User:Fowler&fowler/Xn4-Strawless-Editing-Histories

My original Post on Talk:British India:

Sockpuppets?
I just noticed that user:Xn4 and user:Strawless never edit at the same time. I checked their histories for the last three months. Each one has clear stretches of editing during which the other makes no edits; this pattern has no exceptions. The probability of this happening for any two distinct accounts (editors) by sheer chance is pretty much zero. Could some admin, either Philip or RegentsPark, please look into this? If I have erred, please accept my apologies. Regards, Fowler&amp;fowler  «Talk»  04:04, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Some history

 * 1) Please read the history: A reminder of how it all started. This lists Strawless's first appearance as well as reverting on behalf of Xn4.  (Xn4 had pledged to admin Philip Baird Shearer that he wouldn't revert British India from a dab page to a stand-alone article, but if someone else did so, he would feel free to edit it; soon thereafter, Strawless reverted the article back to a standalone, and Xn4 began to edit it.)
 * 2) Pages-sections where and  have taken identical or similar positions:
 * 3) Lead again.
 * 4) Lead sentence.
 * 5) RfC on British India: Time for a decision. Strawless supports Xn4.
 * 6) RfC on British India: Suggested guidelines for links to British India and British Raj. Xn4 (traveling in France in October 2008) supports Strawless.
 * 7) Extent of British India at various times (Xn4 agrees with Strawless.)
 * 8) More content forks.
 * 9) Stocktaking after two months

Chart


They rarely edit at the same time. One exception happened on August 20, 2008. See edits for Strawless and edits for Xn4 on that day. Strawless&mdash;who had been inactive for 50 days&mdash;shows up to agree with Xn4 in a content dispute and make unrelated edits to the helpdesk.

Merits further investigation. Cool Hand Luke 16:20, 26 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Pages edited by both.
 * If these are socks, I think they have been used abusively&mdash;agreeing with each other in debates. Checkuser evidence suggests they are socks. I recommend that you go for independent confirmation at WP:RFCU. What should be done with these accounts can be debated there. Cool Hand Luke 16:44, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Sockpuppets confirmed and archived
Category:Wikipedia sockpuppets of Xn4: user:Strawless, user:Umar Zulfikar Khan, user:Dzw49, user:RF75

see Sockpuppet investigations/Xn4/Archive --PBS (talk) 11:43, 27 February 2009 (UTC)