Friday, January 30, 2009

Sockpuppetry is Bad Karma II


Definitions: sock puppet
noun

  1. A simple puppet made from a sock placed over the hand of the puppeteer.
  2. (internet) In an online community, a second account created by a user who already has an account, this second account being set up by that user so as to seem to be for a different user.
I have noted previously Mandate Media's online echo chamber and their seemingly successful staff of sock puppets. By all appearances, the king of the trolls is "navvoter" who has been previously identified as Preemptive Karma's Kevin Kamberg.


Posted by steveforsen on 02/27/08 at 12:29AM

I believe "navvoter" is the same user as karmaman, Kevin Kamberg of Preemptive Karma, who has used the stiff left hook and effusive phraseology the same way in other places to refer to Novick's endorsement. He is on a crusade to counteract the positive reaction to Novick's statement on Obama, particularly at Daily Kos and Huffington Post, where--beyond Kamberg and two or three other regular Merkley supporters appearing in such places to douse enthusiasm for Novick--literally hundreds of completely uninvolved readers from around the country gave it their approval.

See for yourself here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/2/25/155910/884

and here
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-novick/why-ill-be-voting-for-ba_b_88324.html

Sockpuppetry to present the illusion of broader support is a tactic betraying weakness, IMO.



It's no big deal that Kevin has chosen a cute new handle midstream. What does cross the line however for this budding blogger cum journalist is that he continues to comment on OregonLive as "karmaman," indeed sometimes in the same post. Such use of multiple personalities is classic sock puppetry.

Upon further search, it turns out that karmaman/navvoter have been busy gaming the reddit website too. (Both personas have a penchant for recommending posts on Kamberg's Preemptive Karma.)


Update: A request for comment from "navvoter" remains unanswered as both his and "karmaman's" reddit karma seems to be tanking.

Feb. 3 / Feb. 5

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