You are permitted a maximum of one account

I just registered on another forum (webhostingtalk, but it could have been any forum). What is the reasoning for this type of a policy on a forum? Do you let people have more than 1 account?

I do not care how many accounts people have on my forum, as long as they are not arguing with themselves.




You are permitted a maximum of one account, active or inactive, regardless of how many companies you represent. If you choose to ignore this important restriction, all your accounts will be disabled. If you require a temporary user name for any reason, please open a helpdesk ticket. If you require a user name change, please open a helpdesk ticket. If you have forgotten your log in details and are unable to retrieve them via the system, do not create a new account, please open a helpdesk ticket.

**Special Note** The account you create will be yours and yours alone. It will not belong to any company or entity. We don't allow transfer of accounts, account deletions, or more than one account. If you end association with a company, all posts made by you on behalf of that company will remain with your account.

 

I wouldn't want users to have multiple accounts on my forums, it seems like a recipe for trouble down the line.

user a says user b did something, then user a1 confirms that user b is a rip-off artist..etc

 

It must be a different world on some forums than ours.

We have sponsors that want a separate identity, and the executives that work at a company that visit our forum need one account to check special areas of the site and interact (with their light off), and another account to interact with people. An example might be Bob Briscoe visiting some private forums on AA, and another identity to interact with people. Poor example, but hope you get the idea.

 

I could understand setting something up like that, but to give brand new users options to make several accounts is usually troublesome on most forums.
I know crowdgather was working on a plugin that you could have separate identities but it would all be with one master login.
So if I wanted to post as Brandon I could, but I could also make an identity of Kansas man and post as that account and unless you told people, no one would know it's two accounts.

 

That's true.

Just thought the wording was a little stronger than I'm used to.

In addition, after a few minutes I could no longer edit my post, and PMs seem to be disabled until I pay to become a member. That site is vulnerable, someone else could start up a similar forum that could be much more friendly.

 

My sense is that WHT is setup like that to thwart as much abuse as possible since it relies so heavily on genuine, verified reviews. Actual reviews are verified for actual accounts. Reps are somewhat moderating themselves. These, to me, seem like the valid reasons you mention for such use.

Credibility is $$$$.

 

PM's become available after a certain number of posts. I think it's for anti-spammer reasons.

 

That's also my opinion - and my experience.

 

i dont allow more than one account on any of my forums, as i cant think of a reason why anyone would want to other than to trick people or troll.

i can tell who has multiple accounts, due to ip adresses, and also some people whos posting style matches the person who just got banned or left the forum a few days ago, or if they are posting under two accounts at the same time (like a regular member getting in an argument with someone and then registering under a different name to troll them, thinking the mods dont know who they are).

if they were a member that was banned from the forum, that account gets banned and the ban on their original account gets extended.

if they were a regular who makes that account to troll someone, thenew account gets a permanent ban and the new account gets a ban for a few weeks/months, depending on what they did.

if they are posting under two accounts but not causing trouble, i will ask them why they have two accounts, and tell them to choose which account they want to use, and ban the other.

 

Thanks!

I don't want to PM anyone at the moment, but that is good information.

 

I used to be against having multiple accounts, but I don't see the big deal. Yes, there certainly is potential for abuse, but I honestly haven't encountered that at all. Until that happens, members can have as many accounts as they want.

If they abuse this privilege, I'll either ban all of their accounts, or just the additional ones.

 

Don't ban me!!!

LOL...

 

So... How many did you say you have? :lol:

On several forums I have a couple of account. But one for work and I log in from there so the IP's are usually seperate. I have to keep my opinions seperate from work.

 

On AA? 1, just joking with Nick : )


I've resorted to multiple accounts when needed on a couple of forums, not many. I do not do that unless there is an excellent reason.

 

And I was joking with you

I only use 2 accounts on boards I'm admin on. I use the admin acct to do the maintenance/updates so that account has virtually no post and can remain invisible. Then I have a public account that is open for anyone to contact and/or see info to get in touch with me.

 

I have a few members who have made sockpuppet accounts for the sole purpose of having their "characters" joke with each other. It isn't done with the intent to deceive people, and most figure out it's the same person right away. I find it amusing and don't see why it should be stopped. As long as they're not trying to defraud others, I'll just let them have their fun.