Using multiple smurfs on the board

Deep Terror Nami·Dec 2, 2015·3 votes·460 views

If you upvote yourself with smurfs, that shows that you have no belief in your own words. You don't trust that anyone else will agree with you, so you try to make yourself feel better by making others think there are some people that do.

This does not win your arguments, only harms their validity. Using them to spam downvote someone else shows that you fear others' opinions for being right and you'd rather smear the person's reputation than actually prove they are wrong in a civil debate.

Now if you have a conversation with yourself using smurfs to actively have them agree with each other on a point, that's a new low. I don't have a degree in mental health or anything, but that seems like it could be a serious personal issue that may cause you and others problems in real life. Don't be that guy/girl. Speak with a trusted adult or counselor.

#Thoughts?

10 Comments

ThePartyLeaderDec 2, 20152 votes

But if I don't talk to me. Who will talk to me?

Deep Terror NamiDec 2, 20152 votes

I'll talk with you Leader.

But maybe I'm your smurf? [slayer-jinx-catface]

ThePartyLeaderDec 2, 20153 votes

[{quoted}](name=Deep Terror Nami,realm=NA,application-id=cIfEodbz,discussion-id=QhKbQEbn,comment-id=00010000,timestamp=2015-12-02T15:00:53.081+0000)

I'll talk with you Leader.

But maybe I'm your smurf? [slayer-jinx-catface]

I doubt it. Most of the time I talk to myself I say likes like " you are so beautiful " " you are so smart " " there's nothing wrong with eating a dozen doughnuts today "

Deep Terror NamiDec 2, 20153 votes

You are, and it's not. Eat the whole box. You can do it, I believe in you.

disregardableDec 2, 20151 votes

Reading this post, my first thought is that you're assuming someone is doing something that he isn't. You shouldn't assume anyone is using smurfs for upvotes or downvotes, even if someone else suggests it. Innocent unless proven guilty by the mods, imo. Second thought, there's nothing wrong with trying to validate yourself from a mental health perspective. It doesn't belong on the forums, because it could create negative experiences for the other users, but all people have an emotional desire to be "correct" or to win. Lots of people do things that make them look bad for that feeling.

Deep Terror NamiDec 2, 20151 votes

I don't make the accusation without being certain. I'm not going to name names, but when I've seen it it's absolutely obvious...especially when they link the main account at different times. And as I didn't name anyone, this is a generalization not an accusation.

Lots of people have smurfs, but very few sit there and mass upvote themselves and mass downvote any opposition. That's rare behavior.

disregardableDec 2, 20151 votes

My post was a generalization too. It is ridiculous to assume someone is doing that. If you're sure though, you can report for spam if you want. Contact a mod or submit a ticket if you really care. You know this, obviously.

Deep Terror NamiDec 2, 20151 votes

I don't think they care about that kind of thing though. Intellectual dishonesty isn't anywhere in the rules.

disregardableDec 2, 20151 votes

There was an incident on the Roleplaying Board where posts were getting mass downvoted by smurfs that they did deal with. That was on a much larger scale than one or two posts though, so you may be right.

slippykittenDec 2, 20151 votes

The opinions on boards aren't valuable enough for me to be concerned if people mass upvote or downvote anything. Most things on the front page are the same things upvoted by the same people yesterday and the day before. There a very few new ideas presented, and most of the time they are downvoted anyway.

To say the smurf upvote/downvote problem ruins validity of ideas is to say there were any valid thoughts in the first place, and there are not.