Multiple accounts

[KorpiklaaniVodka]

Personally, I think multiple (alt) accounts should be forbidden. Now that we can change our nickname three times a year, the main purpose of having an alt (another nickname) is pretty much obsolete. In addition to this, most forums don't allow users to have two or more accounts.

Thoughts on this?

 

[Cordelia]

What's the problem with having alternate accounts? I find it convenient if you need to test something that your usergroup can't... like me being a mod I can sign onto my alt and see what's up there.

 

[Honest]

Essentially what Mac said. What harm is there in having extra accounts, as long as one isn't pretending to be someone else on those accounts? Sure, you can bring up the argument that it hoards names, but I personally find that to be a weak excuse.

 

[KorpiklaaniVodka]

The problem is that many people make a ton of alts just for fun or because they want another nickname (but now we allow people to change their nickname and still have a single account). Let's not forget about spammers, trolls and idiots who get banned and have a dynamic IP address, because they can make an alt and evade the ban easily.

 

[moon]

I know that many other forums disallow having several accounts. PC has, to my knowledge, never been strict on that, and a lot of people have alts. Some have them for fun, some have them for reserving names (every time a new gen of pokemon is revealed, the new pokémon names get snatched up within hours xD) and others maybe like to use one account for one part of the forum and one for another. Mods might like to have a non-staff account to log onto now and then to see the forums from a more relaxed point of view.

We might also be the only forum to never actively prune old accounts. There are an immense amount of accounts with join dates from early the last decade and 0 posts. But unless someone really craves their username, they will continue to exist.

Alternate accounts can be fun. It's a positive thing if PC is fun. To counter your proposal, what harm is there to allowing multiple accounts?

One obvious answer is that people can snatch up nicknames and hold onto them but not really use them, but it's generally frowned upon to do so (or it should be) since we kind of want to be nice to each other here ;) But for those who really do want to hold onto nicknames, it's not really a negative thing.

EDIT: ninja'd

Let's not forget about spammers, trolls and idiots who get banned and have a dynamic IP address, because they can make an alt and evade the ban easily.

That's not too many people, to be honest, and if they're stirring up trouble anew we catch them again.

 

[Nick]

The problem is that many people make a ton of alts just for fun or because they want another nickname (but now we allow people to change their nickname and still have a single account).

So?

Let's not forget about spammers, trolls and idiots who get banned and have a dynamic IP address, because they can make an alt and evade the ban easily.

Those accounts get banned pretty quickly.

 

[Puddle]

As I don't think it should become an official rule, I've also never understood in the point in even having an alt account. I think it's fine the way it is.

 

[Mana1]

I totally agree with your point of view and I still find it a very odd thing about PC. Saying that, it's relatively harmless - I would like some limitations (say, 1 alt max) but it would just be a pain to enforce.

We do make sure that people aren't sock puppeting though! Pretending to be two different people.

 

[Endoplasmic Reticulum]

Banning alt accounts is a stupid thing and that's why i was kicked off serebiiforums and came here. Like I mean as long as you aren't using it to troll what's the harm?

 

[Sylphiel]

As I don't think it should become an official rule, I've also never understood in the point in even having an alt account. I think it's fine the way it is.

It's a good way for admins to make sure they haven't borked up the forum for regular members. ;D Or to catch things that they normally wouldn't have caught.


As mentioned, the people abusing the fact they can create alts (the spammers and the ban evaders, etc.) are usually quickly found and taken care of. And as for not allowing them because of name changes being back: why lock people into using just that name for the next few months - if they change their mind within that time frame and want a new name badly enough to make another account to use it, then why not let them?

Though really, it pretty much does boil down to "why not let people have them?" as to why we haven't disallowed them in the first place. Haven't been too many problems so far with allowing them.

 

[Jet Pilot]

So?


Those accounts get banned pretty quickly.

I believe having multiple accounts should be allowed, but to an extent. We should only be allowed two maybe three accounts.

 

[Fairy]

Just adding my two cents. I use alt accounts for profile designing and other artistic ventures. I find it extremely convenient to be able to sign onto another account and design profiles by request, without completely redesigning my own profile. I'm sure other people do the same, and do more than design profiles at that, so banning alts altogether could really impede the progress of many things.

In my opinion, the benefit of having alternate accounts for some people outweighs the risk of dealing with sockpuppets/trolls.

 

[Satoshi Ookami]

I believe that many people use their alternate accounts to occupy their older nicknames so they don't get used by someone else ;)

 

[Sydian]

Adding in another two cents. I use my alt when I want to just roam around without any responsibilities of a moderator. It is really nice to get away from moderator life for a bit, and to view the forum as a member (trust me, it really does look different in mod POV, especially forums with a bunch of deleted threads...SO MUCH CLEANER!). My alt actually does get used, so it's not just soaking up space.

From what I've seen, people that do have alts tend to actually use them, even if it may be for lurking. I guess alts are more useful to staff members, for reasons mentioned by myself and others, but I still don't think they should get nerfed because of the return of name changes.

 

[derozio]

Agreed with strawberry. And with the other people. Plus, it is convenient to log into your alt and just lurk the boards in case, for some reason, you do not wish to use your main - reason could be anything from getting away from your staff responsibilities for a bit or just trying to pretend you're on a hiatus when you really aren't (yeah, I did log in from my alt once or twice during my week long hiatus recently lel).

Either way, I do feel sort of guilty. I have 15+ alts, iirc. Idk. Don't even know all the names now. But if I'm forced, I could pick 3-4 and let others be banned. Or deleted. :p

 

[Germaniac]

Sometimes alt accounts can create confusion, I agree with the limitation of alt accounts idea or maybe just make it so we can know whose alt accounts they are, but then again this is what makes PC different from others, the mods are so nice and lenient here (by the rule I won't be able to change my nick to Germaniac, but, well... :))

 

[Hikamaru]

Like some of the others who already posted said, PC doesn't really have a rule against using alt accounts. As Syd stated, some staff have alts they might use if they need a break from all the mod duties and stuff, plus some have been making alts to preserve usernames so that no-one else takes the name. That's what I did when I heard name changes were returning last November, I made an alt to take this username so that no-one else could (that account has since now adopted my old username) and maybe it can be used to lurk when I need a break.

I know most forums don't allow alts but here we're more lenient on that especially when name changes were still disabled, if one wanted to use a different name they had to make an alt. Even with the return of name changes we still have alts here and there just for fun.