This seems relevant at this point. I've read posts saying that the only reason someone would choose to use more than one ID online, or, in this case, more than one ID at a particular site, is if he is shady, up to no good, or has something to hide. I've also heard that this practice is completely harmless and is well suited for the anonymity the Internet allows for. Let me tell you what I think ...
I use more than one ID online. Two, to be exact, with two E-mail addresses for each of them. This practice started, for me, long ago, when access to the Internet was pretty much restricted to academic institutions and government networks and going online meant subscribing to a local BBS. The BBS operators, complete strangers, would demand an uncomfortable amount of personal information from subscribers. I didn't know these people and chose to use an alias with a similar, but different, background from me. It was a matter of privacy -- the ability to control what information I wished to disclose to whom and when I wanted to share that information. There's nothing about my life that I'm particularly ashamed of or wouldn't share with someone, at some point, but I have a right to decide who those people are and when I want to do that, don't I?
Now, when credit card companies and merchants ask for, keep, and often sell even more information than that to people and organizations you've never even run across before, privacy is even more valuable. It would be naive to assume that these people and organizations only use this information harmlessly. They don't. Did you know that some large employers purchase a "character" profile that credit companies create on their clients and use that information to help them decide who to employ? (No, I'm not joking.) Even when organizations don't go to that extent, the way they use this information to "target" potential consumers has gone way past the "nuisance" level. The majority of mail I get is advertising. Reams and reams of it. People call up my home to try to sell me things several times a week, as if my home were their retail outlet. One of the reasons I use two IDs online is as a spam shield. Two of my E-mail accounts catch at least a dozen pieces of spam every day. Just looking through the subject lines and deleting the junk whenever I expect a valid piece of E-mail is a significant demand on my time.
And 'Net stalking, though rare, does occur. I've seen it happen in a few discussion groups and gaming sites. It generally appears to be no great threat, but I can imagine that it is more than a mild nuisance for the people it happens to. Who wants to be harassed by strangers who think they know about you? That doesn't mean you would hate to hear from someone who shares an interest with you, but things like that can easily get out of control.
Celebrities have had a lot of experience with this sort of thing long before the Internet and information systems made this phenomenon common. They know what it's like to have people they've never seen before treat them as though they know all about them. And it's not unusual for celebrities to adopt pseudonyms, stage names and fictional personas. They're not trying to hide anything -- generally, their fans know who they are -- they're just trying to protect their privacy and moderate the number of assumptions that publishers, producers, employers and audience members make about them.
I haven't checked, but it's possible that I've subscribed to DSG with both my IDs. But I don't have to check to know that I've never used them to support each other or to trick or scam anyone. I haven't done that in any of the online communities I've visited and I have no desire to.
I would assume that most of the people who have more than one ID use them just as benignly. This isn't to say that this sort of thing can't be abused. It can. But the knife cuts both ways. There are both harmless pseudonyms and deceptive aliases in this world.
I'm aware of the fact that 'Net savy folks can log the temporary IP address of Internet users and they often assume that if two different IDs come from the same IP address, then they're the same person. (This isn't always true; two people could be using the same computer or the address could have been assigned to the next user of the ISP.) I'm glad Dweebo takes a closer look at what is going on before he starts making assumptions, and I'm glad the results of those assumptions are made public, so people can discuss them. I think we all might be better off if we didn't automatically assume the worst about each other. Sometimes the worst is true, but often, different people just do things differently.
Re: Multiple Online IDs
Posted:
Jan 16, 2003, 7:35 PM
Sandsquish, thank you for your reply. There seems to be two underlying ideas here, perhaps we are not exactly on the same page, which is probably my fault. I am not suggesting that onyone should rstrict himself to a single online ID. I have about two dozen IDs, for different sites and porcesses. I understand the need for multiple online IDs and accoutns and passwords. That is not an issue to me, What I do not understand is a need to play AT DWEEBO'S with more than one ID (excluding a separate ID for speedgames, of course). I agree with everyhitng you said about spam and such, but I do not understand how playing at DSG with multiple IDs follows from those thoughts.
If I do not accept a game invite right away, it means I will once I have fewer games in progress.
Re: Multiple Online IDs
Posted:
Jan 17, 2003, 12:54 AM
I can understand why someone might get upset about someone else signing up for the same section of the tournament with two IDs or someone playing against himself with two different IDs. Both of those may indicate a scam.
But, people might use different IDs for different strategies. Maybe someone has an ID for casual, chatty play and one for serious, competitive play. There might be people who use more than one ID because they just aren't concerned about what name they go by. They might log in as PenteKing for a week and a month later, when then come back they make a new ID 'cause they forgot their old one. Perhaps they find it again on the database and use that one next time. Maybe they've been going by the name of OnlineGrouch for a few months and decide to use that here too.
