Rule clarification on sock puppet accounts

I've updated the Rules page to include explicit rules about sock puppet accounts. The gist is: bots are allowed, but using a secondary account to evade a ban is not. There are constraints on what bot accounts can do: they can't flag or leave user feedback. Furthermore, sharing accounts is not permitted.

These rules were added because people were using sock puppet accounts to evade bans. If they were just being used to passively use the site it wouldn't have been a problem, but some users have started harassing other users with these sock puppet accounts and that is definitely not okay.

You can see the exact diff here

Nice to see some concrete rules about the subject, I agree with them too.

Just want to ask to see if I'm understanding this correctly because I'm paranoid and all.

I use separate accounts for Safebooru and normal Danbooru, would this new rule affect me in any way? I guess it's really not that important even if I have to switch over to strictly this one, but wanted to ask if I need to.

I'm glad this has come up. I actually made a second account of my own recently. I was unsure of the rules surrounding this, but I was worried that it might be seen as an attempt evade a ban. I didn't really know who to contact about this to get permission (so I haven't really done anything with the account yet), so I'm posting here to hopefully clear up any issues. I'll state it here for the record: @AltTranslationAccount (secondary account) and @Zurreak (main account) are both me.

I created this second account for when I'm writing translation notes but I don't want a post to show up in my main account's translation history. The only posts I intend to use this for are those which contain very extreme and/or potentially objectionable sexual content (past reasonable tolerances).
The reason I created it is so that I can translate anything I want (within my capability), but also be able to show posts I've translated with my main account to people I know without having to worry about them finding anything too extreme if they go looking.

SolacePetal said:

Just want to ask to see if I'm understanding this correctly because I'm paranoid and all.

I use separate accounts for Safebooru and normal Danbooru, would this new rule affect me in any way? I guess it's really not that important even if I have to switch over to strictly this one, but wanted to ask if I need to.

If none of your accounts are banned this rule does not affect you.

Zurreak said:

I'm glad this has come up. I actually made a second account of my own recently. I was unsure of the rules surrounding this, but I was worried that it might be seen as an attempt evade a ban. I didn't really know who to contact about this to get permission (so I haven't really done anything with the account yet), so I'm posting here to hopefully clear up any issues. I'll state it here for the record: @AltTranslationAccount (secondary account) and @Zurreak (main account) are both me.

I created this second account for when I'm writing translation notes but I don't want a post to show up in my main account's translation history. The only posts I intend to use this for are those which contain very extreme and/or potentially objectionable sexual content (past reasonable tolerances).
The reason I created it is so that I can translate anything I want (within my capability), but also be able to show posts I've translated with my main account to people I know without having to worry about them finding anything too extreme if they go looking.

Honestly, in a situation like this, you should just appeal the ban. Contact one of the admins or mods. Think of the precedent ban evasion sets: it makes bans toothless. There's tons of malicious stuff you can do with just a basic account. And the person who is banned is the last person who should get to decide whether evading a ban in a particular situation should be permissible.

albert said:

Honestly, in a situation like this, you should just appeal the ban. Contact one of the admins or mods. Think of the precedent ban evasion sets: it makes bans toothless. There's tons of malicious stuff you can do with just a basic account. And the person who is banned is the last person who should get to decide whether evading a ban in a particular situation should be permissible.

I understand and I couldn't agree more. Since this was written as a response to my own comment, though, I feel the need to clarify that neither of my accounts have ever been banned.

In other places I've come to tolerance of socks --- partially because there is no more ridiculous waste of our lifespan than admins pouring over IP addresses trying to match as if there was a bingo prize, as it was a decade ago before the internet updated itself --- but not to evade bans. If even minimal rules aren't followed there's no point to the site, or indeed to life.

To add to this, bot accounts are fine, as long as it's clearly stated what the bot is supposed to be used for, and that it gets approved among the staff. I consider bot accounts to be defined as "alternate accounts" and not "sockpuppets".

In Zurreak's case, they have an alternate account used for a legit site purpose (a secondary translation account for more explicit content), so that should be allowed.

