- x Foman123 x
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Like Recon, I have long been in favor of requiring a linked gamertag to access the Optimatch Forum. I remember a thread about this a few months ago in which Achronos stated that there is a likelihood that the Optimatch Forum (at the least) will someday require a linked Gold XBL account in order to post (link to his post).
Alternate accounts have long been a huge problem here, and are, I suspect, a major (if not THE major) reason that there are so many "trust" problems. In most cases, alternate accounts are benign (for example, a user gets a new gamertag -- common in the days before you could unlink your gamertag), but in many cases they are indeed created to bypass a ban. Some users are not ashamed of using alternate accounts -- to be funny, some will create accounts with obvious names based on current events (such as the account "Mythic Member"). Others who are attempting to bypass a ban frequently use similar posting styles and sometimes even similar names to the banned account (example). But a clever user who does not want to be discovered can create completely alternate identities -- one helpful and contributive, and the other destructive or trolling. Indeed, for a large portion of the users here, I'm never quite sure who I'm talking to or hearing from. Sadly, I do not think that there is a potential solution on the horizon to solve the problem of alternate accounts.
One potential solution that I have seen effectively used on other forums is to require a non-free email account. In other words, you must log in from a school or work email address. I do not think that this is a viable solution at the moment for BNet, mostly because of XBox Live and the fact that a large portion of the BNet community does not have access to a non-free email address.
But perhaps there is some other way of confirming that a person is who they say they are -- some kind of metric that is individual to the person. I'm not about to start advocating that a Social Security Number or something be required for access, but maybe somebody else can think of something. At the moment, I cannot.
At a minimum, members should be encouraged to have only one account through benefits received from having long-standing active accounts. The member titles are a good start -- hopefully, someday, those titles come with other small benefits that encourage the maintenance of only one account and discourage rulebreaking. Also, the linked gamertag option is a good one for forums whose purpose is to discuss events that occur on XBox Live (matchmaking and file sharing).
For other forums, I think that, for now, we have to rely on alert members and moderators (I have alerted moderators of alternate accounts many times). It is fortunate that we have both here. Although absolute proof is rarely available, intimations and similarities are sometimes good enough.
Another boon of good fortune is that an alternate account can only do so much damage -- if they cross the line, then they are banned, and little trace of their existence remains. The sad thing is that the ability to create an alternate account negates the punishment and takes away the incentive to follow the rules. Hopefully, at least to some extent, this problem can be addressed someday.
[Edited on 12.26.2007 9:13 AM PST]