Hypothetically...if you sockpuppet...

[PantsOnFiore]

...get caught and admit it on a separate thread, will you get banned? And if not, why not?

Could MNHQ talk a little about their warning/banning procedure, without giving too much away obviously, so posters can understand?

I doubt very much that it was on the basis of one thread that TSC was banned

MNHQ don't do that. They also give warnings before they ban people, so there must have been other stuff going on.

But - you know the rules - TSSNCOP!

I would have thought MNHQ would be the best people to know what's going on.

Hello.

Just to clarify a few things, sockpuppeting is something we take a dim view of, though it's not always an instantly bannable offence.
It depends on the circs on each occasion. That said, we'd always mail the person to leave them in no doubt that breaking any of our rules again would set off the MNHQ alarms and they could be banned.

Re banning in general, we very rarely ban anyone for a single isolated incident.

We don't generally give out information about who we've banned and why. We can say that we don't have many rules on MN but we do ask everyone to stick to the few that we do have - and if they aren't prepared to, they don't really leave us much option but to suspend their ability to post.

Remember you are not MNHQ (MNHQ excepted)

You do not know how many warning your friend may or may not have had.

You do not know what other names they have posted under, sockpuppeting or otherwise.

MNHQ have a way better spreadsheet than you do and they know exactly what everyone is doing under their name/s, what they have been reported for, deletions warnings etc.

That is a good point itsall.

I would say, though - MN is a huge site and it's mostly moderated by people reporting. Therefore it will inevitably be uneven, won't it? That's not necessarily MNHQ's fault, but there's a reason why people follow up with MNHQ to say they feel something isn't fair.

It's not a massive conspiracy theory, it's just an inevitable consequence of the size of the site and how it's run.