You've been playing Wesnoth too long when...

[Drake Clasher]

several people do have sock puppet accounts. however,
1) they must have a different e-mail address for each account, discouraging many from trying

2) most get found out pretty quick, or

3) people don't abuse their other accounts. in fact, I can think of one prominent user(s) with a sock-puppet account right of the top of my head

[Federalist marshal]

Well, is there an established system of eliminating/neutralizing such accounts?

[slashem]

552. you create an account to post on this topic

[Mist]

Well, is there an established system of eliminating/neutralizing such accounts?

Yes, but it involves a lot of black administrative voodoo you don't even want to think about

[maxgamer]

mist, your signature makes my brain hurt

[Samantha]

553. You actually care whether or not someone created a sock-puppet on a thread called "you know you have been playing Wesnoth too long when..."

[Espreon]

554. When you plan to make a movie based on the plot of HttT

555. When you lock yourself indoors on a rainy day and the ground gets muddy, in fear of being attacked by Mud Crawlers

[turin]

I used to have a sock-puppet but then the database got corrupted and, since i had stupidly used the "<" and ">" character in his name, it had been garbled to something untypeable*. Moral of the story - if you want your account to last, be on the safe side, only use alphanumeric characters, spaces, dashes, and underscores.

That anecdote suggests a few more reasons...

556. You can remember when the forum database was corrupted (or multiple such occasions).

557. You can remember what used to be referred to (not so much now) as the "great forum crash", when all attachments were lost and any art that was only available on the forums was lost forever.

*: amusing - the built-in firefox spellchecker claims this is not a word, and suggests instead "mumbletypeg".

[Stilgar]

*: amusing - the built-in firefox spellchecker claims this is not a word, and suggests instead "mumbletypeg".

Heh, I once had a spell checker suggest "misanthropy" in place of "lycanthropy"... but "mumbletypeg", the heck? Is that even a word?

[Zhukov]

mumbletypeg

noun:
a game in which each player in turn throws a knife or pointed stick from a series of positions, continuing until the object thrown fails to stick in the ground.

So yeah... basically what a kid does with mum's kitchen knives when given the half a chance.
The name apparently comes from "mumble the peg." The losing player has to pull the winners peg from the ground with their teeth.

Ya learn something new every day!

[Darth Jordius]

I can think of one prominent user(s) with a sock-puppet account right of the top of my head

Oh come on, no naming names?

[Macjack]

558:you think of the Dark Queen if you see your Teacher

[slashem]

551. You want to put a hole in your laptop because it can't download mods fast enough...
552. You played "defense of the goblin" before "defense of the Ancients" (dota)
553. You keep reviving the DAMN thread.

[turin]

553. You keep reviving the DAMN thread.

554. You wonder when this thread will suffer the fate of the 100-page-long one, eventually being slaughtered by a mod out of frustration at huge swathes of database being wasted on something so inane.

For that matter...
555. You remember the 100-page-long thread.

[The Hidden Hippogriff]

556. You find this funny enough to keep it going this long.