My post was a response to some posts I saw that seemed to be saying, "I noticed he was using more than one ID, so he must have been up to something." I don't know if I misread the posts or not. I may have. I was just trying to say that it's how the IDs got used that's relevant, not the fact that more than one ID was used.
I'm glad the site maintainers are keeping an eye out for cheats. (And I'm not saying Dufus is one. I don't think I've ever run across him.) I just thought someone needed to say that multiple IDs aren't bad in and of themselves.
Re: Multiple Online IDs
Posted:
Jan 18, 2003, 8:48 PM
howdy folks this is dufus. 1st of all id like to say that i support the tounament committee and their right to try to keep the tourneys fair. also id like to give my apologies to dweebo for not speaking to him personally about what i ws doing. i figured that telling dm was the same as telling dweebo. and id like to say that everything that they said i did is true, its just the reasons that they say i did them that wrong. which is strange because i told dm why,but thats ok ill explain to everyone what i was doing. i was trying to run a 23 and 0 record up to see if that would get student back to play. none of those names were to be used in serious competition and dm was told that also. i was just playing a trick on a pente friend that i met here. as for me not telling pro who i was as maryc, i was in the room with a few others and pro asked us not to tell student that he was really gary b. so that when stu came he wouldnt know who he was playing. i got the idea that it was ok from pro.many players on the site knew i was doing this and had good fun knocking my legs out from under me whenever i got close. it was good fun for me too. now the powers that be knew that i was doing this for 1 to 2 months and never once told me that i was not allowed to do it. now that everyone knows why i did this terrible crime i hope we can go back to being a friendly and fun site , because nothing that has been done by me was done without malice and hurt noone that i can see, and anything done or said about me me in anger or out is ok too. im sure ive been called worse, as old ben franklin would say name calling is the last bastion of the truly ignorant. i hope this clears up any confusion that any who dont know me might have. and as mr. vitals would say peace out!!!!!!!
Re: Multiple Online IDs
Posted:
Jan 19, 2003, 4:58 PM
brawling again
its happened again, the site’s in a brawl this time it is dufus who started it all got tired of his name so he started once more to begin again and improve his score
or maybe he wanted to hide from some nut or surprise his brother when he kicked his butt maybe he’d had just a bit too much beer and ticked someone off so he planned to steer clear
chances are good he was fartin’ around when he played himself, the guy is some clown what would happen he wondered, if I play myself? didn’t dawn on him he might be put on the shelf
or perhaps he needed one real high id to lure out from hiding someone we don’t see maybe a comrade who just might come out to challenge a name with stats that show clout
signin’ up for the tourney, experience showed me was the click of one button, my name hit the screen hit that button and boom, when he was goofing about and bug_none got entered so he wanted back out
whatever the reasons now aint it a shame the fellow must feel run off from the game but me and my mouth had better shut up im blabbin right on and ive said enough
Reply to Dufus (and others). (long message)
Posted:
Jan 21, 2003, 5:43 PM
Dufus, thank you for your reply. I am pleased that you have presented your side and I will do my best to address your comments. Let me say to all that Dufus did indeed make me aware of his plan to make “gamester” a 23-0 high rated player in an attempt to bring Student (Dmitri Krasnonosov) back to DSG to play. I thought this was a weak plan, but I did not say so because if Dufus wanted to do that, I figured it was his choice. I did NOT know, at that time, that this plan was put into motion with a rated game of “gamester” vs. “Dufus.” So, at that time, although I did think it was a silly plan, and I was not crazy about someone getting a 2100+ rating with a secondary name (as I had worked hard to raise myself, with the name “Dmitriking” near the top of the standings), I did not think there was any need to report anything to Dweebo.
I did tell Gary about the plan, and I believe it was Gary who alerted me to the fact that “gamester’s” first game was against Dufus. For what it’s worth, telling me something is NOT the same as telling Dweebo, because I actually have very little communication with Dweebo, however, telling me something probably IS the same as telling Gary, because I DO have a lot of communication with Gary. That said, if anything ever needs to be told or should be told to Gary, one should not consider notifying me the best way to do it. That is not to say Dufus was way off base by thinking that telling me something was the same as telling Dweebo, because I can see how he or anyone else might have come to that conclusion.
Back to the sequence of events—Once I was aware of the rated game of “gamester” vs. “Dufus,” I could have gone to Dweebo to express my concerns about a person playing a rated game against himself, but I did not. This may have been an error on my part, but Gary is and was a tournament director, so I didn’t think any additional action was necessary. As it was, neither Gary nor I thought that Dufus’ actions to that point warranted any action regarding the tournament.
