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In the past twelve hours, two people I don't know with brand shiny new, empty LJs have friended me.

Has this happened to anyone else?

location: Trying to raise the energy to work

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There are 25 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

Yep, just not today.
Wanna cook up some conspiracy theories?

Bwahahahahaha!!!

Ooh, I'm ALWAYS up for that!

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No {sulk}.

OTOH, I have two extra and quite empty LJs, not so much sockpuppets and auxiliary reading lists for stuff I'm quite interested in but don't want to see every day. OTOOH, I only friend communities on them, not individuals (I prefer them to know who they're getting, so they get - errr - me) and don't use them for commenting, just reading. They're not really sockpuppets, just... silent socks :)

Well, one of them is *only* friended to me. The other only has me friended as an individual, and Moonridge 2007 is the only non-LJ community they're on. I mean - what???

::is still dubious::

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Heh. It happens to me all the time! I've got loads of the little devils, and 'Blair Sandburg' even seems to have friended me:

anthroguide. Hence my paranoia about friending people back. Most of them are probably innocent enough souls, but some (like

anthroguide) definitely have a sockpuppet feel. And as you and I well know, there are some total nutcases in the TS fandom, who I'd rather not have within a million miles of my LJ...

Ain't t'internet a funny old thing?

Well I ain't friending them back, not fer nuthin, no suree!

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Sorry to be so stupid, but what's a sockpuppet?

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There's a good explanation of sockpuppets here.

Basically, they are an alternate identity, which a person invents to express views they don't want connected with them. For example, in TS I know of one person who used a sockpuppet to praise and pimp a project she was involved with, as well as bash others she didn't personally like. The sock was presented as a complete newbie to the fandom, when in fact that was a total lie. It was also rather transparent, and an IP address search proved her to be a veteran fanfic writer, who just wanted to promote herself and vent at the people she hated without anyone knowing it was actually her :-).

I must admit, I find such behaviour fascinating - hence my rather ironic icon... LOL

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Thanks, Bev! I had no idea that sockpuppets existed. Your explanation and the Wikipedia entry really do the trick:)) At first I thought you were talking about the adventures of the Jim and Blair beanie babies, but, that didn't make much sense. And, then, I was wondering what you were doing with several rolled up socks around your head. And that didn't make much sense either, considering they had arms attached to them. LOL! Not incidentally, your icon is a great metaphor.

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Hm... You'd have to ask them of course, but maybe they are TS fen new to LJ? People who found LJ through you (or Moonridge?) Is that possible? Afaik you don't have any fic on your LJ you don't have anywhere else, though, do you?

I had a couple of strangers friend me so far, but was never really bothered by it. They popped up and then went away. Of course, I don't share much personal stuff on my LJ, so...

I think what bothers me most is that they've *only* friended me. If they were just new fen then, I'm totally alright with that, but then, you'd expect them to friend more than just one person. If it was someone I knew, you'd think they'd have emailed me, or posted to my LJ.

::shrug::

It's a mystery. (o:

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I think what bothers me most is that they've *only* friended me.

Yeah, I can understand that. But I've heard that some LJ newbees had a real hard time finding out who else was a TS fan and thus whom to friend. But I agree that your cases seem a bit obscure for that scenario. Do you plan on asking them who they are? At least the person who also watches the Moonridge LJ doesn't sound too suspicious...

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One of them is someone I knew! Yay! Someone I've known an *awfully* long time aamof. Someone I squeed with this very weekend.

Ahe PMed me this morining to explain that she wasn't now, and had no plans to become, a sock puppet. This gladdens me and I have now friended her back. (o:

Which has me wondering about the other one... ::muses::

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Another dumb question: is a fen the same thing as a fan? I know I should know, but I don't.

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It's just the plural of 'fan'.

Not dumb - everyone has to go through this learning process at some stage. (o: Though, (handy tips time) when I was a newbie, way back when, I used to google all acronyms and odd words I didn't understand - they're all there, with explanations. ::G::

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Ah! the joys of being a newbie! Thanks, Gilly! Last year I read someone's LJ in which *fen* seemed to occur at least in every other sentence, and, then, there is*Journalfen*
which I didn't even bother to decipher. Being the lazy old broad that I am, it never occurred to me to google it. :G:

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Hasn't happened to me...and if it was someone from the weekly chat, you'd think they'd have friended the bunch of us that's usually there...on the other hand, the fact that they've also friended Moonridge would suggest that they're fen of some sort...

There have been a couple of times after seeing their profiles that I've wanted to email them and ask why the heck they friended me! But I went with ignoring them. *g*

The other day someone friended me, so I went to her profile and saw that she'd friended about 200 people in the space of two days, so I figured she's just trying to fill her flist or something. I didn't bother friending her back, needless to say. =>}

The Net brings out all the crazies, for sure! *g*

Some people just have empty ljs so they can use the flist as a reading list. Nobody says you have to friend them back - I certainly don't, but if they want to read my public posts, no worries. *g*

you're both popular writers so being friended isn't that hard to understand. A person who's been on lists for ages, fought the whole lj thing, but finally decided to give in and get one, well, heck, the first their going to do is friend their favorite authors!

OTOH - sock people are pretty rampant too.

Aren't I just the little problem solver? ::snicker::

Er...that should have been: :the first THING THEY'RE going to do....

Oy

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I suppose what's bothering me is that I'm the *only* person both of them has friended - and 2 of them inside a day... bothers me. Not unduly, I mean, I'm not losing sleep or anything but it seems a little... odd (just a bit). (o:

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LOL That explains why 'Blair Sandburg' (AKA ) has friended me, then!

And that one is an odd little sock. S/he has only friended me, Orion and one other person... you'd think that if someone went so far as to invent a 'Blair' LJ for a laugh, that they'd spread it far and wide....

... unless they were engaging in NEFARIOUS SOCK ACTIVITY! Mwahahahahahaha... *eg*

Regarding the new LJers, yep, I am pleased people are taking the plunge. Often I recognise their user names from lists. But there are also some very odd ones, who ping my radar in that sockish way they have... and Aly, you know I have a nose for socks! Um, not sure that came out right... ::eyes pile of dirty washing miserably::

By the way, Aly, I will be writing to you later with my Moonridge offerings. I finally got my act together!

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It's OK; I know one of them!

(But I still don't know who the other is... ::wibble:: )

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LOL! Can't argue with some one who has a nose for socks - ::looks at own laundry with out a single sock in it:: *grin*

And can't wait!!

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May