I don’t know if the OG system can do this, but webflow uses hourly datasets from Google, Facebook, IG, & several others to identify and ban suspected accounts. I wonder If a new user was required to sign in with a pin for a period of time (Four Weeks) or until vouched for, would there VPN main address be identified in the multiple uses, once established the VPN main address may then be trusted?
Do you know if that sounds logiical @DougDawson
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I got a sock for you all… Lol
Needless to say why I tend to avoid giving seeds away to peeps if they don’t have an Avatar, Journal or have limited posts, and or have only been on the site a short time.
It’s on everyone to due there due diligence
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I need to up my sock game 
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Lady’s doing, I just buy as I call them “sock balls”. Aka wool, in this case colors named David Bowie and NyanCat
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Problem I see there @Astrodude is some like myself change their VPN location all the time so not sure that would work. The pin thing may or may not be possible but if it was I am sure would add work for the MODs. I don’t think we have a big problem with socks here that are getting away with it for long periods of time, just long enough for the MODs to figure them out and get the proof they need to ban. I am not privy to what the MODs have in their tool chest but they are pretty darn good at weeding said users out.
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I really don’t get the need for sock accounts here. It’s a gardening forum lol. I do have like 8 facebooks though 
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This reminds me of another forum I’m a member of. Like 16 or 17 years ago. They blocked the entirety of Australia to get rid of a few members lol.
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Lol. Seems a bit extreme but you gotta do what you gotta do.
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It was way before vpn. I wanna say it was something like static IP that was causing the problem eventually the powers that be got tired of playing whack a mole and dropped some big dick energy on the entire continent lol. It only lasted for a few days but it resolved the problem.
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Some people just do it out of boredom. On the Reef Aquarium forum I was staff on, we had a bunch of Actuaries sign on, like 3 dozen, just to stir shit and cause issues. Look up what an actuary does… They must have had boring jobs. We ended up finding posts on an Actuary forum actually directing them to the reef forum to start shit! We called it the Actuary wars. Many many IP’s got banned in that… Just because those idiots were bored!!!
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Donnie made away with 30 beans with his sock accounts that were allotted for testers in my CMFV giveaway. If there’s anything I can do to combat socks I’m on board.
Lets burn up socks like when we were teenagers gentlemen!
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They do a fantastic job, I have only good experiences so far, knock wood!
Except I’m still tryin to use this 50 lb bag of AE5 Stuff (atomic element #5)
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On one hand, I’ve seen how much fun people have giving stuff away and making friends.
On the other hand, Doug makes a good point on several accounts, I find… Not a lot of people will come here to take advantage of the community, but some will. All it takes is a bit of thought and foresight from everyone to avoid enabling these people, and thereby discouraging people from trying to take advantage.
This is a wonderful and rewarding place but it only stays that way if people put the effort in to keep it that way.
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I will have to go back and read this slower when I have time. Good read.
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I once… well, repeatedly suggested elevating seed giveaways to private threads.
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Then that gives it a snobb-ish feel to it. Who’s invited to the thread, etc. Sadly (and happily), most cannabis connoisseurs are generous people who LIKE to share. Going to a private thread really eliminates that community feeling, and it becomes the “good ol boys club”… And I know a few here who give away lots and are told “they never give any” away, so people like that would be passed over possibly, when they are actually an asset to OG and fellow growers, they just share quietly.
Giving a once-over to your intended recipients helps. Sad you gotta be vigilant here, but its what it has become.
One of my favorite sayings:
Givers need to set limits, because takers never do
applies here quite well…
Ultimately you control who you send beans to. Make a join-by date to eliminate signups JUST for that run (doesn’t help with a sock puppeteer whos in it for the long game). Look at their posting history. Don’t just blindly send to everybody who asks.
And some will slip by. cest la vie… The important part is that YOU aren’t one of them…
You didn’t have many girlfriends as a teenager, did ya?
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There are ways to recognize some sock accounts. But it is time consuming and a pain in the butt.
Most people have habits that are hard to break, they repeat these habits on both accounts.
For example: Spelling mistakes. They will almost always mis-spell or mis-use the same words.
Style of writing: We all have a style of writing whether we think so or not. I will use myself as an example. I use a lot of comma’s as that’s what I was taught in school. Most don’t on forums and their thoughts run together or they start a new sentence. I also like to end a lot of my posts with a trailing thought expressed with dots like this ………
When I am in doubt about a user I go to their profile and look at their “activity” and check their posts to see if they ask a lot for seeds or mainly post in the FSFC thread.
Mods know that sock puppet accounts by the same person are usually not on at the same time. The puppet master logs out and then the sock puppet logs in, once their deed is done the opposite happens.
But as I said this is all time consuming and the enemy of sock puppets is time as sooner or later they will make a mistake that gives them away.
So if you give a lot of seeds away be vigilant if you care.
I personally have slowed way down on giving seeds away publicly and mostly do so in private.
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lol…
“wasup”
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In addition to the sock accounts there are many many members that just have accounts it seems just to get free seeds. I’m always amazed when someone posts up some great free seeds by the multitude of members asking for them that I never see engaging on the forum.
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