Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Brad Watson, Miami/Archive

14 December 2012

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Pushing Brad Watson's blog, continuing Brad's old arguments, making questionable claims on Brad's behalf, carrying on Brad's weird obsession with gematria. Compare with this older post of Brad's. Ian.thomson (talk) 23:09, 14 December 2012 (UTC)

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 * Obvious sock. While the WHOIS claims this is a dynamic IP, this  shows it may be static and definitely ties the two together.  Blocked one year, the longest I feel comfortable blocking an IP.  Closing. Dennis Brown -  2&cent;    &copy;  Join WER 16:13, 15 December 2012 (UTC)

04 November 2014

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Posts at talk:Yahweh use the same idiosyncratic gematria as Brad, geolocates to Miami Ian.thomson (talk) 16:17, 4 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Also, signs posts as "Albert Einstein", and Brad claims on his site to be the reincarnation of Einstein (even though he also claims to be the second coming of Jesus, which would make Einstein the second coming of Jesus and Brad the "third"). Ian.thomson (talk) 16:29, 4 November 2014 (UTC)

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Obvious sock. Blocking for six months. Closing. Dougweller (talk) 16:26, 4 November 2014 (UTC)

18 January 2015

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Signs posts as "Carlos Siquenza de Gongora" and "Plutarch II", Watson claims to be a reincarnation of de Gongora. Hasn't claimed to be the reincarnation of Plutarch yet, but is does show the sort of obsession with him that would indicate it's not out of the question for him. Ian.thomson (talk) 19:04, 18 January 2015 (UTC)

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 * I've blocked the IP for 2 weeks given the behavioral evidence. Mike V • Talk 02:53, 20 January 2015 (UTC)

16 February 2015

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"GOD-guided evolution" (note capitalization) is the term Brad Watson uses for theistic evolution. Omnireligious is also focused on George Washington and the Custis Lee family, as is Brad Watson. Omnireligious's desire to emphasize the overly exact figure that the universe is 74% hydrogen is ultimately Brad Watson's claim as part of his obsession with the numbers 7 and 4. Ian.thomson (talk) 19:02, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

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Blocked, obvious sock. Dougweller (talk) 12:00, 17 February 2015 (UTC)

20 June 2015

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Signing posts as Ben Franklin. Watson believes he is (among other things) the reincarnation of Ben Franklin (as well as Einstein and Carlos Siquenza de Gongora). Geolocates to the county next to Miami. Ian.thomson (talk) 15:25, 20 June 2015 (UTC)
 * And I just removed a bunch of his "English Gematria," which is unique to Brad. This is a WP:DUCK case at this point.  Ian.thomson (talk) 17:45, 20 June 2015 (UTC)

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 * . A three days block is appropriate.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  18:06, 20 June 2015 (UTC)
 * ✅. Why is it blue now? Closing.--Bbb23 (talk) 20:39, 20 June 2015 (UTC)
 * changed the color in the template . I think it's better this way.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  20:43, 20 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Not that I care much, although I get confused easily, why do you think it's better?--Bbb23 (talk) 20:49, 20 June 2015 (UTC)
 * That neon green (or however it's called) was a kind ugly. This blue is more relaxing.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  20:54, 20 June 2015 (UTC)
 * I'm thinking about mild orange. It better reflects the status; check out Berean Hunter's talk page! ☺ ·  Salvidrim!   ·  &#9993;  20:57, 20 June 2015 (UTC)
 * I didn't know we were at SPI to relax. @Salvidrim!, if you're serious about mild orange, I object: too easily confused with other colors. We're gonna run out of colors, and we'll have to start using stripes and checks and stuff.--Bbb23 (talk) 21:01, 20 June 2015 (UTC)

08 July 2015

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As can be seen at and, the same meaningless obsession with the Seven Seals, and the same pattern of signing posts with " - (something laughable like Ben Franklin) ~ " (though he has at least moved to quoting Jesus instead of just signing it "Jesus" or "Einstein" or "Ben Franklin"). Compare with this, where he pushes his "7seals" blog, where announces that he's Jesus and is going to the seals. Geolocation is close enough (25.7541, -80.271), compared with 25.8941, -80.1821. Ian.thomson (talk) 21:54, 8 July 2015 (UTC)


 * Added 50.153.105.14 because of this bit of crazy and geolocation. Ian.thomson (talk) 17:31, 10 July 2015 (UTC)

