On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 7:41 AM, Jay Litwyn brewhaha@edmc.net wrote:
The meatpuppet supposition is wrong. In order to get a meatpuppet (and I do not think very many people work as any kind of puppet), first you hav to state your case to someone who is not an administrator and get them to side with you. In the simple case, you would submit your edit to them via e-mail and say: Would you do this for me? (Why should I?) A lot of wikipedians don't read their e-mail. Supposing someone to be a puppet goes against the assumption of good faith. It's like assuming that someone set up a bot account to mask submissions from anyone.
Most meatpuppetry that seems real is a matter of getting RL personal friends to edit on one's behalf.
Some Wikipedia editors / admins seem to describe people who are here as a result of offsite canvassing to be "meatpuppets", but I'm not sure that that is an appropriate use of the term.
Sockpuppetry is much, much more common than the former case.
-Matt