Multiple Screen names should be published to all so as to disclose and discourage mindfuck gameplaying - a game that seems to degenerate into mean spiritedness. Mulitiple offenders dealt with.
Dunamis
I am somewhat in support of what Dunamis just posted. However, I do see the value in the satire that can be generated through a character. Also, a person can choose to take a philosophical position via a character and play it out til the end. However, sometimes I think that alternate personalities are created just to spread discord, and that’s not good.
My suggestion, in a similar vein, has to do with censorship. I hate to see threads locked and I really hate to see them deleted. That seems like playing with reality, and can be an evil tool of the PC crowd. So, as I stated in the suggestions section, if posters do not want a thread closed then they must provide a rational reason as to why it shouldn’t be.
This will be a challenge to the mods, and they should be up to it if they are wise enough to be mods, and the wacky “psycho” posters. The psycho posters will give themselves away as fakes if they can provide the rationale, or there voice will be cut off, as they will not be capable or response.
Hope that helps.
Again. “Out” mulitple screen-names (including those of mods). Deal with multiple offenders that persist. This site has enough “natural” satire.
Dunamis
“This site has enough “natural” satire.”
I can’t disagree there.
How would one ‘out’ multiple names? Provided each was registered from a different email account it would be pretty hard to tell. It’s pretty simply to float from your IP, too, so that’s not a foolproof indicator. Naturally you could try to sleuth it out by comparing posts, but that’s bound to be a tedious witch hunt.
The Ip address is the best way to tell. The rest would be open to chance. If a person wants to extend the effect then so be it.
Here’s what could be done: you PM a person with a list of their names and ask them to respond to which one they would like to keep. That’s it.
Norton Ghost, among other software, will bounce your signal to IPs around the world, completely defeating that approach. While that sounds extreme, it’s only $30 and there are freeware types that do the same.
It doesn’t have to be foolproof, it simple has to be enforced to the degree possible. Already on record are several IP correspondences. These correspondences should be posted so that in general we know who we are talking to. Alderian’s admited multiples it seems has predisposed him to believing that others are trying to fool him. In general, outing screennames would work towards apparency and accountability. There is no real reason NOT to post these multiples, and very good reasons to do so.
If you want to hack into the State Department so you can post from there, feel free to.
Dunamis
I’m gonna tell the State Dept you said that. 
For the record, I only have one serious alternate name that I haven’t used in months. It was created out of a desire to avoid TheAdlerian’s weight. However, TheAdlerian represents my honest reactions to things so I decided to focus there.
The other names were meant to be obvious and actually have TheAdlerian in the title. I posted as TheAdlerian-Psyque a couple of times when I was joking that I was Psyque. Anyway, I have never used another name to create zany antics, although it seems like fun.
Just letting everyone know. That’s why I’m ok with your idea D.
On another board that I posted on IP addresses were for all to see and that worked well. I suggested it when I first came here, but was told that bad things can be done with IP addresses. I have no idea what that means and saw nothing negative on the other board, which belongs to a major company.
ip addresses let people hack your computer
Yes, they ping your ports, so to speak. Is that realistic though with a firewall? Anyway, that is just one solution.
Displaying Ip addresses would cut work for the Mods because the average poster can simply reference them in order to see what’s what.
Damn. It’s not that difficult. Just post a sticky thread in MB, and list the repeats so that we know the histories – who has said what. PM the multiples and let them know that its not permissible. Ban the mulitples then. When a mod comes upon a multiple, post it there, and treat according. There is about as much “work” as moving a thread, or making a post. Mods, refrain from using multiples.
Dunamis
I suppose it would dramatically cut back on the rampant multiple namage at ILP…
But I feel like anyone who really wants to be beat whatever system is eventually put in place… most likely could.
Heh, it’s ironic that the ‘idiot kids’ who probably make up some of the people Dunamis is talking about… are probably some of the more skilled crackers out of anyone who can even write code at this site. (Dr, Zeno, I’m sure you guys could take them )
Anyways… I sorta like the Marge incarnation
a breaking of the rules is a breaking of the rules, regardless of what screen name one uses…
repeated breaking of the rules leads to suspension and banishment.
if some think they are fooling everyone by playing around with multiple false names, so what? if they play the “bad” character to the extreme, the character will be banned. that could entail banning the entire IP address so that every character (even the “good” ones) that emminates from said address is removed.
another thing, we mods (more specifically, I) are here because we love the discussion… we aren’t paid or otherwise compensated… the board has certain rules and standards that the members are supposed to follow… everyone should know this by now, and most posters do know this… when there is an infraction in the philosophy board (usually of the question or homework rule) it is immediately moved as you all can attest… when a thread descends into nothing more than back and forth name calling, it is locked which is a shame because the underlying points could make for interesting philosophical discourse…
I do not remove threads because the underlying philosophical point is “ridiculous” or something… if one wants to argue that the world is controlled by god and everything is predetermined because of god, that’s great… if one wants to argue that everything is predetermined because the purple wombats are controlling everything (which is the exact same argument from a logical point of view) that’s great. if one wants to argue that so and so is a poopy head because he can’t see that god controls everything, that is unacceptable. I hope everyone understands this rule.
now I realise that this name calling rule is seldom enforced… sticks and stones and all, but it does make for cruder discourse… and I for one shouldn’t have to enforce this rule as well, we are all “adults”, or at least we should be, here… but as it seems, some are not…
if you see an infraction, what you think is an ad hominem attack, please tell a mod and it will be addressed. I had hoped that the board could have corrected itself, but it seems that this is not the case… and if you want to vent and kick and scream or whatever, do it in the babble or the rant house, that is what they were designed to be…
ladies and gentlemen,
thank you
-Imp