Super Mario Boards

I was skeptical at first, but when challenged, and then the user had the "but ai training" excuse to not prove their identity, that's was immediate dead giveaway lol

Thanks a lot for challenging the user to prove it, I was hoping a staff member would do it either via DM or publicly like this.

I had a feeling it was too good to be true

Thanks for confirming my suspicions. I could tell that it likely wasn't him because these forums are just too obscure to be worth the effort of a public figure to start posting, if you look at Martinet's profiles on other platforms, you can tell that he has a social media team behind him, and isn't a tech illiterate grandpa who needs to have his family teach him how to use the computer.

I knew Charles wouldn't get on here at such a random time.

Yeah, I had a feeling deep down that it wasn't the real Charles during the whole experience. The fact that he said he needed help from his grandchildren to set up a profile. The fact that he was hesitant to give proof until pushed by us users. The fact that Charles has accounts on other platforms, and this bot had no links to them. And most important of all, the fact that he used "AI Training" as an excuse for his typing patterns and his general behaviour.

Honestly, I knew that things weren't as they seemed from the get-go when he registered.

If any other creator of a video game, toyline, book, or television show or voice actor or person working at nintendo tries coming here, we should probably get them to verify themselves immediately so we don't end up with another situation like this in the future.

Now I feel bad I didn't say anything earlier. I just registered it as "ah, gimmick account" and went on, even though people were being tricked.

I knew from the beginning that it wasn't the real Charles Martinet, but decided to play along with their shenanigans for the time being until they were inevitably going to be banned.

In general, "playing along" with a troll account isn't a wise idea. It gives them what they're after - engagement - and may unintentionally legitimize them to other users. If you have suspicions - and it's wise to be suspicious online! - ignore, and direct a moderator's attention to the account, imo.

@Hooded Pitohui That's a good point, and I'll be sure to keep it in mind for the next time a troll account of this magnitude shows up.

We all kinda fell for it at first, me included, but yeah this is a good lesson for us to take things with a grain of salt and not blindly believe someone is who they say are.

this is your reminder to please keep critical thinking alive! i'm not trying to call everyone here dumb for feeling starstruck at the perspective of the real charles martinet becoming part of the community but as rose said, people go on the internet and tell lies all the time for the sake of attention; it's why so many big social medias are so horrible to be on lately. they're full of bots, rage baiters, attention seekers, scammers, grifters, and all kinds of bad actors. they're everywhere because people let them be everywhere and give them what they want. please don't let the boards fall victim to them!

I was also really skeptical about 'em, but just didn't interact or let mods know of my suspicions even though it would have been a good idea to PM a mod anyways. As everyone else has said, it's a opportunity to improve in the future with other suspicious accounts being created and such. Just glad the issue's been attended to and we've got a better idea on this kind of thing, I guess