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        Arimaa >> General Discussion >> Player Mitosis
        
(Message started by: The_Jeh on Sep 26^th, 2007, 4:07pm)

Title: Player Mitosis
Post by The_Jeh on Sep 26^th, 2007, 4:07pm

What are your opinions on the recent trend of some person or persons, already quite familiar with this game, to create dozens of aliases and then start bashing the bot ladder right away?

We've got:

Challenger
Raymond (immobilization crazy)
mhi
ZeroOne
Wulf
ttt (a slightly older one)
roger
PierreHenry
Arimabuff
Mad_Scientist

And there are more on the way I'm sure. I praise you if any of you whom I named are truly legitimate newcomers. I'm a bit mixed on my feelings toward this practice.

Title: Re: Player Mitosis
Post by RonWeasley on Sep 27^th, 2007, 11:37am

One effect this has is to reduce the ratings of the bots. If this player would play a single account, the games would reduce the bots' ratings less and eventually not at all. Since we know a player with enough patience can make his rating whatever he wants, this is not that important to me, but rating is important to many people, so I would prefer to see players use only one account.

Title: Re: Player Mitosis
Post by IdahoEv on Sep 27^th, 2007, 4:42pm

I agree with RonWeasley in principle. However unless someone shows me a really significant swing in ratings as a result of this behavior I'm not inclined to get too worked up about it.

Who knows, it may even balance the opposite effect caused by noobs creating an account, playing a few losing games to bots, and quitting.

Title: Re: Player Mitosis
Post by mistre on Sep 28^th, 2007, 10:17am

on 09/26/07 at 16:07:18, The_Jeh wrote:

We've got:

Challenger
Raymond (immobilization crazy)
mhi
ZeroOne
Wulf
ttt (a slightly older one)
roger
PierreHenry
Arimabuff
Mad_Scientist

Of these, mhi, zeroOne, wulf, ttt, and mad_scientist are legitimate unique users. If you look at their opponents, there is nothing out of the ordinary from their early success. An exception is for ttt - whom claimed that he played Arimaa with a real board and real-life opponents before signing up.

Of the others - they are all aliases for Arimaanator. Raymond, Roger, challenger, and Arimabuff accounts were all created within 1 day of each other. PierreHenry was created a while back. You actually missed one - DorianGaray is also Arimaanator.

He created his first alias, DorianGaray after he was banned from the site. For some reason, he decided to create a bunch of extra ones recently and bash the ladder.

Title: Re: Player Mitosis
Post by The_Jeh on Sep 28^th, 2007, 6:13pm

Roger has requested an apology. Very well - here it is:

I hereby apologize for listing your username here under the category of "suspect of being an old player with a new account." Although I never took the stance that it was an outright bad practice, neither did I admit innocence by starting this thread. For this I am sorry.

I also apologize to any others whom I may have offended. Really, you should take my suspicion as a compliment.

Title: Re: Player Mitosis
Post by DorianGaray on Sep 29^th, 2007, 12:49am

on 09/28/07 at 10:17:49, mistre wrote:

... You actually missed one - DorianGaray is also Arimaanator.

He created his first alias, DorianGaray after he was banned from the site...

Ok "mister" mistre, you've done it. Let see how reliable a person you are yourself. Had you taken the time (about a couple minutes) to verify your "assumptions" you would have seen that Arimanator's last game is dated "May 26, 2006", and even the thickest individual would have to admit that his banning must have happened AFTER that last game and that my account is dated "Jun 4, 2005". That means that MY ACCOUNT has been created almost A YEAR BEFORE the banning of Arimanator, not to mention that we even played a game together. So that means that your main argument is a LIE and for harassing and slandering someone on so obviously falsified information you should be at least given a warning. Now, I am willing to admit that it was recklessness and not malignancy that guided your hand, that is if there is an apology forthcoming on your part in a reasonable amount of time, otherwise you'd've shown yourself to be a dishonorable person and should be regarded as such by anybody with a shred of dignity and self respect.

Title: Re: Player Mitosis
Post by Fritzlein on Sep 29^th, 2007, 9:14am

DorianGaray (a.k.a. Arimanator), Omar has permitted you to play games and comment games and post in the forum only because you have not shown the sort of hostility to members of the Arimaa community evidenced as Arimanator and now again in your last post to mistre.

