Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/A21sauce/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets



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I wrote a whole thing but Twinkle deleted it.

Targeted harassment by A21sauce, recently editing as Wikitikitengo and Wikitikitengo2, see their latest attempt to mar me at ANI getting them boomerang blocked over this same content.

On Carlina Rivera:
 * 10/31 Wikitikitengo2 non-standard section heading with reference added that does not support the claim
 * 11/4 Wikitikitengo2 re-adding it
 * 11/4 Wikitikitengo2 goes to ANI and is blocked (above)
 * 11/5 A21sauce makes a new UTRS appeal after his latest accounts are blocked
 * 11/8 96.224.82.68 makes the exact same edits as Wikitikitengo2 was making

Seems pretty unambiguous that the user behind those blocked accounts is now using this IP address. Not checking notify user due to this person's obsession with me, so hoping the IP is blocked before they see I reported. JesseRafe (talk) 14:20, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
 
 * Yes, pretty obvious. - please block the IP for two weeks, anon-only, account creation blocked (not sure how static it is; I suspect the edits from July are the same person, but I'm not entirely certain). Thanks, Spicy (talk) 05:12, 10 November 2021 (UTC)
 * , closing. --Blablubbs (talk) 17:13, 10 November 2021 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



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Telltale edits on Carlina Rivera. Multiple blocked accounts have made these same changes, as well as IP 108.41.241.156 as well as East River Park where confirmed socks of A21sauce, Wikitikitengo and Wikitikitengo2 have both edited. JesseRafe (talk) 17:55, 23 December 2021 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * is ✅ to . . Dreamy Jazz talk to me &#124; my contributions 12:14, 24 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Closing. Thanks, Spicy (talk) 13:25, 24 December 2021 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
This is about the active named account, Luncher456. Tagging multiple already-blocked accounts because the patterns extend beyond just the first named account of the sockpuppeteer, and hopefully these other accounts are moved from suspected to confirmed in the meanwhile. I’m not introducing further ties between these accounts, but focusing on Luncher456’s patterns reflected in these, and since this is a serial SPI, it would be better after confirmation to have all these accounts added to the correct category instead of merely blocked.


 * 1) A21Sauce – master, blocked (A21)
 * 2) Wikitikitengo – suspected (Wtt)
 * 3) Wikitikitengo2 – suspected (Wtt2)
 * 4) GrammySandwich – blocked, CU verified but not listed (GS)
 * 5) 96.224.82.68 – blocked two weeks (IP)
 * 6) IciMartin – confirmed (IM)
 * 7) BackspaceQ – suspected (BQ)
 * 8) Luncher456 – TBD (Luncher)
 * 9) 96.224.82.63 – TBD (IP2, only ever edited User:Luncher456/sandbox ‎and look at that similarity to A21’s blocked IP)

I noticed this new Luncher account on a lot of my watched NYC and its politics and politicians pages, I noticed a similar trend from A21’s overlapping subject area. Curious, I looked at Luncher’s user talk, I see that they joined an NYC Wikipedia Meetup 1A, which A21 was a regular joiner of 1B and saw that, quite surprising for a new editor, their very first edit was to join a different meetup, which in addition to the broad overlap with A21 is also a subject matter, Black Lunch Table, where Wtt2 edited

Then, I saw there are some articles that the original user just can’t stay away from, most notably:
 * 2A Carlina Rivera (edited by Wtt2, IP, IM, BQ, Luncher)
 * 2B East River Park (edited by Wtt, Wtt2, IM, Luncher)
 * 2C Park Slope Coop (edited by A21, BQ, Luncher).

Outside of those two above subject matter/interest areas there are four editing patterns:

3. Making an error in introducing a repeated ref name and then going back to add the extra closing / in the without any or minimal edit summary and with a minor edit tag:
 * A A21 4 June 2021 on Paperboy Prince
 * B IM 20 December 2021 on Carlina Rivera
 * C BQ 18 January 2022 on Amy’s Kitchen
 * D Luncher456 14 August 2022 on Paperboy Prince

These edits, 3A and 3D, on Paperboy Prince are identical, albeit 106 revisions by 55 users over 14 months apart.

