Duplicate Account Notification email from BPL

[Pedestrian]

I got the email below from BPL today. I can’t tell from the email if I’ve been identified as having a duplicate account or it’s just a generic email being sent to all members. Anyone else get this?

Since there was nothing specific about my alleged duplicate accounts (which don’t exist) I assume it’s just a generic email being sent to all.

 

Dear Backpacking Light Member,

The purpose of this email is to let you know that in the process of analyzing and cleaning up our databases as part of a major site speed optimization project, we have discovered widespread abuse by some users who are managing multiple accounts.

This practice has long been prohibited by Backpacking Light, and you can learn more about how we address it in our Website Policies and Terms, and our Forum Guidelines.

Some examples of the type of abuse we are seeing include:
Users maintaining one or more alias accounts as “troll” or accounts otherwise reserved for posting content that habitually violates our Forum Guidelines.
Users maintaining anonymous accounts for buying and selling in the Gear Swap, preventing other Gear Swap users from being able to research the posting history of the true author.
Representatives of commercial businesses (including owners, “ambassadors”, or other type of affiliation) who represent their company with a “real name” account and use an alias account for self-promotion of their businesses, or criticism of their competitors.
Our position on managing multiple accounts, and using alias identities, is simple:

Don’t do it.

The practice is deceitful, creates distrust in our community, and allows users to hide their false (or perhaps worse, their true) persona behind the veil of anonymity.

We will be taking a number of actions over the course of the next week regarding users who maintain multiple accounts. Those actions will include one or more of the following:
Filtering all posts from these users into a moderation queue;
Blocking login access and posting privileges from these users.
We understand that some users may have multiple accounts for benign reasons. We won’t be distinguishing motivations in this policy. Multiple accounts per user are prohibited.

Please conduct yourself in a way that builds meaningful relationships in the Backpacking Light community that are based on trust, not deceit.

Ryan Jordan, Publisher
Roger Caffin, Community Moderator

 

 

[Nick Gatel]

It’s generic. Everyone received it.

Nice to see management is starting to manage again. Also is a good move to delete duplicate accounts.

However… some people couldn’t log on after the software change and BPL was slooooooow to address people who could no longer log on, so some probably just created a new account.

[Kattt]

Yup, got one too.

Yes, I am Kat and everyone else that ever agreed with me  plus Jerry.

Something to keep in mind is that admin can see IP addresses .

I support  this policy; would not mind real names either. I know…I changed my last name to Pippi’s, but at least first names would be nice.

 

[James Marco]

Yup, Got one here. Looked about as authentic as the rest.

[David Thomas]

An opening comment that “This email is being sent to all BPL members – those who have a single account and those who have multiple accounts” would have been helpful.  I skimmed it, thought “WTF? – I’ve done no such thing!” and read it again, carefully, to see if there was any such clarifying comment.  Nope.

It’s like when the school nurse calls home:  “Phoebe is fine.  But she was . . . . “.

You start off with any calming information you can.

[William Chilton]

A follow up email has now been sent clarifying that it was a general email to all members, not just “suspects”.

[W I S N E R !]

Seems like a good idea to me.

BPL used to encourage people to use their actual names.  Too bad this isn’t happening anymore.  Sort of annoying to speak with aliases and side accounts and never really know who you’re speaking to.

[Jerry Adams]

ha, ha, Kat : )

I got a second email that said everyone got that email, not just people with duplicate accounts, just ignore it

since you have to pay for an account, weird that someone would have more than one account, but I don’t see why I would every want to have an anonymous account

I suppose I could say something outrageous as one ID, then as another ID say what a great idea that is : )

I am a cheapskate though, maybe normal people wouldn’t mind paying extra for extra IDs

[Ken Thompson]

Some had to sign up for new accounts after the site switch. Some people are cheesy. Reasons abound.

“A quick note about the last email that you received regarding Duplicate Accounts:

This doesn’t mean that YOU have a duplicate account. It was a notice that was sent to our entire membership, just to communicate our duplicate account policy and let you know the potential ramifications of having multiple accounts.

No action is needed on your part, including contacting Backpacking Light or replying to this email, unless you happen to get locked out and wish to find out what’s going on.”

[BlackHatGuy]

“Everyone received it.”

I didn’t. Not the second one either.

[Ryan Jordan]

@retiredjerry wrote:

I suppose I could say something outrageous as one ID, then as another ID say what a great idea that is

This was one common abuse, yes.

Interestingly, some of the aliases (keep in mind, these are from the same person) argued with each other, which I found quite entertaining at times but was a bit confused about the type of person who would intentionally do this.

Also: please know that we didn’t mean to offend anyone who may have had multiple accounts as a result of non-malicious intent. You’re certainly not the “abusers” that we address, and I do understand that there are some practical reasons for having had two accounts, especially given the confusion during the site’s user account transfer last November.

@davidinkenai – GREAT advice. I would have liked to have rewritten the email now!

Thanks for your patience, everyone, as we sort through it.

[Nick Gatel]

BPL used to encourage people to use their actual names. Too bad this isn’t happening anymore. Sort of annoying to speak with aliases and side accounts and never really know who you’re speaking to.

I really don’t want to use my real name. Someone might steal my identity.

[Nick Gatel]

Interestingly, some of the aliases (keep in mind, these are from the same person) argued with each other, which I found quite entertaining at times but was a bit confused about the type of person who would intentionally do this.

Sounds like The Three Faces of Eve. Maybe they don’t know they’re doing it.

[Jerry Adams]

or, someone could say something outrageous and then the same person using another ID could say what an idiotic thing that was

maybe it’s about time to reveal that Nick is just another ID I use : )

[Author]

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