ClockworkSoul (mtitmus@optonline.net) [050416 23:22]:
Perhaps, as a beginning, we should at the very least create a template that can be throw onto the user page of newcomers that head directly into a voting situation, to let them know of our common practice, and why it is so. Something along the lines of: "Welcome, {{PAGENAME}}! We noticed that you placed a vote on {{{1}}}. Community activity is encouraged, of course, but your status as a brand new user means that your vote ''might not'' be counted if the administrator that tallies your votes believes that you might be another user logged in under a second account (a so-called "sock puppet"). Please understand that this is the common practice on Wikipedia, and that it is necessary to prevent deliberate "loading" of our votes. " I am going to create this template under the name {{newvoter}}, and I will also report this email to the Admin board.
Don't forget to note that "Votes" for deletion aren't "votes" per se - they're an attempt to ascertain whether there is community consensus to delete. If you've made your first-ever Wikipedia edit to VFD, and were there only because of a call to arms on another site, you might reasonably be considered not (yet) part of the community in question. That would need noting.
(This is similar to the Calvinball rule of Wikipedia policy, i.e. "if you think you've come up with a stunningly clever hack of our rules which will get your way against our community wishes, good for you! The rule just changed.")
- d.