Wikipedia:Requests for checkuser/Case/Young Trigg

''The following discussion is preserved as an archive of a Request for checkuser. Please do not modify it .''

Young Trigg



 * Code letter: G


 * Supporting evidence: Code G - This is a new user since August 28, 2008 who has edited only the Sarah Palin page. Sarah Palin was selected by McCain as his VP the next day after the entry was gone over and sanitized. The edits have a partisan POV and are extensive. The edits evidence some familiarity with wikipedia, more than might be expected for a new user. The discussion of the edits is currently a recommended diary on the Daily KOS. If this user turns out to be someone connected to Sarah Palin it violates Wikipedias conflict of interest rules. Rktect (talk) 09:38, 30 August 2008 (UTC)
 * This case was misfiled by . I have removed the misfiling and moved the case to the non-compliant requests section.    user:j    (aka justen)   17:22, 1 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Please note that has ceased editing with this account and declared on her user talk page that she's a McCain volunteer, which mitigates the supposed necessity of a checkuser.--chaser - t 01:52, 2 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Case formatted and properly listed. I am also going to add that this request is rather fishy and I recommend that it be declined, simply because the user does not act as a new user should does not justify a CheckUser to be ran, also as Chaser has stated Trigg has stopped editing. Tiptoety  talk 04:23, 2 September 2008 (UTC)


 * - pretty much as Tip called it;, and there is no evidence provided of any abuse other than idle suspicion - A l is o n  ❤ 05:18, 2 September 2008 (UTC)
 * And now I see it's hit the newspapers - *sigh* - A l is o n  ❤ 07:22, 2 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Apparently around the same time the non-compliant request was refiled with assistance from User:Tiptoety, User:Rktect submitted a request with a slightly different (inaccurate) page name: Requests for checkuser/Case/youngtrigg.   user:j    (aka justen)   14:59, 2 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Meh, I knew that a CU was handled somewhere... >< -- lucasbfr  talk 16:50, 2 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I noticed that myself but unfortunately did not have the time to deal with it right then. I went ahead and moved the content from Requests for checkuser/Case/youngtrigg to the collpase box below, and have redirected the RFCU case here. Also, I am going to add (directed at Rktect) that request for CheckUser is not the proper venue or forum to deal with these type of situations (unless sockpuppetry is clearly involved) and seeing as Trigg has stopped editing I recommend that you let this lye. (No need to have more articles like the one Alison pointed out above).  Tiptoety  talk 16:51, 2 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Is it not one of points of WP:STEALTH that an editor should not canvas and solicit support for disputes and issues. One of these checkuser requests was filed by Rktect. Relative to that would be the numerous postings to and about the DailyKos piece by a poster there called rktect. After initially making some comments of his own regarding the piece, rktect posted the other checkuser request and invited other posters to comment, then again urged participation. The question may be valid, but I believe there are issues with using DailyKos to solicit support. Wildhartlivie (talk) 22:25, 2 September 2008 (UTC)
 * This is not the proper forum to bring this up in, please take any further concerns not relevant to Young Trigg abusing multiple accounts to WP:ANI. Tiptoety  talk 00:51, 3 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Supporting evidence: Young Trigg is a new user, August, 2008, with extensive edits to Sarah Palin page that began the day before she was nominated for VP by John McCain. The edits have been described in the press as "sanitizing" or "scrubbing" her page.


 * On the Young Trigg page (linked above) there is substantial discussion of the issue of the use of SPA accounts or sock puppetry which I expect violates a number of Wikipedia policies. Their use by a campaign for president of the United States rises to the level of scandalous. Young Trigg admits being a volunteer for McCain. Young Trigg admits the use of an SPA.


 * http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sarah_Palin&diff=234778085&oldid=234741793


