Online reputation

[Doris_G 4]

I'm curious to hear people's thoughts on the value of online reputations, specifically in a messageboard context.

Some of us spend a ton of time in forums such as these, and over time, build social currency among the group. Sometimes real-life friendships come of these interactions; sometimes these associations are kept only in the ether. Either way, people do tend to feel quite invested in the online personas they create, and in the online personas of those they interact with.

Enter our friend, the sockpuppet. I've seen more than one community implode when longtime, trusted members are revealed to have built one or more false accounts, and used their accumulated knowledge of other members to create sometimes elaborate interactions. When this ruse is eventually revealed, the perp generally loses all the social standing in the group, and is made a pariah.

What are your thoughts on this type of situation?

Just some random (or maybe not) musings on a lazy Tuesday.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Are you a sock puppet?

[^_^ 5,021]

I'm curious to hear people's thoughts on the value of online reputations, specifically in a messageboard context.

Take one look at my posting history and tell me how much I care about my online reputation

As for sockpuppets, I've never posted using one unless my main account was suspended. I have, however, skewed polls with them. Public polls are a real PITA.

Are you a sock puppet?

Rumor has it Danno is your sockpuppet.

[Doris_G 4]

No puppetry on this end.

I was doing a little research on the subject today for something I'm writing, and came across this wiki entry:

Online Reputation linky-dink

The section on reputation as extension of ego interested me. (Normally, I think quoting Shakespeare is douchey, but it's in the damn wiki section, so here goes.)

----

Concern over reputation is sometimes considered a human fault, exaggerated in importance due to the fragile nature of the human ego. William Shakespeare provides the following insight from Othello:

Cassio: Reputation, reputation, reputation! O! I have lost my reputation. I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial. My reputation, Iago, my reputation!

-Shakespeare, Othello, the Moor of Venice Act II. Scene III, 242-244.

Iago: As I am an honest man, I thought you had received some bodily wound; there is more offence in that than in reputation. Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving: you have lost no reputation at all, unless you repute yourself such a loser.

-Shakespeare, Othello, the Moor of Venice Act II. Scene III, 245-249.

[john & jean 37]

for the real story, interview AJ

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

I was talking to my husband about this last night and how I feel conflicted about the online world much of the time. I've seem to become a social pairah by definition among an online group. Isolated, outcast, different by others because I seem to not hold the same standard as many of them. While it's not reality it is reality but should we care for people we've never met yet spent years communicating with? To negate the relationship as invalid because we've never met would also negate many of our relationships with our SO's that we've only ever met online and built trust with. I've learned that to stop communicating with someone be it in in person or online seems to hurt others who considered themselves your friend. How it hurts them though is the part that is in question. Does it hurt them because they thought they were your personal friend or because by you "defriending" them it somehow moves their status down in the pecking order or is it just bad netiquette? Should it be their problem or your problem? If we've never met the person and friend them because they are a friend of a friend and seem to be part of your group of friends and harmless enough how seriously should we take this online friendship? By friending them you give this essential stranger the benefit of the doubt but as you learn more about them you realize they rub you the wrong way and instead of making a big deal about it how should one step out of the friendship generously without offense? For that matter how seriously should we take a friends rejection on a social networking site or message board? If they don't add us as a friend when we've requested to be added should we take offense even though we've never met in person? Should we analyze it and consider why they wouldn't add us when we seem to get along fine with them in other areas of communication? Is it considered a real burn because a real persons feelings were hurt when you "defriended" them or ignored their add request without explanation? And yet you still communicate with them on other platforms such as message boards or you no longer communicate at all? And to what extent in this group of friends does your online reputation affect all of this? Some people request to be your friend to spy on you back to their group of friends. Some of them request to be your friend to up their status in the group of friends. Some "defriend" you or ignore your request to lower your status in the group of friends. Some just don't care to be your friend or trust you for whatever reason. So it does make one wonder what are those reasons for each person? Is it the online reputation hindering a person? Is it something you said or is it something someone said about you? And what others say about you and how they treat you on message boards or social networking sites, should it reflect on you or on them as a person? I know people on this site and on fb. Most of my friends on here who are on my fb won't wish me a happy birthday here publicly anymore but on fb they will. How should one interpret that? And when I see someone on here who supposedly left this site before another person on here got here yet they are friends on fb how should I interpret that? Did they become friends in a group I wasn't invited to? And how should I feel about those that rejected me but are communicating fine with my mutual friends online and I can see their communication with my mutual friends? How should one feel about those that block you from seeing their communication with your mutual friends but then your mutual friend replies to them by name and that is how you know they blocked you? Is it an overly sensitive person who allows themselves to be affected by all of this? I have a person that openly and publicly stalks my profile on here weekly. They're usually on the top of my visitors list like now. Why they do this game I don't know but it feeds something for them. I've never said anything to them nor confronted them about this, yet they've only posted bad things about me and I don't even know them. Which makes me think they are a sock puppet. Should I allow them the satisfaction of their acknowledgment like I have now? I don't know what they have to gain from it but reputation and notoriety among whoever or whatever. KWIM?

[^_^ 5,021]

Paragraphs. My eyes hurt.

[chri'stina 190]

Hmm I do care about my online reputation. I am not really worried about it right now because I don't seem to have many enemies.

As for sock puppets, the reason for the existence of one can vary so much. It can be for fun, being silly, or serious issues like stalking.

Edited October 26, 2010 by chri'stina

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

Sorry, I have to get ready for work or I would have broken it up into paragraphs for readers.

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

I try as much as possible to keep my online persona separate from my real life. I have had a sock puppet in the long-ago past (ca. 2007) to ask a legitimate and somewhat uncomfortable question (i.e. what do you do when your husband you just moved across an ocean with is being a douche?) that I didn't feel like getting the smackdown for.

Maven is substantially me. I can be indiscreet at times, and perhaps share too much of myself, but that's who I am in real life too -- effusive and frequently vulgar.

Edited October 28, 2010 by elmcitymaven

[alienlovechild 75]

Some of us spend a ton of time in forums such as these, and over time, build social currency among the group. Sometimes real-life friendships come of these interactions; sometimes these associations are kept only in the ether. Either way, people do tend to feel quite invested in the online personas they create, and in the online personas of those they interact with.

I have had people PM me on this but I tell them I don't invest much of my feelings in online forums. Some people are very concerned how others view them but to me it's just the Internet and not the real world.

I don't high five other posters for the most part to kiss azz and will say where I disagree with the more disagreeable posters but I don't feel the need to write a lengthly essay about why I write what I write with all the touchy feely stuff thrown in.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Rumor has it Danno is your sockpuppet.

Lord help me.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

I care about my online reputation too. I am always careful of what I say so I don't offend anyone.

[Doris_G 4]

The bald-face lying in this thread is killing me!

[spookyturtle 9,466]

The bald-face lying in this thread is killing me!

:lol: