QUOTE (defixesst @ Sep 14 2009, 04:33 AM)

Well only 18 members have confirmed themselves so far, i have openly stated that i am one person, registered once with one ID. Where are all the other members, its awfully quiet,

anyhow as i stated in another thread here, maybe we could do a member vote on one ID only, and present it for consideration to Admin

One thing it will do, is sort out who is who here

While I agree that each person should only have one ID, the problem is how do we enforce it? There are 24 forums here and around 51,000 registered members. That includes old accounts that haven't been used in years, new members, members who post regularly on one or more forums, as well as some who have multiple identities. If there were an official rule, then would it prevent someone from having one identity for one forum (say...ciaddict) and another identity on another forum (svuaddict, monkaddict, psychaddict...you get my drift)? Yes, only a few people have listed their ID in this thread. But I haven't yet been able to understand how listing my name here, even though it is listed next to every one of my 7,000+ posts, proves that I don't have another identity. Couldn't I just come on this thread as each of my identities and say, "Hi, I'm ciaddict" "Hi, I'm svuaddict" "Hi, I'm monkaddict", etc. How would anyone know that they are all me? (and BTW...I don't even know if there are members with those other names and if there are, sorry to use you as an example)
The biggest problem I see with a rule like that is how do we track down who has multiple IDs? There are two people here who have been "outed" as having multiple IDs...one "outed" herself, the other one I discovered quite by accident. There is a way for the moderators to see how many members are posting messages from the same computer....pretty compelling "evidence". But there are some members who live in the same household; they don't come around anymore, but Andy and Angela come to mind. We could start systematically doing a search of each IP address for each member. But think of this: 51,000 members. And I don't know about anyone else, but there are at least 2 different computers I use on a regular basis and maybe 4 or 5 that I have used at one time or another. So we start with ciaddict and her 7,000 posts....go to post 1 and check the IP address and see if any other members have posted from that computer. Now we go to the second IP address for ciaddict and check to see if any other members have posted from that computer. And we sift through her 7,000 posts to make sure we have found each IP address she has posted from. OK! Finally done with ciaddict, and yes we do find one other member who registered (but never posted) from her address...a result of the upgrade that left her unable to log on and her attempt to create a new account. And...some of those IP addresses are computers at her mother or sisters houses....are there any other members posting from those computers? Are there any other family members who might also be LOCI fans and be members on this board? We'll have to find out that information somehow.
OK....now multiply that by 51,000. I'm already exhausted just tracking down ciaddict. While you do the math, I'm gonna go have some Triple Chocolate Cheesecake.
Now...defixesst, I dont' mean to make fun of you or KRod or this thread. I completely understand the frustration of thinking you are talking to several people and then finding out it's really one. I completely understand, and agree, that members should only have one ID. And I know from personal experience how much trouble that some have caused with their multiple IDs....although there are others with multiple IDs who have not caused any trouble at all. I just think that we need to deal with troublemakers as they come along on a case by case basis. The moderators are not full-time employees of USA. We are just regular members, like yourself, and most of us have full-time jobs and other RL commitments that prevent us from providing 24 hour vigilance. We are doing the best we can, but trying to sift through 51,000 accounts to find those that have multiple IDs is just not feasible.
We are certainly open to suggestions and we will do our best.