Board Thread:Decisions/@comment-35354366-20180919005259/@comment-26573805-20180920224301

Newspaper Zombie wrote: TNSNathan1 wrote: Sorry if this is a stupid question, but what is a sock puppet? I usually contribute and go on a different wiki so I’m not to sure how things work on here. Alternate account used for evading bans or causing vandalism.
 * Any second account that looks like they're different people but they're indeed the same person (generally intentionally and fraudulently) [so second accounts where they openly disclose being the same person don't fall under this first definition];
 * any second account used for the purpose of avoiding a block or causing vandalism, which will generally fall under the above definition, as it tries to mask the identity by pretending they're two different people; or
 * any second account with no real purpose.

Likewise, I'd support keeping sock accounts out of here, however it's best to just request CheckUser if you have evidence of misbehavior from the user and evidence that they might be linked, or you can wait until they're proven socks and assume they're legit users. Yes, sock accounts will slip by even under such strict standards - such as a user who waits multiple years for everyone else to forget about their existence and then just easily creates a new account. There's no sure-fire way of ensuring that everyone is not a sock unfortunately.