Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Attleboro/Archive

05 November 2013

 * Suspected sockpuppets

(Added after Reaper's Attleboro-Orthogonius CU:)


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I've laid out Orthogonius's disruptive behavior on his/her user talk. This came directly on the heels of my edit warring report against Attleboro. Orthogonius has a precocious edit history, with first few edits being reversions and the fourth edit being the addition of a main template. If you compare the two users' edit histories, I believe every single revert Orthogonius has ever done (and there are a lot in his/her short editing history) was done in tandem with Attleboro's reversions (see Attleboro's history here), and the two editors' POV are identically aligned. I could go on but I think that's sufficient. --Dr. Fleischman (talk) 00:52, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

P.S. I could notify the accused users of this SPI but I'd rather not, since I don't want to inflame tensions if I'm somehow mistaken. If an admin would prefer that I notify, however, then let me know and I will. --Dr. Fleischman (talk) 00:54, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

This goes much deeper than I had thought. If you look at Attleboro's early edit history you'll see similar and even more precocious behavior -- including this critical revert of a sockpuppet accusation by 108.120.179.135. Look at 108.120.179.135's edit history and you'll see alleged (alleged) links among Attleboro, Mbhiii, Welhaven, Trift, 98.69.193.71, and "a long list of others." I think a comparison of the edit histories of Attleboro and these other editors bears out 108.120.179.135's claims. You'll see very similar modus operandi to Attleboro-Orthogonious in similarly intense edit wars. (Redistribution of income and wealth was particularly brutal.) In addition there are accusations of links with Dawakin. To top it all off Mbhiii, Dawakin, and Welhaven were blocked indefinitely for sockpuppetry and disruption back in 2010-2011. Before being blocked Mbhiii had a pretty consistent interest in health care legislation and a similar POV to Attleboro. In sum, this may be a lengthy, elaborate, and extremely disruptive pattern of WP:BE. --Dr. Fleischman (talk) 22:09, 5 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Update 11/5/2013

A list of other suspected socks of Mbhiii can be found here. --Dr. Fleischman (talk) 22:49, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

And here's Mbhiii's SPI page, which hasn't had an active investigation since February 2012. And I see at the bottom a CU was done comparing Attleboro to Mbhiii and it came up negative. However Attleboro's early edit history clearly shows behavior evidence of a link with some other user. --Dr. Fleischman (talk) 23:11, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.''
 * This looks like a WP:DUCK. Both of the primary editors have not edited in the past few days, while both were very active in the week prior.  Arzel (talk) 14:42, 6 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Now they're back to tandem edit warring. --Dr. Fleischman (talk) 17:31, 6 November 2013 (UTC),


 * After I reverted one of Attleboro's widely-contested edits to Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act yesterday (diff), Orthogonius restored it today (diff), and a few minutes afterwards, Orthogonius suddenly took an interest in Voting Rights Act of 1965, which that user has never edited before, and reverted three of my edits there with no sensical explanation (diff). Orthogonius's strident protection of Attleboro's edits, including what appears to be retaliation against me on Attleboro's behalf, is evidence that these two users are one and the same, or at the very least meatpuppets. –Prototime (talk · contribs) 17:06, 7 November 2013 (UTC)
 * It's a good cop / bad cop strategy, designed to keep Attleboro's reputation semi-intact. --Dr. Fleischman (talk) 17:45, 7 November 2013 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * Checkuser results are completely due to proxy server use. Reaper Eternal (talk) 03:03, 5 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Admin note: I'm blocking Attleboro and Orthogonius indefinitely as socks; they are two accounts that alternate to gain an advantage in edit warring (such as in Lynching; compare and ). It's possible that it started because of Culture of honor (Southern United States), where this is Orthogonius's first edit. It reinstates information (note the mention of David Hackett Fischer) earlier inserted by Attleboro, here. Other points of contact are Tree measurement, Your Neighbor's Son. Note also their practically identical user pages, style of edit summary, et cetera. Good luck figuring out the rest. Drmies (talk) 20:13, 7 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Recent suspected socks are all blocked now, so I think we can close this. Mark Arsten (talk) 20:45, 7 November 2013 (UTC)