offender and has done it several times, what do you do? Would you approach and ask what's up, or still leave it?

 

My biggest concern is the taking of want ads and then disappearing, rinse and repeat. It's work on our (admin) plates, but also inconveniencing other members whose wants are taken and inevitably dropped.

 

In this repeat instance, we did ask — we considered if it could be family members of the same household, but that was debunked by the member themselves. Member is claiming they have no idea what we are talking about and swears it isn't them, but the member has the same exact speaking/chat style, left the Discord with "their other account" 4 minutes after the new one joined (which struck us as "replacing" the other one), and we have matched 2 IP's — mobile and static residence — to 3 different aliases and all of the characters underneath of those parent accounts at this point.

 

At what point do you...and how do you...kindly...tell the person you don't believe them and take action to prevent it from happening again, or do you? We don't know with 100% certainty that they are lying, but there is...a lot of evidence. We don't know why they would lie. We've even considered if the member(s) may be part of a DID system but are still questioning the likelihood of even if that were the case, 3 of their alters finding the site AND joining each time.

 

Another factor to consider is that one of the member's aliases claims to be starting/running their own site in the same genre, so I don't know at this point if they are trying to cause us a headache and problems on purpose, trolling us, etc. I just hate to be the sort of person to tell someone they're lying and we are usually very gracious with trying every avenue of mediation before we tell somebody they are no longer welcome — are there any other possibilities or potential explanations to this that maybe I am not seeing? Again, we've asked, and they just respond to us that they don't know the other members' names and are confused.

 

Thank you all so much in advance!

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Hi,

Sounds like you have quite the pain-in-the-rear problem! I am not the most diplomatic of people so afraid I'm not much help on the how to approach this person. I'd most likely screencap the evidence, show it to them, and ask what the heck they are playing at and why.

On preventing future occurrences -  Maybe add a rule or policy that requires new persons to create one original character of their own and establish themselves with X number of posts/threads/ or having been a member x amount of time before they can take wanteds, etc.

 

Good Luck!

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Someone somewhere went to sleep and dreamed us all alive.
Dreams get pushed around a lot, and I doubt if we'll survive.
We won't get to wake up, dreams were born to disappear.
And I'm pretty sure that none of us are here.
~ None of Us Here by Jim Stafford ~

 

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Storm wolf I am the same. I would screen cap and confront them - politely of course.  As to why they would do this I am not sure really. I saw it a few times back during MSN / Oasiz days and it always ended badly. 

 

Back then it was someone heisting stories or copying lore etc. I mean not sure there is much that can be done because it becomes a he said she said and then your decision becomes remove- ban ip or some other drastic step.

 

Obviously even with the proof they may still call bs and deny it. 

 

That just sounds vexing as hell.

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I've had a person who we had to ask to leave and escort off the site come back MONTHS later under a different alias.

 

Reason she was asked to leave: Her characters were scarily juvenile and "perfect" in every way. And she continually controlled the characters belonging to those she was in threads with. It was wild. She time warped in a single thread and had someone else's character fall in love with her and demand to speak with her mermaid father. No amount of coaching was getting through to her and people were getting uncomfortable. 

 

She came back under a different alias, but I guess wasn't smart enough to use a different email and sadly her characters hadn't improved. It was the WIP character she was creating that made me think that it could be her, which led me to check emails. Of course she was privately called out and immediately asked to leave - I wasn't going to sit there and give her the opportunity to argue differently.

 

I would just remove them, you have your proof if anyone asks (highly doubt anyone would). I feel like opening the conversation with trying to get to the bottom of what game they are playing just feeds into drama. Sure, tell them exactly why you are removing them, but I'd honestly leave it at that. I've always got better things to do than play games with people who are clearly shady. 

 

 

Edited by Lavi

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  • Admin

So there are political ways and straightforward ways to go about this.

