Abuse of name changes

[TinselAngel]

This is not aimed at one poster in particular but addresses a pattern I have noticed in FWR and it may well happen elsewhere on the site.

The ability to name change is sometimes abused by particularly goady posters who once they have exhausted everybody's goodwill by their goadiness, name change in order to trick people into interacting with them again, on the same subjects.

To me this is an abuse of name changing, which must actually be intended to help posters maintain their anonymity so different threads cannot be matched together and posters outed.

It's also against the spirit of making parents lives easier, and can make some topics and sections of the site virtually unusable for some users because very prolific, goady posters cannot be ignored.

I suggest MNHQ introduce a new talk guideline around abusing the name change feature. You must be able to "look behind the scenes" and if verify this when people report it.

I guess it'd be an extension of the existing prohibition on sockpuppeting, though I don't think that's explicitly spelled out in the guidelines?

Is sockpuppeting generally on the same thread though?

You already had one thread on this deleted. It's obvious who this is targeted at.

It's not targeted at anyone I've noticed it on a number of occasions.

I once read a thread (I'm talking close to 10 years ago) where somebody said they'd had I think 40 something name changes that year !!
I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing unless they are coming back after being banned or posting the same thing under different names on the same thread (problematic things)

So please don't speculate about this being targeted at somebody in particular (it isn't) or it will get deleted.

Do you think it's a TRA deliberately derailing threads?

Come on, anyone who spends more than 5 mins reading FWR knows exactly who and what threads you're referring to. Let's not pretend this isn't about a particular poster.

There's more than one user who does this.

I would be interested in hearing HQ's take on this.

I don't see any way of raising the issue without people assuming it's targeted at an individual. I'd like to hear MN's take because whilst I appreciate it probably looks to them like such behaviour provokes engagement, and they want engagement, ultimately it puts other people off posting.

Who is then?

Was the other thread deleted because the mystery person was identified?

I've seen the same poster repeating the same post with a new name each time.Its the post about her ex partner giving her £1000 a month maintenance,and how she says it's not enough as it goes on nursery fees.Once she's been ridiculed about it,she changes the story a bit.Seen it a few times now

I can think of at least 3 on FWR.

So it's just a problem on FWR?

Have no idea which poster(s)

But if people change email and not just username eg throwaway1@hotmail, throwaway2@hotmail etc, it’s much harder for MNHQ to track

I spend most of my time on FWR so it's more noticeable there to me but as a PP said earlier, they know of one on other threads.

Yes but I suspect they don't always because it's not PBPs.

Sorry, I assume it's not PBPs I don't know that for sure. But if it was and their behaviour was just the same as last time presumably they'd get banned again.

Are they actually being goady, though, or are they merely people who go against received opinion on the FWR threads? It is actually quite difficult to do that, especially on the gender ones, and I can quite understand the temptation to try to avoid a pile-on.

Also, of course, it's recognised all over MN that it's a good idea to name-change regularly to avoid being identified. It's certainly not something that is specific to FWR.

Hi OP,

We don't have any plans to change our guidelines, but we would definitely look into this on a case by case basis. The best thing to do is to report poster(s) concerned to us, so we can see what's going on.

Yes, that's why I said 'extension'.

Thanks, now I know you'll potentially take it seriously I will do.

Thank you Lily.