What's sock puppeting please?

Callistemon21

I used to make sock puppets for the DC.

I know it brought back some lovely memories of cutting and sticking and staging productions behind the settee, or the clothes horse draped in a sheet.

Can’t see where these names come from. I’ve just found out what gaslighting means and now there’s sock puppet. Can’t see the relevance of the words?

Sussexborn
I experienced gaslighting in relationship with past DH by him telling me lies about what other people had said about me (always negative or belittling) and then would tell the other people that I had said such and such about them when I hadn't.

It's an undermining of reality that can do real damage by making you isolated and fearful.

But it is one of those terms that can be used loosely as in just bad mouthing behind someones back or turned around "you're gaslighting me" when very little happened.

Glorianny

Callistemon21

I used to make sock puppets for the DC.

I know it brought back some lovely memories of cutting and sticking and staging productions behind the settee, or the clothes horse draped in a sheet.

The £1 shop were selling felt ones which the DGC made a few years ago and we were entertained with puppet shows from behind the sofa 😁

Well, you learn something every day.
Yesterday I had to look up Gaslighting!

Pleased I wasn't the only one who had to Google "sock puppet".

Sometimes I feel quite lame when certain terminology is used, or acronyms, and I haven't a clue, because I consider myself 'net-wise and 'street-wise' but clearly I'm not half as clued-up as I like to think I am.

Gaslighting surely comes from the film.

I had never heard of it. What a weird thing.
Oh well, GNHQ were obviously quick at putting a sock in it.

Ilovecheese

Gaslighting surely comes from the film.

Yes, it does.

Joseann

I had never heard of it. What a weird thing.
Oh well, GNHQ were obviously quick at putting a sock in it.

😁

Sock puppet meant nothing to me either and I rarely take enough notice of names to ever know who posted what (or styles come to that except one or two)
Very unobservant me and not clever enough to have more than one account What you see is what you get

nanna8

Never heard of it - another of these new fangled nasty ideas like gaslighting. Maybe someone should start an ‘ invent new phrases’ thread? Pastying- as in being nasty as in nasty pasty.

Hardly new fangled Nanna8
The film ("Gaslight") which the term comes from appeared in 1944

The only sock puppet I know is one called Lamb Chop from years ago.

Nothing new fangled about gaslighting. It's been used for a long time in terms of formal evidence of abuse and also by psychologists.

Gaslighting was when my estranged Ex entered the house in the middle of the night and moved furniture around quietly and probably even looked in when I was asleep so when I came down in the morning things had been subtly moved around or hidden. Next day the police told me to change the locks, but that a fairly minor example of gaslighting.

here are the origins (1938) and the realities
www.thehotline.org/resources/what-is-gaslighting/

henetha

The only sock puppet I know is one called Lamb Chop from years ago.

I loved Lamb Chop!

So did I , Glorianny 😊. It was funny wasn't it.

Was that Shari Lewis? The woman who played Nancy in Oliver?

Similar name, Shani Wallis I think.
I'll Google it.....

It can be banned members, but some people just enjoy it, or post in defence of a friend who they think is having a hard time. It gets worse in the school holidays

I have never thought threads were started by teens in the school holidays, they just would not be interested in this forum, I have always thought it is a double identity member that just likes to stir things up and watch the fallout.

Some will be, some will be kids winding up the old people .

Wyllow, that is creepy .I am so glad to hear that he is your EX. .....

I think this description is relevant to GN.

The goal (of sock puppets) is not necessarily achieving a specific political outcome but to sow division based on hot-button political issues.

So, the goal is to ruin a thread others are engaging on by one person or a group, disrupting it. We certainly see this on GN.

Actual "sock puppet" activity is used to close down information sources or provide disinformation, often on a wide scale. Think elections (in all countries), Brexit, Parliamentary business and Political Parties.

It's not new. A form of sock puppeting used to happen quite a bit on the long running thread that was about the labour party, a banned member used to pretend to be a zero hours worker, however his style was immediately recognisable.

It's not at all nice when used to bully or gang up on posters

The amount of times I've seen a new name turn up who immediately has a problem with someone

I'm sure it could be prevented in general but on some sites, would probably lower ad revenue lol

Saw this quite a bit on MN.
Over there you can name change as often as you like ( for privacy reasons mostly so you can post about a sensitive subject without everyone knowing it’s ‘you’ ) So some people had 4 or 5 names, which is fine if you’re not doing anything wrong.

But people were making out they’re different people. It was usually done to back up what they were saying. More often than not they got caught out because they’d forget to name change back.
One poster actually used to argue with herself.

Seriously weird.