Thursday, January 22, 2009

Sock Puppets


Submitted for post by SamanthaNC


Wikipedia's definition of a sock puppet is "an online identity used for purposes of deception within an online community."

It is a term we've heard many times. A common problem in the blogging world and particularly in the online Gosselin world. It would seem that those who dislike Jon and Kate are most prevalent in the sock puppetry world. Most recently as many of you may have seen there was a suspected sock puppet on this forum. By the way, I use the term "suspected" quite loosely.

On this forum your location is taken from your IP address and shows up under your name when you post. Could it be a coincidence that 14 posters, all anti- Jon and Kate were from Denver, Colorado? Highly unlikely. Ten of those posts were on January 14th alone. No other location shows up nearly as often and frequently Denver posts appear with only one other post between.

The screen names were as follows: Anonymous, Tracy in NM, Hardworking Dad, PK City Resident, Utah Rocks, Lost, Palin Voter, Whatever, Welfare Mom, Hatethekons, Conservative Repu lican, Champ, Fun with Coop and Jon, and Earl Junior. I find the screen name "lost" most ironic.

Notice that two of those identities reference living in other locations- interesting. Most disturbingly two of those posters claimed to have "hooked up with Jon." Take a look at these comments:

Fun With Coop and Jon
Denver, CO Thursday Jan 15
"You guys Jon is a great guy. My friends and I hooked up with Jon and his buddy Cooper (he is quite a hotty BTW)We had a great time partying with those two, and with any luck Jon I will see you in Feb, right?Ana "


Earl Junior
Denver, CO Thursday Jan 15
" Ana,Jon and I hooked up so there is no way he could have hooked up with you because you are a girl.Thank you,Earl Jr."

Fun With Coop and Jon
Denver, CO Friday Jan 16
"I didn't say it was me that hooked up with jon...I said Coop was hot. Seriously doubt Jon swings both ways by watching him at our party. The girls loved him!Coop, I still have you hat! See u on the mountain. Text me!"

This goes beyond being a mere nuisance and crosses over to slander. It is unacceptable and it isn't the first time.

A while back on the Imperfect Parent forum a poster claiming to have worked at the Ski resort in the Utah episode alleged that she had an affair with Jon during the trip. Later after being confronted by moderators she confessed to being a sock puppet with several identities. What drives these people to go to such lengths and spend so much time ranting against two people? If you don't like them say so- under one identity not twenty.

Take a look at this exchange:

Carla
AOL Thursday Jan 15
"To whoever is posting from DENVER....it's pretty obvious you're one person using a bunch of different names. You look like a fool."

Conservative Repu blican
Denver, CO Thursday Jan 15
"Carla you ****....I'm not in CO. When I post that automatically comes up. I have a "Vista" computer so I don't type in an address you biotch.Yes she was having surgery, why are you so desperately trying to deny it? CARLA YOU IDIOT I WAS THERE!!!!!Now Carla go tell your trainors you've F'd up. "

Notice the furious tone of the accused poster. He/She is outraged and at least for me their "explanation" made no sense. There were so many Denver posts why would Conservative Republican assume "Carla" was speaking to them specifically? This is the kind of thing that happens too often and is infuriating to the rest of us- we aren't idiots.

As I write this two more Denver, CO posts were made, one immediately after the other:

Walton
Denver, CO
" I think its nice in America where two re-tards can get married and have kids. If they were born in Russia Jon would have been sent to an institution and Kate would be cleaning toilets. That poor kid Collin has a huge head. And they have decided not to document Mady's mental breakdown on the show. So Jon has downs syndrome and Kate is just mildly retarded? They function so well. I hope TLC has more shows about retarded couples with lots of kids. Why is Collins head so huge? I think Collin and Hannah shows significant signs of down syndrome, they probably caught it from Jon. Someone should set up a fund for these two retards and their kids so we can send money to them so they can have more kids."


Kate Just LOOKS Retarded
Denver, CO
"Ok-So when you have 2 retards make babies well the babies are usually retards. When I was in high school there was a girl with downs syndrome who had Kates haircut. I think that is why many of you think she is a retard. I can tell you that all 8 of the Gosselin children have Down syndrome, also known as trisomy 21. I have to also say, that I have noticed a growing number of women, with Kate's hairstyle while doing my shopping. The mall looked like a retard hangout....It does look good on some women if they are retarded like Kate, but not on all of them. Jon definitely has downs syndrome. Thats why Kate is always correcting him. She scolds him alot because he is stupid."

So that brings the total Denver posters to 16, and you can add the names "Walton" and the more inspired "Kate Just Looks Retarded" to the alias list. I genuinely hope these people don't procreate. If you have time here is another article with sock puppeting posters to check out.

So fellow posters- how do you feel about this little online issue?

43 comments:

Lizzy said...

This is actually part of the reason why things are as they are on the new Psychology Dossier site. When I first thought about starting it up, I wanted to make sure sock puppets were kept at bay. People can pretend to be anyone online, and while most of the time this is a nuisance and makes that person look like an idiot, there are other times where the desired outcome is more sinister.

It is great to get opposing opinions, but if a person feels it necessary to pretend to be multiple people either to argue with others or to support their own (original screenname) ideas then that is crossing the line. I just do not see the point-- is your opinion *SO* important and vital to the Gosselin blog world that you feel the need to reinforce your thoughts? Seriously?

We need to all be careful and wary when posting any personal information online. I don't even use my actual email address with anyone but the moderators and posters I have known here for awhile (well, and friends and family of course!). It does not hurt to protect yourself and your information, especially now that we are more aware of all the socks that are around...

themrs said...

sounds to me like someone needs to get a job or a hobby:) waaayyy to much free time on their hands. where do people find the time for all this ridiculousness? i know i've become much more cautious about what i believe online. one thing that really sealed it for me was when that woman posted an account of a J&K speaking engagement on her personal blog. then she had to update that many of the responses were the same person. she left the entries but marked them as spam. it was interesting to read through and see all the different names that were the same person.
interestingly, one of the identities was calling out another poster as being a liar! if that's not the pot calling the kettle black i don't know what is!http://high-five.net/?p=421

Anonymous said...

Crap, I always miss the good stuff! I wanna know who the socket puppet is. The GWOPers are notorious for the screenname games, they even post on GWOP in identical names to the Princess board posters names. Its kinda funny to see how desperate they are.

Nina Bell said...

Several days ago, someone left a comment here directing people to go to the Utah site to read some of the comments. I posted the comment and then went over to the site. Within minutes someone from Tampa Florida was posting comments about this blog and our posters. Of course I deleted the initial comment to our site, but the whole reason for the comment posted to our site was to get us to come over there and play. They must have been bored talking to themselves.

Actually I was more flattered than upset. Obviously we get under their skin. We must be doing something right.

Daisy said...

Samantha, thank you for your well written article and exposing the sock puppet. I was following the exchange. At first it was infuriating and with the last few posts it seemed as if a 3 year old had learned a new word. It was repeated over and over and over...

Samantha@IW said...

Can you believe these are adults? These people actually walk amonng us and prbably seem "normal"! Glad I don't live in Denver. . . . :)

Anonymous said...

It would be really interesting to know what drives people to do this stuff. I can't help thinking that it is someone who has too much time on their hands and loves to stir up some controversy. A poster on a forum that I read (non J and K) admitted that she has used various sock puppets on many different blogs and forums to agree with her arguments. She said that she was going through a rough time emotionally and needed to "win" at something. I also think that some people do it just to stir up some excitement in their day.

During the presidential campaign, I read about supporters from both candidates posting inflammatory messages in support of the other one, presumably to make the other side look bad. People have waaaay too much time on their hands.

Nina Bell said...

To Misty Me,

Pretty funny since this article had absolutely nothing to do with GWoP.
But you jumped right on it and immediately said we were bashing GWoP.Only one comment out of 7 mentioned that site.

Yesterday someone tried to send two comments through that discussed something that was up on GWoP. Was upset that they had it posted but we didn't.

So who is reading who's site?

MommyZinger said...

I've become interested in this topic recently. (I think we all know why) Interested enough to want to read up on it. I found a few books about it that I might read. "The Psychology of the Internet" and "Oxford Handbook of Internet Psychology". The second book hasn't been released yet but has anyone read the first title?

I would like to know if there is a profile for sockpuppeters. Are they mostly male or female? How old? What do they do for a living?

rain88 said...

I believe it is attention they are looking for, some of them might be quite different in their every day life. I have one online friend from another community that is hated by almost everyone there, she attacks, and she's over the top argumentative. She finally got kicked out. She thrives on the attention, even if she is hated. When I talk to her privately she is a completely different person. She has personal issues and that's how they manifest themselves online.

I think the worst thing that can happen for posters like that is to be ignored. I feel bad for the moderators here having to sort through such nonsense.

Mom said...

I think sockpuppeting is so juvenile. It's one thing to have a different name for the different forums you post in, but all in one forum? Silly.

I've only posted as "mom" or "momofone" here. I do post under another handle at some different forums not related to J&K - most of which have to do with my personal interests, hobbies and diet (lol!).

One thing I have learned while reading the different J&K blogs and forums is that there are definitely some "regulars" floating around. You can tell by the lingo they use, the way they punctuate or misspell/misuse a word.

Some of my favs are:

-looser instead of loser
-lots of exclamation points!!!!!!!!!
-ALL CAPPING certain words ALL THE TIME
-hitting the return key after each sentence
-typing some type of line after the question posed by another poster and prior to their answer (example: @@@@@@@@@@@ or ########### or ============)

We all have our own writing styles - I like dashes! LOL!

The PM scenario opened my eyes to sockpuppeting as a whole. Before that I thought it was just something you sewed buttons and glued yarn on!

Great article Samantha!

Lizabeth - this would make a good article on the IPD blog, too!

Daisy said...

I completely agree Samantha. What gets me is that some sock puppets say they're parents. They talk smack about how the Gosselins are raising their children and then go and make up stuff about working for J&K, being a volunteer, a nanny, having an affair with Jon in Utah and the list goes on. What kind of parental example is that? It's ok to lie about a family you don't know? I don't think so.

Lizzy said...

Daisy, the anonymity of being a sock is what draws people to that kind of behavior. Its like starting a rumor in high school- no one will remember where they heard it, you will get to watch someone squirm (or cry), and still have no consequences. I agree about the type of example that sets.

Mom, I also have other handles for a recipe site, my personal blogging from years ago, etc. Like I said somewhere else I mainly stick with this blogging (and the Psych Dossier now) and Facebook. At least with Facebook people are who they say they are and if not then you can tell very fast. MTV and VH1 both have blog and info sites set up (iamonmtv.com and famousvh1friends.com) with verified accounts for their personalities. This way if the person says they are Bret Michaels, you know VH1 has verified it and has the site worked out with his people and information. Just another step in making sure their reality TV people are kept more safe from stalking fans, etc.

The scary thing about sock puppetting is how quickly the random statements someone says online can become fact. There are SO many fallacies about Jon and Kate which can be traced back to various and sundry socks which have now been proven fake. It is disappointing how those lies keep being spread as truth then when the person is questioned on what article or place they got the info from its discovered it was certain blogs from "family" or "friends," or a comment on some message board from a random poster whose ID had never been seen again.

Daisy said...

Lizabeth, that's exactly how the rumor about J&K making $25,000 per speaking engagement got started. Someone posted it on one of the first forums and then it got talked about and talked about and then it became "fact".

Anonymous said...

Did anyone see Dr. Phil yesterday? I know, too much time on my hands, but I really just like background noise while I work.

