Using a pagerank algorithm against sockpuppets feels like the wrong approach. Consider that people learn to exploit google’s algorithms, and then they make changes to fix that, and people learn to exploit them again. We don’t want to be playing that game. And as long as we have few enough trolls, I’m not sure we have to: if we have an effective way to detect and ban them manually, that should be fine.
Algorithms like this might be valuable for other reasons, but I don’t think we should be using them against trolls.
Using a pagerank algorithm against sockpuppets feels like the wrong approach. Consider that people learn to exploit google’s algorithms, and then they make changes to fix that, and people learn to exploit them again. We don’t want to be playing that game. And as long as we have few enough trolls, I’m not sure we have to: if we have an effective way to detect and ban them manually, that should be fine.
Algorithms like this might be valuable for other reasons, but I don’t think we should be using them against trolls.
There are no completely effective ways for banning people. Accounts can be reregistered.