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 * IPs blocked for 3 days. Article and talk page semi'd. Closing. Callanecc (talk • contribs • logs) 09:40, 14 July 2015 (UTC)

22 July 2015

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Same idio...syncratic signing as other socks, geolocates to about the right area. Same insistence on inserting "seven" before "classical planets" as other socks ( And now this is stuck in my head again ). Ian.thomson (talk) 17:20, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

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 * IP not active any more, and seems to be dynamic. No point in blocking it. Closing this case.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  10:44, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

04 January 2016

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In view of this IP block log by user, please have a look at these edit summaries (example), compared with these (example). Immediately after most recent block expiration, IP started editing again in same subject domain. This is clearly the same editor with a fixed IP. See also this borderline disturbing reply on his talk page.

IP is already on list of suspected sockpuppets of username. DVdm (talk) 16:32, 4 January 2016 (UTC)

User notified:. Notification immediately removed: - DVdm (talk) 16:44, 4 January 2016 (UTC)

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 * Obviously still the same editor . IP blocked for a year. Closing.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  17:00, 4 January 2016 (UTC)

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Bible-thumping on Tower of Babel, just like the Bradpuppets that regularly hit the article. KATMAKROFAN (talk) 17:08, 2 October 2016 (UTC)

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 * This doesn't read like Brad, this reads like one of the too many people who hasn't encountered any system of thought outside of their specific brand of Sunday school Evangelical Fundamentalism (except through limited strawmen arguments and stereotypes). Possibly a trolling imitation thereof, or maybe not.  Brad Watson is obsessed with his own idiosyncratic brand of mysticism, particularly with the numbers 7 and 4 (especially whenever he imagines those numbers appear in the natural world), and him being the reincarnation of Jesus, Einstein, and other "smart" historical figures.  Unless a CU or further evidence proves this is Brad, I'm gonna have to say it's not.  I'd go so far that I'd probably unblock him if he were blocked right now as a Bradpuppet (again, barring a CU or further evidence).  Ian.thomson (talk) 06:31, 3 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Further examination of the Tower of Babel article and talk page, I'm not finding any Brad socks right away. I do see a fair amount of User:Til Eulenspiegel socking on the talk page, but he's more literate that this.  Also, the usual fundie rabble.  Bradpuppets tend to go to a variety of pages, and I haven't seen any of them touch the Tower of Babel article yet. Ian.thomson (talk) 06:43, 3 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Agreed. I don't have any reason to see this as a Brad sock. Doug Weller  talk 08:22, 3 October 2016 (UTC)

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as the filer has not responded to the request to provide more evidence in nearly three weeks, and given the counter-analysis by Ian.thomson and Doug Weller, this case is closed with no action. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 14:25, 21 October 2016 (UTC)
 * - In order to facilitate and expedite your request, please provide diffs to support your case. Please give two or more diffs meeting the following format:
 * 1) At least one diff is from the sockmaster (or an account already blocked as a confirmed sockpuppet of the sockmaster), showing the behaviour characteristic of the sockmaster.
 * 2) At least one diff per suspected sockpuppet, showing the suspected sockpuppet emulating the behaviour of the sockmaster given in the first diff.
 * 3) In situations where it is not immediately obvious from the diffs what the characteristic behaviour is, a short explanation must be provided. Around one sentence is enough for this.  Vanjagenije   (talk)  17:29, 2 October 2016 (UTC)

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Doug Weller talk 11:55, 15 April 2018 (UTC)

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WP:DUCK User:Ian.thomson blocked the IP a while ago for the same reason. Doug Weller talk 11:55, 15 April 2018 (UTC)