4. Making an edit summary consisting solely of the word “correction”. They also said “correction + a few more words” or modified like “minor correction” periodically, but every account used correction on its own as the entire ES, except two which are noted as using a “correction with ___ ___” format, which the others used from time-to-time (not noted here, only “correction”s):
 * A A21 13 May 2021 on 2021 New York City mayoral election
 * B [Wtt 1 September 2021 Fire Island Pines, New York ‘’’correction with new info’’’
 * C Wtt2 27 September 2021 on Anne Ishii
 * D Wtt2 4 November 2021 on Carlina Rivera
 * E IP 8 November 2021 on Carlina Rivera ‘’’correction with given source’’’
 * F GS 15 November 2021 on East Harlem
 * G BQ 18 January 2022 on Katherine Stewart
 * H, I, J Luncher 9, 15, 16 May 2022 on Betsy Graves Reyneau
 * K Luncher 9 May 2022 Mildred Thompson
 * L Luncher 15 May 2022 on Avocado
 * M Luncher 23 May 2022 on Anthony Albanese
 * N Luncher 12 July 2022 on Bolthouse Farms
 * O Luncher 27 July 2022 on Hotchkiss (surname)
 * P Luncher 11 August 2022 on East River Park

5. Regularly using the sandbox to fully draft articles over periods of time instead of using user draft space.
 * A A21 composed dozens of articles this way, all the way to finished and published and then leaving them up until they began the next one, not deleting once published and
 * A1 a bot changed their categories to links
 * B IM only drafted one article but still had
 * B2 Liz correct that same cat error
 * C Luncher created several article drafts in sandbox and also made the same USERNOCAT errors
 * C1 here and
 * C2 there.

6. Linking to common nouns:
 * A A21 4 June 2021 on Andrew Yang
 * B1, B2, B3, B4, B5 Wtt 26 August 2021 on Greenpeace
 * C Wtt 2 September 2021 on Brooklyn Nets
 * D Wtt2 30 September 2021 on Jina Valentine
 * E Wtt2 18 October 2021 on Grammy Awards
 * F GS 13 November 2021 on The Drivers Cooperative
 * G Luncher 24 July 2022 on the The Grya Man

Given the above evidence (1 joining the same meet ups, 2 overlapping subject matter interest (NYC, politicians, artists, women in media), 3 same / error in tags, 4 "correction" ESes, 5 use of sandbox instead of draft and creating live categories instead of links, 6 linking to common nouns) I think these 9 accounts are the same person. If we need more evidence to tie all of these accounts, note that they also do things like change the capitalization of black to Black when referring to people and regularly rewrite sentences to change the subject between a name and a pronoun, just a stylistic quirk that I’m not going to get diffs from now, but could to mark these all "confirmed" if still in doubt. JesseRafe (talk) 14:50, 17 August 2022 (UTC)

and - Is it untoward for me, as the filer, to add all of these accounts to the "confirmed" category, or should that be done by one of the reviewers, e.g. one of you? Thanks! JesseRafe (talk) 13:44, 19 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks,, if "confirmed" is only CU-confirmed, can they all be added as suspected, then? It's just tough for re-submitted when A21 resurfaces to have to dig them all up as they're not all SPIed at the same place. Case in point, I missed this IP, 108.41.241.156 too, but could have been a named account just as easily. JesseRafe (talk) 15:39, 19 August 2022 (UTC)

Comments by other users

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * CU - previous accounts are likely, meaning no Checkuser data will be available.  - the behavioural evidence is convincing (particularly the edits to their sandbox using an IP in the same range as a previously blocked IP sock ). Please indef Luncher456 as a suspected sock of A21sauce. Thanks, Spicy (talk) 17:28, 18 August 2022 (UTC)
 * --Blablubbs (talk) 13:20, 19 August 2022 (UTC)
 * you are correct that tagging should be left to clerks/admins. 'Confirmed' has a specific meaning (i.e. that CU was run and the accounts were found to be a technical match). That isn't the case for most of the accounts here. Spicy (talk) 15:36, 19 August 2022 (UTC)
 * I suppose I can tag the two accounts that were left untagged. We don't generally tag IPs as they will be reassigned to other users eventually. Spicy (talk) 16:30, 19 August 2022 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
Two accounts, following on the details laid out at Sockpuppet investigations/A21sauce/Archive:

Guide7547 I am certain is a sock, and Rolery02 I wouldn't've filed if not for seeing Guide as well, but just want others to take a look at to be sure. Both display an interest in Meetup/NYC/Wikidata Day which a lot of A21Sauce's socks kept on attending, or at least posting on. Both display an interest in NYC and its politicians, as well as the arts and artists, particularly women and people of color.

