Sockpuppet

I just learned a new word today - Sockpuppet. Oh, I don't mean I just learned what those cute little puppets are called that are made out of socks or sock material. I learned that sockpuppet is a technical word used to describe someone who is using a second identity on an Internet forum or discussion board in order to say or do things that his main identity can't.
For example, a person might use one or more sockpuppets to make it look like several others agree with his viewpoint. Or he might use a sockpuppet to argue with and be a "straight man" for positions he wants to attack or make fun of.

In some cases it is easy to tell when a sockpuppet is speaking because the grammar, spelling, or MO is simply too much like the owner. Other times, real participants are labeled sockpuppets incorrectly because they sound so much like another participant on the board. There's even a word - dank - that refers to someone attempting to use a sockpuppet alias but forgets to change to the proper account when he posts over the sockpuppet signature. That must be embarrassing.

I must be one of the few people who haven't heard this word used this way. Yesterday's Sacramento Bee used the term in a headline referring to a PG&E shill hired for $200,000 to campaign against an expansion proposal of our local electric utility. The term was never explained or even used in the article.

Carolyn also reminds me that the practice is hardly new. Ben Franklin regularly published articles in his newspaper and almanac that he credited to other people thinking that he would have no credibility if all his articles were just self-published. I'll bet Ben would have appreciated the term "sockpuppet".