Sock-puppet accounts - does valve ban them or allow them?

[*****cubed]

I have noticed some very sock-puppet like behaviour and was curious if Valve bans or allows sock-puppet accounts here in the forums.

[Satoru]

People can have as many alts as they want. There is no issue with doing so.

The only time where it is an issue is when there is a contest and it specifies only one account per person per entry.

[*****cubed]

What's an alt?

[Satoru]

Alt is short for 'alternate account'

I have 3 accounts in total. 1 is my original account i made. This one is an account I made afterwards to 'split' the games I got from the orange box. Then I made a 3rd account to do some idling in TF2 and such

The point is there is no issue with a person having more than one account.

Sock puppet accounts are as illegal as as smurf accounts (smurfing is a term in CSGO where a high ranking player plays on a lower ranked account). aka there's nothing wrong wtih doing so as it is not a violation of the rules

[*****cubed]

I see a lot of sock-puppets here. They are pretty obvious too. It diminishes the community.

[Satoru]

Originally posted by *****cubed:

I see a lot of sock-puppets here. They are pretty obvious too. It diminishes the community.

I find that people who claim 'sock puppet' accounts are really just pointing out 'people who disagree with me all must be on the same account'

[*****cubed]

Originally posted by Satoru:

I find that people who claim 'sock puppet' accounts are really just pointing out 'people who disagree with me all must be on the same account'

I find that the people that engage in sock-puppetry will readily admit they do so. I find also that they try to make sock-puppetry sound like a good thing by trying to make those that see through the sock-puppetry think that because people disagree with them then they must be sock-puppets.

I also find that sock-puppeteers like to use the word alt instead of sock-puppet because they don't like to think of themselves as sock-puppets.