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I want to create a new account. How to create a new account? The new window in my computer for creating a new account always can't be open. Thanks any help:)

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    $\begingroup$ You could, but what for? $\endgroup$
    – J. M. ain't a mathematician
    Jul 14, 2012 at 4:13
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    $\begingroup$ On the grounds of possible vote frauds I believe this is not encouraged. Much like you have (mostly) one personality in real life, you are expected to have one personality on this site. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Jul 14, 2012 at 6:01
  • $\begingroup$ Maybe log out and create another account with another email address. $\endgroup$
    – William
    Jul 14, 2012 at 6:22
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    $\begingroup$ I should add on my previous comment that it is possible that when discovered the accounts may be merged, suspended, or deleted altogether. You should probably wait for a comment from the moderators on this sort of topic before creating a second account. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Jul 14, 2012 at 6:28
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    $\begingroup$ meta.SO: Is it ok having two different accounts in SO? $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Jul 14, 2012 at 6:30
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    $\begingroup$ I know of one case where one rather active user decided to ask questions under a different account from what he was using for answers, but also took care to make sure that both personas never interacted. $\endgroup$
    – J. M. ain't a mathematician
    Jul 14, 2012 at 6:36
  • $\begingroup$ @J.M. - I know of a similar case, though I did have to retract an upvote that I "gave myself" (under the guidance of Willy and t.b.) $\endgroup$
    – Altar Ego
    Jul 14, 2012 at 13:51
  • $\begingroup$ Though this can't be worse than having twenty-three accounts! Willy posted a script... the results were quite surprising. $\endgroup$
    – The Chaz 2.0
    Jul 14, 2012 at 14:00
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    $\begingroup$ @TheChaz: Those are mostly unregistered users with split accounts. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Jul 14, 2012 at 14:48
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    $\begingroup$ @The Chaz... hmm, interesting. ;) $\endgroup$
    – J. M. ain't a mathematician
    Jul 14, 2012 at 16:21
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    $\begingroup$ Why do people think my name should be spelled with a 'y'? :-p $\endgroup$
    – Willie Wong
    Jul 16, 2012 at 7:39
  • $\begingroup$ More interesting reading at meta.SO: What's the SO policy about having multiple user accounts? And perhaps other questions tagged multiple-accounts might be interesting, too. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Aug 3, 2012 at 10:42
  • $\begingroup$ @Cutie, If you have to ask so many questions, then consider asking a real live person in your institution instead, who might be in a better position to help you... also, one does not post willy-nilly to MO, at least not without having shown that you've already sufficiently ruminated on your problem at hand. They there do not suffer the lazy. $\endgroup$
    – J. M. ain't a mathematician
    Mar 23, 2013 at 12:31
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    $\begingroup$ @TheChaz2.0: Twenty-three? Those were the days... (I guess). $\endgroup$
    – Martin
    Apr 17, 2013 at 17:15
  • $\begingroup$ @Martin wow! Any way to filter the results (after number of accounts) by rep? $\endgroup$
    – The Chaz 2.0
    Apr 17, 2013 at 17:37

2 Answers 2

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As a relatively new user of this site, I would say that I would find it confusing and unhelpful if people were to have "multiple personalities". I would be constantly thinking about whether two people were actually the same person. I can't really think of any reason why having two accounts would be of benefit, apart from artificial inflation of reputation.

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    $\begingroup$ I find the constant (i.e. as often as permitted by software) changing of usernames (on one account) to be more common and more confusing. $\endgroup$
    – The Chaz 2.0
    Jul 14, 2012 at 13:54
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    $\begingroup$ I could imagine someone wanting to use a separate account to ask questions that he views as embarrassing. You can decide for yourself whether this is a reasonable fear, but it certainly exists. $\endgroup$
    – Dylan Moreland
    Jul 14, 2012 at 16:52
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    $\begingroup$ Don't tell anyone, but you're really on the Truman Show, and all the rest of us is just one retired math professor consulting for the scriptwriters. $\endgroup$
    – hmakholm left over Monica
    Jul 14, 2012 at 17:27
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    $\begingroup$ @Dylan: FYI- I created my "Altar" ego so that I could ask honest questions (and give simple answers) without being tied to the jackassery of The Chaz. And IIRC, this was shortly after being brutally ridiculed via PM by a user on another forum who found this MSE account. I was already struggling to transition to higher/abstract math, and was pretty rattled. $\endgroup$
    – The Chaz 2.0
    Jul 14, 2012 at 19:17
  • $\begingroup$ (So yes, those fears exist!) $\endgroup$
    – The Chaz 2.0
    Jul 14, 2012 at 19:18
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    $\begingroup$ Well, I would certainly find it confusing if I saw that several (supposedly different) people were criticising a solution of mine when it was actually just one person with multiple accounts ... $\endgroup$
    – Old John
    Jul 14, 2012 at 21:43
  • $\begingroup$ @OldJohn Yes, I agree that there are a variety of actions one could take using two accounts that should result in bans. [How easy is it for moderators to spot this stuff?] $\endgroup$
    – Dylan Moreland
    Jul 14, 2012 at 23:08
  • $\begingroup$ I agree with you that having multiple accounts can lead to this kind of issue. I've seen it play out on a few questions here, when over a lengthy sequence of comments it became clear that two users were in fact the same person. $\endgroup$
    – Alex Becker
    Jul 15, 2012 at 3:22
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    $\begingroup$ @Dylan, mods have tools for detecting possible voting collusions, so at least that issue is easily take care of. $\endgroup$
    – J. M. ain't a mathematician
    Jul 15, 2012 at 5:37
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    $\begingroup$ @Dylan: if you mean "spotting" as in "spotting the needle of such contributions among the haystack of all posts/comments" then the answer is "very difficult". If you mean whether after the suspected contributions were pointed out (via flags, for example), the moderators are equipped to deal with them, the answer is "it is not a walk in the park, but we have tools available at our disposal." $\endgroup$
    – Willie Wong
    Jul 16, 2012 at 7:44
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    $\begingroup$ One could say that it is a bit like solving PDE, @Willie, not a walk in the park, but you have tools available at your disposal... $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Jul 16, 2012 at 8:30
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To answer the question about whether or not you may have multiple accounts:

Yes, you may create more than one account.

If you for example want to have one account that you use for anonymous posts and another that you associate with you name, that is fine.

How do you do this? You simply log out of the accout that you already have and then create a new account. As you probably know you can use a Gmail account to open a new Stackexchange account. So, you could simply make a new Gamil account and use this one for you new Stackexchange account.

Now, as you have probably already noted, some people don't really like that you have multiple account, but it is perfectly fine. It is not illegal. However, you want to be very careful not to have to two accounts intertwine. You, for example, should not:

  1. use one account to vote on posts made by the other account,
  2. use both accounts to vote on the same post.

So in general, don't do anything with the two accounts that you could not do with one account.

Since it (probably) is difficult not have two accounts overlap at some point, most people would advice against having multiple accounts.

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