Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Aa42john/Archive

24 August 2011

 * Suspected sockpuppets




 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

User:Aa42john is an indefinitely blocked user, blocked for repeated copyright violations on 12 May 2011 He is using an IP sock to circumvent his block:
 * Behavioral evidence that IP user 86.24.102.36 is blocked user Aa42john:
 * IP began editing 26 May 2011, shortly after block.
 * IP is displaying very similar editing style and the distinctive habit of Aa42 of often leaving long-winded edit summaries, often including full web addresses of links to websites of purported references (presumably so that they or his POV remain more visible in the article history even when challenged and removed from the article). For example, the IP left summaries like this:, and  and there are literally dozens more examples in the IP's contribution history: ; similarly, Aa42john had the same modus operandi: ,  and also dozens more in his user contribution history:.
 * IP and banned user are both editing in same topic areas: Current Affairs portal, Middle East conflict, York and Yorkshire personalities and locations - too many instances to list all here, but clear from even quick examination of both IP and banned user's contribution histories.


 * Location evidence: Geolocate indicates that IP is operating from York, England . Aa42john self-identified on his user page as a resident of York, England    PopularMax (talk) 21:42, 24 August 2011 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.''
 * Perhaps this can qualify as a duck, but it certainly doesn't warrant CheckUser. —  Kudu ~I/O~ 22:13, 24 August 2011 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * IP blocked 2 weeks per WP:DUCK. —  Hello Annyong  (say whaaat?!) 01:01, 25 August 2011 (UTC)

27 September 2011

 * Suspected sockpuppets




 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

User Aa42john was blocked indefinitely on 12 May 2011 for repeated copyright violations.

The user evaded the block by editing as IP 86.24.102.36 until blocked for two weeks on 24 August 2011.

IP 86.24.102.36 admits that he is User Aa42john.

Once the block against the IP expired, IP continued to edit and has made more than a dozen edits since then:.

It seems that a longer or indefinite block for Aa42john operating as IP 86.24.102.36 is called for. PopularMax (talk) 15:50, 27 September 2011 (UTC)

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

 * Blocked the IP for 20 days. Tried to do a sweep on Aa42john's range, but it's too wide to do much. In any case, he doesn't appear to have edited for almost a week, so hopefully things will quieten down now. Kindly file another report if there is more trouble. AGK  [&bull; ] 22:00, 27 September 2011 (UTC)

29 January 2012

 * Suspected sockpuppets




 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

This IP user, a known sock of user:Aa42john (please see case: ) is back editing. Aa42 was indef banned in May 2011 and his IP sock was subsequently blocked twice - in August 2011 and September 2011

Details: User Aa42john was blocked indefinitely on 12 May 2011 for repeated copyright violations.

The user evaded the block by editing as IP 86.24.102.36 until blocked for two weeks on 24 August 2011.

IP 86.24.102.36 admits that he is User Aa42john.

Once the block against the IP expired, IP continued to edit.

He was then blocked again on 27 September 2011 for two months.

IP has again been editing since 10 December 2011:

Can we shut him down permanently, since he doesn't seem to know how to take "no" for an answer?

-- PopularMax (talk) 22:18, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

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

 * IP blocked 3 months. —  Hello Annyong  (say whaaat?!) 04:15, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

26 February 2014

 * Suspected sockpuppets




 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.
 * Editor interaction utility

User:Aa42john is an indefinitely blocked user, blocked for repeated copyright violations on 12 May 2011. He then used an IP sock to circumvent his block per this case: It appears he had a prior persona also, User:Johnbibby per this case: also blocked for repeated copyright violations. He now appears to be back as User:Jb1944.

Evidence for this is as follows:

Jb1944 is displaying the same editing style and the distinctive habit of his former incarnations by often leaving long-winded edit summaries, often including full web addresses of links to websites of purported references in regards to the Middle East conflict.


 * For example, as an IP, he left summaries like this:,  and  and there are literally dozens more examples in the IP's contribution history: ;


 * Similarly, Aa42john had the same modus operandi:, and also dozens more in his user contribution history:.