Created their account on August 28 2022, after the latest socks were blocked on August 19 2022.
 * Guide7547

1. Linking to unnecessary common nouns (all the alts did this)
 * A A21 WLing to "tone-deaf" and "special needs"
 * B Guide's very first edit to link "loft"
 * C Guide linking to "parking"

2. Making identical edits on Saya Woolfalk (albeit a good edit, "Brooklyn, NY" --> "New York" ).
 * A A21 on 21 February 2021
 * B Guide on 26 September 2022

3. Creating a ref name and then forgetting to close it when using it.
 * A A21 creating ref name=Vice
 * B A21 adding the / to properly close the ref name tag
 * C Guide creating name=SMH
 * D Guide adding the / to SMH

IciMartin, BackspaceQ, and Luncher456 did this as well.

4. Edit summaries (often blank and rarely descriptive, but using "update" or "more/info from link(s)/source(s)"
 * A Guide more from links
 * B info from links
 * Guide saying only "update" C, D, E, F, G, H
 * I A21 more from link
 * J A21 more from given source
 * K A21 more from other parts of the article
 * L A21 more from an already given source
 * M A21 update
 * N A21 update
 * O Wikitikitengo more from links
 * P Wikitikitengo2 "update" on own User page
 * Q Guide "update" on own User page (first edit there, what is update if not from habit?)

5. That edit leads to the interest in Black Lunch Table
 * A User:Guide7547 - "I'm focussed on working on the Black Lunch Table"
 * B Luncher editing on the Black Lunch Table meetup page
 * C topic article where Wikitikitengo2 edited - also common noun link ("meetup" -another interest area) and another shift in sentence subject between proper noun and pronoun

6. Re-writing sentences to make changes to subject between pronoun and proper noun
 * A A21 on Elizabeth Crowley
 * B Guide on Gina Adams
 * C Guide on Saya Woolfalk
 * D on Sandy Stimpson

The other blocked and tagged socks did this, its endemic to their style:
 * E Luncher
 * F Backspace Q
 * G 96.224.82.68
 * H GrammySandwich
 * I Wikitikitengo
 * J Wikitikitengo2

1. Uses the sandbox to draft, not User draft space, and rather than move to a live article just delete or write over it, and note the identical edit summary "Blanked the page":
 * Rolery02
 * A Rolery02.
 * B A21

2. Also had live categories in their drafts that had to be removed by a bot or another user:
 * A Rolery02
 * B A21 USERNOCAT
 * C IciMartin USERNOCAT
 * D Luncher USERNOCAT.

3. Edited the relatively niche Asian American Arts Centre
 * A Rolery02
 * B Wikitikitengo2

JesseRafe (talk) 18:39, 21 October 2022 (UTC)

Comments by other users

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * -  Girth Summit  (blether)  15:21, 23 October 2022 (UTC)
 * is ✅ to multiple previous socks; the following are also confirmed:
 * is no more than - they have the same geolocation, but there is no overlap in terms of IPs. .  Girth Summit  (blether)  15:28, 23 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I don't see enough evidence to do anything with Rolery02. "Blanked the page" is a default edit summary generated when one blanks a page (see e.g. ). They have attended NYC Wikipedia meetups so it doesn't seem surprising that they would end up editing a Wikipedia article about something in NYC. The account was also created long before the master was indefinitely blocked. Closing. Spicy (talk) 22:10, 23 October 2022 (UTC)
 * is no more than - they have the same geolocation, but there is no overlap in terms of IPs. .  Girth Summit  (blether)  15:28, 23 October 2022 (UTC)
 * I don't see enough evidence to do anything with Rolery02. "Blanked the page" is a default edit summary generated when one blanks a page (see e.g. ). They have attended NYC Wikipedia meetups so it doesn't seem surprising that they would end up editing a Wikipedia article about something in NYC. The account was also created long before the master was indefinitely blocked. Closing. Spicy (talk) 22:10, 23 October 2022 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
Latest socks blocked and tagged on October 23, this account is created October 26. Similar interests in American female artists; NYC arts, culture, and politics; joining WP's NYC meet-ups and Black Lunch Table; using "ce" as entire edit summary (when one is even provided). Seems unambiguous, I can provide diffs if needed for behavior, but I think the SPI admins can recognize this now almost monthly occurrence. JesseRafe (talk) 20:13, 28 November 2022 (UTC)

