And now, a word from Tracey Spicer’s sockpuppet

Adam says:

07:15am | 29/04/11

Chongy, I work in an office and Dilbert isn’t funny.
Tracey please use Spice Rack, I like the mental image

Huey says:

07:38am | 29/04/11

Sock puppet Avatar! nice one Tchong

Pete says:

08:41am | 29/04/11

@ adam you’re right in actual fact Dilbert is right on the money

Tubesteak says:

08:53am | 29/04/11

Dilbert is not humour, it is fact parading as humour.

Every time I read a Dilbert comic I can think of several times in my career where art has imitated life. This makes me laugh at the comic because it is better than crying. I even have the short-lived TV series on DVD.

I’m now liking the idea that I could get a job as an online commenter “sock puppet” for someone else.

Bilby says:

09:19am | 29/04/11

Chongy - You need to be a software engineer. It’s all about the relationship between software engineers and management which is never a happy one. I think it’s piss funny and hits the mark several times a week,  but I’m not surprised that for everyone else it doesn’t really rate. I’m guessing you don’t like Daily WTF and Coding Horror (vale… Coding Horror) or the like either.

Markus says:

10:22am | 29/04/11

That’s probably the best summation I’ve ever read of Dilbert. Good work Tubesteak.
I agree, the only real humour in it is the knowledge that it has happened to you before, and the sense of relief from the fact it is not currently happening to you.

That all said, Office Space did a much better job of portraying the environment than Dilbert ever did.

TimB says:

10:46am | 29/04/11

@ Markus, I LOVE Office Space. Which is sad, because it resembles my worplace so much I should be in a constant downward spiral of depression.

Multiple managers, ridiculous pointless and repetitive paperwork (TPS reports),  malfunctioning office equipment…I’m subjected to them all.

PC Load letter? WTF does that mean?!

hot tub political machine says:

11:03am | 29/04/11

Yup, have to agree (esp about how well Office Space portrayed it). Its not humour, it catharsis.

Bobster says:

01:13pm | 29/04/11

TimB, I have had a sneaking suspicion for quite sometime that you may be a sockpuppet for a certain Daily Telegraph columnist.

I’m almost certainly wrong and have no evidence whatsoever to back this up other than to say I know of another Tim B. who’s opinions sync pretty well with yours (although they are toned down somewhat from here - is this just a chance to tell us what you really feel? I’m just asking the question).

Could it be so? Probably not. Is it hypocritical of me to post this comment? Certainly. But oh well. This looks like a fun thread anyway.

Tubesteak says:

02:02pm | 29/04/11

Office Space was brilliant (sooooo many quotes from there). I think you find it better than Dilbert because it was only a short movie. Had it been going for years like Dilbert you may not find it as funny.

I know that there are some days where I only do 1 hour of real work per day. I think today has been one of those days although much of it was in a meeting.

TimB says:

02:52pm | 29/04/11

@ Bobster, do you speak of Tim Blair?

It’s been asked before, and coincidence of first name & initial aside, I’m not him. Just a mere office-bound and bored private citizen. I’d be very suprised if any of you knew who I was in RL. Most people in my circle of family/friends aren’t into politics, so I doubt they’re fellow Punch denizens.

TChong says:

03:28pm | 29/04/11

” TimB, The Mystery Only Deepens.”
A working title sure, but what do you reckon ?
Something along the lines of “The Manchurian Candidate “or ‘The Man Who Never Was”.

Bobster says:

03:36pm | 29/04/11

Lucky you. I reckon half of the contributors on here are my Facebook friends given the number of links to The Punch they post.

I’m forever trying to make sure I don’t give myself away by posting the same line on here and FB.

Fun guessing who’s who though.

n_dude says:

05:05pm | 29/04/11

@TimB - maybe you’re his “sock puppet”....

The Original Oz says:

08:46am | 29/04/11

That would be acotrel wouldn’t it????  Or is acotrel the generic Labor Party sock puppet (excluding of course Joolya Gillard being the Bob Brown sock puppet)

DG says:

01:53pm | 29/04/11

K Rudd sock puppet is only reffered to and only understands Mandarin…. Ne How Mi

james Mc says:

10:19am | 29/04/11

sock puppets.

Damian Parkhill says:

10:40am | 29/04/11

Sockpuppeting is the name given to the tactic of creating a number of online persona’s in order to influence or promote something. Also known as sametrolling or samef*ging it works off the theory of group-ism (see Erick’s article for more details) to pressure people into believing a fact because a majority appear to believe it.

