Ron Gates ( talk ⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log) · investigate · cuwiki)

20 August 2013

Suspected sockpuppets

• Daviddavidusa1 ( talk ⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log) · investigate · cuwiki)
• Priyankachabra71 ( talk ⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log) · investigate · cuwiki)
• Meerachopra31 ( talk ⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log) · investigate · cuwiki)

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Single purpose accounts all editing Ayaan Chawla and the related Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Ayaan Chawla. All socks use the same non-standard language at the AFD. WikiDan61 ^ChatMe! _ReadMe!! 14:59, 20 August 2013 (UTC) reply

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• It looks to me this passes the WP:DUCK test, although I'm definitely not an expert in sockpuppet investigations. :P Michaelzeng7 ( talk) 15:16, 20 August 2013 (UTC) reply

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

• Definitely ducks. I'm blocking the three sock accounts. -- Orlady ( talk) 16:17, 20 August 2013 (UTC) reply
  • But not the sockmaster? WikiDan61 ^ChatMe! _ReadMe!! 16:33, 20 August 2013 (UTC) reply
    • I didn't block the sockmaster mostly because the sockpuppetry was pretty amateurish -- the work of a naive newbie -- and the primary objective in blocking these users is to prevent further use of these accounts to undermine Wikipedia processes. If the socking behavior is repeated, the sockmaster should be blocked. (However, I note that there are other issues with the sockmaster that might lead to a block for some other reason.) -- Orlady ( talk) 16:46, 20 August 2013 (UTC) reply
• Good enough. If this recurs, I've warned the user, and I wouldnt' hesitate to block for a while if this happens again. NativeForeigner ^Talk 05:54, 21 August 2013 (UTC) reply

04 September 2013

Suspected sockpuppets

• CharlesWhiteUSA ( talk ⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log) · investigate · cuwiki)
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Similar AfD nomination statements as another sock already blocked by Secret ( talk · contribs), AdamSmithUS ( talk · contribs). Compare:

AdamSmithUS: [1] CharlesWhiteUSA: [2]

Userpage content is also largely the same, claiming several years of experience. I, JethroBT ^{drop me a line} 16:23, 4 September 2013 (UTC) reply

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I would urge a checkuser to take a look at this case. Already seven of his socks were blocked (mostly by me) and a new sock is popping out almost everyday. This guy is so bad on creating socks that it's beyond hilarious but its already causing too much disruption with bad faith AFD nominations because his spam targets were deleted and salted. Thus the main IP and any extra accounts Gates has needs to be blocked so this pest could finally go away. Secret ^account 01:13, 5 September 2013 (UTC) reply

Account's been indeffed by Drmies as vandalism only. NE Ent 10:26, 5 September 2013 (UTC) reply

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

• Checked, but apart from this user being  Likely to accounts in the archive I don't think I accomplished much. There is no good underlying IP to block, and I didn't find any other obvious accounts. NativeForeigner ^Talk 04:47, 5 September 2013 (UTC) reply

15 October 2013

Suspected sockpuppets

• AdamCharles89 ( talk ⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log) · investigate · cuwiki)
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Another SPA wanting to recreate Ayaan Chawla, creating Ayaan C. and starting a DRV. In addition to the behavioural evidence, there are certain linguistic similarities. Per WP:BEANS I don't want to be too explicit here, but the stylistic similarities in pretty much every edit are striking. bonadea contributions talk 17:25, 15 October 2013 (UTC) reply

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

•  Clerk declined Closing since the sock has been blocked. I don't think there's a need for a sleeper check here. Mark Arsten ( talk) 17:36, 15 October 2013 (UTC) reply

28 April 2014

Suspected sockpuppets

• PradeepChowdhury ( talk ⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log) · investigate · cuwiki)

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Although he has a few edits on other subjects, this editor is pretty well an SPA on Ayaan Chawla, the subject of all the other Ron Gates sockpuppets, as his talk page and his deleted contributions list show. His first edit was to create A. Chawla, and within 24 hours he had also re-created Ayaan Chawla. His "upcoming Bollywood movie" article India Mein Lahore features Chawla's company Asian Fox Developments as "IT & Online Media Partner", and Ikram Akhtar is the director of that film. This seems to me a WP:DUCK case, but I would like a second opinion. JohnCD ( talk) 22:12, 28 April 2014 (UTC) JohnCD ( talk) 22:12, 28 April 2014 (UTC) reply

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

•  Clerk endorsed - Some diffs would be nice, but I think there is enough for a CU check without them. Callanecc ( talk • contribs • logs) 13:59, 5 May 2014 (UTC) reply
•  Check declined by a checkuser - Evidence is stale. I'm sorry. Salvio ^{Let's talk about it!} 10:31, 7 May 2014 (UTC) reply
• I've blocked as a suspected sock. The interest area combined with the similar edit times and another WP:BEANS similarity are enough for me without CU. Callanecc ( talk • contribs • logs) 15:36, 7 May 2014 (UTC) reply