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This IP range seems to be making mostly Watson-like edits on talk pages associated with religion or theoretical physics. They ramble about numerology or have a common "I added..." format. It's possible that y range is too narrow, but I don't think it's too broad. One of the IP addresses geolocated to Pompano Beach, Florida, which is 35 miles north of Miami, and had Comcast Cable as their ISP. The account is stale, but user Special:Diff/reverted their Watson-sounding rambling at Talk:String theory, which is what brought me here in the first place. Also, this edit was made by one of the Ip addresses listed above. Their only other edits were at their user talk or Talk:Christopher Langan; see also this AN discussion which covers ZenMechanics and several SPAs; the IP's mentioned do not geolocate to the Miami area and are unlikely to be related. It is possible that Watson has used other IPs in the range. If confirmed, the LTA page will need to be updated to reflect this new behavior. –LaundryPizza03 ( d c̄ ) 08:26, 8 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Diff by on Talk:String theory on 13 November referencing "Seal #3 of the '7 Seals'", after I had reverted 2 previous edits by the same IP on 7 September. The most characteristic edit pattern of Brad Watson.
 * Diff by on Talk:Cubit on 8 December with an "I added..." format.
 * Diff by o Talk:Common Sense on 16 December with an "I added..." format, citing this edit of theirs where they changed the page count from 49 to 47 without citing a source.
 * Diff by on Einstein's static universe on 31 December adding unsourced content about the true discoverers of the Big Bang, one of whom is identified as a Roman Catholic priest.
 * Diff by on Talk:Seven seals on 31 December referencing a reincarnation of Albert Einstein.
 * Diff by on Talk:Jimmy Carter on 4 January with an "I added..." format referencing a speech he allegedly delivered in 1974 (quoted as '74).

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I don't know, it's not obvious to me. I remember ZenMechanics from Langan related posts and at the time at one point wondered if (blocked) was related but also found that inconclusive. — Paleo Neonate  – 21:02, 15 January 2021 (UTC)


 * Here ZenMechanics responds to a post that's definitely Brad. As I explained here: Brad Watson is obsessed with his own idiosyncratic brand of mysticism, particularly with the numbers 7 and 4 (especially whenever he imagines those numbers appear in the natural world), and him being the reincarnation of Jesus, Einstein, and other "smart" historical figures.  He can tone down the latter but he is pathologically required to reference his "4_7" mysticism.  I don't know if Brad has the presence of mind to pretend to be someone else; I've never encountered a self-made crank who wasn't blindingly egotistical about their theories.  This is the only thing that would indicate that ZM has prior activity, and Samael and String Theory are both areas Brad is interested in, though Frank Wilczek seems a bit beyond him (his knowledge of physics is mostly pseudo-jargon technobabble).  Ian.thomson (talk) 10:54, 18 January 2021 (UTC)

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IP range-blocked for 3 months, feel free to revert all edits. I don't know how I missed it. Doug Weller talk 16:59, 17 January 2021 (UTC)


 * Yeah, it's likely that ZM is Brad, but given that they have no activity in 11 months, it's hard to argue this would be WP:BLOCKPREVENTATIVE. The IP range is where the current damage is happening, and that's been blocked.  If ZM comes back to life, please open another SPI. -- RoySmith (talk) 01:39, 3 February 2021 (UTC)

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These IPs exhibit Watson's fixation on numerology and especially 7 and 4, though the links to Watson's blog are the giveaway. A. Parrot (talk) 02:40, 4 June 2021 (UTC)

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 * Yup. Handed out some rangeblocks. GeneralNotability (talk) 15:15, 20 June 2021 (UTC)

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This edit links to a blog and a website run by "Brad Watson, Miami" as the sidebar of the blog explicitly says. Notfrompedro (talk) 19:58, 1 September 2021 (UTC)

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 * Yup. Handed out a nice, wide rangeblock. GeneralNotability (talk) 02:26, 2 September 2021 (UTC)
 * I was looking at this earlier today. My take was that given the number of different IP ranges used, the best tool here would probably be a blacklist entry for 7seals.blogspot.com.  Just something to consider for next time. -- RoySmith (talk) 02:43, 2 September 2021 (UTC)
 * He actually seems surprisingly static - I'm astounded that this one IPv6 addr has been intermittently active for like three months. No objection to a blacklisting, though. GeneralNotability (talk) 03:31, 2 September 2021 (UTC)

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I believe this is WP:LTA/BRAD. Numerology/OR spam on Christianity related articles -. — Prodraxis {talk • contributions} (she/her) 01:51, 16 July 2023 (UTC)


 * Edits in userspace also consists of numerology spam - seems fairly ducky to me. — Prodraxis {talk • contributions} (she/her) 01:53, 16 July 2023 (UTC)

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 * This is technically ❌ to Brad Watson, Miami. I'll leave open for a behavioural investigation. Callanecc (talk • contribs • logs) 09:57, 16 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Even if they're not a sock, they're disruptive. Blocked as NOTHERE without tags. Courcelles (talk) 18:59, 17 July 2023 (UTC)