A second account pretending to be a stranger who agrees with you. A wooden practice that scaled surprisingly well into an industry.
I tried to explain Sock Puppet to my father in 2008. He asked, sincerely, what it was for. I explained. He then explained it, with my explanation attached, to his entire address book. That is how these things actually spread.
Logging a live specimen: a grandparent's group chat, screenshot attached, 22 May. Sock Puppet, in a font that has not been updated since 1993. The term and the typography have met at last.
Filed as evidence: a utility company's outage map, 6 February. Sock Puppet in the body text, twice, once misspelt. The second use is the more interesting one.
Sighting, 1 January, the minutes of a housing association AGM. Sock Puppet in an automated message. A person configured this once, years ago, and has since left the company.
You can date a person by how they say Sock Puppet. There is a 1993 pronunciation, a 2008 pronunciation, and the one used by people explaining it to a meeting, and only the first two count.
The tell with Sock Puppet is who is saying it. In 1993 it marked you as early. By 2008 it marked you as present. After that it marked you as someone who had not checked recently.
I was on a dial-up connection when Sock Puppet started going round, and the thing I remember is waiting for it to load, knowing it would be worth it, and being right. That combination has not happened to me since.
You were there. What happened?
