JohnSw--really, dude, so ya think it'll be less funny if the person IDs themself in their profile? I don't.

I've been one two other boards where trolls have signed up under multiple sockpuppets and caused all sorts of badness. When called on it, they lied or called the accuser paranoid. Someone created a log-in name with one letter different than a poster and then parodied that poster's style in several days of posts without revealing who they were. It was done solely to embarass that poster and it wasn't pretty. This stuff hasn't happened here, and I hope it never does, but it does happen and this ID solution elegantly forestalls it.

Bwah! Yes, in the nefarious pursuit of what? Something weighty, purposeful and undermining, right? A few laughs, entertaining some of the other posters for a little while? Shit, it can't be that simple. It has to be conspiratorial. C'mon, you differently-identitied (you thought I'd forgotten, right?) -- TELL US WHO YOU ARE PUPPETTING FOR?

OK, I think you're making fun of me here because I was trying to sum up what's generally annoying about SPs in a neutral way. But you're overreacting.

oh oh oh let me play the role of something that I am not - look look while I do it without changing my name.

Now we don't want to invalidate anyone's feelings. Not liking the sockpuppets is just as valid as thinking anyone who would want to ask for ID on multiple log-ins is a humorless reactionary.

let's all hold hands and play like we're all friends.

Can there be cookies, and then a good nap?

I've got a juice box with your name on it, Cindy.

I want cabana boys to bring us the cookies.

If we had cabana boys, we wouldn't need the cookies.

You need the sugar for energy.

This stuff hasn't happened here, and I hope it never does, but it does happen and this ID solution elegantly forestalls it.

Been there too. I don't believe legislating for fine detail that isn't common practice is the appropriate response.

OK, I think you're making fun of me here because I was trying to sum up what's generally annoying about SPs in a neutral way. But you're overreacting.

I was in fact goofing.

Now we don't want to invalidate anyone's feelings. Not liking the sockpuppets is just as valid as thinking anyone who would want to ask for ID on multiple log-ins is a humorless reactionary.

Now there's some funny stuff.

I don't know if people were trying to talk people out of their sensitivities, so much as talk them out of making rules/points of conduct, based on them, when there'd been no abuse (discomfort--yes, abuse--no).

Apparently, but that horse seems to have sailed.

Edited: wording to Robin

1. What the heck is going on here?

2. It took me 20 minutes to figure out what the heck a "sock puppet" was.

3. They don't bother me because I can generally ignore them.

4. Why don't people just Marcie them?