On the Matter of Admins Having Multiple Accounts

[Deleted member]

Concerns have recently been brought up about a practice of the admins here on the Sietch to have non-admin accounts on top of their known staff accounts.

This policy was decided upon early and primarily drawn from the practice at the Stardestroyer.net web forums, where site owner Mike Wong and his day-to-day admin, Dalton, maintained separate accounts for their admin access. The reasoning came from our experiences with other forums, where admins participating in day-to-day debates sometimes saw users admit to feeling intimidated by the presence of the admins in those threads. It was thought that the admins having non-staff, or at least non-admin, accounts for day-to-day posting would keep the posters from feeling such intimidation.

The goal of this community is open and free discourse, after all, and while the admins do want to participate in said discourse, we need to take steps to make people feel comfortable in joining that discourse.

 

[PsihoKekec]

Well, admins having seperate account for official bussiness and for regular discussion is not neccessarily bad, it allows them converse more easily. Hell, it's one of mayor tropes in fiction and as ostensibly fandom forum we are all about tropes, arren't we?
As long as there are internal mechanisms to prevent abuse that is.

 

[Kujo]

Smacks of having two tiers, if someone can't be their own person enough to be "intimidated' by admin then how are they going to respond once they figure out the other account is still an administrator? Most forums will boot someone like me out for having multiple accounts, but because 'we' created the forum and 'we' are administrators the rules don't apply quite the same way. Again reeks of a double standard, one standard for all should be at least the goal if not the practice. That you have to post this shows that the other accounts are being figured out so not only are you not "intimidating' but it seems you are applying different rules merely cause you have power over the board. My view is this post as your admin selves with a bit of boiler plate that this is your personal opinion and will no way effect the account of the user.

Thank you very much for your time.

 

[Greengrass]

I suspected this when I made this thread, Punch Card Girl was not subtle about who she was the alt of. Having staff having secret alts seems like a very bad idea to me and, (in her particular case), seems to be more of a method to allow her to post her actual politics (ie, being a fascist and her saying that Pinochet was needed as a "a last recourse against a greater ill" ) without other people being aware that those views belonged to the site owner. In particular, Unhappy Anchovy's post here comes to mind (bolding is mine).

I'm just going to throw this out there and invite what controversy may come.

The Futurists were fascists. We know that, right? Futurism was essentially fascistic. I don't mean that in a trivialising sense, where every opinion to the right of me is fascist. I mean that in the sense that the Futurist party literally merged with the Fascist party.

You know also that the critical opinion of the Sietch from a fair few people outside of it is that it's a den of fascism or at the very least alt-right, fascist-adjacent thought.

Posting what, in all charity and earnestness I can only describe as a deranged, incoherent, and fascistic rant while speaking kindly of its author is very much not the sort of thing that gives me - or I daresay anyone else - confidence.

As for women in combat: I will say merely that if a society in which women fight is regressing into barbarism, then the overwhelming majority of humanity, including many of the societies that have created some of our proudest and most wonderful achievements, have been barbarians.

 

[ShieldWife]

Does this mean that Zoe is indeed Punch Card Girl? If so, good. I think she's really interesting and I was hoping to learn more about Art Neo and Futurism from her. I was worried that she would disappear into the internet ether.

I completely understand why mods might have an alternative account. Especially in the case of Zoe, who is in charge of the site and is supposed to look impartial. If she revealed some unusual beliefs, like she seems to have, it might reflect on the site as a whole. That said, I disagree with mods having multiple accounts. Here are my reasons.

It doesn't look good. There are already negative mistruths floating around about the activities of the SB PM, that it showed favoritism to conservative posters, that the mods there created a double standard. Completely untrue, but when people hear a lie told by 100 people and the truth is only told by 5, most people aren't going to look into it and will believe the lies. This is one reason why dissenting voices are so important. Moderators having secret alternative accounts just fuels the fire of those lies because in a way it gives truth to them, it is a double standard. Is it a justified one? I don't know. I trust the mods here and I think that their motives are good, but that isn't going to be the case for most perspective members.

Multiple accounts for mods gives the impression that there is a double standard, gives the impression of petty tyranny on the part of mods. If there are sci-fi or fantasy fans who are thinking about joining a small forum of questionable quality, learning that the mods have secret accounts might turn them off. I think it might turn me off if I didn't know so many of the good people involved in operating this forum.

So that is just my two cents. I'm not overly bothered by the secret accounts, but I think that it would wiser for the long term health and reputation of this site if they didn't exist.

 

[GoldRanger]

I like it. It's a good idea to separate accounts between "authority" and "run of the mill debater".

 

[FriedCFour]

Most forums will boot someone like me out for having multiple accounts, but because 'we' created the forum and 'we' are administrators the rules don't apply quite the same way.

On every forum the administrators are allowed to make multiple accounts and have them. They are usually called bots or test accounts. In this case an administrative account is used to post official rulings and stuff and another to interact with the board.

seems to be more of a method to allow her to post her actual politics

Did she post any politics as Zoe?

that Pinochet was needed as a "a last recourse against a greater ill"

This was pretty uncontroversial just some two decades ago. Shows you how times have changed where you can get more of a lashback for saying that than for saying Stalin was needed for that.