Let me point out the words and phrases in your last post that are not characteristic of rational debate and friendly disagreement, but which are characteristic of personal attack:

Quote:

Let see how reliable a person you are yourself.

Quote:

even the thickest individual

Quote:

your main argument is a LIE

Quote:

harassing and slandering

Quote:

obviously falsified information

Quote:

shown yourself to be a dishonorable person

This kind of language is unacceptable. If you would like to maintain that the person who played and posted as Arimanator has never played and posted as DorianGaray, you have an uphill battle to convince the community, but you are welcome to make your case as long as you don't resort to personal hostility. If, on the other hand, more posts follow like the one I have quoted, I will recommend to Omar that DorianGaray and all other known aliases for Arimanator be banned, and furthermore that future anonymous account from Arimanator be preemptively banned before such personal attacks can recur.

I beg you to look again at how you have been treated by the community. Have you not been welcomed and even appreciated and praised in the absence of hostile postings? We love your bot-bashing exploits and humorous commentary. Didn't Omar, knowing full well that you used additional account(s) after the banning of Arimanator, give you a second chance to co-exist peacefully with the community? It isn't you he has a problem with, it is just certain types of postings.

Please, take the opportunity to start over that Omar offered you, and don't engage in exactly the sort of behavior that provoked a ban in the first place.

Title: Re: Player Mitosis
Post by mistre on Sep 29^th, 2007, 10:46am

Thank you Karl for posting this. I certainly did not mean to awaken a sleeping giant. By nature, I am a very observant person and like "The_Jeh", I was able to put 2 and 2 together to spot a certain similarity between several accounts that were all created at the same time. As to the identity of this person, you made it clear who it was, so I was just stating the obvious.

My main reason to add a posting to this thread - was to clear the other "non-duplicative" accounts from association with this issue. I don't really care all that much if he continues his current practices, but I would appreciate if he does not verbally attack me or anyone else and would refrain from commenting on any of my games.

Title: Re: Player Mitosis
Post by DorianGaray on Sep 29^th, 2007, 11:53am

on 09/29/07 at 10:46:03, mistre wrote:

Mistre, in my justified comment of your game, I was just pointing out that for someone so concerned about rating accuracy you seemed rather flippant in your use of the unrrating-button. I mean, if Omar took the time to create a mandatory unrrating comment I doubt that it was in the spirit of getting statements like "I was so bored that I passed out", now is it? Now Fritzlein I apologize if my response to mistre here overstepped the bounds of decorum but you have to admit that he's done something with that game that you'd disapprove of, and that he’s obviously trying to take advantage of the situation here. I don’t mind being criticized by people like you who have a clear conscience but you obviously are one of a kind here.

Title: Re: Player Mitosis
Post by DorianGaray on Sep 29^th, 2007, 12:03pm

Btw, following this post I will refrain from posting on this forum, no matter what. So, don't take my silence as a tacit approval of anything that any of you has to say about me.

Title: Re: Player Mitosis
Post by Janzert on Sep 29^th, 2007, 12:35pm

And so the wheel turns; or wow, the pattern continues; or this must be a perfect example of how difficult it is to change modus operandi. :P

Janzert

Title: Re: Player Mitosis
Post by Fritzlein on Sep 29^th, 2007, 2:28pm

on 09/29/07 at 11:53:15, DorianGaray wrote:

[...] people like you who have a clear conscience [...]

Oh, my, if only my conscience were clear I would sleep much better at night. I've done several things I'm ashamed of even with respect to the Arimaa community, to say nothing of the rest of my life. But I can't think of any better plan than trying to learn from my mistakes, and be forgiving of others if they also admit mistakes and try to learn from them.

Title: Re: Player Mitosis
Post by mistre on Sep 29^th, 2007, 2:51pm

In response to the game I unrated in question:

Yeah, I am not proud that I unrated the game for a questionable reason (which I injected a little humor into), but I also felt like I did not lose the game and would have eventually won if I had the time and patience to continue. The basic reason I quit was because it was getting late and with waiting 2 mins between moves, there was no way I could finish the game quickly. Arimaa is supposed to be fun, but after a certain point, this game ceased to be fun and I just wanted it to end. I certainly don't want people to think that I care TOO MUCH about the ratings - so if I could re-rate the game then I would.

I let the time run out against a similar ranked bot in order to cancel the effect of the un-rate.