Anyway, some lady fell for someone on line thinking it was Matthew Perry the actor, but later learned it was a teen girl from the UK.

These people might not be adults at all, is my point. Just bored kids not realizing their possible impact.

It is scary how anonymous the internet makes us.

Zappa said...

I just want to note that the "location" listed on those forums is not always correct. For example, if I am posting from work my location will show up as Illinois even though I am sitting at my desk in PA because my company's corporate headquarters is located in IL. I can then go home and post and the location will show PA correctly.

Granted, the Denver, CO posters are most likely sock puppets, but please don't jump to conclusions based only on the listed city and state.

Mom said...

Zappa -
You are correct. When I am working, my IP says I'm halfway across the states versus my home which puts me in the correct city. :-)

Samantha@IW said...

Granted, the Denver, CO posters are most likely sock puppets, but please don't jump to conclusions based only on the listed city and state.

Zappa-
I know exactly what you mean- however in this situation its highly unlikely that "all" those poster's locations were incorrect.

MoreCowbell said...

I think we know the average intelligence of the sock puppet from Denver. Anyone who uses the outdated, offensive term "retarded" is of suspect intelligence and class.

To quote a trashy VH-1 show, "Sorry Denver. You're just a tool." Now go away.

What I find extremely ironic is that back when I read TWoP and GWoP, anytime the GWoP blog received a sock puppet comment laced with random capitalization and lots of vulgarities, they always declared it to be Jon (or his brother, Mark), posting on their board. Yes, they were that full of themselves to think that Jon or Mark Gosselin bothered arguing with them, let alone read their board every day. Then they'd post the message on their Super Seekret Message Board and giggle about "Look what Jon posted today."

-lots of exclamation points!!!!!!!!!
-ALL CAPPING certain words ALL THE TIME


Well, both of these are hallmarks of a particularly vile, Google happy, friend of the National Enquirer that I remember from "over there." I never realized mental patients were allowed laptops.

Darlene Williams said...

How sad a life you must have where you feel you need to make different accounts and names so you can have an argument with yourself along with different strangers on a discussion board. Weird! When you think about it, it sounds so strange...having conversations with yourself. I don't get it! Or when someone else needs to use your handle just to stir the pot like the doppleganers on GWOP using the Princess posters handles. Sad!!

Guinevere said...

What I don't understand is that these often seem to be people who are so sure of the righteousness of their "cause" - doesn't it give them pause that they are making up lies and pretending to be different people in service of convincing others? Or do they just figure that the ends justify the means?

Mary said...

I think there is a particular thrill that people who do this sock puppet thing seem to be thriving on. I always used AOL for my reading boards and my AOL screen name would be what my group recognized me as and I always signed my posts as did most of us. We are a tight community and many of us have met. I realized early on that even something as docile and uncontroversial as a book board could have trolls, bullies and, thanks to this blog teaching me about it-Sock Puppets. There was one man who was just angry as hell and he felt he owned a certain group of book boards. He could be perfectly charming to his friends but hateful, sarcastic and just plain ugly to anyone he disagreed with. He went on to invade other book boards under different names. I remember thinking..why?
What's in it for him? I later found out he was a single man, getting up there in years, lonely, working at some nominal job and had a few other psychological battles he was duking it out with in his own narrow life. Point is, he made a lot of people feel upset and hurt as well as threatened. I was the only one who caught him and got him Tos'ed (remember those days if you were an AOLer?)by IMing him and engaging him in a conversation which I was copying as we wrote. He was vulgar and threatening to me. I sent it in, got him kicked off for a time and it seems that he kind of slithered away a little bit more each week after that. Then the blog world erupts and I enter it as a regular person with a Google identity and a name. It never occurred to me, ever, to pose as someone else. My day is filled with so many different things and, yes, I enjoy a few places on the internet. Most of them have to do with reading, scrapbooking, card making and writing. The Gosselin attraction grew out of spending 4 months basically trapped while I was sick. Lots of time for TV and the computer, missing all the things I normally do. When I found gwop, I was appalled. When I saw other places and what they were saying, I was disgusted. I know a little about the truth about some things re the show and know a complete falsehood when I read it. Who pays for what and how much is one of those things. I noticed the anonymous postings and the times of each post and realized that many of these people were simply posting alone, or, having a conversation with themselves! Although I have always had a healthy sense of self protection on the internet, it would never occur to me to write here without my same name. What on earth for? Then the PM thing played out and to see how far reaching the tentacles of that sad and pathetic case reached certainly made me much more aware and savvy.

