NationStates Jolt Archive

Re-posting this from previous post in Technical:

With as many nations getting ejected from the UN for apparent multis, I just have to ask if more work couldn't be done to figure out a system for verifying that two different people are involved in accused nations.

If a mod had simultaneous IM's with the "accused" would that be a valid device for establishing that two people really are two people instead of one bi-located?

I respect the dilemma the mods are in and the fairness that I've seen, but I know too many folks who feel ripped by the present system. There just must be a way to establish separate OOC identities.

Well, since users can purchase programs such as DeadAIM (which I own) that enable a user to clone AIM and be on two screennames at once, this idea seems highly unlikely to prove that two separate people are on the same IP address.

Furthermore, I can easily log on as both myself and Terminated California at the same time using two different browsers.

Furthermore, I can easily log on as both myself and Terminated California at the same time using two different browsers.

To wit:

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Point taken. But there are also programs that identify by IP address-- could they be used simultaneously?

Likewise, if you are IM'ing with one person it will be hard (!) for him/her to input simultaneously on both screens. (true ambi-dextrous, ambi-brain-lobe simultaneity should deserve to have two UN nations!)

That would be my point--not just log-ins but actually live real-time communication: a sort of mod tribunal, trial by IM.

If that isn't a solution, is anyone working on an alternative?

There are many suggestions floating about. IMing is not any means of identification in my opinion.

So asking the supposed "one person" to type in simultaneously and line by line, o say, act one of Hamlet on one IM and article one of the US constitution on the other would not do anything to verify that you had two people on the other end of the IM's?

Nope. Besides, mods have better things to waste their time with.

Help me here--

does that mean that fairness is unimportant...

or that we don't have enough mods to handle the technical limitations of the game when they unfairly penalize players?

Basically, only one nation on a shared computer should be in the UN. This has been stressed before that there isn't an easy way to tell users apart if they use the same system and your method is not an easy or fool proof way. [violet] is working on it and a better method will be found eventually. BTW, we have plenty of mods, but there is other more important stuff that they currently have to deal with. It is a free game, so I think that the limitations in the system are acceptable. They will fix them eventually.

The above is in no way intended to represent the views of the board as a whole or of the moderators. If it does, then more power to it. If not, then that is what this message is for.

The accused nation can bring his friend over. The one friend can type the one thing, and the other type the other thing.

It would be easy to avoid.

Help me here--

does that mean that fairness is unimportant...

or that we don't have enough mods to handle the technical limitations of the game when they unfairly penalize players?

Neither. It means that we aren't able to teleport to your house and see if you're multi'ing, or if it really is your 8 brothers, parents, uncle, and dog who have those UN nations.

Let me see if I've got this, then--

is the real rule here that "one UN nation = one computer"

(not, actually, "one UN nation = one player"),

since the other application of non-teleportation is that if a player has more than one computer with a separate IP address there is no practical way to verify identity? I see your dilemma, for sure.

Curiouser and curiouser.

Let me see if I've got this, then--

is the real rule here that "one UN nation = one computer"

(not, actually, "one UN nation = one player"),

since the other application of non-teleportation is that if a player has more than one computer with a separate IP address there is no practical way to verify identity? I see your dilemma, for sure.

Curiouser and curiouser.

The real rule is "one UN Nation maximum per player". because of problems with uniquely identifying the user(s) of a computer, this extends to one UN Nation per computer.

I strongly suggest you don't go looking for what you think may be 'holes' in rule enforcement. People DO get caught cheating. And after all, what does it say about a person if they (try to) cheat at a free on-line game?

Ballotonia