14 November 2014

Suspected sockpuppets

• Ndtv.news ( talk ⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log) · investigate · cuwiki)
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Recreated Ayaan chawla (with a small "c" since Ayaan Chawla is protected against recreation) and has also made promotional edits about Asian Fox Developments [3], Chawla's company, which some previous socks have also been industriously promoting [4], see also User:Ron Gates/Asian Fox Developments. The article India Mein Lahore which this sock edited [5] was created by another Ron Gates sock, apparently partly in order to promote Asian Fox Development. [6] There are some stylistic idiosyncracies as well, but they are harder to pin down. bonadea contributions talk 10:13, 14 November 2014 (UTC) reply

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Please note that Ndtv used "us" and "we" on his talk page. Could it be a sign of poor english or meatpuppetry? Someone might want to figure that out. Origamite ^{ⓣ ⓒ} 16:13, 15 November 2014 (UTC) reply
It looks like textbook case of WP:DUCK. All of the previous socks had this obsession with "Ayaan Chawla" and the same characteristic of using English that was good but not fluent. ŞůṜīΣĻ¹98¹ ^Speak 04:38, 16 November 2014 (UTC) reply

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 Clerk note: Indeffed and tagged based on duck. In addition to the obvious (Chawla and Asian Fox Developments), the puppet's English when talking to other users is almost identical. Closing.-- Bbb23 ( talk) 20:19, 28 November 2014 (UTC) reply

17 January 2015

Suspected sockpuppets

• Aditi Gupta Delhi ( talk ⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log) · investigate · cuwiki)
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Reinserting promotional text about Asian Fox Developments in India Mein Lahore. The text is identical to the Asian Fox blurb that was present in the article when it was first created by Ron Gates sock PradeepChowdhury [7]. bonadea contributions talk 11:36, 17 January 2015 (UTC) reply

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• Quite the WP:DUCK. Blocked; closing. Favonian ( talk) 18:23, 17 January 2015 (UTC) reply

28 February 2015

Suspected sockpuppets

• IndiaMeinLahore-MovieTeam ( talk ⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log) · investigate · cuwiki)
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Adding promotion for Asian Fox Developments [8] just like previous socks have done [9] bonadea contributions talk 12:55, 28 February 2015 (UTC) reply

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WP:DUCK, blocked and tagged, closing. JohnCD ( talk) 14:16, 28 February 2015 (UTC) reply

06 March 2015

Suspected sockpuppets

• JohnnyEdits ( talk ⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log) · investigate · cuwiki)
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Immediately after the account was created, they partially blanked Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Ayaan Chawla with the claim (in the edit summary) that Ayaan Chawla is going to be recreated again. [10] See also this edit to my user talk page. bonadea contributions talk 13:40, 6 March 2015 (UTC) reply

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

•  Clerk note:   Looks like a duck to me. The editor admits his intention to create Ayaan Chawla article here. Vanjagenije (talk) 18:54, 6 March 2015 (UTC) Vanjagenije (talk) 18:54, 6 March 2015 (UTC) reply
  • Quacking loud enough for me. Blocked. Closing. Favonian ( talk) 18:58, 6 March 2015 (UTC) reply

21 May 2016

Suspected sockpuppets

• Vinay089 ( talk ⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log) · investigate · cuwiki)
• OGfromtheGut ( talk ⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log) · investigate · cuwiki)

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Vinay089 approached me on my talk page about writing Ayaan Chawla, because I had salted the title; I advised him on his talk page to give up the idea, but told him to make a draft for review if he wanted to go ahead. Meanwhile OGfromtheGut evaded the protection by writing Ayaan Chawla (businessman) which I have moved to Draft:Ayaan Chawla. (I still do not see anything suggesting notability).

Neither of these is an SPA, so I have not blocked immediately, but there has been such persistent sockpuppetry about Ayaan Chawla that I think anyone writing about him needs careful scrutiny, so I am requesting Checkuser. JohnCD ( talk) 20:24, 21 May 2016 (UTC) reply

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@ JohnCD: I can understand your concern, no worries whatever the formalities are required you can do that. But I don't appreciate your this expression, because as a editor I was looking help from you. I think this is kind of racism against indian biographies (Companies, Persons, etc.) needs to be reported to the Wikimedia Foundation. You're a senior editor/administrator to me and we all are here to contribute to this encyclopaedia, so:

• If you think someone's biography is waisting your time then don't work on that, somebody else will do that.
• Asking for help on a subject which is blocked by you is disturbance?
• Who we're to decide someone's establishment as the person we're here talking about has:

- Received Appreciation Letter by Prime Minister's Office - India

- Awarded with prestigious Young Entrepreneur of the Year award

- Titled as India's youngest CEO with a heart of Gold by The Hans India

- Covered and featured by leading Newspapers, Magazines, News Portals

Do you still think your statement "Anyone can set up a company and call himself CEO and make a grand website" can be applied on this subject/biography.