That said, I also want to stress that sockpuppeting to get by account limitations, to evade a ban (or can be determined as being done so to evade a ban), or to gain some kind of edge over other users with a new account will not be tolerated. It's still deception in any of those cases and it won't be allowed.

Apollyon said:

That said, I also want to stress that sockpuppeting to get by account limitations, to evade a ban (or can be determined as being done so to evade a ban), or to gain some kind of edge over other users with a new account will not be tolerated. It's still deception in any of those cases and it won't be allowed.

The account limitations and advantage gaining parts should be added to the rules.

albert said:

I've updated the Rules page to include explicit rules about sock puppet accounts. The gist is: bots are allowed, but using a secondary account to evade a ban is not. There are constraints on what bot accounts can do: they can't flag or leave user feedback. Furthermore, sharing accounts is not permitted.

These rules were added because people were using sock puppet accounts to evade bans. If they were just being used to passively use the site it wouldn't have been a problem, but some users have started harassing other users with these sock puppet accounts and that is definitely not okay.

You can see the exact diff here

I can't fucking breathe!!!

SolacePetal said:

I'm paranoid

99% of the time when somebody thinks they're paranoid because they're being cautious, they tend to be wrong.

Please forgive my ignorance; but is ‘sock puppet account’ just slang for a secondary account?

Can’t say I’ve seen the term used before except for (literally) sock puppets.

Yes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sockpuppet_(Internet).

It basically means any accounts you have made in secret to avoid restrictions to your main account, whether it's because of a ban or just a natural member restriction (upload limit, flag limit, etc).

Okay, so... I have an account here, and a long time ago, I allowed a friend to use it because he wanted to find some *cough* pictures for his discord server. I don't know if he ever logs in anymore, but you said sharing accounts in no longer allowed... So do I have to change my password? Or am I not reading this right? Is my friend allowed to use the account still if he pleases? or is that not allowed?

Love,
Kaede

I'd say he isn't allowed to use the account, and would need to get his own. If your usage pattern shows obvious use by multiple people, you'd be opening yourself up to being hit by this rule should someone note misuse and see that pattern. I can't see that becoming obvious unless someone has a separate reason to inspect, but to be safe, I'd be sure you are always you on the site. As to whether you change your password or not, that's probably up to you and how much you trust your friend.

Shinjidude said:

I'd say he isn't allowed to use the account, and would need to get his own. If your usage pattern shows obvious use by multiple people, you'd be opening yourself up to being hit by this rule should someone note misuse and see that pattern. I can't see that becoming obvious unless someone has a separate reason to inspect, but to be safe, I'd be sure you are always you on the site. As to whether you change your password or not, that's probably up to you and how much you trust your friend.

Thank you for that. I took away his access. I'll bare that in mind from now on. I trust him. He isn't the type to be super open about his... uhmm... Likings. Anyways, I really appreciate your help and clarification. Much love and Merry Christmas!

Love,
Kaede

Can unban my account please? user #557157

First of all i apologize for creating sockpuppets, this is also another one but i swear i didn't meant to create them before to evade ban or avoid the upload limit and i won't create after this one i'm using to be able to talk to you and feel free to ban this one anytime but please unban that account... first i didn't understand why it got banned before when got banned for 1 month for creating a sockpuppet but didn't know that any sockpuppet was unforbidden, i'd just throw away later anyway also the reason i was banned previously was because it was sockpuppet but i didn't surpass the upload limit of that day if that was the reason also because i'm just impatient so created the second sockpuppet account and after that made me banned for over 2000 years but i can't accept that much time and why? also sorry for avoidind the ban now but how else could i contact you if can't do anything with the banned account?

You might have been able to plead ignorance the first time you created a sockpuppet to get around a ban. But then you went and did it again, and now you're on your third sockpuppet. Given your history of disregarding instructions, it seems less like you didn't know what you were doing, and more like you didn't care.

I think the best thing for you to do at this point would be to take some time for self-reflection. Maybe try to dwell on the importance of learning from your past mistakes.