Comments by other users

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * ✅ to . Blocking etc.  Girth Summit  (blether)  20:50, 30 November 2022 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
Behavior and subject matter of A21sauce and his various socks. Apologies if convoluted, but doesn't always match to the original account, but the dozen sockpuppets are often more recent. Subject matter interest is about NYC (mostly lower Manhattan and Brooklyn), its politicians and parks, the arts and especially female artists and artists of color.

Subject Matter Interest:
 * Mary Pilon
 * A21sauce edits it many times, most recently 18 November 2020
 * then after blocked as Wikitikitengo2 27 September 2021
 * Jacobin 357 dozens of times from May through last week
 * Park Slope Food Coop
 * A21sauce in 2020
 * BackspaceQ in 2022
 * Luncher456 in 2022
 * Jacobin in 2023
 * Nina Kuo
 * NerdyThursdays in 2022
 * Jacobin 357 today
 * Maria Hernandez Park
 * A21 in 2020
 * Jacobin last month
 * Devin N. Morris
 * Luncher456 created the article in 2022 and almost nobody edited it
 * Jacobin edit it today
 * Fort Greene, Brooklyn
 * A21 in 2019
 * A21 in 2020
 * Luncher in 2022
 * Jacobin last month
 * Andrew Gounardes
 * A21 in 2020
 * Jacobin this week
 * Kevin Parker (New York politician)
 * A21 in 2021
 * GrammySandwich in 2021
 * Jacobin last week
 * Kamau Amu Patton
 * article created by NerdyThursdays 2022
 * Jacobin edited it today

Other interests catalogued at Sockpuppet investigations/A21sauce/Archive (won't diff these, long enough already):
 * Adding self to meetups for Meetup/NYC and Meetup/Black Lunch Table

Other behavior:
 * Account created 5 December 2022 and the latest sock block was on 30 November 2022.
 * Using their user Sandbox extensively but consistently making the error of using live Categories that have to be removed by other users or bots which was also done by A21sauce, IciMartin, and Luncher456

Other stylistic quirks noted in the archive are also seen in this user, the rewrites to change pronouns and proper names, the edit summaries, etc. JesseRafe (talk) 18:03, 13 June 2023 (UTC)


 * ETA, I requested CU even though the master account would obviously be stale, because in the October 2022 SPI, two sleeper accounts were also found. Adding this note because recall some prior CU requests were declined. Thanks! JesseRafe (talk) 16:19, 14 June 2023 (UTC)


 * ETA, while the review below rates it as "likely" last month, current account is editing frequently at two of A21's biggest subject areas, Carlina Rivera and East River Park - which had been edited extensively by prior confirmed socks Wikitikitengo2, IciMartin, BackspaceQ, and Luncher456 and Wikitikitengo, Wikitikitengo2, IciMartin, and Luncher456 with similar subject matter changes. JesseRafe (talk) 18:48, 19 July 2023 (UTC)

Comments by other users

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * There's no current CU data to compare to, but based on historical logs, I'll call  to A21sauce. RoySmith (talk) 22:24, 26 June 2023 (UTC)
 * I went back and took a deeper look at the behavior. Much of the editing overlap could be explained by a shared interest in New York City topics and the IP overlaps could easily be explained by attending the same NYC wiki meetups.  On the other side of the equation, I'm seeing some specific behavioral differences between A21sauce and Jacobin 357 which make me doubt they're the same person.  Closing with no action. RoySmith (talk) 20:52, 19 July 2023 (UTC)