A short time later, I noticed the player “strategist” with a strong rating and W-L record. I suspected this was Dufus trying again to complete his plan to create the super player to bring Student back to play, but I did not know for sure. Upon checking the database, the hunch was pretty much confirmed, but again, although this practice was questionable, it still warranted no immediate action. At this point, I was not even of thinking of Dufus’ past use of the MaryC account. I will say this though—At the time, when I found out that MaryC was Dufus, I was a bit annoyed, and I maintain my position that the name change was unnecessary and served only to confuse and/or mislead opponents. Clearly, others here at this site disagree, even Dweebo himself, who apparently does not object to established players changing their names for whatever reason. But, my objection remains, and furthermore, If I am called upon to evaluate the sum total of one’ actions, I will certainly take such a practice into consideration, because, as I have said, I think it is a questionable practice.
If there is one manner in which I wish I had acted differently, it is this one. I should have confronted Dufus/Elzorro/MaryC at the time and told him that I did not like the name changes and that it bothered me to have played him as MaryC when I did not know who she/he was. But, I didn’t. I tend to try to avoid awkward or uncomfortable confrontations, so I remained silent.
Had I expressed my concerns to Dufus, or to Dweebo or Gary about the name changes and multiple accounts, maybe this whole situation could have been averted. Of course, hindsight is 20-20. Looking back, I made the decision that I thought best at each juncture.
When the “Bug_none” account was created, the concerns started to grow. When I saw that Bug_none was 17-0 with a high rating, I suspected Dufus again. But, after asking “Bug_none about the tournament, and speaking with mike321 and samwise and one or two others who were present, I came to the conclusion that Bug_none was NOT Dufus, but just a player who had a nice run to start his DSG career. Then the series of events involving Bug_none’ tournament signup, account deletion, reinstatement request, etc, happened. It was at this time that the tournament directors and I were compelled to consider the sum total of the actions, and it was then that the tournament directors decided to remove Dufus from the tournament. Although I was consulted, I did not have any say in the final decision, and I support their decision because they did what they thought was best for the integrity of the tournament, at the time, based on the information they had available to them. Certainly there is no guarantee that the undertaken action is correct, and, maybe there was indeed nothing underhanded about what Dufus did. Perhaps it was all a misunderstanding. Since we are on the Internet, we really cannot know for sure, such is the nature of the Internet. I do know that I was a factor in the removal of Dufus from the tournament, and if the wrong decision was made, I apologize to Dufus and to those who were upset by the decision. Please note that I am NOT saying the wrong decision was made. Dufus, and all those who spoke on his behalf, I hope you understand why I gave the opinion that I gave to the tournament directors.
Again, I will point out that in order to give my evaluation, I had to consider the sum total of the actions. It was for this reason only that I mentioned the game where Dufus forced my resignation. Shortly after it happened, Dufus asked me if I thought he did me wrong, and I probably did not state my true thoughts clearly. I acknowledged that I had been in a tough position, but I also expressed a desire that he would have cancelled the game so that we could restart it, rather than forcing my resignation. I do not like to dig up old issues, and, I forgave Dufus long ago for that incident. But, forgiving and forgetting are two entirely different things, and I could not just pretend that the incident never happened. When I was considering everything that went on, I ad to ask myself, “based on all that has happened, do I think Dufus is capable of underhanded dealings for the purpose of giving himself an advantage in the tournament.” Again, based on all the information I had available, my answer was yes, and apparently so was the tournament directors’.
I would like to say that Dufus has notified people that he will soon be using a new name to play his regular rated games at DSG, and that he will use Dufus for experimental games only. Dufus was not required to notify anyone of this, and I appreciate his doing so. Again, no one is REQUIRED to do this, but I hope that we can have some sort of honor system here where people do it anyway. If I ever use a new name, I will certainly tell everyone that they are, in fact, playing Dmitri King. I know I am beating a dead horse here, but, just because we are not REQUIRED to do something doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it anyway, just to advance the cause of fair play and sportsmanship.
Thank you all for hearing me out and I hope we can soon put these matters to rest and get back to playing Pente.
-Dmitri King
If I do not accept a game invite right away, it means I will once I have fewer games in progress.
Dweebo, for some reason, apostrophes and quotation marks are showing up on my post as question marks, making my post look sloppy. This is frustrating because I made a rare effort to make my post look neat. Does it show to everyone else that way too, or is that just a temporary anomaly?
If I do not accept a game invite right away, it means I will once I have fewer games in progress.
Posts:
1,032
Registered:
Dec 16, 2001
From:
Powell, OH
Age:
37 Home page
Re: Grrr!!!!
Posted:
Jan 21, 2003, 8:02 PM
It has happened before, I believe it is only a temporary thing, they get converted after a bit of time.
I believe the problem is caused when you edit your posts in Microsoft Word and then cut/paste them into the forums. Microsoft Word does some weird things with quotes. You can stop this occuring "I think" by disabling "smart quotes" in word. Do this under Tools | AutoCorrect Options... | Autoformat As You Type. Uncheck the "'Straight quotes' with 'smart quotes'" checkbox.
