Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Agarc192/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets



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Please compare edits of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Msalvati and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Agarc192 edits a small group of articles, the same identical articles, odd wikignoming, but more to the point, generally getting edits reverted, and then when warned, vanishing and recreating a new account. May or may not be a newbie, but immediately abandoning an account only to do the exact same thing with another is a problem. Edits appear small, but ones like this have a WP:NOTHERE feel to them. Almost has that "four edits and off to the races" feel to it common to sockpuppet "sleeper" accounts. Montanabw (talk) 22:47, 2 June 2016 (UTC) Comparison of article history more useful than editing diffs (as most edits are minor and individually, not disruptive):
 * 1) https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chet_Trail&action=history
 * 2) https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tennessee_Walking_Horse_National_Celebration&action=history
 * 3) https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kermode_bear&action=history
 * 4) https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chris_Burkard&action=history

User does not respond to talk page queries or warnings, even if such messages are politely worded and questioning rather than accusing. Their use of English doesn't make sense; either they are young, an English-as-a-second-language-speaker, or they are trying to make the article not make sense, one bit at a time. The edits to the lead of the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration article are the best example of their style. Here, they changed a chronological lead to have modern info, then go back to 1939, then boom, more on the modern Celebration. Diff The capitalizations and quote marks lower down are also weird, since they are not supported by any source. Their latest edit, here, introduced wrong information. The horse show class in question is referred to as the World Grand Championship, big stake, or rider's cup, canter (phrasing and comma are exactly like the source cited, and are further backed up by the show program, and other sources). Claiming that the class is known as the canter is just...bizarre. White Arabian Filly Neigh 20:10, 3 June 2016 (UTC)
 * The connection between them seems to be making the exact same types of edits, and using almost identical edit summaries.
 * Edit by Msalvati:
 * Removes conjunction to make one sentence that makes sense, and a second sentence that doesn't make much sense, like an afterthought
 * Edit by Agarc192:
 * Here, switches order in the lead, same kind of afterthought thing going on (the event before the preparation for the event)
 * The first account shows up and starts editing these 3 or 4 articles. When they get reverted, they don't take it to talk, but suddenly this other account appears and begins editing the same articles. It seemed extremely strange. They may not be the same person, but they may be meatpuppets or something else. I don't know, but I don't think they are student editors in the same class because those almost always declare it.
 * This may not be legit evidence, but I'm a writer. I've written a couple of (unpublished) novels. I learned a long time ago that a person's "voice" comes out in their writing; people have different ways of writing English. Some people are short and quick, while others like to give intimate detail, but a writer's voice doesn't fundamentally change. To me these two users have the same writing "voice". White Arabian Filly  Neigh 20:56, 9 June 2016 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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 * I'm a real person! I had to make a Wikipedia account for my journalism editing class at Cal Poly SLO, our final project was to edit four articles. This is my only Wikipedia account.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Andidimatteo (talk • contribs) 00:44, 10 June 2016 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * - But, what is the connection between those two accounts? Can you show some diffs to illustrate their similarity? I can't see any. I found some edits that are even revert of each other ( and ).  Vanjagenije   (talk)  19:12, 9 June 2016 (UTC)
 * - PLeae, check those two.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  22:33, 9 June 2016 (UTC)
 * The following accounts are ✅:
 * is.
 * I've blocked the confirmed accounts. If the decision is that Andidimatteo is a sock, then that account is the master. If not, Brycesierra2296 is the master. Either way, this case needs to be moved after that determination.--Bbb23 (talk) 00:36, 10 June 2016 (UTC)
 * Strictly behaviourally speaking, I do not think it's definitive that Andidimatteo is the sockmaster. The other accounts almost exclusively use the visual editor whereas Andidimatteo does not. Furthermore, Andidimatteo does not use capitals in their edit summaries whereas the other accounts. Also, Andidimatteo and precisely outlines what grammatical problem they are fixing whereas the other accounts often summarize broadly by saying "fixing grammatical errors". I do find the timeline and crossover at Whittier, Alaska concerning. Mkdw talk 16:12, 8 July 2016 (UTC)
 * is.
 * I've blocked the confirmed accounts. If the decision is that Andidimatteo is a sock, then that account is the master. If not, Brycesierra2296 is the master. Either way, this case needs to be moved after that determination.--Bbb23 (talk) 00:36, 10 June 2016 (UTC)
 * Strictly behaviourally speaking, I do not think it's definitive that Andidimatteo is the sockmaster. The other accounts almost exclusively use the visual editor whereas Andidimatteo does not. Furthermore, Andidimatteo does not use capitals in their edit summaries whereas the other accounts. Also, Andidimatteo and precisely outlines what grammatical problem they are fixing whereas the other accounts often summarize broadly by saying "fixing grammatical errors". I do find the timeline and crossover at Whittier, Alaska concerning. Mkdw talk 16:12, 8 July 2016 (UTC)


 * Tagging the three blocked accounts.
 * As Mkdw says, I don't think the evidence is quite conclusive enough to determine that Andidimatteo is a sockpuppet account beyond reasonable doubt and I don't think it's reasonable to take any action based on an inconclusive investigation.
 * As opposed to what said, I'm not going to move the case -- Agarc192 is the oldest account (created May 17th, the other two on May 19th), so we'll document that account as the master. ☺ ·   Salvidrim!   ·  &#9993;  16:04, 15 July 2016 (UTC)
 * You're correct about which account is oldest (sorry about that), but your dates are odd. Do you use UTC time? If not, you should.--Bbb23 (talk) 16:16, 15 July 2016 (UTC)
 * You're right that I use local time. I realize it can be ambiguous for other users in different timezones and that UTC is unambiguous, but even if I did use UTC, unless everybody did, there would still be ambiguity for those using other timezone settings. For this reason, I'm not yet willing to let go of the convenience of seeing local times. ;) ☺ ·  Salvidrim!   ·  &#9993;  16:29, 15 July 2016 (UTC)