Gimmick / Clone Accounts

[Mission]

It has been raised in Local News that the gimmick accounts and clones of Manx.net were sometimes funny and sometimes annoying. Do you think we should have them here or do you prefer not having to sift through loads of threads that either make no sense to you, annoy you or simply seem a waste of time and forum space?

 

Personally, I enjoyed the gimmick accounts, some of the clones were very good too. I enjoyed thinking up new ideas even if they weren't too well received a lot of the time. I'm not talking about the mass spamming that went on (not that it can happen here anyway) but more the funny characters that were created to make light of a certain topic or current event.

 

Anyway, over to you lot, let's see what the forum thinks.

[Declan]

I'm tempted to add the option - yes for anyone but Phoneman.

 

(Oh and aren't options 2 and 4 the same).

[Mission]

Heh, he won't reappear Declan, have no fear.

 

I think some of the gimmick accounts have arrived here but don't post that often, hence option 4.

[ans]

Voted 1

 

As long as a clone/gimmick account is funny, who cares? Obviously we don't want a million 'steven' clones like at Manx.net, that was tiresome, but Zombie Dave, Virginia P, Old George Woods, etc were all funny creations that I would welcome here.

[Minnie]

can you explain what a gimmick/clone account is?

[Trinity 23]

Can't say that they bothered me too much but I think some of the clones that hung about on manx.net were a bit on the weirdo side, for sure!

 

Mind you there is a sayin about imitation being the highest form of flattery... or am I making things up again???

[Mission]

I think some of the clones were very good but it did get quite personal and nasty and that is something I wouldn't like to see returning.

 

Minnie: A clone is a copy of an existing user, with a similar name. For instance, on manx.net, a lot of posters were cloned by the dot person. ie.e .moon instead of moon.

 

A gimmick account is more lighthearted, as mentioned before by ans with the likes of zombie dave, old george woods et al. Generally someone making light of certain situations. A lot of one off usernames were created on manx.net to make light of certain topics and were used to great effect. It was a regular part of forum life which injected some humour into the proceedings.

[Grib]

One of the funniest gimmick accounts (well I thought it funny) was when some nutter bloke came on asking if anyone knew a *Joe Bloggs* (the real name was given) because this *Joe Bloggs* had been screwing this nutters wife. The guy was obviously serious and was really screwed up about it. He went into graphic detail of what he was going to do to this *Joe Bloggs*.

 

There were a few folk answered him taking the mick but the guy just got really aggressive and as I say, definitely serious.

 

Then some one cloned as *Joe Bloggs* and he just posted a solitary

 

.

 

 

The moderators took a while to delete the thread, but I have it cached somewhere. I'm generally so sad, I call it up to have a laugh at it now and again.

 

Oh and to check if *Joe Bloggs* has made the obituaries.

[Declan]

A gimmick account is a (usually) comedic character created by a poster.

 

Manx Net examples included -

 

Mr Pedantic - who corrected everyone's grammatical errors.

Zombie Dave - Who managed to swear at people without using vowels

Old George Woods - who would pop up in a heated debate to tell a tale about the olden days on the farm.

Emoticon - who I truely hated would pop up and post just a smilie from time to time.

 

Mrs Trellis, Dave the Cardboard Box and Mission all started life as Gimmick accounts.

 

But usually the account would only make a few posts for a laugh in a particular thread.

 

A clone is more controversial and is basically a facsimilie of an exisiting poster with a mispelling of that posters user name.

 

Examples include ....

 

Ritchie

Steven! and about thirty others.

nesssa

Michael lrving

and a skutch of dot people i.e. .declan, .ans, .moon etc

 

Both of these are distinct from Trolls and Sock Puppets

 

A Troll is an account created with the express purpose of stirring up trouble on a particular site, e.g. Boy With Horns and some would contend the original Steven

 

Sock Puppets are one hit accounts that a poster creates to back themselves up when they are losing a debate badly their posts always begin like this "I have read these forums for a long time but never posted before. However, I just had to post to say that I agree with...."

 

Examples of these were ....

 

every time Nessa and Vader were losing a discussion. ie Every time Nessa and Vader were in a discussion.

[Mission]

Heh, I remember that one.

 

EDIT: Sorry, I didn't realise Declan had posted before me, my response was to Grib's post about the affair thing.

 

I've learnt something tonight Declan, not heard of a Sock Puppet before.

[WilDDog]

I think they would be a great idea, not that I have ever used one myself of course but I have seen people using them.

[Grib]

I don't believe vader was nessa/nessa was vader.

 

Don't forget that steven and nessa were soul mates too.

 

 

Oh and Thehater and Roxanne had something going also, but I'll not mention that. (besides it was steven ! who got jealous - the only time he used to lose it you know, when they started their online flirting)

 

[lectro]

I voted against - the point has been raised by others that a more robust political argument could be held if people posted under their own names and were accountable. So to go the complete opposite way doesn't make sense. I also think that it was one of the downfalls of Manxnet. It becomes tedious wading through all the excess noise created by the gimmick accounts. I also think it disrupts and ends many a valid thread, something people are less likely to do under a single account. It'll mean much more work for the mods too.

 

This has been the opinion of lectro. Cast not ye any stones or harsh words

[Mission]

Gimmick accounts are more visable on here though, if you log out and in again, the IP address is easy to match.

 

If they are used correctly and not used to bitch about another poster, I don't really see the harm and as we know, you cannot spam these forums effectively so it is not going to get buried in a sea of posts by gimmick accounts.

[Grib]

I remember Frances and lisner had an intellectule conversation about Manx things that went on for a few pages without any clonyism or stuff like that. Not even a pishtake.