 * As Jb1944 these are some examples:, , ,

Previous incarnations and now Jb1944 edit in same topic areas: Current Affairs portal, Middle East conflict (see above diffs), York and Yorkshire personalities and locations - too many instances to list all here, but clear from even quick examination of both IP, banned users and Jb1944's contribution histories. A few examples:


 * Jb1944, Aa42john and Johnbibby all edit the Cyril Bibby article:, e.g., , ,
 * Jb1944 frequently creates or edits York-area related articles, e.g.:, ,
 * Johnbibby and Jb1944 have both edited the Crambe, North Yorkshire article:, and there are more in the history there
 * Joseph Hirst article, resident of Yorkshire
 * Burythorpe, north Yorkshire

Sock naming:
 * Jb (as in Jb1944) are the initials for John Bibby, and John is also used in Aa42john.

Location evidence:
 * Geolocate indicates that IP was operating from York, England.
 * Aa42john self-identified on his user page as a resident of York, England
 * Johnbibby and Jb1944 creating and or editing York-area articles (examples above)

-- PopularMax (talk) 00:12, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

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
Aside from the other evidence included about, there's also a peculiar way that each account leaves a signature on talk pages that makes them pretty obvious. I've blocked and tagged JB1944. I'm not taking any action against the IP, though, because it hasn't edited in 9 months. --  At am a  頭 18:51, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

15 June 2014

 * Suspected sockpuppets




 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.
 * Editor interaction utility

User:Aa42john is an indefinitely blocked user, blocked for repeated copyright violations on 12 May 2011. He has used mutiple sock puppets, all showing teh same behavior as docuemnted below:
 * Obvious name similarity
 * Similar behavior of adding copyright violations -
 * focus on Yorkshire-related articles
 * More than 100 articles overlap with Aa24john and other puppets Alaskan wildlife fan (talk) 20:03, 15 June 2014 (UTC)

Per your request:
 * it is not simply the use of "equal signs" - it is the use of the entire change they made as the edit summary, wiki markup included:
 * John :, ,
 * Shirley:, ,


 * The addition of new Talk page sections at the top of the page, rather than at the bottom, per convention:
 * John: ,
 * Shirley:

I don't think it is necessary to delete the new articles created by the sock, if they are non-controversial. But the socking should be stopped. Alaskan wildlife fan (talk) 04:14, 20 June 2014 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.''

That link shows only three articles (John Cossins, Donkin (surname) and Pennyman baronets) edited by Aa42shirley and another of the accounts (there's one more (River Derwent, Yorkshire) edited by Aa42shirley and the IP address in the archive), but edits to Pennyman baronets are identical (addition of the same red link) and there are similarities in topic areas edited (Yorkshire and Israel) and use of external links, as well as the copyright violations and username. Peter James (talk) 22:41, 15 June 2014 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
. Although there are certain obvious similarities, other than the names themselves, I had to poke around on my own to find them, e.g., edit summaries (long and use equal signs). The Pennyman baronets edits were helpful, but the filer provided very little, and even Peter talked about external links without listing any diffs. The puppet has created quite a few new articles, and I'd rather be sure before deleting them per G5. That said, the only possible account to compare against, unless there are sleepers, is User:Jb1944. He last edited on March 1, 2014; hopefully, his technical information is still available.--Bbb23 (talk) 07:56, 19 June 2014 (UTC)
 * - Everything is stale, I'm sorry. Salvio Let's talk about it! 16:26, 19 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Based on Salvio's comment, I'd like more diffs from either or .--Bbb23 (talk) 22:43, 19 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the additional behavioral evidence, . Based on duck, I've indeffed and tagged the puppet. As for the new articles, there are several. I don't mind leaving in small constructive edits by socks, but new articles, even if "non-controversial", are a different matter. I'll look at them and decide. At the same time, you can tag any article for deletion per WP:CSD if you wish. You can also let me know here or on my talk page if there are particular articles you want to keep. Otherwise closing.--Bbb23 (talk) 13:52, 20 June 2014 (UTC)