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

18 June 2022

Suspected sockpuppets

• Reego41 ( talk ⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log) · investigate · cuwiki)
• Moctiwiki ( talk ⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log) · investigate · cuwiki)
• MagikMan1337 ( talk ⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log) · investigate · cuwiki)
• SamBroGaming ( talk ⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log) · investigate · cuwiki)
• Zekromu88 ( talk ⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log) · investigate · cuwiki)
• Melimoyu ( talk ⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log) · investigate · cuwiki)
• Bdonjc ( talk ⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log) · investigate · cuwiki)
• Dawnseeker2000 ( talk ⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser( log) · investigate · cuwiki) (  Clerk note: Original case name. Struck and moved without redirect since no meaningful evidence has been provided for why they would be involved.)
• Tools: Editor interaction utility • Interaction Timeline • SPI Tools

All accounts using similar language and arguments to influence the vote at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/2017 Valparaiso earthquake. Melimoyu is a brand new account that only edited at the AFD ( /info/en/?search=Special:Contributions/Melimoyu) The other accounts are newish, with few edits outside of this AFD. Many of them were created in the same time frame in 2021 and share similar short edit histories; all in the area of earthquakes (sometimes the same articles). See Reego41 ( /info/en/?search=Special:Contributions/Reego41), Moctiwiki, ( /info/en/?search=Special:Contributions/Moctiwiki), MagikMan1337 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Special:Contributions/MagikMan1337&offset=&limit=500&target=MagikMan1337), SamBroGaming ( https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Special:Contributions/SamBroGaming&offset=&limit=500&target=SamBroGaming), Zekromu88 ( /info/en/?search=Special:Contributions/Zekromu88), Bdonjc ( https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Special:Contributions/Bdonjc&offset=&limit=500&target=Bdonjc), Sausius ( https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Special:Contributions/Sausius&offset=&limit=500&target=Sausius) Given the common interest in earthquakes and the small edit histories, and all of these accounts participating in their first AFD I think it's likely that is a case of sock puppetry in violation of the policy at WP:BADSOCK. I was uncertain who to mark as the puppet master, so I included the nominator of the article at AFD, Dawnseeker2000, simply because of their edit history in earthquakes and their desire to delete the article. That said, it's perfectly possible the sock master is someone else, as there were a few other earthquake focused editors that voted delete in the discussion but were not SPA accounts. (Appologies ahead of time to Dawnseeker if you are not involved with these socks). 4meter4 ( talk) 21:33, 18 June 2022 (UTC) reply

Comments by other users

Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

• @ 4meter4, I want to be very clear about this: Accusing someone of sockpuppetry without evidence is a personal attack. "He started the AfD and is active in the topic area" is not evidence, especially not when you're accusing a user with 400k edits and no blocks in over a decade of operating not one but eight sockpuppets. Like I said at AN/I, the correct procedure is to file under the oldest account registered account. If it wasn't obvious that I meant the oldest registered account that you have evidence against, well, I hope this clarifies it for the future. I have moved the case without redirect, for want of evidence against Dawnseeker2000. -- Tamzin ^{cetacean needed} (she/they) 21:50, 18 June 2022 (UTC) reply
• Looking at the rest of this:  Clerk declined. I said not to file without evidence that would differentiate this from special-interest editing. Showing that they all edit about earthquakes does not differentiate this from everyone being interested in earthquakes. The closest any two of these accounts were created to each other is, by my count, 14 days (Bdonjc to SamBroGaming), with the total span of account creations being 3 and a half years (or 16 years(!) if we count the now-struck Dawnseeker), so I don't see why any of that timing is suspicious. Spot-checking edits summary styles, I see a diversity. Comparing timecards, I see the same.
  An earthquake was sent to AfD. Some people who are interested in earthquakes showed up. It probably got posted a subreddit or Discord somewhere, or whatever the kids use these days, and some lower-activity people who are interested in earthquakes showed up, as did a single brand-new account. 4meter4, you're welcome to warn anyone you want for canvassing. And if this becomes a recurring thing, you're welcome to file again, to investigate for meatpuppetry, against a well-tailored list of accounts, with individual evidence presented for each. Likewise, if you can figure out who did the canvassing, you can send that evidence to ArbCom. But there's no policy against being canvassed once, so there is nothing for SPI to do here.  Closing without action -- Tamzin ^{cetacean needed} (she/they) 22:10, 18 June 2022 (UTC) reply