Wikipedia:Sock puppet
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
People at Wikipedia say that someone is using a sock puppet when they have 2 accounts that write articles at the same time, and pretend that they are the same person. Sometimes one of these accounts is an IP address, and sometimes both are. On Wikipedia, it is okay to have many accounts and to use many different IP addresses. But it is not okay to use this to pretend that you are popular. Some people use sock puppets when voting, or when arguing about something, to pretend that more people agree with them. Some people use them when editing an article.
Wikipedia made up the name "sock puppet" because a socket is the name of an IP address, and some people call that a "sock" for short. They use the word puppet because someone else is really doing it. It is a bit like we say a "puppet President" when someone else is really controlling things.
Many people on Wikipedia trick people by using sock puppets. Only a few people can see if two people are really the same person, by using Wikipedia:Check User, and this can trick people too. Some people say that someone is a sock puppet for a trick of their own.
People should be careful about saying that someone is a sock puppet when they are not sure. People get very upset about this. But if they are sure, they should say to someone that they think that they are a sock puppet.