 

[Deleted member]

After discussions, we have agreed to make public the associations between our Admin and our regular accounts as the compromise.

@Zoe (renamed from "Empress Zoe" to eliminate the silliness and pretensions thereof) is my admin account. And if anyone is concerned about my politics, here is a definitive statement on what they are: A Political Manifesto: The Traditional Right in a Post-Traditional Age

 

[ShieldWife]

After discussions, we have agreed to make public the associations between our Admin and our regular accounts as the compromise.

@Zoe (renamed from "Empress Zoe" to eliminate the silliness and pretensions thereof) is my admin account. And if anyone is concerned about my politics, here is a definitive statement on what they are: A Political Manifesto: The Traditional Right in a Post-Traditional Age

I think that this is a good solution. No accusations of impropriety can be justified by this policy.

 

[Greengrass]

After discussions, we have agreed to make public the associations between our Admin and our regular accounts as the compromise.

@Zoe (renamed from "Empress Zoe" to eliminate the silliness and pretensions thereof) is my admin account. And if anyone is concerned about my politics, here is a definitive statement on what they are: A Political Manifesto: The Traditional Right in a Post-Traditional Age

What was the reasoning behind having two alt-accounts (the other being Punch Card Girl)? The explanation in the OP of this thread doesn't seem to make sense for needing multiple alt accounts.

 

[FriedCFour]

What was the reasoning behind having two alt-accounts (the other being Punch Card Girl)? The explanation in the OP of this thread doesn't seem to make sense for needing multiple alt accounts.

Read through Captain-Generals posts. It's 99% fanfiction and fanfiction interaction.

 

[Greengrass]

Read through Captain-Generals posts. It's 99% fanfiction and fanfiction interaction.

I see plenty of non-fic related posts.

Edit: vvvv Ah, fair enough.

 

[FriedCFour]

I see plenty of non-fic related posts.

Sorry, since PCG was deleted. Read before that, it was fanfiction only with a bit of poetry and regular fiction.

 

[Greengrass]

Also, since all the Admins have an alt according to the first post, who are the alts for Harlock, LTR, S'Task, Spartan303, and Stephanos Morosoktanos? Do any of the Supermods or mods have alt accounts as well?

 

[Deleted member]

@Greengrass , this account was originally created by mutual consensus with the other admins to try and firewall my fanfiction which was publicly linked with my identity on other forums, so that I could re-post it here without being doxxed. Since they doxxed me anyway, this account is now my official non-admin account. By concurrence with the other admins, I will only have one alt--this one--going forward. I will be @Zoe and @Captain-General and no others.

The other admins will post their own alts. Not all of them actually exercise the privilege at the moment. Whenever they change a name, they will update it in this thread. I promise 100% transparency about this going forward.

 

[Deleted member]

Essentially, a series of less than ideal decisions were made before this point in an attempt to preserve our privacy against the relentless attacks directed against us. Since this has proved impossible, we are eliminating the less than ideal decisions.

 

[Spartan303]

Also, since all the Admins have an alt according to the first post, who are the alts for Harlock, LTR, S'Task, Spartan303, and Stephanos Morosoktanos? Do any of the Supermods or mods have alt accounts as well?

If individual staff members wish to indulge you then that's on them. I will not. Besides I only use my Alt for story related purposes and possibly quests/RP. Ya know, fun stuff. But I rarely use it at all.

 

[Greengrass]

If individual staff members wish to indulge you then that's on them. I will not. Besides I only use my Alt for story related purposes and possibly quests/RP. Ya know, fun stuff. But I rarely use it at all.

I thought all Admins were making public their alt accounts, per @Zoe's statements?

After discussions, we have agreed to make public the associations between our Admin and our regular accounts as the compromise.

@Zoe (renamed from "Empress Zoe" to eliminate the silliness and pretensions thereof) is my admin account. And if anyone is concerned about my politics, here is a definitive statement on what they are: A Political Manifesto: The Traditional Right in a Post-Traditional Age

@Greengrass , this account was originally created by mutual consensus with the other admins to try and firewall my fanfiction which was publicly linked with my identity on other forums, so that I could re-post it here without being doxxed. Since they doxxed me anyway, this account is now my official non-admin account. By concurrence with the other admins, I will only have one alt--this one--going forward. I will be @Zoe and @Captain-General and no others.

The other admins will post their own alts. Not all of them actually exercise the privilege at the moment. Whenever they change a name, they will update it in this thread. I promise 100% transparency about this going forward.
[/QUOTE]

 

[Emperor Tippy]

Also, since all the Admins have an alt according to the first post, who are the alts for Harlock, LTR, S'Task, Spartan303, and Stephanos Morosoktanos? Do any of the Supermods or mods have alt accounts as well?

If they feel like publicly linking the accounts then that is up to them.

I thought all Admins were making public their alt accounts, per @Zoe's statement?

No, Zoe was using the royal we. She decided to link her accounts, no one else has.

And this thread has served its purpose, so locked until & unless an Admin decides to unlock it.

 

[Deleted member 1]

Unless I am speaking “Ex Cathedra” from this Zoe account you are getting my personal opinion, not board policy. Whether or not it is a requirement for admins other than me to post their pseuds is a matter of discussion for staff at the moment and I am not a dictator.