History Main / SockPuppet

A secondary, pseudonymous Net identity created by an individual in order to give the impression that there are multiple people who agree with a given point, idea or action, when in reality there's only one. Sock puppets are usually used to post follow-ups that praise their owner or echo his convictions, in the hopes that they will convince real people to pay attention to him and/or his agenda. While the first Sock Puppets appeared on {{Usenet}}, they have long since spread to other electronic venues, most notably blogs.

* This video titled [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fhvmg9oiWU Creationists' First time on the Internet]] shows a pair of creationists using multiple accounts to flag opposing views videos and up-voting theirs.

* The new DungeonKeeper for iOS systems had managed to get 5000 5 / 5 star reviews by people, some of them even saying "This game is trash" to "EA has another smash hit!". ''All'' 5 / 5 star reviews. It wasn't until actual gaming sites and magazines started to come out with 1 / 5 reviews that the contrast became evident seeing as it's reliance on being an AllegedlyFreeGame tries to get you to pay up to 80 dollars for the largest amount of "[[InGameCurrency crystals]]".

See also AstroTurf and the second definition of MeatPuppet. Not to be confused with an actual HandPuppet made from a sock.

* Creator/WilliamShakespeare [[TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples has an example of this]]. In ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar,'' Cassius wins Brutus to his cause by leaving outside of Brutus' home a bunch of petitions written by himself in various handwriting styles, all criticizing Caesar and praising Brutus.
* The CharlesStross novel ''HaltingState'' discusses sock puppets, by name, extensively. [[spoiler: An apparently missing man turns out never to have existed.]]
* Not only Shakespeare but also Creator/CharlesDickens, in ''MartinChuzzlewit''. Mrs Gamp's ImaginaryFriend, Mrs Harris, is essentially a spoken sock-puppet, since she lives (by Mrs Gamp's own accounts) entirely to agree with Mrs Gamp's opinions, flatter her character and express confidence in her abilities. Nobody else believes she exists.
* One of the murder suspects in ''Bimbos of the Death Sun'' turns out to be a Sock Puppet created by some guys who wanted to yank the chains of FanDumb.
* In the Dean Koontz novel ''FalseMemory,'' pop psychology writer Derek Lampton and his son spend hours posting negative reviews of a rival writer's books on Amazon, using false names and e-mail addresses.

* In ''Literature/EndersGame'', pre-teens Peter and Valentine Wiggin set up anonymous accounts called "Locke" and "Demosthenes" on the online adult political forums (which serve much the same purpose as the blogosphere in real life). They then use Sock Puppet accounts to comment on their main posts in order to quickly gain notice/influence. Quite notable as the book pre-dated fora as a large part of internet culture, and in fact pre-dated the World Wide Web.

* [[Series/TheAtheistExperience Matt Dillahunty]] was accused of this, when he performed a SecretTestOfCharacter on the members and moderators of a certain forum he was a well-known member of: He wanted to prove to the forum's critics and detractors that, contrary to their claims, the people of said forum were polite, reasonable and open to ideas; So he posed as a new user called "Curious" and started posting controversial but also sincere arguments (and not at the extent of [[{{Troll}} trolling]]) in the hopes of making the point of "See? This is how make arguments without being shut down or banned" to the detractors; Unfortunately the critics were proven right when both his new user and his post were summarily deleted, disdained and ridiculed by both the members and moderators. It wasn't until Matt revealed his true identity that he was then treated more respectfully, but then he was immediately accused of sock puppetry and also demanded to issue an apology for his "social experiment", and when he refused [[https://a-plus-scribe.com/doku.php?id=transcriptions:matt_dillahunty_ok_with_ban_-_but_not_with_blame he was banned from there]].

* [[Series/TheAtheistExperience Matt Dillahunty]] was accused of this, when he performed a SecretTestOfCharacter on the members and moderators of a certain forum he was a well-known member of: He wanted to prove to the forum's critics and detractors that, contrary to their claims, the people of said forum were polite, reasonable and open to ideas; So he posed as a user called "curious" and started posting sincere and controversial arguments (but not at the extent of [[{{Troll}} trolling]]), unfortunately the critics were proven right when his post were summarily deleted, disdained and ridiculed by both the members and moderators. It wasn't until Matt revealed his true identity that he was then treated more respectfully, but then he was immediately accused of sock puppeteering and also demanded to issue an apology for his "experiment", and when he refused [[https://a-plus-scribe.com/doku.php?id=transcriptions:matt_dillahunty_ok_with_ban_-_but_not_with_blame he was banned from there]].

* Scientific journal publisher Elsevier was recently [[http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/09/bad-science-medical-journals-companies busted with publishing "journals"]] that were merely sock puppets of medical companies, containing nothing but positive reports about the drugs they produced.

* MicroWiki, a micronational encyclopedia with an attached forum, has had several notorious sockpuppeters in its time. Among the most (in)famous is Robert Lethler of Erusia, whose “ptrcancer” account was supposedly run by an Erusian politician who turned out to be – like Erusia and all its other SockPuppet citizens – [[ConsummateLiar completely fake]]. Interestingly, one of Lethler's primary opponents - whose names included Marco Dresner, William Danforth, Sebastian von Linden, and several others - was an equally infamous sockpuppeter. The difference is that "Linden" went on to lead a real micronation.
** February 2011 saw the rise of several "nations" which turned out to be the SockPuppets of micronationalist Barnaby Hands, leading to the term "Handspuppet" in the micronational community.

