Staffing Faking multiple members

[Honorem 219]

I recently had an issue that I thought I'd ask people's opinions on. Long story short, it is one member pretending to be multiple people.

 

It started out by two people joining and telling me they had the same IP because they lived together. Fair enough, don't mind. Then a third joined, using the same IP ranges as them (must be dynamic because all their IPs change daily, but there are more than one that multiple combinations of the group has used, same ISP and country, all that stuff). Then there was a fourth, who introduced themselves by taking up a wanted ad from one of the others. This person was apparently from a different country entirely, was a stranger to them (they responded to their introduction thread greeting them and stuff), but the IPs were the same yet again. Not only that, but posting style and grammar is exactly the same for all four of them. All figure stuff out at the same time. One of them might PM me saying they had discussed various things with the others and what not.

 

Now don't get me wrong. None of the above would really be an issue, except for the following problems.

 

Between these 'four' people there are over ten characters made in less than a week, all from the same family, all fairly important, and they blatantly ignore other member posts, forming a closed off little clique.

 

I have raised these issues with them and they are receptive toward them. However, I'm still pondering whether to call them out on their sock puppet accounts. So I ask you guys for your wisdom.

 

My question: In your guys' experience, what do you do regarding the whole pretending to be other people thing? To call out or not to call out? And how to go about it if yes?

Edited November 20, 2016 by Honorem

[Josie 198]

I've had the problem of a member pretending to be more than one person happen once. This person did turn out to be a problem for us, but it wasn't even because of this reason. We did call them out on it, simply to see what the deal was and to say that it wasn't necessary. We didn't have a character limit, so there wasn't really a point in doing it when it was very obviously the same person. They still insisted they were two different people, so we were like eh, whatever.

 

From your post, it seems to me the main issue in this situation is that the people are playing many characters and that they only seem to be playing those characters with each other- and not so much that they are pretending to be other people. If that is the case, then you have a member on your hands who isn't actually interested in cooperative writing. Generally, that's seen as the entire point of role playing. So, you have a few things to decide then:

• Is that the point of your roleplay- to write cooperatively together?
• If the answer is yes- do you care if this person writes only by themselves and doesn't let others get involved in their story? Will it ruin the site for you? Will it ruin the story? Will it make everything difficult on everyone else?
• If the answer is yes- is the effort it would take to get this person involved in other plots worth it to you to have them stay and play, or not really?

If the answer to that final question is yes, it is worth it, then you need to have a talk with this person and lay out for them in detail what you expect of them. If they want to stay, they need to meet x, y, and z requirements or exhibit a, b, and c behaviors. If they do not improve within x timeframe, then they will need to find someplace else to roleplay.

 

If the answer to that final question is no, then ask the person to leave. Remember that this is not a punishment. Their RP style doesn't fit the site. You're not meeting their needs, they're not meeting yours. It's what is best for everyone to just cut ties, so try not to feel bad about it. You're doing you both a favor in the long run. Use firm language, but don't be mean. There's a difference between "I think this site isn't for you" and "this is not the site for you." The first leaves the person thinking that oh, well, what I think is what matters, right? I think this is the site for me, so I can still stay, yeah? The last one makes it clear that they will not be staying regardless of what they think.

 

In addition, there is another question for you to answer for yourself: why does this person masquerading as more than one individual bother you? Does pretending to be more than one person mean they are circumventing a character limit? Is it otherwise giving them some ability to break a rule? Is it the apparent deception and lies that bother you? If they are breaking rules and you have solid proof that they are all the same person, then they should be asked to leave the forum. If it is the dishonesty that does not sit well with you, then it would do to have a conversation with them. It shouldn't be an aggressive or accusing discussion, simply lay out the facts: I have this proof that you are all the same people. What is the story behind this? If it is honesty you value, then they deserve you to be honest with them.

[Icewolf 258]

I would tell the person to combine their accounts to one, or at least let other members know that the accounts are run by the same person. I've had issues of this on twitter where a person took a very powerful character, the character's brother, and quite a few other leaders and powerful characters and deliberately made two writer accounts to pretend that they were different people, and then proceeded to use the powerful characters to bully and control other writers.

 

There's nothing wrong with a person having their characters interact together because they could have specific backgrounds for their character that they want to keep, or they may be waiting for the right person(s) to come along to rp with them. They may even be nervous about rping with people if, like me, they've been heavily trolled. The dishonesty, however is a problem if the characters they are playing are canon rulers, they are preventing other people taking up a canon character, preventing other people from taking part the in role-play or using it as a way to bully other site members. If you allow them to continue to rp and other members of the board do not know they are the same person and they become disruptive to the board, people might think that you're complicit with it and it could ruin it.

[Elena 546]

I had people whom I thought they were the same person and they turned to be twin sisters for real. When I believed they were the same, I was just watching their posts more closely. And I realised in 1-2 weeks that they were not the same. Afterwards they said they were twins, and after a while I could check with their FB accounts too, It was true.

[CovertSphinx 710]

As long as the Member isn't causing issues with anybody or anything else on the site, I usually leave them alone. I might drop a little - Hey just so you know, we allow multiple chars all by the same person - note as an FYI but then I let them react as they please. Once it becomes an actual problem in the making (IE, taking several more powerful characters who are interconnected and using them to weave an imbalance of IC power) then I usually shoot a friendly warning PM and go from there.

[VirusZero 176]

So long as they aren't using multiple accounts to bypass rules I don't really care and wouldn't bother saying anything. That said I'd keep an eye on things just in case. (Just because I'm not going to say anything doesn't mean I'm going to let it go...)

 

Though if they were using multiple accounts to bypass rules... (like say how many canon characters one could have) yeah I'd confront them then. Especially if they claimed to not know each other. Mainly because then they're more than likely lying to me about it and that's really not a good show of trust.

[Guest Archaic Cyborg]

In this case, it's not so much the potential sockpuppeting, but the cliquey behaviour. No player can play favourites and selectively play with their BFFs. I'd contact them in private, I wouldn't turn it into a public atter, not unless a massive shitstorm started! I.e needing cbox bans, that kind of thing. It sounds like this mob, if they are at least two players, just want to play a family together. There are rpers like that.