would one be breaking the rules if

[EndangeredOtter]

They posted threads under one name but answered others under in another. So effectively having 2 active usernames?

Not answering their own threads or talk about yourself in 3rd person and never having the two different names on the same thread?

No. One name may be used to post a sensitive bum sex thread and another name to chat about cleaning or knitting.

As long they don't get confused and post about knit one pearl one on a bum sex thread they will be fine.

Nowt wrong with that as long as it is done for privacy/sensitivity purposes (not inflaming/goading/trolling) 'Tis why the facility is there

I think its just sock puppetry which is against the rules.

Grim sock puppetry is when a poster uses 2 names on the same thread to defend each other, entice a bun fight etc.

No the same as what the op asked imo

how would you do that? Would you have to sign up twice? Or keep namechanging.

Why would one want to do that?

I asked something similar. I wanted to have one name for a specific thread and a ddifferent name for all other threads. I also asked if it was possible to have 2 tabs open at the same time so I could chat on my support thread on one tab and have another tab with my other username. I asked purely for the selfish reason that I didn't want to keep namechanging every 2minutes. MNHQ said it was not looked at favourably. Not sure if that is the same as what you are asking though Maybe I have confused myself.

Surely sock puppetry is when posting on same thread and agreeing with one another, not just posting on different threads with different names?

Sorry, I am a slow typist

I had a thread once in off the beaten track to talk about a relationship problem - I namechanged for that one, but was getorf on the rest of the board. That is OK.

If I had come on another thread in my namechange name and posted some shit like 'I agree with getorf and she is fantastic' that would be sock puppetry, for which you can get banned.

Sorry, read your OP properly now. You're not talking about having different tabs open. Do you mean that you want to have 1 name for starting threads and 1 name for responding to threads and they will never be on together?

I namechanged to ask something privately, got outed on that thread and MNHQ kindly deleted the posts that identified me (my mn id, not rl). No repercussions, it's why we have the nc facility!

Agree GetOrf. I can understand the rule and it makes sense, but a pain when one has a thread running to discuss something pretty personal and at the same time still want to take part in the merry banter aspect of MN. Am currently diving in and out of My Registration every ten minutes...

Yes agree with that - it is a bore changing names back and forth.

TBH I gave up in the end and just posted as getorf on the support thread, and it was fine, but think it is a good idea to have the namechange facility for when you want sometring to be more private.

I think its ok if you are on a thread , then NC but post on the thread still as yourself iyswim

Not to sockpuppet as someone else.

Great to see so many people appreciating the value of NCing.

If we all did it, it would eliminate a huge amount of the nastiness.

We would all, effectively, be newbies.

And I would have thought that recent, extremely unpleasant threads slagging off named posters demonstrate that NCing is the only sensible thing to do if you don't want nastier people exposing your life on random threads and on FB.

jubil That is why I asked MNHQ if I could have a different name on 2 tabs. Quite rightly they said no, they might end up thinking the poster was a trouble maker. It was a pain to keep nc'in though.
But I don't think that is what OP is asking. OP, forgive me if I have this wrong, but it seems like you want to start threads asking for advice under 1 name (and possibly more than 1 thread as and when is needed) but still be able to keep another name to join in the more nonsense threads so that you can build up a rapport with other posters. In theory that should work. But maybe better to keep 1 main name and just have a new one everytime you need advice?

Yes elephants

So start threads as x name but reply to threads as y name but never replying to my own thread with a different name.

What I'm asking is if this is sp or not?

People name change all the time, especially if it's to post something personal or sensitive.

What doesn't work though is when people can't resist drawing attention to themselves.

It's absolutely not sockpuppeting, Endangered. There's no malice behind it.

You will however be accused of sockpuppeting by the few who believe any name-changing is a threat to their hegemony. NCing is allowed - don't let the prefects tell you it's not.

What you are asking is not sp Endangered

As long as the2 names do not cross paths and you don't bump your own threads it is fine imo

I imagine that is fine as MNHQ will be able to see that you aren't looking for trouble. But maybe you should report your post and ask them.
The worry could be was that you forget what name you have used or that if you just stick to 2 names (1 for asking and 1 for replying) other posters could realise that you are 1 and the same -easier than we all realise.
Maybe, just think of 1 completely different name that has nothing to do with any previous names/threads and see how it pans out.

Yes I think that's fine OP.

Thinking about this some more, the problem is if you enjoy posting lots of threads and enjoy joining in lots of threads there is the danger of a crossover.

So how do you NC then?

I know someone in RL who knows my nn, and when we discovered each other on MN, she has since NC'd. (I think)!

I'm actually not too bothered about NCing but I suppose it'd be nice to have the option if I needed it!

If you cause trouble, you'll get yelled at.

If you sit down and shut up, Miss MNHQ will never notice...