Using more than one alias on a board or chat room is called using a 'sockpuppet'. It creates the impression that there are multiple people involved in the discussion/advocating for a particular point of view, when there is actually only one.
The board has gone through major episodes of sockpuppetry in the past - and I do mean the past; 2003, 2004; VESMB has been around for a few years now. Usually the sockpuppet outbreaks happen at times of prolonged conflict, where people have reacted by feeding energy to the conflict rather than by removing energy from it to allow it to die down.
A conflict that is rooted in attention-seeking will die very quickly if it is not rewarded with attention. A conflict that is rooted in fundamental differences of opinion, values, or personal dislike will not die if onlookers refuse to 'feed' it, but it will usually avoid extreme escalation, and normally either reach some form of resolution or go dormant.
A dormant conflict tends to simmer along and flare up at intervals until one or both parties are reconciled to it [agree to disagree] or to each other [find genuine resolution].
The two types of conflict look, feel, and sound quite different, and it's not hard to tell them apart. Usually, the most constructive thing to do in either case is to let the parties involved have enough room to work it out between themselves unimpeded, and get the board moderator involved pronto if anything escalates to the point of frank abuse or either party begins to exhibit extreme aggression or other signs of instability.
This is not the 'bystander effect'; it's the difference between calling the cops when a fight gets ugly, vs. wading into the fray and joining it.
If people feel that they can't simply stand back, then the most constructive option is to attempt to clarify what the real source of the conflict is, from a stance of genuine neutrality, without taking sides, dropping hints, or baiting either party. Sometimes the real source of a conflict is not what's being held up as the source. This is especially true when conflict arises from something like inappropriate competitiveness or envy, that one party knows is inappropriate but still indulges. It can be very helpful to get that out into the light, and it's very difficult for the target, in that situation, to do it themselves. But this is very difficult, and anyone who tries it usually finds themselves becoming a secondary target pretty quickly.
Most often - everywhere in cyberspace, not just here - sockpuppets are used by people with an interest in keeping a conflict alive. This is not always the person who initiated the conflict [or the person targeted by it]. People sometimes will 'pile on'; using one person's attempt to start an argument as an opportunity to gang up on the other person involved. These folks use sockpuppets too, fairly often, to magnify their numbers.
And sometimes people are simply attracted by drama, find it stimulating, and don't even realize that's what's going on, because this attraction is so pervasive in our culture. If that's the case, just about anyone can end up drawn to and participating in conflicts, 'stuck' to them and unable to detach, while feeling both fascination and aversion at the same time.
Sometimes, though, people just use sockpuppets because they don't feel safe using their customary names. That's usually the first step towards deleting their old account and starting a new one. We've seen that here, too. It happens.
