How Catfishing (Sock-Puppetry) Might Affect Autistics

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true, however, i suspect on this website it's the exception rather than the rule.

where it is an exception i'm sure the mods could handle it. few true trollers are going to go that far out of their way to exact their satisfaction (just my opinion).

Why would you suspect that about this forum? I don't think this forum is a special case completely different from every other forum I've moderated.



So it's better to block family members or roommates who use the same IP address? And then there's mobile devices that do not use the same IP address every time they access the site.

Speaking from my experience as a moderator of other forums (plural) I see such a policy as being potentially limiting and difficult for legitimate users, without any significant return on stopping trolls.

do you think that there are many family members/friends sharing IP addresses using this site?

i don't know, is why i'm asking. my impression has been, not, but i can't say i have any concrete evidence to support this assumption. but, that's where my opinion came from.

extending, if there are relatively few people sharing IP addresses, those situations could be handled case-by-case.

if you know differently, i stand corrected.

I do not know what the percentage is. It's probably not higher than other fora I've been on.



The point is not adding barriers to legitimate participation. If you treat people as if they're breaking the rules just for signing up and need to prove their innocence, that's a terrible way to run a forum.

i suppose i'm thinking, if it doesn't affect that many members but better assures the safety of our most vulnerable members, it might be worth it.

just a thought.

This thread, as all my threads, is for processing material comprehensively. I have been thinking for an hour or so of what to say here. First, get over the idea that by banning a person who is playing a character (and probably more than one) you can get rid of that person. That is a pipe dream, though I am not saying that people should not try to control the problem. Also, whatever sock-puppets have been banned from this system in the past are probably still here if they really want to be, and because of becoming resistant to penicillin the bacteria has become even more resilient. All the person has to do is morph his shape and get another IP for ten dollars a month, and I think there may even be free ones. So just get over that idea of a certain control you think/feel you have. Personally it was very hard for me to get over this idea, as I did think I had control.

Secondly I recall reading that some are equating a sock puppet with a troll. I think this is an over-generalization, as a person could be playing different characters with an intent to help people, also.

Thirdly, to Opi, yes it seems like it is not harmful, but actually it can be very harmful. I will go into this later.

How to stop it? Sure, if you find someone out and are in a position, ban them, but the best way is to read actively and when you spot such a person, stop contributing to their threads. I think some are doing that on WP already, but others are so gullible. One of the factors of being gullible is to just skip certain steps involved in comprehension. Why do people do this? Generally speaking, if it is a developmental disorder or not, I think they do it because it feels good, so watch out for flatterers.

Yes, I, too, have seen this character playing bring entire forums to a halt, but I have seen this in mainly on small email groups such as on Yahoo. In this case here we have such a vital forum with so many threads I do not think this could happen.

Re the suicide thread, when I read all the messages of condolence there yesterday I was really quite shocked, as that thread was so obviously deliberately set up in order to be seen through. which is why I wrote there that this thread should be kept open so as to be used for a learning tool, not learning about the person who wrote it, but about ourselves.. I think that particular material is really kind of valuable if people could make something active out of it by looking at it from different angles while including oneself into the picture. Why did people fall for that stuff so easily? To me it is a sign of disorder, call it developmental disorder or whatever. It is the 'production' of chaos, whereas the person who made that thread was really quite organized and methodical in what(ever) s/he was doing (I think it was a she)..This is not to condone her (his) behavior.

Again - if you have specific and factual knowledge of WP members deploying sock-puppets on WP (and the evidence to back it up), then report your findings to the moderators and let them handle it.

Otherwise, this thread seems to be more about one person's favorite conspiracy theory than any attempt to resolve a problem.

littlebee's theories all seem to contradict each other in my humble opinion.

This thread is not about stopping character playing on WP, as I have already made clear more than once. I do not think it is even possible to stop it. Apparently you are only able to see things in one way. One thing can mean more than one thing. Language has many different scopes and dimensions.There are multiple facets to communication.

Conspiracy theory? If I were a child, for example, and you were my parent, and I was trying to communicate with you, this would make me very angry for a reason I might not be able to directly put my finger on, being a child,, but I would know it, as you are trying to put my mental functioning in a box or, even worse, saying the intelligent way I see doesn't exist and that there is no comprehensive processing of data, no looking at material from different angles. There is only one way, your way. Well, to me your way of processing data limited and kind of flat. The way I see things, one thing can mean more than one thing. It can mean many things or a different things depending upon the subjective context and a person's ability to process data, and by the way, I was not born with this ability. I had to develop it.

