Having a second account, known as a sock puppet, is generally discouraged. However, people have sock puppet accounts for various reasons and they are not forbidden unless they are being used deceptively to mess with the site (see
this thread for an example).
Some reasons people have sock puppet accounts:
- their account was blocked/banned and they want to "start over" (this is not always okay, check with
mathowie if you are uncertain)
- they want to ask a question in Ask MetaFilter that is not linked to their primary account
- they have a second account for making jokey comments (see usernames like
baby jesus or
Official Mefi Head Complainer)
It is against the rules to use a sock puppet to get around the time limitations between AskMe, MeFi and MeTa posts. People who do this will risk losing the sock puppet account, getting a time out on their main account and/or having their extra question or post removed. Please do not do this.
(tags: sockpuppet accounts users ) April 20, 2006 - permalink - back to questions
If you contribute to other online communities, you can link to your profiles at some other sites from your MetaFilter profile page. (
announced here) To add a link, click on "Preferences" at the top of any page, and scroll down to the bottom of the "Customize Metafilter" page. Under the heading "Social Apps", choose a service name from the drop-down menu and then enter your username at that site. If you want to add another link, click "add another service" and you'll get another menu/name combo. When you're finished, click "Save your Preferences" to save everything.
If you want to remove a link to a site you've added, go back to editing your profile. Clear your username for the link you want to remove and click "Save your Preferences". The link won't show up on your profile anymore.
It's not always easy to figure out your username at other services, so here's a quick guide to finding your username/id at some of the more challenging sites:
Flickr
Your Flickr photostream URL does not necessarily contain your Flickr username, and your Yahoo! login is not necessarily your Flickr username. To find your Flickr username, sign into Flickr and take a look at the line at the top of the page that says, "Signed in as...". Whatever appears there as a link is your official Flickr username. Make sure your
Flickr profile isn't set to hide your profile from searches.
LinkedIn
Go look at your public profile page (you'll have to log in if you haven't already). Your profile page will show you your public profile URL and whatever is at the end is what you need to enter. It should look like this:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/[some name]
Grab [some name] and enter it as your LinkedIn Name in your MeFi profile.
SportsFilter
Log into SportsFilter and click on your profile page. You should see a URL like this:
http://www.sportsfilter.com/member/[some number]
Jot down the number, and enter it as your SportsFilter ID in your MeFi profile.
PoliticalFilter
Same drill as SportsFilter. Find your profile page and you should see a URL like this:
http://www.politicalfilter.com/content/member/[some number]/
Jot down the number, and enter it as your PoliticalFilter ID in your MeFi profile.
Facebook
There are two ways to link to your Facebook profile. First visit
this page to see if you have a personalized URL set for your profile. If set, you should see a line that says, "You can now direct your friends to facebook.com/[username]." Copy the username into your MeFi profile.
If you don't have a custom URL set, log into Facebook and click on the "Profile" link at the top of the page. You should see a URL in your browser address bar like this:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=[some number]
Copy the number, and use that as your FaceBook ID in your MeFi profile.
Steam
Log into the Steam website, and click the "View my SteamID" link toward the top of the page. You should see a URL in your browser address bar like this:
http://steamcommunity.com/id/[some name]
Use the name as your Steam Name in your MeFi profile. If you see a URL like this instead:
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/[some long number]
Go into your Steam profile settings and set up a "Custom URL". Note what you enter for that custom URL value and use that as your Steam Name in your MeFi profile.
Shelfari
For Shelfari you need to find your internal user ID. Go to Shelfari and find your profile. The URL should look like this:
http://www.shelfari.com/o[some number]
Note the "o" at the beginning of your Shelfari user ID, you'll need that. Enter the whole thing including the "o" as your Shelfari ID in your MeFi profile.
Etsy
Etsy also requires a numeric user ID to link to their profile pages. The profile URL at Etsy looks like this:
http://www.etsy.com/profile.php?user_id=[some number]
Load up your profile and note the number in the URL. Then enter that number as your Etsy ID in your MeFi profile.
Gawker Media
Gawker profiles show all
Gawker Media sites.
Adding a Flickr, Last.fm, or Twitter username to your profile will add a widget with your recent activity from those sites to your profile page. Keep in mind that it might take some time for MetaFilter to gather your latest information from the sites before the widget appears on your page. *
(tags: social profile users userpage ) August 8, 2007 - permalink - back to questions 
