"A sockpuppet is an online identity used for purposes of deception"
"The term now includes other misleading uses of online identities, such as those created to praise, defend or support a person or organization,[2] to manipulate public opinion,[3] or to circumvent a suspension or ban from a website. A significant difference between the use of a pseudonym[4] and the creation of a sockpuppet is that the sockpuppet poses as an independent third-party unaffiliated with the main account operator."
Types:
Block evasion
Ballot stuffing
Strawman sockpuppet: "is a false flag pseudonym created to make a particular point of view look foolish or unwholesome in order to generate negative sentiment against it. Strawman sockpuppets typically behave in an unintelligent, uninformed, or bigoted manner and advance "straw man" arguments that their puppeteers can easily refute. "
Meatpuppet: "The term "meatpuppet" (or "meat puppet") is an online version of a shill," ("A shill, also called a plant or a stooge, is a person who publicly helps or gives credibility to a person or organization without disclosing that they have a close relationship with the person or organization. ")
"This page documents an English Wikipedia policy."
"This page in a nutshell: The general rule is one editor, one account. Do not use multiple accounts to mislead, deceive, vandalize or disrupt; to create the illusion of greater support for a position; to stir up controversy; or to circumvent a block, ban, or sanction. Do not ask your friends to create accounts to support you. Do not revive old unused accounts and use them as different users, or use another person's account. Do not log out just to vandalize as an IP address editor."
"Sock puppetry takes various forms:
Logging out to make problematic edits as an IP address
Creating new accounts to avoid detection
Using another person's account (piggybacking)
Reviving old unused accounts (sometimes referred to as sleepers) and presenting them as different users
Persuading friends or colleagues to create accounts for the purpose of supporting one side of a dispute (usually called meatpuppetry)
Misuse of multiple accounts is a serious breach of community trust. It may lead to:
a block of all affected accounts
a ban of the user (the sockmaster or sockpuppeteer) behind the accounts (each of which is a sockpuppet or sock)
on-project exposure of all accounts and IP addresses used across Wikipedia and its sister projects
the (potential) public exposure of any "real-world" activities or personal information deemed relevant to preventing future sock puppetry or certain other abuses.[1]"
"This page summarises a limited number of long term abusers, to assist members of the community who believe they may have cause to report another incident. Note that this page is not a noticeboard. Names should only be added for the most egregious and well-attested cases. Most users here will have been banned, some on multiple occasions.
In the vast majority of cases, Deny recognition and Revert, block, ignore are more suitable approaches."
"Verify that the following criteria have been met:
The user has been abusing Wikipedia over a long duration of time.
The user account has a history of repeated egregious disruption, and despite indefinite block or ban, continues vandalism and/or abuse beyond the point of any usual blocked user.
There is a significant chance that the information will be of value against future repetition."