 

The political way is to approach them, advise them that:
 

Quote

 

Hello Name,

It has come to the staff's attention that you have played on these alias accounts:

  • Name 1
  • Name 2
  • Name 3

With these Discord accounts:

  • Name 1
  • Name 2
  • Name 3

 

We respect that you may need to change your information for privacy reason, however, at this point it is becoming a toxic point of contention on our site as you are lying outright to our staff members when asked about your identity that we can prove.

 

We have discussed it amongst the staff and decided that these are the what our actions will be:

  • You are banned from picking up any wanted ads.
  • At this time you are restricted to the characters that you currently have until you can prove that you are willing to stick with them and not abandon them as you have done previously.
  • Any additional alias creation will result in a full ban from the site as this sort of behavior is dishonest which falls under our rule of respecting others on the site.

This is considered your only and final warning. We respect that if you do not like our terms that you will be leaving the site, however, if you do choose this path you will not be welcome back.

 

We leave it in your hands and await your response. We hope that you do choose to stay and will respect whatever decision that you choose.

 

Regards,

Username

XYZ Site Title

 

 

 

If you want to be straightforward be straightforward:
 

Quote

 

Hello Name,

We have identified that you have abandoned and recreated your account on our site multiple times. We find this behavior to be detrimental to the growth of our community. At this time we believe it would be best that you leave the site and find something more suited to your needs.

 

Regards,

Username

XYZ Site Title

 

 

For the most part I put this here because you've already made your decision. You feel like the behavior is suspicious at best and malicious at worst and neither should be something that you should deal with. Its your playground, while you're sharing it with others it doesn't mean you have to let the kid that kicks sand in your face stay.

 

I'm not a ban heavy person but things that are outside of your comfort zone shouldn't be something that you allow just because it "technically" doesn't break the rules. You need have identified a problem, you need to choose "is this good for my community or not" and if you choose its not then you need to get rid of or fix the problem.

 

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  • 2 months later...

On an old, now defunct site (Valucre), this was a violation of Code of Conduct--it was considered Sockpuppeting.

 

Article VI - Sockpuppet Accounts 
(a) A sockpuppet is an online identity used for the purposes of deception. This applies primarily to creating multiple accounts to:
    (1) Circumvent board measures such as topic bans or member ignore lists
    (2) Getting "new member" access such as for the TOL or any other exceptions
    (3) Logging into another member's account and pretending to be that member
    (4) Deceptively contact other members

(b) If a player is found to have participated in such actions, he/she will:
     (1) Be given a final warning, after which any further Code of Conduct violations may result in a permanent ban from the forums
     (2) Be permanently banned from the forums

 

Semi-related, we had a user who made new accounts often and even lied about his gender at one point, except he left of his own will under the guise of starting over by pretending to be someone else. He almost always eventually came clean or was discovered. He often said he felt embarrassed by something he did or said to ruin an experience and thought it'd be easier if he started over anew without the prejudice already against him.

He eventually stopped, but. I'd be wary of folks like that, also. That guy ended up with like, six or seven accounts before he finally stopped.

If you feel like people are circumventing a ban, etc, Morrigan's confrontations are pretty solid for that "final warning" bit and just follow through each time.

Tlaloc, my love...

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  • 1 month later...

At the end of the day, your responsibility to your members is to provide them a safe haven. Part of that is removing what threatens that safe haven. 

 

Secondly, there's a difference between being kind, and being polite. Being kind is giving them them the benefit of the doubt despite the clear evidence you have, and being polite, is providing them a written reason for their dismissal right before you yeet them into the void. 

 

I will always choose the latter when I can match IPs, there's a history, and I know without a doubt that they are someone that has been around before. Of course, it is dependent on what the circumstances were on them leaving in the first place. Shit happens, life gets crazy, and people leave and then want to come back. In that time, aliases change but these folks... don't normally conceal who they are. 

 

Sounds to me whoever is haunting you isn't doing so with good intentions and will be more of a headache and nuisance for your folks. 

 

If you're satisfied with the IPs, the info you have, see you later. I don't particular think screenshots are required to back up your decision about your board if their removal is only going to save you and yours from disruption. 

"widows, ghosts, lovers sit and sing in the dark, arched marrow of me."
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