{"id":1753,"date":"2011-07-16T16:56:58","date_gmt":"2011-07-16T20:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/07\/return-of-the-sock-puppets.html"},"modified":"2011-07-16T16:56:58","modified_gmt":"2011-07-16T20:56:58","slug":"return-of-the-sock-puppets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/07\/return-of-the-sock-puppets.html","title":{"rendered":"Return of the Sock Puppets!"},"content":{"rendered":"A new spate of sock puppets, this time spitting against animals!\n

\n\n<\/a>\nSomeone commenting as\n\nlowndes county tax payer and resident<\/a>\nyelled and screamed a bit, concluding\n

\n“DAMN.”\n<\/blockquote>\nLess than an hour later,\n\nlong time citizen as well<\/a>\ncommented:\n
\n“I certainly can agree with you on that….”\n<\/blockquote>\nGuess what?\nThey both posted from the same IP address and supplied the same email address.\nAnd then\n\nlifetime citizen of lowndes county, not just a visitor complaining<\/a>\nposted\n
\n“STOP BOTHERING THOSE PEOPLE”\n<\/blockquote>\nwith a different IP address, yet the same email address.\nYou may have suspected that just from the same kind of\nALL CAPS INVECTIVE.\n

\nThis is a sock puppet:\n

\nsock puppet: the act of creating a fake online identity to praise, defend or create the illusion of support for one\u2019s self, allies or company. \u2014\n\nNew York Times<\/a>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nAs I pointed out back in April,\n\nSock puppets may not be such a good idea<\/a>,\nbecause:\n\n\n

\nSock puppeting can be a fast way to lose political capital.\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nIn\n\na rare post from the LAKE politburo in May,<\/a> LAKE said:\n

\n\n<\/a>\nEveryone has a voice and this forum is an opportunity to have yours heard,\nif you choose. If you are too ashamed of your opinion to put your name\non it, perhaps this forum is not for you. Community building comes from\npeople building relationships and having dialog. We may not all agree,\nbut if light is shined on issues, informed decisions might be made and\nin building community, fears may be decreased.\n<\/blockquote>\nThat’s what the LAKE blog is for.\n

\nLAKE also remarked in that post:\n

\nThere is a balance between citizen participation when saying things which\none believes may be controversial and being protected from retaliation\nfor having those potentially unpopular views. Because retaliation can\nhappen there are times when anonymity is appropriate. If someone were\nto obtain, and want published, important documents about a local issue,\nthey might choose to remain behind the scenes. This does happen with\npress sources and could happen here.\n<\/blockquote>\nBut that’s not what’s going on in the comments above.\nThe person who obtained documents and gave them to LAKE for posting\nis Susan Leavens, who proudly posts under her own name.\n

\nSo far all<\/em> the people attacking either Ms. Leavens or her evidence are commenting\nanonymously, including the above-cited sockpuppets.\nWhere are their documents?\nWhat laws can they point to?\nNone so far.\n

\nSo on the one hand we have quite a few people willing to sign their names\nto blog comments,\nto file complaints with the county and the state,\nto supply copious evidence for their points,\nand to speak in public County Commission meetings\nat the risk of being fired or arrested.\n

\nWhile on the other hand against those brave people we have on the blog only\nanonymous commenters.\nThere aren’t nearly as many of even those as it might seem, since\nhalf of them are sock puppets.\n

\nI know which side sounds more credible to me, and it’s not that of the sock puppets.\n

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