An example on the Punch would be like this…....

I Hate Refugee’s says:

“All refugees are invades and should be turned around and sent back to Derkaztan.”

Then that person would wait until the comment is posted and then post something like….

Go Home says:

“I totally agree with I hate refugee’s send them all back”

This then would be repeated a number of times, all by the same person under different names both to agree and promote their original post and attack anyone that says otherwise.

Dave Park says:

11:23am | 29/04/11

I totally agree with Damian Parkhill - and he’s ace and has an immense schlong.

Shelly says:

02:06pm | 29/04/11

Aha!  I have never heard that - more familiar with the expression of ‘trolls’.  Damian/Dave your sense of humour cracked me up - great dry/subtle humour. Thanks for the explanation and laugh.

Scranbag says:

02:09pm | 30/04/11

Shelley,
Sockpuppets are *always*  ids created by posters just to give false support to their own position, whether they sound nice or nasty.

Trolls live just to pick fights,  making the most offensive posts they can get away with. Their rants are usually personally abusive, frequently foul-mouthed.  As Trolls seek personal “cred” from the fury and success of their attacks, they’re not often sock-puppets.

Though if obsessive enough, Trolls may, when called to account, re-appear under another id.

Seems to me that on The Punch the main, long standing problem is with trolls, from slack moderation. 

There probably are some sockpuppets here too, as there’s no registration to filter out the duds. Though even then, God knows using a live throwaway email is perfectly sensible (to defeat spammers & hackers - I’m using one here).

Regards
Scranbag

Tiger says:

11:10am | 29/04/11

gold :D

John Howard's Sock says:

01:16pm | 29/04/11

Bullseye!!

Craig says:

01:19pm | 29/04/11

Erick.

Shelly says:

02:10pm | 29/04/11

Julia

Tiger says:

11:15am | 29/04/11

proliferationist propaganda.
power of the masses, perpetuated by one…insidious as it is dangerous. it doesn’t just exist, it breeds. check any comments section in the online papers.

Bobster says:

01:35pm | 29/04/11

The asswipes that do it are generally employed by public relations and marketing firms, the Labor Party and the Liberal Party.

I have a feeling the Greens and the Nats don’t need to worry about it as much as it’s not too hard to make their supporters froth at the mouth about anything much.

Gagfest says:

10:27pm | 29/04/11

Seano, you’ve been here awhile and speak your mind - who do think are the worst at sockpuppeting?

Who are they? And How do your tell from “our” side of the screen?

Wouldn’t better moderation pick it up?

Damian Parkhill says:

11:23pm | 29/04/11

@Gagfest

Although your talking to Seano I’d like to pick this one up.

“Who are they?”

The worst perps on the Punch at the moment seem to be the LNP and anti-refugee advocates at the moment followed up by the ALP, though their not likely with party membership - just fanatics or third parties that the political parties can count on to do it on their behalf (saves face should there ever be a crackdown or articles like this).

“And how do you tell from “our” side of the screen?”

To take from Tracy “They’re often uncovered because of their turn of phrase”

Also posting times, cut and copy paste lines and identical punctuation and theme highlighting.

As well sockpuppeteers tend to be ego driven maniacs that can’t accept that someone else might have a different point of view, so if you see people making a reasonable point being constantly attacked by more or less the same group of people all the time then its a good chance its a sametroll.

“Wouldn’t better moderation pick it up?”

Yes and no, as with your standard forms of trolling, getting rid of one only tends to spawn more of them - not to mention you have the headache of checking up on their IP addresses, proving their not just people on a network using the same router and the cry’s of censorship when posts get deleted (facepalm) . but however mods can tag people posting under different names as coming from 1 IP address thus giving everyone a chance to take whats said by them with a grain of salt.

But that would also require the Punch to -actually- do some moderation

persephone says:

08:19am | 30/04/11

Well, most sites deal with sock puppetry well.

For example, most sites require you to register and don’t allow more than one name to be registered to an email address.

That’s a really simple way of doing it, and protects against identity theft as well (I had someone put up a post under ‘persephone’ here once - couldn’t have happened if the name ‘persephone’ was linked to my email address).

Of couse, that doesn’t stop the creation of multiple email addresses, but it makes it a bit harder.

