"LOTS of people have socks"

[pacalo]

37. Serious question: What are the legitimate uses for sock identities?

A "sock", as I understand the term, is a second account. Besides deception, for what purpose would someone not want to post using their established username?

Here's a hypothetical:

-- DUer 'Anna Conda' is currently participating in a contentious thread that includes another DUer, 'Ella Mentry', to whom, it just so happens, Anna Conda had sent a nasty PM the day before.

-- Because Anna Conda didn't get a reply from Ella Mentry the day before, she may suspect that her PM was alerted on & was tentative in compounding her situation with angry replies to Ella Mentry in today's thread (that happens to be getting exposure on the greatest page).

What Anna Conda decides to do is use a sock account to deflect attention from her actual identity to ensure...

-- any one of her tactlessly-worded posts won't be alerted on & added to Anna Conda's already-high hidden post count; or

-- that she's able to alert on those opinions she doesn't like because Anna Conda's account is currently out of commission due to the 24-hour rule for frivolous alerts.

This would be clearly classified as "not in good faith" use of a sock. Regardless, I don't see how a sock would be created for legitimate, above-board reasons. I'm not understanding the "good faith" qualification at all.