Dual Accounts

[Darthmaul]

So, I've personally been an advocate of this kind of thing for as long as I can remember, but I don't know the majority of everyone else's opinions. What do you think of a forum owner making a dual account for themselves and then replying to their topics with that account to help increase activity? As I've said, I'm a huge advocate of this, and I have even see some huge forums doing this 😉

 

[kavin]

Not needed for a "huge" forum. But if your forum is new, you can do it to boost activity. But you should take care not to get caught.

 

[Darthmaul]

Not needed for a "huge" forum. But if your forum is new, you can do it to boost activity. But you should take care not to get caught.

I'd heartily agree 😉
Honestly, I remember when there was a large forum that had an account like this with something like 5k posts 😛
It's kind of fun to interact with yourself though 😛

 

[railto]

For a new fledgling community then I definitely think there is merit in the admin having dual accounts to try and help build the amount of posts.

One thing to watch tho is that if you have a proviso in the rules that members are only allowed one account, and you give someone mod rights, they will be able to check IP's for posters and may catch on

 

[CyberFreak]

I can understand why people do this when they have small forums and no active members but really when their forum gets larger and more active, there is no need and it shouldn't be done in my opinion.

Best way to get some activity on a new forum is getting a friend to help post. Easier and generates some genuine discussions and opinions rather then your made up posts. Plus that friend can also provide advice on improvements which you would miss out on if you have loads of accounts posting under each one.

 

[Darthmaul]

I can understand why people do this when they have small forums and no active members but really when their forum gets larger and more active, there is no need and it shouldn't be done in my opinion.

Best way to get some activity on a new forum is getting a friend to help post. Easier and generates some genuine discussions and opinions rather then your made up posts. Plus that friend can also provide advice on improvements which you would miss out on if you have loads of accounts posting under each one.

I'd have to agree. Do you believe there's a cutoff to where you should no longer use said accounts?

 

[CyberFreak]

I would say when you have a few active users that aren't yourself. Personally it isn't something I would do at all though so I haven't really put to much thought into it. I have in the past got 1 or 2 friends to help out. It does help build some activity, discussions and give you some extra feedback and you don't feel like you are cheating yourself by artificially inflating your forums post count by using multiple accounts yourself.

 

[Sam]

I disagree with it. It may help, but what if your fake account is befriended by a real member? Then you have to keep posting on that account. If they ever found out that the member was fake, your users would have no trust in you.