Seano says:

09:49am | 30/04/11

@Gagfest - I couldn’t have answered that question better than Damian has.

Particularly when he says “most sockpuppeteers tend to be ego driven maniacs that can’t accept that someone else might have a different point of view”.

My favourite way that they trip themselves up is when they get confused over which identity should be associated with which comment.

PS. I’m not going to name names, they know who they are and it would serve no purpose other than starting a flame war. Although it can sometimes be amusing to watch trolls trip themselves up it’s mostly tiresome.

Freeman says:

10:19am | 30/04/11

Yes Seano,

let’s hear who the sock puppets are, and your reasons for believing so.
You once acused me of this, remeber? ‘Erick’, ‘Formersnag and swinging voter’ and Freeman were all the same person if I remeber correctly?

I can see how you ‘cracked the code’, It’s so obvious that ‘Erick’ is a Psyeudonym i use at 5.00Am every morning to disuss gender issues and formersnag was the tag i’d use when I felt like writing in capitals…

TimB says:

12:03pm | 30/04/11

The biggest proven sockpuppet we have on the Punch is the entity known as Badger. He’s created at least a dozen known identies. And Seano is right, he hasn’t been seen in this thread as far as I can tell.

And of course, according to Seano, Badger’s views are, by nature of his sockpuppetry, weak. Amazingly, I agree with Seano yet again here. Not just because of the sockpuppet thing, but also Badger very rarely (if ever) actually backs up his empty posts.

The odd thing though, is I that I have seen Seano directly agree with Badger. I wonder what that says about Seano’s views. Hmm.

Chris L says:

12:38pm | 30/04/11

I’d be wary of accusing anyone in particular of sock puppetry. You do often see people acting like a herd of perpetually outraged mushrooms but that could just be the human mob mentality at work.

TimB, don’t feel bad about agreeing with Seano. I’ve agreed with you once or twice before. That feeling of violation fades away after a while

Scranbag says:

05:04pm | 30/04/11

Interesting comments. I’m in broad agreement with Seano, Persephone and ChrisL.

It might be worth pointing to the commonly used meanings of
Troll: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)
Sockpuppet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sockpuppet_(Internet)
Astroturfing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing

All different, and useful distinctions, especially in the free-for-all scrum which is pretty much what we have here.

Whether registration with live email would fix any of this is doubtful, without better consistent moderation.

Overall, I prefer calm, well thought through posts that offer some reasoned, reliable background.  So posters like Persephone, Seano, IanSand etc I’ll read with some care. Sure, if enough name calling sludge has been chucked their way, they can give just a little well-judged sauce back.

Constantly shrill, partisan, personally abusive posters do their arguments no favours. From my point of view, most of these seem to be from the Right. I could list them, but they aren’t worth giving more prominence to. Many of them are frequent posters, and too often their stuff is weak, inaccurate and abusive.

Me, I’m just an interested reader. I’ve been browsing here for quite a while, so I know who some of the regular characters are among the posters, writers and staff. 
As far as I know, I don’t know any other posters here personally, nor any of the staff or regular authors.

Never been a member of, or worked for, any political party.  And I don’t do abuse. Gimme any personal slime and I’ll simply ignore you.

I use a handle, not my own name or full name. Call me ScranBag, for distant and obscure reasons that will tell you nothing about me at all.  And I use a throw away email, live but throwaway - so if the mods feel the need, I can be contacted.

regards
Scranbag

Freeman says:

07:03pm | 30/04/11

Scranbag,

Firstly, I agree that contributors such as Persephone conduct themselves very well on the punch, especially considering the insult they endure. They try to ignore the personal stuff and stick to the debate. if you continue to read and observe Punch threads you’ll see that Seano is a very different animal. should you disagree with Seano you’ll be labelled all sorts of lovely things. he’ll basically call you a bunch of names and then storm off in a huff.

seondly, in a thread about sockpuppetry it’s probably not a good Idea for a supposed newcomer, who from what I can see has made little if any posts here in the past, to pass judgement on other posters & to use terminology and language + have a point of view so similar to someone they claim not to know. (I.E Seano)

that’s not an accusation, just sayin.

Scranbag says:

09:08pm | 30/04/11

My handle, IP and working email addy are available to The Punch staff.

Freeman added to the [Ignore] list.

Cheers and goodnight.
Scranbag

Seano says:

09:25pm | 30/04/11

@Freeman what I’ve always found funny about you (and clowns like you) is that when you cop it back you burst into tears. It’s not me that follows you that posts this silly shitte. My responding to it doesn’t make your argument either.

