Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Austhistory99/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets



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           Austhistory revisions at List of massacres of Indigenous Australians - haven't checked them all but show a consistent pattern (Not 100% sure about all of those diff links because I have just had to do a painful copy and paste from my Clipdiary, after doing all the work and trying to submit via the other Twinkle option, which aborted...) Don't know much about CheckUser, or whether to notify - will leave that up to you. Laterthanyouthink (talk) 06:05, 20 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Forgot to add, BobbySunlight and ClearBreeze are also possible suspects. Laterthanyouthink (talk) 06:37, 20 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Do I respond here, ? Thanks for getting onto it. I'm sorry, but this is my first SPI report and I was already frustrated by the first abort of the Twinkle tool. I will see what else I can add tomorrow, but will need at least another day please before you close it. (I thought that you could investigate behind the scenes to see if the IPs were linked to the Austhistory one.) In one case one of the IPs improves one of the citations provided by Aust., but I'll have to dig again for that. Laterthanyouthink (talk) 08:53, 20 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Hi Laterthanyouthink! No problem; we were all new at SPI and filed our first report at one point in time. ;-) Don't worry about making mistakes or doing something wrong... it's a perfectly normal part of learning, growing, and becoming more experienced with things. :-) Sure, that's not a problem at all; I'll leave this SPI report open so you can do that. Please take all the time you need in order to gather information and add what's needed, and we'll be happy to take a look once you've done so. You're welcome to reach out to me on my user talk page if you have any questions or need my input or assistance with anything, and I'll be more than happy to help you. :-)  ~Oshwah~  (talk) (contribs)   09:05, 20 November 2019 (UTC)'
 * Thanks, . I've been closely reviewing the changes to the Bruce Pascoe and Dark Emu articles, and although cannot be sure that the axe-grinders are all one person, I'll just note some coincidences between changes done by Aust and a couple of the IPs.


 * Pascoe article: this change (17 November 8:47 5.54.59.173)            adds controversy section quoting Windschuttle and Bolt. This one (17:17, November 17, 2019‎ Austhistory99) adds unfavouable reviws for Dark Emu, quoting O'Brien, Windschuttle, from Quadrant. This change (after a bit of reverting to and fro) reverts another editor's revert (17 Nov 14:11 2001:8003:d139:2200:f5a7:4d93:8591:5c6a) reinstating Bolt as a source.
 * Dark Emu article: these changes add O'Brien book (including unnecessarily long quote), plus citing Bolt on YouTube and Windschuttle. In this one (17 Nov 8:53 - 5.54.59.173), IP fixes the citation added earlier by Austhistory.           References which mention Gerritsen are cited by Austhistory in this one (8 Nov 6:17 – Austhistory), and then later in these edits (17 Nov 9:48 5.54.59.173), a few hours after Austhistory has been busy, adds long bit about Gerritsen’s theories ignored by other academics because of his conviction on terrorism charges (plus long quote).
 * Austhistory has also been busy on List of massacres of Indigenous Australians, with a certain amount of unnecessary detail wherever Aboriginal people killed others (followed by a few reverts or mods by others), but I don't think there's much recent there. I suspect that the short-lived Bobby Sunlight (2 changes) has also been using multiple IPs, but can't be certain they are the same as Austhistory. I have dismissed ClearBreeze as linked to the others, as their style seems to be rather different. I don't know if this helps or is what is needed. Anyway, I think I'll just leave this here now - it's all too time-consuming and I'd rather just get on with editing! If you don't think there's conclusive evidence, that's fine.
 * (Oops, forgot to sign my previous comment, sorry.) Thanks, . I'm happy to accept and leave as is for now. If it carries on and I see a pattern or closer link emerging, I'll follow up again. Laterthanyouthink (talk) 01:12, 22 November 2019 (UTC)

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

 * I'm not making any sense of this SPI report at all... the information and evidence provided isn't followed up with any in-depth explanation as to why it is believed that these IP users are connected to the account. edited the List of massacres of Indigenous Australians back in October 2019, where he/she just reverts the edits made to the article by another user. I don't see any other connection here. I also took the time to review each diff provided along with the edits made by  to the same articles. While some of the diffs provided show that some of the IP users are connected to one another, I'm failing to see where any proof or evidence exists that links these IP users to '. Unless more information, more context, and an in-depth explanation is provided by Laterthanyouthink and regarding exactly what makes her believe that these IP users are connected to  and why, I believe that the investigation should stop here and this SPI be closed due to the lack of supporting evidence.  ~Oshwah~ ''' (talk)  (contribs)   07:53, 20 November 2019 (UTC)
 * I'm inclined to agree with Oshwah, I'm not really seeing how the IPs (who may be connected to each other) are connected to Austhistory99. If the IP edits are disruptive a better approach here is semiprotection of the affected articles. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 15:35, 21 November 2019 (UTC)
 * I have semiprotected Dark Emu (book) and Bruce Pascoe was already protected. I'm not seeing the need for protection at List of massacres of Indigenous Australians, there have been no disruptive IP edits in several weeks. Leaving open for a third opinion on connections, or if I missed anything. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 15:39, 21 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Oh and just because it was mentioned, CheckUser is as we cannot reveal the IP address of a registered account. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 15:40, 21 November 2019 (UTC)


 * Responding to the diffs and evidence supplemented and amended by Laterthanyouthink: The diffs listed with the edits to Bruce Pascoe definitely show that the two IP users were related, as they added the exact same content. However, 's edit does not add the same content, nor does it cite any of the same sources that the edits by the two IP users referenced. I don't see anything in these edits that can connect the account and the IP users together here. The diffs provided with the edits to Dark Emu (book) show that an IP user added information to the reference that added just a few hours earlier. This is a bit more convincing that there might be a connection between  and the IP user 5.54.59.173, and I'm almost inclined to call this plausible. However, I'm not seeing where the edits made by  and 5.54.59.173 would constitute a violation of policy even if we were to assume that these two users are the same person. This could be a simple case of  accidentally editing while logged out. I don't see any blatant attempts to avoid scrutiny or to mislead, deceive, or give the appearance that these two users are different people.  ~Oshwah~  (talk)  (contribs)   11:33, 23 November 2019 (UTC)


 * Given the information provided and amended to this report, as well as the comments left above, I am going to close this SPI report with no action taken due to lack of evidence.  ~Oshwah~  (talk) (contribs)   11:36, 23 November 2019 (UTC)