I as a random person to this subject and going through the complete history/revisions, I'm able to understand only one thing the person having maximum PR can be added to Wikipedia otherwise not.

NOTE: This discussion is not only about one anonymous person, but about anyone (Company, person, etc.) that deserves to be in encyclopaedia.

I'm sorry if I've used any wrong words by mistake, not writing anything by intensions. Vinay089 ( talk) 22:53, 21 May 2016 (UTC) reply

It is surely significant that Vinay089's first edit was to this - "asianfoxdevelopments" is Chawla's company website, and previous socks have spammed it; in addition the edit was to a file uploaded by a previous Chawla sock. Clear behavioural evidence, and the draft should be deleted since it is essentially identical to the promo piece deleted many times before, in two AfDs and several speedy deletions. -- bonadea contributions talk 23:04, 21 May 2016 (UTC) reply

Re assumptions of good faith - the diff I posted above, from October last year, clashes somewhat with this assertion from April of this year that he only just heard about Chawla that same day, and it is reminiscent of the assertions of some blocked Ron Gates socks, for instance this and this. Many of the socks blocked in previous investigations have also edited other articles, participated in AfD discussions, and even created other articles, see e.g. Special:Contributions/CharlesWhiteUSA, Special:Contributions/PradeepChowdhury and Special:Contributions/JohnnyEdits. I don't want to come across as Grumpy McGrumpface, the Assumer of Bad Faith, and perhaps I'm seeing patterns that aren't there, but I think it's worth taking into account anyway. -- bonadea contributions talk 10:59, 22 May 2016 (UTC) reply

@ Bonadea: FYI: Firstly I'd contacted JohnCD to create an article on Chawla, as the subject was protected and after having detailed discussion I dropped the topic. But after few days I found an article with different title created by some other user. So I simply added few references and supportive images to articles. And for your information before being marked as Sockpuppet by JohnCD, I also added request to create an article on Bigrock which is (which is competitor of Chawla's company). Bigrock in India, have value like Godaddy. Vinay089 ( talk) 14:23, 22 May 2016 (UTC) reply

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

•  In progress. All previously blocked puppets are  Stale. Therefore, the best I can do is compare the two listed accounts against each other and possibly look at logs.-- Bbb23 ( talk) 23:28, 21 May 2016 (UTC) reply
• Vinay089 and OGfromtheGut are  Unrelated.
• Based on data from September 2013, Vinay089 and Ron Gates, although not using the same IP ranges, are editing from the same city. However, the country from which the accounts are editing is not surprising. In my view, the technical evidence is of minimal value. It would still depend on how strong the behavioral evidence is.-- Bbb23 ( talk) 23:54, 21 May 2016 (UTC) reply

• Thank you, Bbb23. Bonadea has a point; there is also this edit where Vinay089 tries to spam an unnecessary picture of Chawla into an article about someone else. It does seem that his main purpose here is promoting Chawla. Even so, since they are unrelated and both have edited on other subjects I would, on balance, be prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt. I will leave it to someone else to decide.

I would also be inclined not to delete the draft article; better have people trying to improve that than posting new mainspace articles with title variations to bypass the salting. If it is repeatedly submitted without improvement we can MfD it. JohnCD ( talk) 09:04, 22 May 2016 (UTC) reply

• After long conversations with Vinay089, and observing that OGfromtheGut worked on other subjects before Chawla, and is now working on something else, I have decided that they are unlikely to be Ron Gates socks, and am marking this for close. Should either of them return to pushing Chawla, we can of course reconsider. JohnCD ( talk) 22:22, 23 May 2016 (UTC) reply

16 April 2017

Suspected sockpuppets

• Vinay089 ( talk ⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log) · investigate · cuwiki)
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Continuation of this concern that JohnCD had initially raised. The editor has returned to pushing "Ayaan Chawla (Entrepreneur)" and then requested to move it into the salted title. I am not sure if CU Evidence would be helpful in this case but pinging Bbb23 since he participated in the last discussion. -- Dane ^talk 23:03, 16 April 2017 (UTC) reply

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• @ Dane: I'm also a very old user, not as much as you are but still raised number of articles for deletion, done edits, etc. I don't understand this situation at all, does Wikipedia mean that once article is deleted due to non-notable links or some user who created as promotion multiple times, the same person's article cannot be created again with some notable links? Can't that person/company/band, etc. rise in the meanwhile? Vinay089 ( talk) 23:45, 16 April 2017 (UTC) reply

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

@ Dane: I don't see how I, as a CU, can help.-- Bbb23 ( talk) 23:30, 16 April 2017 (UTC) reply

• I believe that this should be handled at COIN rather than as an SPI case. Closing.
   —  Berean Hunter (talk) 21:42, 17 April 2017 (UTC) reply