Claiming that I’m now using sockpuppets when I have a long history of going it alone on a thread where I’ve said this of sockpuppets:

“if your views are that weak you need to manufacture support then maybe it’s time to reevaluate”.

Means I’m either deviously clever or you’re a complete moron. You choose.

Ryan says:

10:13pm | 30/04/11

@Scranbag: storming off in a huff like Seano then? How surprising, are you sure you aren’t Seano?

Freeman says:

11:27am | 01/05/11

oh, so being a hypocryt would make you ‘deviously clever’ would it?

hahaha. that is so typically Seano.

Man, you started this thread on your high horse about sock puppetry. As someone who you have accused of this, I am entitled to comment.

Seano says:

01:43pm | 01/05/11

Of course you’re entitled to comment, it’s a shame that trolls like you don’t accept that not everyone agrees with your black and white world view.

Scranbag says:

05:07pm | 30/04/11

This is the sort of posting The Punch could use far more of. Well put, Seano. Well put.

Toadbuster says:

05:31pm | 30/04/11

timiie obviously doesn’t know what a sockpuppet is.

But we already know that knowledge is not timmies strong point. timmie lives on a strong diet of lies, innuendo and conservative bullshit, much like his soulmate mark with a capital k.

Freeman says:

06:07pm | 30/04/11

“@Freeman - I have no idea who Erick has or hasn’t posted as. But the point is you are a troll. You predominately post pointless, factually bereft, spiteful, personal attacks. If your trolling tactics have seen you branded as using sock puppets because of confusion with other similar trolls then that’s a problem of your own making.”

Not even remotely true and you know it. You’ve chosen not to discuss your earlier accusations about sock puppetry because you know to argue the point now will only make you look even stupier. Here’s a few such threads where you accuse ATM, formersnag and myself of sockpuppetry. http://www.thepunch.com.au/such aarticles/a-few-good-men-but-rudds-best-ministers-are-women/

http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/dont-take-this-out-of-context-but-deveny-is-full-of-it/

after proving to be a paranoid dimwit , accusing several very different punch contributors who don’t even comment on each others threads of sock puppetry,  You should probably withdraw from this thread.

You’re the only one on the punch who’s ever accused me of a) sock puppetry and B) being a troll. you can say what you want but one thing is for sure, you find yourself in many more petty, childish naming calling matches than I do and from what I see you’re usually first to make it personal. There’s lots of good discussion that goes on at the punch but you’re never part of it.

Seano says:

07:27pm | 30/04/11

@Freeman

You mistake me for someone who cares about whether you’ve been falsely accused of using sockpuppets or not. I don’t. As I said if you behave like a troll and tactics get you confused with other trolls then you reap what you sow.

“you find yourself in many more petty, childish naming calling matches than I do”

Yes I seem to be a magnet for petty, small minded people like yourself. Unlike some I’ve never been one to back away from a bully or a fight.

“There’s lots of good discussion that goes on at the punch but you’re never part of it. “

That’s funny, the only posts I see from your are these petty, pointless, spite filled attacks. I can only assume you make serious comment under another handle.

BTW. I don’t follow you about posting bile, I’m not interested in you or anything you have to say. But the fact that you follow me around about and not the other way around says a lot about who is challenged by whose opinion.

Scranbag says:

07:29pm | 30/04/11

I’m glad I contributed, I guess.

If only for being able to add some more names to the Scranbag Patent Even-Handed [Ignore] App.

By the way, brisk demolition of a clearly weak or foolish point or statement is *not* a “personal attack’”.  Calling anyone a fool, a moron, a stooge,  etc *is*.

I looked at a number of Seano’s posts. He’s pretty good at keeping focussed on the weak arguments, rather than relying on empty personal sneers.

As for “If your trolling tactics have seen you branded as using sock puppets because of confusion with other similar trolls then that’s a problem of your own making”, I’m inclined to agree with Seano.

If you’re the sort of poster who cannot resist fanning the personal flames with uncalled for personal assumptions, sneers and abuse, then *you* are the problem, not the poster who remarks on it.

Cheers!
Scranbag

Freeman says:

08:39pm | 30/04/11

Seano,

I don’t care what you accuse me of either. I just used your earlier accusations as an example as to why you’re not even qualified to comment on the topic at hand.