I'm sorry for folks who need to do this to feel satisfied or whole. I think it's a reflection of more than their everyday life. It's also a reflection of character or lack thereof. And if they don't have a barometer of their own behavior, it's always going to be a part of what they do. My biggest surprise is how many people there are who do this. They eventually always give themselves away. I spend most of my time now that I'm healthy again doing so many varied things and the internet remains a favorite because it opens up the world to us all, but spending my time researching all areas chasing after one person/family/blog, cause? Obsession. And that's just not good.

Anya@IW said...

MommyZinger said...I would like to know if there is a profile for sockpuppeters. Are they mostly male or female? How old? What do they do for a living?

Me too. I really don't know how much research has been done. I am looking forward to the research that 'Internet Psychology Dossier' will hopefully do on this in the future. It's a pretty big topic, however, and I think we are just at the frontier of understanding this type of behavior and what drives it.

TheMrs. I remember the blog you are talking about where the various posters were outed. Very telling and eye opening.

Cincy Mom...These people might not be adults at all, is my point. Just bored kids not realizing their possible impact.

I'd like to think that. I remember as a young kid playing around on the telephone a few times innocently. Kids don't always realize the full impact of their actions and have not yet fully formed their moral compasses. My sense is there are quite a few adults engaging in this behavior, however. Very sad.

Guinevere said...What I don't understand is that these often seem to be people who are so sure of the righteousness of their "cause" - doesn't it give them pause that they are making up lies and pretending to be different people in service of convincing others?

I don't know about you guys, but I don't feel the need (compulsion?) to try and convince others of my opinion. Sure, it's nice when a another poster says "good point" or something to that effect, but while I do enjoy sharing my opinion (as well as reading the opinions of others), I pretty much go into it with the idea that most people have made up their minds already and nothing I say - whether I post once or 20 times is going to change anyone's mind.

Mary said...It's also a reflection of character or lack thereof.

I totally agree. Notwithstanding the fact that some of these posters may be young people or mentally ill, the behavior is still WRONG. I'm not particularly religious, but is this not a direct violation of the 8th commandment? I have to give my mother credit - she raised me better than that.

Jenn said...

I live about 100 miles away from Denver. I could take a drive and find myself a sock puppet! :)

Anonymous said...

One of the articles that I read had a list of business men and politicians that had been caught using sock puppetry to argue/agree with their own positions on an issue. Apparently they weren't getting enough love from the other posters.

Darlene Williams said...

How do these people who use sockpuppets keep track of all there identities? I wonder if they keep a diary of all the fake people so when they are having a conversation they know which one to use and what story went with each person. It sounds like a lot of work. Has anyone else other than PM been caught on here as a sock?

marci said...

My take on this particular sockpuppet (as well as others) is that a large part of why they do this is because they don't think their opinion is carrying much weight in their "real" lives with the people around them. Hence, when the opportunity to anomymously ram it down the throats of the other members of a blogging community arises, they go for it.

I think there may be junior high flashbacks going on also...like they feel on the fringes of an online group and want to make the people who are generally agreeing or getting along (the "cool" kids) *see* them more by creating socks that agree with their opinions.

I don't know....there's probably a laundry list of reasons this person does this, and an equally long list of reasons how she justifies it in her head. Pretty pathetic, if you ask me.

