I've been debating whether this fits more in here or OT - someone can move it if I made the wrong choice.

As an Admin for these mbs, I've been approving new memberships along with the other Admins and I've noticed along the way that some members are registering with two or even more nicks.

Which has piqued my curiosity. On the face of it, I can't figure a reason why anyone would need more than one nick to post with here. But obviously there are reasons, otherwise members wouldn't be doing it.

So, anyone with more than one nick care to solve this minor mystery for me before I die of curiosity?

LabRat

Well, I only have the one nick, but two possiblities spring to mind.

1. The person wants to help us pad the members stats.

2. The person *really* wants to vote more than one time in the polls.

There are a few more, but I'll let other people weigh in on this too

Melisma (slithering back under her Rock)

Interesting suggestions, Mel, which hadn't occurred to me.

I don't think no. 1 would apply though in most cases because the members I've noticed registering with multiple nicks have been entirely new to me, so they wouldn't have any incentive or reason to pad nos, I don't think.

And skewing polls, huh? Isn't that illegal in several states?

LabRat

Okay, since I didn't go with my name, and there is only one bird I absolutely *adore*, I can assure you that I only have one nick on these boards, so I wouldn't know for sure why other people feel the need to have more than one. But here are a few ideas:

1) They couldn't decide on which name they liked better, so they went with both, plus the nick the spouse, girlfriend/boyfriend or their own mother use on them... (quoting Terminator: "I'll be back!" The Phoenix Rising has not won yet...

there's another board i used to visit where there was one guy who had 5 or 6 nicks. he used to log on and then proceed to have arguments with himself, using one nick to lend support to another, while a third nick provided a handy dissenting opinion. each nick had an at least somewhat distinct personality.

aparantly, the guy had nothing better to do, and found the whole thing wildly entertaining. at one point he started a thread about the fact that he had multiple nicks, so he could brag about it and let us all know we'd been had.

well, a few people responded. several of them were not him. a few asked why he'd bother, which he didn't respond to. a couple said they'd been aware of it for a while and found the whole thing amusing. most members, myself among them, simply ignored him and moved on.

<shrug>

the only other thing i can think of offhand that hasn't been mentioned is the possibility that it's not actually the same person with multiple nicks, but rather two or more people sharing a computer (and perhaps a family email account or something). i know there are some married couples on the boards, as well as some mother-daughter pairings and such.

Paul, who only has one nick

I don't really know or even have an answer to this.

I only have this nick, and I never use another one even on different boards. Usually, I'm given one or others by members of the boards i'm scrolling through, so after a whole, I use my real name or the 'other nick' I was given to sign in thread, but Cyad remains.

Carole (*was this an inteligible phrase?*)

PS: though I should have considered using my RL professionnal nick on *this* board )

Okay, Carole, I'm curious as to what your RL professional nick really is!

Labby, this computer has two sign-in identities, because my daughter, Kathleen, also registered so she can post to the original fiction site. I can't think of other reasons to have multiple nicks, though.

Irene

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone. I notice that we mostly haven't heard from those who actually do have multiple nicks though. Come on, guys, you know you're out there. Don't be shy.

I do want to clarify btw - although no one's suggested otherwise, but it occurred to me it might be a concern - that I don't necessarily think there's something wrong with registering under more than one nick. I was just curious because I couldn't think of a reason for it, off the top of my head, since you'd probably only ever use one. Unless, of course, you know differently.

Irene, Paul, yes, I'd wondered about the aspect of several people using the same pc and that's probably a factor in some cases. Very true.

LabRat

Irene D,

not a lot of people know about it .

Maybe one day, I'll tell you, but right now, I don't feel like it (I was just voicing my thoughts aloud where obviously I shouldn't have <g>).

Carole