Perhaps you just don't catch on to the way I am processing data and it is frustrating to you? Some others seem to understand.

What is a fact? For example, is a "chair "a fact? n any case, the opera is not over until the fat lady sings, though to you this will probably just sound like gibberish, Anyway, I have read some of your previous messages on WP and know you are a good person and mean well..

To cap, again, this thread is not intended to stop sock puppetry on WP, but rather to look at human brain function and perhaps discover more comprehensive and ultimately more generative ways of processing data.

I think you have so much to offer. Please give an example. I can learn from you...

And of course Fnord is welcome to post here, meaning he is genuinely welcome....Communication needs contrast in order to get various points across, and looking at things from many different angles allows for epiphany...

i am not willing to enter into a discussion about any specific threads or members.

however, i do think it's important for ALL of us, but particularly those of us with the kind of social naivety characteristic of autism spectrum, to learn better BS detection skills, and also know how to handle ourselves in a way that is self-protective without shutting out an excellent resource like Wrong Planet.

it's not that i think people can't be hurt by online betrayals, malicious or otherwise, or more aggressive predation or bullying. i just think that people ONLY get hurt by online activity, by their *own participation* or reaction to same. i DO think it's healthy and necessary to develop skills and resources for participating differently. for instance, knowing how and when to walk away with integrity. in this respect, i think sock puppets can do us all a favor, because they give us an opportunity to practice and learn. i firmly believe that what's good for one, is good for all, even if it sometimes causes us pain.

EDIT: i'm going to make one exception, which is the new trend in online bullying where people know the individual being targetted IRL, know where they live, and run the gamut from painful heckling/teasing to active threats and/or inviting someone to self-harm/suicide, to which our youth are particularly vulnerable due to current social norms and online practices that are more common now. /EDIT

i'm also intrigued by the question of metaphor, and how it might be applicable, and why, and in what ways, which by the way littlebee i am actively researching today. have already found some interesting articles on metaphor and how it acts on/characterizes the brain and cognitive functions.

too often i see people feed into manipulation online, which only perpetuates it. arguing with someone whose sole purpose is to create argument, for instance, is just not productive if you want the behavior to stop.

Enforcing 1 account per IP address wouldn't work. It really isn't uncommon to want more than one account per IP address. Public places exist. People traveling exists. Parents and children exists. It's a problem that hits people hard when it hits, and for something as large as a forum, it doesn't work.

For some things, it does - for a game, you can start by saying at the beginning "You need to both talk and prove you're separate people to play on the same IP address or we'll only let one on at a time", because its about playing a game. But this isn't a game. This is a resource. And people don't need to be logged in at the same time to be on a forum, so you run into problems easier.

But even ignoring households - libraries, coffeeshops, people using public places to access the internet shuts that down immediately.

And yes, I've been on here as not the only one on the IP address multiple times.

well, i take your point, but i'm not actually suggesting blocking IPs with multiple accounts, just suggesting that rather than subject the whole community to a intensive screening, have some extra steps to validate those accounts separately.

just curious, does a router show up as a single IP or does each computer get assigned a different IP from the web server's POV?

The above are quotes from my original message which I have bolded.. The intent of this thread is not to discuss how to stop sock puppetry. .Discussing if it can or should be stopped can perhaps be fitted into the conversation, and surely individual people's experiences with it and feelings about this fits in, and even the possible motives and feelings of various (generic and/or unnamed puppets from the past or perhaps even a currently revealed and generally acknowledged sock puppet if the latter is okay with the moderators...The reason I mentioned this other thread is that it fits in with the topic of this thread, and I want to wait and see if that thread is locked before I waste too much precious breath communicating there), but I do not see discussing exactly how to possibly stop it fits in with the intended gist of this particular thread, but maybe I am missing some subtle nuance. If you can fit the subject of stopping it into the subject of developing more comprehensive mental functioning,, then go for it, but if not, then please desist from this particular line of conversation.

Personally I have never seen much bullying by what people here call a sock puppet, but I do not doubt it exists. I have only encountered sock puppets who have some kind of good intent...though I still think what they are doing is ultimately more harmful then helpful.

@littlebee: Last week you was warning us of the dangers of playing the autism card.

This week you are warning us that catfishing might be harmful to autistic people.

If it harmful to play the autism card with one hand, then how is it ok to play the autism card when it comes down to this subject.

Please forgive me if I seem a little confused