Samantha@IW said...

Marci-

I would also like to add your list of reasons that they're jerks :) with a capital J

Anya@IW said...

jace said...One of the articles that I read had a list of business men and politicians that had been caught using sock puppetry to argue/agree with their own positions on an issue.

Well, that's interesting. That takes the deception to a whole new and very disturbing level.

indianprincess said...How do these people who use sockpuppets keep track of all there identities? I wonder if they keep a diary of all the fake people so when they are having a conversation they know which one to use and what story went with each person. It sounds like a lot of work. Has anyone else other than PM been caught on here as a sock?

No kidding. I have enough trouble keeping my own life straight and I am living it.

Nobody to my knowledge has perpetrated anything *on this blog* to the level PM did. I have to give credit to Nina. She's pretty good at figuring out obvious socks and she will call them out. It's easier for them to play their games on Topix and other unmoderated boards....

Anya@IW said...

jace said...One of the articles that I read had a list of business men and politicians that had been caught using sock puppetry to argue/agree with their own positions on an issue.

Well, that's interesting. That takes the deception to a whole new and very disturbing level.

indianprincess said...How do these people who use sockpuppets keep track of all there identities? I wonder if they keep a diary of all the fake people so when they are having a conversation they know which one to use and what story went with each person. It sounds like a lot of work. Has anyone else other than PM been caught on here as a sock?

No kidding. I have enough trouble keeping my own life straight and I am living it.

Nobody to my knowledge has perpetrated anything *on this blog* to the level PM did. I have to give credit to Nina. She's pretty good at figuring out obvious socks and she will call them out. It's easier for them to play their games on Topix and other unmoderated boards....

Anonymous said...

This is why I love this site! It's not always about Gosselins- other things/ideas/stories are posted. I learned something today about the "sock puppets."

I had to laugh at a PP observation of the grammar used on these blogs. It drives me crazy when people use "then" instead of "than" and don't know the difference between, "two, too, to" or "there, their"

Have a great night- The Office is on!

I too like dashes :)

Anonymous said...

That's interesting about the businessmen and politicians. I wonder how many sock puppets there are on non-Gosselin sites. Is is more prevalant on sites that tend to bash public figures?

I do know that there are plenty of fakers on the net. The ones I have heard about have been someone pretending to be ill or a teen (usually) faking a family with higher order multiples (3 or more). The fakers will steal pictures of kids to represent as their own. Does this relate at all to those alternate world games on the net? I don't know what they are called - but you have a character with a job, love affairs, etc.

Jenn said...

I think the sock puppet wore themself out. It must take a lot of energy to recreate yourself every 10 minutes.

I think whoever was posting from Denver just wanted some attention. Some feel very passionate about this subject and I think they knew they would get a rise out of people regardless of which side of the fence they sit.

Anonymous said...

VDR,

That's interesting; I've never heard about people pretending to have HOM. There are HOM in my immediate family (which initially drew me to J&K+8), but I didn't know they were a source of prestige. Do people pretend to get money, or do they want people to marvel, or what? Lol, I didn't even know what HOM stood for until relatively recently. Given that so many celebrities are using fertility drugs to conceive (and many end up with twins), I thought there'd be less awe at multiples since many people assume that regular people got them through fertility drugs as well. I hope this makes sense; it's late.

ITA with the poster who gets annoyed at simple grammar errors. I don't care about a typo here and there, but word confusion bugs me! =)

Guinevere said...

I don't know about you guys, but I don't feel the need (compulsion?) to try and convince others of my opinion. Sure, it's nice when a another poster says "good point" or something to that effect, but while I do enjoy sharing my opinion (as well as reading the opinions of others), I pretty much go into it with the idea that most people have made up their minds already and nothing I say - whether I post once or 20 times is going to change anyone's mind.

