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What's the community's take on users with multiple accounts?

The case I have in mind concerns a user (ID1/ID2/ID3) who frequently asks homework-type questions (some with shown effort, others without). The user also frequently cross-posts on other SE platforms and deletes his/her own questions that either got excessive downvotes or received no answers. Also, one of his/her accounts on MSE is under temporary suspension "for voting irregularities".

As far as I can tell, the multiple accounts are created not to game the SE reputation system, but to ask questions. The user appears to be a genuine learner, has been very polite and caused no noticeable disruption to the community. However, the type and number of questions that this user asks do raise suspicion that he/she may have been trying to outsource a lot homework question here.

Update on May 9.

Two new IDs are detected (ID4/ID5). These IDs also posted quite a few low-effort / low-quality questions in the past 24 hours:

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  • $\begingroup$ This user's "can you please see my related question" answer to an old question just got an upvote from 'someone'. $\endgroup$
    – Giskard
    May 17, 2018 at 10:30
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    $\begingroup$ @denesp: I flagged it for moderator attention. The user also posted several such "please see my other question" comments under answers to his previous questions. $\endgroup$
    – Herr K.
    May 17, 2018 at 11:24
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    $\begingroup$ It's ridiculous the way he's editing his own questions with a different account. It's almost as if he didn't bother to log out of his other account, but still wanted to make an edit. $\endgroup$
    – ahorn
    May 19, 2018 at 17:12
  • $\begingroup$ Now he has at least one new account with a "." at the end. $\endgroup$
    – Giskard
    Jun 14, 2018 at 6:59
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    $\begingroup$ @denesp: From the pattern of his questions (a bunch of micro followed by a bunch of macro, and now micro again), it looks like he's preping/taking some sort of qualifying/comprehensive exams. It doesn't help that most of his questions receive answers, which in turn encourages more of such questions. $\endgroup$
    – Herr K.
    Jun 14, 2018 at 14:54

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The network consensus seems to be that multiple accounts are okay, provided they are not being used to game the system (e.g., by voting for your own posts). See, e.g., How should sockpuppets be handled on Stack Exchange?

Thanks for flagging the particular case: the mods have tools to check for sock-puppet voting and indeed it seems to be going on here.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you for the feedback. Also see my update in the question. $\endgroup$
    – Herr K.
    May 9, 2018 at 16:24

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