Suggestion Box

[Moonchilde]

I have a suggestion that perhaps the moderators could pass on to IT.

On the QVC forums, when a forum participant just changes their username, no one can "see" who they previously were posting as. They "start anew" with a new "identity" on the forums and all previous identities are left intact as different people, to forum eyes.

On the Amazon forums, when a person changes their nic, it changes on *every post they've ever made under that sign-in* so it's easy to see who they "were" and how many times they've "been" different people.

If this were instituted on the QVC forums it would both eliminate many of the accusations and suspicions, and make it more labor-intensive for someone to create an entirely new persona with a new email address. People would still do it, but much less, I'm thinking.

IMO doing this simple thing (if it can be done within existing software) would mean less suspicion and ill-feeling  between posters, fewer sock puppets, and less work for the moderators due to accusations. It wouldn't eliminate the issue entirely but it would solve a lot of the problem we all know goes on.

I also wonder, if the moderators respond to this thread - if forum members "report" a poster they feel is a sock puppet with multiple IDs, DO the moderators/CAN the moderators check to see whether they can determine if it's true?

I presume IT could do this, but not sure whether the moderators ever pass such requests on. It's not something I would ever bother with doing, but I know others definitely would do it and probably have done it, and I'm sure they wonder (and I wonder) if it's ever followed up on.

[MalteseMomma]

I do not know if they have changed it but before that was always how it went.  If you changed your nick ,all your posts appeared on your new name.

You could not run and hide anywhere........lol

Maybe it is different now. Funny, I never pay attention to anyones name.I just read the post!!!  Shame on me  ;(

I have been a huge  Amazon shopper for so many yrs,I never knew they had a forum!

[dooBdoo]

          @Moonchilde,   As @MalteseMomma said, when we go into our account and change our nickname it does automatically change the name on all our previous posts.   (The only exception is that the old name will show up in posts that were quoted, since it's converted to plain text.)

[Moonchilde]

@dooBdoo, I have checked this with people who have said up front that they changed their name for whatever reason, and their posts appeared under two different names, separately. I know this will occur if someone creates an entire new profile with new CC or whatever, but I assumed this was not the case in the ones I have known about. 

Also, if you look at "new" posters they only have a dozen or so posts, not in the hundreds, or thousands. I do know that of course people set up entirely new nics as brand-new posters, but those who do not should be showing up as an unknown nic with multiple posts already, which I rarely if ever see.

[dooBdoo]

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@Moonchilde wrote:

@dooBdoo, I have checked this with people who have said up front that they changed their name for whatever reason, and their posts appeared under two different names, separately. I know this will occur if someone creates an entire new profile with new CC or whatever, but I assumed this was not the case in the ones I have known about. 

Also, if you look at "new" posters they only have a dozen or so posts, not in the hundreds, or thousands. I do know that of course people set up entirely new nics as brand-new posters, but those who do not should be showing up as an unknown nic with multiple posts already, which I rarely if ever see.

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          If we change our nickname associated with this same email address and QVC account (by going into "Account," and under "Personal Information," choosing "My Nickname," changing it, logging out, and then logging back in), it always will change all our previous posts with that account.    This is a fact -- the nickname is a hyperlink to the QVC account with that email address.   And each QVC account allows only one email address.    The only way to have more than one nickname is to use more than one email address and, thus, another QVC account.   That's just how the software works.   If someone claims to be showing up with 2 different nicknames even though they sign in with one and only one email address...  that's just not possible.

[dooBdoo]

          Regarding the multiple-nicknames and/or "sock puppets," those are all associated with different email addresses.    Unfortunately, it's easy enough for people to create extra accounts and for each nickname log in with the different email addresses.   And if they have dynamic IP addresses, it's very, very hard (if not impossible) for the moderators to know for certain they're the same person.    I'm not sure what the best answer is, if we've seen specific patterns and feel sure about certain posters.   I suppose by alerting the moderators, at least they could keep an eye out to see if they also notice the patterns and/or if IP addresses need to be blocked.

[Moonchilde]

@dooBdoo, then I guess every single one I've checked has signed up with a different email address than their original. Certainly possible, but odd. If one is not intending to deceive, not sure why they would feel the need to create a new email address or use a completely different email address than their original.

[Moonchilde]

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@dooBdoo wrote:

          Regarding the multiple-nicknames and/or "sock puppets," those are all associated with different email addresses.    Unfortunately, it's easy enough for people to create extra accounts and for each nickname log in with the different email addresses.   And if they have dynamic IP addresses, it's very, very hard (if not impossible) for the moderators to know for certain they're the same person.    I'm not sure what the best answer is, if we've seen specific patterns and feel sure about certain posters.   I suppose by alerting the moderators, at least they could keep an eye out to see if they also notice the patterns and/or if IP addresses need to be blocked.

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That's the heart of the matter. We know it's *possible* to check, but we don't know if they DO. We don't know if they *care* enough to bother checking; they may well not.

[dooBdoo]

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@Moonchilde wrote:

@dooBdoo, then I guess every single one I've checked has signed up with a different email address than their original. Certainly possible, but odd. If one is not intending to deceive, not sure why they would feel the need to create a new email address or use a completely different email address than their original.

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          That would have to be the case, signed up with a different email address.   If I knew the cases you were looking at, I could probably explain them you...  but I know we can't do that here.    All I can say is I do know how the software works and it's one email address per QVC account, one nickname with that specific account, and changing the nik as I mentioned will always alter it via the hyperlink once the person signs out and then back in.   I wanted to add:  I do know of a few occasions when some posters couldn't remember their login info, or they lost access to the email account they'd been using for QVC, or other technical problems cropped up, so they did create a new QVC account with a new email address and had to abandon the older nickname/account.   And certainly they're not trying to deceive anyone.

[Moonchilde]

@dooBdoo that's why I don't want to name names, because I know people have given explanations as to why and they were perfectly normal, so of course it's not all for nefarious purposes - just most of it 👹