Quoting Steve Summit scs@eskimo.com:
Ec wrote:
I think that this is a perfectly sane approach, but it seems that some people are determined to uncover sockpuppets, against whom they will apply the letter of the law. I still prefer to look on sockpuppetry as a secondary offence. If there is nothing offensive from the new account there should be no need to check it,
Right. It seems to me that in this sort of case, aggressively rooting out the "benign" sockpuppets would require an abuse of the tools. Aren't you supposed to have probable cause before using Checkuser on an account?
Except people do. If anything the burden for checkuser is too high. No one is really trying to root out sockpuppets to this extent. If someone makes a sock and does the same stuff that got them banned people notice. It isn't like say Awbrey or a Benapgar went and edited articles on agriculture. The socks always edit the same topics pushing the same things.