“That’s funny, the only posts I see from you are these petty, pointless, spite filled attacks. I can only assume you make serious comment under another handle”

That’s fine,I guess it’s cause you’ve got your hands full with all of those ‘nasty right wing cyber police bully trolls’ who you seem to detest so much.

Now Scranbag, who are you even responding to when you say ‘I’m glad I contributed, I guess.’ It wasn’t to my earlier comment at 7.03 cause that’s only just been displayed.

On top of the fact that you responded 2 minutes after Seano did, I find this particular statement very sus;

‘I looked at a number of Seano’s posts. He’s pretty good at keeping focussed on the weak arguments, rather than relying on empty personal sneers.’

You probably should try to distinguish yourself from Seano a little more.
especially since you claim to be a new guy who already has most of the regular contributors sussed out.

again, that’s not an accusation, just sayin.

Seano says:

09:38pm | 30/04/11

@Freeman

“I don’t care what you accuse me of either. “

The hundreds of words you’ve written on the topic would indicate otherwise. Not smart.

But then neither is your weak attempt to claim that posts that are close together mean something. Ask the person reading this to you to look at the language clown.

Clearly I don’t need sockpuppetry because my ideas cause such afront to the feeble minded that I have my own little fan club of conservative trolls.

Scranbag@ says:

06:48am | 01/05/11

“Me, I’m just an interested reader. I’ve been browsing here for quite a while, so I know who some of the regular characters are among the posters, writers and staff. “

“As far as I know, I don’t know any other posters here personally, nor any of the staff or regular authors. “

Any readers who imagine they can detect some sort of fraud in my id, my posts or their timing is entirely welcome to use The Punch contact addy editor@thepunch.com.au  to lodge a complaint.

Currently there are nil messages in the inbox for scranbag

Cheers. Up early and off out for the day.
Scranbag

Freeman says:

07:49am | 01/05/11

and right on que Seano turns to sneering and insult. thanks for illustrating my earlier point so well.

Now, while I have not yet accused you of sock puppetry I will say this.
‘scranbag’s’ comment at 7.29( ‘I’m glad I contributed, I guess’) Doesn’t fit with any comment on the thread. It would make much more sense if the comment was a response from Seano to ‘scranbbag.’

But i wouldn’t want to suggest that you’d gotten “confused over which identity should be associated with which comment” which happens all the time according to Seano.

Freeman says:

11:35am | 01/05/11

Now ‘Scranbag’ as you and persephone have already pointed out, there is little that can be done to detect sock puppetry.

I should warn you though, continuing to read and comment on the posts of those who you claim to be ignoring is another trademark of Seano’s.
Also conspicuous is the fact that you chosen a thread about sock puppetry to finally get involved in discussion on the punch after claiming to have been ‘browsing here for quite a while’

TimB says:

04:32pm | 01/05/11

Actually Freeman, given Scanbag’s comments & the appearace of “Toadbuster”, I’m going to go with the theory that Scranbag’s is actually Badger. Which just gives greater weight to my initial argument linking Seano and Badger as members of the the Lefty fringe.

And Seano, I’m not *attempting* to link you to said fringe. In the eyes of many, many, many Punch regulars it’s *already* a given that you’re a member of it. And no, not just merely among those that you term “right-wing ranters”.

I know, I know, you think you’re so much better than us. And your ginormous ego won’t allow you to accept that you’re seen as anything other than the superior being you imagine yourself to be.
But the fact remains, that the metaphorical distance between your own self image & how you’re actually percieved is somewhere in the order of a few light years.
Sucks I know. Try to cope if you can. Perhaps immerse yourself in another fantasy about how you’re a god, or the black hole at the centre of the universe. Something like that.
PS. As long as you claim “not to read”  my posts, (or those of others such as Freeman), your judgements of said posts remain irrelevant & meaningless.

Seano says:

11:04pm | 01/05/11

@Tiny Timmy

You cannot honestly link me to what you call the “lefty fringe” any more or less than you can link me to someone like Erick. Not honestly.

Just because you say it doesn’t make it true you silly, silly boy. Even though I am obviously still the centre of your universe I grow bored with your fantasies and puerile personal vendettas.

The Observer. says:

04:44pm | 02/05/11

You gotta love it the right wing lunatic fringe calling someone a left wing fringe dweller.
Pretty much sums up the punch

And what is this unhealthy obsession timmie has with The Badger?