 * On the Sarah Palin discussion page there is this
 * Many citations were added or fulfilled by a blank cite by Young Trigg to a several-hundred 159-page biography. Or alleged biography at any rate. The citations are without page number, which is contrary to our standard using ref. These might be fine as sources, but they aren't standard footnotes. I propose removing all these refs, and their underlying statements until such time as page numbers can be supplied.Wjhonson (talk) 16:24, 1 September 2008 (UTC)
 * I'll take a look, but is any of the cited information controversial? Kelly hi! 16:26, 1 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Hmm - it looks like the book is only being cited for basic biographical info, none of which is controversial. Not sure why you want to delete that just for missing page numbers in the cites. Kelly hi! 16:29, 1 September 2008 (UTC)
 * The Kaylene Johnson book? I stuck a link in the External links section to the first chapter, which is online. That may help with all the early-life footnotes. Do we have any reason to doubt YoungTrigg's good faith? He apparently admitted to some kind of connection with the McCain campaign, but did any of his edits turn out to be factually wrong? What does "alleged biography" mean? -- Noroton (talk) 16:34, 1 September 2008 (UTC)
 * I don't think volunteering for a campaign is enough of a connection to cause COI. Otherwise we'd have to exclude anyone who volunteers for any campaign, and that's a lot of people. -- Zsero (talk) 17:41, 1 September 2008 (UTC)
 * I ordered the book. When it gets here, I'll make the citations more specific. --Coemgenus 20:09, 1 September 2008 (UTC)
 * It gets more bizarre. The name of the book as he cited it, is not even the name of the book. The book is at Amazon and it's true name is "Sarah: How a Small Town Girl Turned Alaska's Political Establishment On Its Ear". I find it very problematic, that an editor is citing a book that he apparently does not even have in front of him. The issue isn't whether the quotes are "contentious" in this case, but rather that the quotes are being made under the color of some authority in-right-of-you, when in-fact this is obviously not the case. As this page is going to be picked up and cited by many other sources, and quickly, nipping that in the bud at the earliest possible opportunity would be very good for no-egg-on-faceiness for us. Once it's mass-cited it will be problematic to put it back in the bottle. Wjhonson (talk) 21:09, 1 September 2008 (UTC)
 * That is the name of the book he cited. [3] --Coemgenus 21:25, 1 September 2008 (UTC) Also here: [4] --Coemgenus 21:26, 1 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Actually, I have no idea. The publisher's website says "Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska's Political Establishment Upside Down". Amazon's page says "Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska's Political Establishment on Its Ear," but the title in the picture at Amazon says "Sarah: How a Small Town Girl Turned Alaska's Political Establishment on Its Ear." Maybe no one knows. --Coemgenus 21:34, 1 September 2008 (UTC)
 * The picture at Amazon, is an actual photograph of the front of the book. That should take precedence over any other source, until we have a photograph of some other alleged name. Right?Wjhonson (talk) 21:38, 1 September 2008 (UTC)
 * I'd agree that the pic is conclusive, but the pic at the publisher's website shows a different cover than the Amazon pic. I have no idea -- I suppose either way would be accurate, and if the ISBN is included in the cite, people will find their way to the right book. Coemgenus 21:42, 1 September 2008 (UTC)
 * There is something more here. I'm not sure what it is.... Something very odd. I wonder if this press is a vanity? To find a book which is just released and yet not available directly from Amazon is a bit odd. All the copies are being sold by links to individual sellers. And obviously some of them think they have something very rare. I wonder just how many copies there are of this book.Wjhonson (talk) 22:05, 1 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Not so much a vanity press, I think, but just a very small one. Their website says they specialize in "general nonfiction titles about Alaska, and ... books about sled dog racing and the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race." I would guess they changed the title when it became clear that they would be selling beyond Alaska -- "hockey mom" maybe be less of a well-known phrase outside the regions of the country where hockey is popular. But, I should be receiving a copy soon, so I'll be in a better position to judge then. Coemgenus 22:10, 1 September 2008 (UTC)


 * "In the 24 hours before the McCain campaign put the finishing touches on its surprise announcement Friday that Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska would be the Republican vice presidential candidate, [one Wikipedia user] was putting the finishing touches on her biography on the site."


 * Beginning at 2 a.m Eastern time on Thursday, a Wikipedia user with the name YoungTrigg began an overhaul of the article, adding compelling stories about her upbringing, including that “she earned the nickname ‘Sarah Barracuda’ because of her intense play” as point guard for her high school basketball team and that she and her father “would sometimes wake at 3 a.m. to hunt moose before school.”

Many details were culled from, and footnoted to, the book “Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska’s Political Establishment on Its Ear,” by Kaylene Johnson.


 * There is a lot of discussion pro and con on Young Triggs page regarding using SPA accounts. The following quote addresses what seems to be the essence of the problem. While Young Trigg pleads innocence and says he was doing nothing wrong and that the fact he is a part of the McCain campaign is just a coincidence... assuming good faith at some point becomes difficult. In order to answer that question it would be helpful to know just exactly who Young Trigg is. Is he a young kid with an interest in hockey as he claims or is he a senior member of the McCain campaign, someone with a law degree involved in the vetting process making sure that the tracks are properly covered.


 * As long as a user isn't using multiple accounts to edit the same article (eg: good hand, bad hand attacks), I don't see a problem with it. Contributors who take the initiative to make drastic changes to improve articles are a rare and valuable commodity; even if their edits quickly melt away, they do the additional service of drawing attention to subjects which are in need of it. I for one hope Trigg will stick around. ~ S0CO(talk|contribs) 07:38, 1 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Creating a SPA account to engage in COI editing to favor a political candidate in an election seems a fairly severe WP:SOCK violation. It is both good hand / bad hand (good hand is presumably legitimate editor, bad hand is COI editor) This also seems a way of avoiding scrutiny. The editor has not been forthright, and shows a poor understanding of and lack of respect for Wikipedia policies. They seem to admit having done this before. When confronted with the problem the editor shows no remorse, "retires" the account that has been exposed and vows to create other SPAs to edit other articles. Under the circumstances we should not let this sort of thing go. The articles relating to Barack Obama have suffered from extensive sockpuppetry from editors attempting to introduce derogatory information. I wonder if any of these might have been the same editor, and what other articles this person may be editing. Wikidemon (talk) 09:05, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Rktect (talk) 12:27, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

''The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the Request for checkuser. Please do not modify it. Subsequent requests related to this user should be made above, in a new section.''