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Impersonation is when a person pretends to be someone else, usually a celebrity or famous Scratcher. Impersonators often include as much information they know about the Scratcher they are impersonating they know about, in addition to other methods such as trying to write similarly to the target of impersonation. Impersonation can lead to flame wars and other types of problems.[1] Sometimes impersonators may try to get the original account banned.[2] Although normally impersonation accounts are created out of bad faith, some of them are created for satirical or humorous purposes. All forms of impersonation go against the Scratch Terms of Use, regardless of whether the account is made out with malicious intent or for humorous purposes.[3]
Preventing Impersonation
Generally, there is no action that fully prevents impersonation. Anyone can be impersonated, regardless of race, gender, personality, being a Scratcher, etc. However, there are some known factors that tend to make users more likely to be impersonated:
- Being well-known, such as a Scratch Team member, a user with a featured project, or a Scratcher that is on the front page a lot
- Sharing of personal information unnecessarily as defined in the Community Guidelines[4]
The Scratch Team regularly bans accounts created solely for impersonation, though some impersonations may be used for satire or jokes.[5]
Scratchers who get impersonated can list all accounts they control, confirming that other accounts are not them.
Examples of Impersonation
| “ | I am the real [...]! | ” |
| “ | I am official. This is my one and only account [...]. | ” |
| “ | I am [...]! This is my alt account! | ” |
These can be real, but they can also be impersonation. The Scratch Team can be contacted using Contact Us if at some point a scratcher thinks that impersonation is happening or if the user is not sure if the user is telling the truth.
Another method of identifying impersonators is by inspecting the username. Often, their username will be a blatant attempt to copy someone else's, such as changing capital i's and lowercase L's, and changing 0's and O's, or changing the spelling of words, for example, if someone's username was "Example", someone might try to impersonate them by making their username "ExampIe", with the i capitalized. Sometimes, a user may create an account with a similar name to someone else's without the intention of impersonating them.[6]
See Also
References
- ↑ post:8699746
- ↑ 14 March 2022. dertermenter. "at least the troll was funny with the "make a chiroyce statue" suggestion, whilst my trolls were "ban dertermenter" studios:30136012/comments/#comments-178760054[dead link]
- ↑ scratch:terms of use
- ↑ https://www.forbes.com/sites/larrymagid/2013/11/07/teens-concerned-about-identity-theft/#41264ddf1c49
- ↑ kaj#KajTheModerator
- ↑ users:j0ed Similar username to a user with the name "joed"
