Several users have set up joint accounts, primarily for roleplaying. This is sockpuppeting and I still don’t really understand why ONE account isn’t enough. Should this be permitted or prohibited? BrokenSphere (Talk) 20:51, July 19, 2012 (UTC)

How are they using the secondary accounts? -TagAlongPam (talk) 01:08, July 20, 2012 (UTC)

From what I have seen it is primarily for games. I am not aware of it being used to evade bans or blocks. So thus largely benign, but I think it's setting a bad precedent. BrokenSphere (Talk) 03:28, July 20, 2012 (UTC)

Like...they share an account so they can write the Games together? I don't like the sounds of that either. It may have started out innocent enough but it could lead to problems with accountability. We should message those users and tell them that's not a good use of secondary accounts. Wikipedia has the same policy on this. -TagAlongPam (talk) 04:00, July 20, 2012 (UTC)

I was thinking that a policy against this would lend greater weight before taking action. BrokenSphere (Talk) 16:18, July 20, 2012 (UTC)

It is happening enough that that's necessary? Doesn't seem like something that would happen frequently enough to write a whole policy about it. But then again, I don't know how many users are already doing this. Maybe it could be added to the blocking policy, since we'll have to block any accounts that are being used by multiple people. Something should be added there about sockpuppets too (I just realized they are only mentioned on the chat policy page). -TagAlongPam (talk) 20:34, July 20, 2012 (UTC)

I forgot about the blocking policy. It isn't widespread enough yet (less than ~10 total users I believe). BrokenSphere (Talk) 20:41, July 20, 2012 (UTC)

I'm not quite sure what the problem would be with making joint accounts, we aren't doing anything wrong and we aren't sockpuppeting. Troy Ventura (talk) 20:48, July 20, 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, that was me above. Mysims (talk) 20:52, July 20, 2012 (UTC)

I don't know what the exact problem would be either. What harm does a joint account cause others, exactly? If they aren't a sockpuppet account? It makes absolutely no sense to me. At all. Katelyn.danita (talk) 20:54, July 20, 2012 (UTC)

I agree with Katelyn, it makes no sense at all. Mysims (talk) 20:56, July 20, 2012 (UTC)

Who would be held accountable if that account vandalized? We would have no way of knowing which user was using the account at that time. It may be hard to even keep track of which accounts are being used by whom. And what if one of the people who uses that account misbehaves on their main account and is blocked? We would have to block the shared account too in order to truly prevent that user from editing. With a shared account you could also have one person editing semi-protected articles, for example, based on the good editing history of someone else. What if the people sharing the account get into a fight over it? That could result in edit warring within one account or users battling to gain control of it. It also potentially violates the Terms of Use, in which you agree to "maintain the security of your password and identification and to be fully responsible for all use of your account and for any actions that take place using your account". As well, there is currently another forum discussion about "photo rights"; in the case of copyrighted material being uploaded by a shared account, who would hold the copyright? And so on. -TagAlongPam (talk) 21:45, July 20, 2012 (UTC)

They would both share the picture?

I am sure people aren't that immature. ~I am a sexy french maid for BCBN~ -Nommyzombies (talk) 22:29, July 20, 2012 (UTC)

I'm not referring to things like lunaiis, I'm talking about works that are genuinely owned by a user. It probably won't be a problem here, but one of the reasons why sites like Wikipedia have policies against sharing accounts is because it can cause copyright arguments and issues. And unfortunately, there is no shortage of incidents on this wiki that can contest your statement about immaturity. -TagAlongPam (talk) 23:34, July 20, 2012 (UTC)

Well you see, I can understand where you come from at that point, TagAlongPam. At thuspoint though, I can see why the user would be banned, blocked, etc. And as far as who was using the account, we sign off which user it is. Unlike some people, other make joint accounts simply to make Games together without complication. It's only friends that ever do it anyhow. As far as photos- If the whole "Photo Rights" forum is decided on making a rule of it, there will be no problem with the argument. It is both of theirs. And they wouldn't be making tributes or anything on it, most of us, we simply write games and make tributes on our own personal profiles. Katelyn.danita (talk) 00:00, July 21, 2012 (UTC)

I actually agree with TAP, because joint accounts, are too hard to manage, and way too confusing. Also, like she said it would/could couse copyright problems. ~ilovepeeta~ ^{"Because she came here with me. . ."} 00:20, July 21, 2012 (UTC)

I asked about this issue on CC and the situation was clarified by a staffer. His response is below:

Excellent and thoughtful discussion on this topic. I can confirm some of the statements that have been made:

• Two people sharing an account is not considered sockpuppeting
• The Terms of Use is not meant to forbid two people from sharing the same account; Wikia would not consider the security of a password compromised if two people are sharing the same account
• If two people are sharing an account, the account is still considered to be one user, and should be treated as such is situations involving violation of wiki policies or Wikia Terms of Use (i.e. one of the people can't seek absolution for themselves or the account by claiming "it wasn't me")

Following on that last item, Wikia discourages sharing user accounts in order to avoid overcomplicating wiki policy or Terms of Use violations that might be committed by the account in question. User accounts are easy to create and free, there is no reason why a user account would need to be shared. BertH (help forum | blog) 22:29, July 26, 2012 (UTC)

At the same time, this does not preclude us from setting up a policy on shared accounts. BrokenSphere (Talk) 15:10, July 27, 2012 (UTC)