[[caption-width-right:240:"Your argument [[IncrediblyLamePun socks]]!"[[note]][[http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexbrn/7919873782/ Photo by Alex Brown]][[/note]] ]]

* [[Series/TheAtheistExperience Matt Dillahunty]] was accused of this, when he performed a SecretTestOfCharacter on the members and moderators of a certain forum he was a well-known member of: He wanted to prove to the forum's critics and detractors that, contrary to their claims, the people of said forum were polite, reasonable and open to ideas; So he posed as a user called "curious" and started posting sincere and controversial arguments (but not at the extent of [[{{Troll}} trolling]]), unfortunately the critics were proven right when his post were summarily deleted, disdained and ridiculed by both the members and moderators. It wasn't until Matt revealed his true identity that he was then treated more respectfully, but then he was immediately accused of sock puppeteering and also demanded to issue an apology for his "experiment", and when he refused [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHBwaa1_n0o he was banned from there]].

* [[Series/TheAtheistExperience Matt Dillahunty]] was accused of this, when he performed a SecretTestOfCharacter on the members and moderators of a certain forum he was a well-known member of: He wanted to prove to the forum's critics and detractors that, contrary to their claims, the people of said forum were polite, reasonable and open to ideas; So he posed as a user called "curious" and started posting sincere and controversial arguments (but not at the extent of [[{{Troll}} trolling]]), unfortunately the critics were proven right when his post were summarily deleted, disdained and ridiculed by both the members and moderators. It wasn't until Matt revealed his true identity that he was then treated more respectfully, but then he was immediately accused of sock puppeteering and also demanded to issue an apology for his "experiment", and when he refused he was banned from there.

* [[Series/TheAtheistExperience Matt Dillahunty]] was accused of this, when he attempted a SecretTestOfCharacter on the members and moderators of a certain forum he was a well-known member of: He wanted to prove to the forum's critics and detractors that, contrary to their claims, the people of said forum were polite, reasonable and open to ideas; So he posted as a user called "curious" and started posting controversial arguments (but not at the extent of [[{{Troll}} trolling]]), unfortunately the critics were proven right when his post were summarily deleted, disdained and ridiculed by both the members and moderators. It wasn't until Matt revealed his true identity that he was then treated more respectfully, but then was accused of sock puppeteering and also demanded to issue an apology for his "experiment" and when he refused he was banned from there.

* [[Series/TheAtheistExperience Matt Dillahunty]] was accused of this, when he attempted a SecretTestOfCharacter on the members and moderators of a certain forum he was a well-known member of: He wanted to prove to the forum's critics and detractors that, contrary to their claims, the people of said forum were polite, reasonable and open to ideas; So he posted as a user called "curious" and started posting controversial arguments (but not at the extent of [[{{Troll}} trolling]]), unfortunately the critics were proven right when his post were summarily deleted, disdained and ridiculed by both the members and moderators. It wasn't until Matt revealed his true identity that he was then treated more respectfully, but he was demanded to issue an apology for his "experiment" and when he refused he was banned from there.

* An interviewer for Harper's magazine, trying to get in touch with ''TheRoom'' auteur Tommy Wiseau, first had to arrange an interview through a man named "John," allegedly the "administrator" of Wiseau Films. (John is the same guy who sent cease-and-desist letters to Website/ThatGuyWithTheGlasses for reviewing his film.) Judging by John's peculiar brand of broken English, the writer theorized that John may in fact be Tommy Wiseau himself.

See also AstroTurf and the second definition of MeatPuppet. Not to be confused with an actual constructed puppet, made from a sock.

* An interviewer for Harper's magazine, trying to get in touch with ''TheRoom'' auteur Tommy Wiseau, first had to arrange an interview through a man named "John," allegedly the "administrator" of Wiseau Films. (John is the same guy who sent cease-and-desist letters to ThatGuyWithTheGlasses for reviewing his film.) Judging by John's peculiar brand of broken English, the writer theorized that John may in fact be Tommy Wiseau himself.

----

** Marc Williams of the micronation Freedomia trolled the MicroWiki Forum for over a month in 2013 with sockpuppets in an attempt to evade a one month ban. Supposedly he managed to rack up a ''[[EpicFail six year ban]]'' as a result.

* MicroWiki, a micronational encyclopedia with an attached forum, has had several notorious sockpuppeters in its time. Among the most (in)famous is Robert Lethler of Erusia, whose “ptrcancer” account was supposedly run by an Erusian politician named Cameron Jack-Smith, who turned out to be – like Erusia and all its other SockPuppet citizens – [[ConsummateLiar completely fake]]. Interestingly, Lethler's primary former opponent - whose names included Marco Dresner, William Danforth, Sebastian von Linden, and several others - was an equally infamous sockpuppeter. The difference is that "Linden" went on to lead a real micronation.

** Marc Williams of the micronation Freedomia trolled the forum for over a month in 2013 with sockpuppets in an attempt to evade a one month ban. Supposedly he managed to rack up a ''[[EpicFail six year ban]]'' as a result.