I agree. I think there's a basic insecurity there - the poster doesn't think her opinion is worthy enough to stand on its own. I still just wonder how people justify it to themselves, especially considering that some of these posters are very self-righteous and judgmental about others' behavior. I mean, even if I were tempted to sockpuppet (I'm not), I would feel so sleazy and dishonest doing it. It wouldn't be worth it to me, even if I thought I'd "scored a point".


How do these people who use sockpuppets keep track of all there identities? I wonder if they keep a diary of all the fake people so when they are having a conversation they know which one to use and what story went with each person. It sounds like a lot of work.

I know! It sounds exhausting to me. Especially in those cases where people create elaborate ongoing sockpuppet personalities with histories and everything. How do they keep their lies straight?

What I find extremely ironic is that back when I read TWoP and GWoP, anytime the GWoP blog received a sock puppet comment laced with random capitalization and lots of vulgarities, they always declared it to be Jon (or his brother, Mark), posting on their board. Yes, they were that full of themselves to think that Jon or Mark Gosselin bothered arguing with them, let alone read their board every day.

Sometimes people who engage in immoral behaviors make themselves feel better about what they are doing by assuming or accusing others of doing it.

Unknown said...

Great article Sam-love the puppet. This brings back all the accusations from PM and BM. Not a fun place to be.

I do think Nina and co. do a great job keeping this blog on the up and up.

Anya@IW said...

Off-topic, but I just wanted to point out that Nina has posted a "TV Talk" post on the right side bar under the poll. This will stay up throughout the week so we can discuss our favorite shows.

Anya@IW said...

Off-topic, but I just wanted to point out that Nina has posted a "TV Talk" post on the right side bar under the poll. This will stay up throughout the week so we can discuss our favorite shows.

merryway said...

Anya said

..I'd like to think that. I remember as a young kid playing around on the telephone a few times innocently. ..


I remember doing this stuff around 12-14, before you could drive or go out that often with friends that could drive. We spent the night a lot at each other's houses and did goofy shit, danced and ate. I could see doing this same thing on boards as a teenager just to laugh at the cause and affect of the wonder of what we had done, or to laugh at the stupid people. But, I don't think that's the case in the Gosselin blogs. Then you go to the extreme invention of PM, we would have never thought of doing anything like that.

rain88 said...
I believe it is attention they are looking for, some of them might be quite different in their every day life. I have one online friend from another community that is hated by almost everyone there, she attacks, and she's over the top argumentative. She finally got kicked out. She thrives on the attention, even if she is hated. When I talk to her privately she is a completely different person. She has personal issues and that's how they manifest themselves online.

That's interesting that they manifest themselves online. I wonder if it becomes addictive.

Ann said...

Thanks for this article, Samantha. I was following the night it was happening, and I was really dismayed that the Denver "sock" would make up nasty stories about Jon. It's just another variation on, "I hate the Gosselins, so I'll bring them down any way I can."

I agree with Fiona that the moderators here are very responsible about their blog, and do a great job trying to keep the place sockpuppet-free as best as possible.

Samantha@IW said...

Thanks Fiona :)

Anonymous said...

I have taken a break from the show and this site because I just got burned out...burned out with all "reality" t.v. (Duggers, Gosselins and Roloffs).

I was going to just take a quick peek at this site and then I saw this! It nevers fails to shock me over some people's "HATE". And the hate is spilling over on the children! Have they no shame?!
It's sad...and I hope the Gosselin children NEVER see this stuff on the internet!

I feel that the internet is a double edged sword. Is this the right expression to use to describe just how dangerous the internet can be for people? It makes me think of that young girl who committed suicide over a grown woman pretending to be a teenaged boy! It's like poison.

I saw the preview for Jon and Kate's new episode for tonight. I'll be watching another show...I still feel burned out, but I'm happy for this family on their new home.

Nancy said...

I have one other "identity" which I use in other discussion groups. Since this group seems to like the Blogger ID best, that is what I use here. Nowhere have I ever used this screen name to "answer" the other screen name.... even though it sounds like fun, LOL!