GuildWiki:Sock puppetry

GuildWiki has no established policy regarding sock puppetry.

In the history of the community, accusations of sock puppetry have consistently been the result and/or precursor of much bigger drama.

In the absence of an established anti-sock puppetry policy, admins are typically reluctant to ban accounts on the sole reason of it being a sock puppet, confirmed or otherwise. Actual usage/behavior of the account should to be taken into consideration when proposing a ban on that account (eg. vote inflation, causing disruption on the wiki etc).

If you are concerned about an account potentially being the sock puppet of a user who had a disruptive history on the wiki (or elsewhere), consider the following perspectives:
 * If the account in question starts to behave problematically, then the account can be dealt with per its own behavior.
 * If the account in question is not behaving problematically, then it is harmless and nothing needs to be done.
 * If the account in question is contributing in a positive way, then staying quiet about it being a sock puppet allows us to exploit the problematic user's alter ego to improve the wiki.

The above perspectives promote the idea that it is unnecessary to go hunt down sock puppeteers.

Holding the expectation (aka "defending against the possibility") that the account in question might do bad things in the future, based simply on the suspicion that it is the sock puppet of a user with a problematic history, is against the Assume Good Faith policy. Thus, questions inquiring whether a particular account is owned by a person who previously is known by a different account name, should avoid sounding accusational, or even curt/concise.