C
ChristopherD
Guest
I am a researcher carrying out a study into online religious communities. During the course of my research, I began to suspect that a single user was operating a number of sock puppet accounts on CAF. This is, of course, not unusual on internet forums. @redcatholic, for example, recently revealed that he has used more than seven different accounts. Most sock puppets, however, such as those operated by @redcatholic, are fairly crude and are usually easily identifiable. Each sock puppet is merely a new iteration of the same personality.
I have, however, identified a user whom I am calling Kim. I am calling them Kim (and using a gender-neutral pronoun) because it is impossible to determine whether Kim is male or female. It is an androgynous name and also a nod to Kim Philby. After I had identified two of Kim’s sock puppet accounts, I asked a colleague in computer science to help me to identify a shortlist of other accounts which may have been operated by the same person. After reviewing these findings, and monitoring further developments, I believe that I have identified at least seven accounts which I believe to be operated by Kim. Curiously, two of these accounts were identified as sock puppets of each other and were deleted by CAF, but they were never linked to any of Kim’s other accounts.
What makes Kim unusual, and so fascinating to me as a researcher, is that all of their accounts have distinct personalities. I believe that Kim’s iterations have been male and female, white and black, married and unmarried, a parent (and indeed a grandparent) and childless. Kim has had at least three different nationalities and five different religions. Their political ideologies have been right-wing and left-wing, conservative and liberal. Perhaps interestingly, Kim has been straight and bisexual, but never, as far as I can tell, gay. Kim’s age spans a range of at least 30 years. However, I have also identified features of Kim’s posts which strongly suggest that they are all the work of a single hand.
All that I believe that I can say with certainty is that Kim is seemingly well educated and is a native English-speaker with an ability to write fluently in different varieties of English. It is possible that they are, or have been, an ordained minister or seminarian.
I had intended to keep these preliminary findings to myself until my research was ready for publication, but, with CAF about to close, I have had to bring forward the timing of this post. If anybody has entertained suspicions that something of this kind may have been going on, I’d be interested to hear your opinions below.
My best wishes to you all,
Christopher
I have, however, identified a user whom I am calling Kim. I am calling them Kim (and using a gender-neutral pronoun) because it is impossible to determine whether Kim is male or female. It is an androgynous name and also a nod to Kim Philby. After I had identified two of Kim’s sock puppet accounts, I asked a colleague in computer science to help me to identify a shortlist of other accounts which may have been operated by the same person. After reviewing these findings, and monitoring further developments, I believe that I have identified at least seven accounts which I believe to be operated by Kim. Curiously, two of these accounts were identified as sock puppets of each other and were deleted by CAF, but they were never linked to any of Kim’s other accounts.
What makes Kim unusual, and so fascinating to me as a researcher, is that all of their accounts have distinct personalities. I believe that Kim’s iterations have been male and female, white and black, married and unmarried, a parent (and indeed a grandparent) and childless. Kim has had at least three different nationalities and five different religions. Their political ideologies have been right-wing and left-wing, conservative and liberal. Perhaps interestingly, Kim has been straight and bisexual, but never, as far as I can tell, gay. Kim’s age spans a range of at least 30 years. However, I have also identified features of Kim’s posts which strongly suggest that they are all the work of a single hand.
All that I believe that I can say with certainty is that Kim is seemingly well educated and is a native English-speaker with an ability to write fluently in different varieties of English. It is possible that they are, or have been, an ordained minister or seminarian.
I had intended to keep these preliminary findings to myself until my research was ready for publication, but, with CAF about to close, I have had to bring forward the timing of this post. If anybody has entertained suspicions that something of this kind may have been going on, I’d be interested to hear your opinions below.
My best wishes to you all,
Christopher
oliceman: 
