Good sleuthing, mot-too, but you've got me wrong. I'm still only in phase two of MIPS. (Multiple Identity Poster Syndrome) It's an insidious condition that tends to progress as follows:
Phase One: You get tired of just reading the posts and decide to join in by getting your first identity. Usually this happens out of boredom on an uneventful day when the stock is flat, or on a day when someone posts something that you feel you just have to respond to.
Phase Two: You begin to notice that several of the posters whom you find particularly irritating always tend to agree with each other. Not only that, they have the same writing style and even make the same grammatical errors. You begin to suspect that these different posters are in fact the same person, and you succumb to an irresistible urge to expose them. (This is basically a cry for help.)
Phase Three: Unaware that you are in the early stages of MIPS, readers begin to recognize you and respond to your messages. You find this oddly satisfying. As a result you post more often, and develop an online-persona. You are happy for a time, but it doesn't last.
Phase Four: You begin to feel limited by the online-persona that you have created for yourself. This may be the result of someone responding negatively to one of your posts. You want to tell them off, but this conflicts with the nice-guy persona that you have carefully created. So you try to respond nicely, but it just isn't satisfying. At this point you may begin to buy more stock or overeat.
Phase Five: Broke, or unable to reach the keyboard any longer, you obtain your second identity. Identity #2 enables you to say all the nasty things that Identity #1 could never say without anyone realizing that it is really you. You begin to save money or lose weight, but without realizing it, you are spending more and more time posting.
Phase Six: Two identities just won't do it anymore. After all those negative posts, Identity #2 has developed enemies on the bulletin board. He needs friends to agree with him and defend him against attacks from other Phase Five MIPers. But he's been so negative that even his own Identity #1 hates him. So he creates a third identity, and a fourth, and a fifth….
Phase Seven: The identities begin to lose track of each other. Several of the newer identities begin posting smears against the primary identity. Identity #1 is no longer in control. He experiences black-outs – periods of time in which he has no recollection. When he awakens from these black-outs he finds dozens of messages slamming him that were posted by identities he doesn't recognize as his own. He responds by slamming back, completely destroying his nice-guy reputation. Black-outs become more frequent. He even starts posting on weekends!
Phase Eight: The secondary identities develop MIPS and each begin dividing into multiple identities. In despair and unable to post any longer, Identity #1 commits bulletin board suicide by placing himself on ignore. The remaining identities eventually grow tired of attacking each other and eventually start bashing the stock.
AI
