Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/BruceGrubb/Archive

08 September 2012

 * Suspected sockpuppets




 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

User:BruceGrubb is banned from edits relating to Christianity  and from edits related to fringe theories. Recently, he edited Talk:Christ myth theory (the talk page of an article about a fringe theory about the origins of Christianity):. In the second set of edits, he basically admits he's BruceGrubb; the edits from both IPs are similar in tone and diction to BruceGrubb's previous talk page posts and echo the kinds of arguments that got him topic banned in the first place. The histories of both IPs show edits to articles that he's had past interest in. There are other IPs in similar ranges that Bruce has edited under in the past; if I have time, I'll try to dig some up. I'm making this filing more to make an official record that Bruce is violating his topic bans than to try to get the IPs blocked, especially since they seem to be dynamic IPs and therefore not worth blocking. --Akhilleus (talk) 02:52, 8 September 2012 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
Looking at the anon edits from the ranges you mention, there seem to be some further edits that could be related (e.g. at List of religious ideas in science fiction), but all in all it's low-key. And whether that's BruceGrubb I don't know (and CU couldn't help since the named account is stale), although the edit you pointed out is peculiar. Closing this for now, I don't think there's anything we can do at this time (like you said yourself). If this becomes a problem, do please re-open. Amalthea 13:22, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

08 October 2012

 * Suspected sockpuppets




 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

There are a number of clear "long term matches" between this IP and BruceGrubb. The examples below show that this IP has been used by Bruce for long when he forgot to log in. Now he is using it without logging in at all.

Examples that show this has been his IP in the long run are:


 * Weston price IP is the next edit after Bruce (ignoring the bot) and makes similar comments


 * Christ myth theory IP is the next edit after Bruce again.


 * Josephus on Jesus IP deletes material also deleted by Bruce.


 * Multi-level marketing similar edit to a page where Bruce was the most frequent editor


 * Message about user:Jayg who later started a WP:ANI thread to ban Bruce.


 * Conspiracy theory similar edit the same day as Bruce, probably forgot to log in, or was logged out.


 * WP:RSN Message about Why We Fight also discussed by Bruce on the Conspiracy theory talk page and was debated by Bruce


 * WP:RSN Message about Conspiracy theory: one of the topics Bruce banned from. Bruce also commented on the same thread on RSN. This was probably when he was not logged in again.

The edit behavior of this IP is a clear match for user:BruceGrubb. It has now been used on pages he was banned from. He did not even bother to deny that it was himself, but just repeated what he always used to say about those publishers.

This is a clear case of the use of a puppet account to run-around dual topic bans recorded on Editing_restrictions. Something needs to be done here to establish the use of IPs to overcome the two topic bans. History2007 (talk) 22:19, 8 October 2012 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
— Berean Hunter   (talk)  15:37, 18 October 2012 (UTC)
 * Blocking master 1 week and IP for one year as it is being used long term.

05 September 2013

 * Suspected sockpuppets




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

BruceGrubb is banned from Christianity-related articles, but has returned to edit their talk pages several times with IP sockpuppets (see previous cases). The first post of User:67.42.65.212 on March 11 2013 repeats arguments that BruceGrubb made about the authors James Frazer, John Robertson, and so on many times before (see, e.g. Talk:Christ_myth_theory/Archive_41). The assertion made on 2 September 2013 on Talk:Josephus on Jesus, that a theologian cannot be used as a source about history, is similar to arguments that Bruce has made in the past about (allegedly) religiously motivated scholarship. The IP address 67.42.65.212 is similar to earlier sockpuppets of Bruce, e.g. User:67.42.65.209, which has been blocked. I'm pretty sure there are other IPs that haven't been reported/blocked, and I'll try to add them if I have time. --Akhilleus (talk) 09:43, 5 September 2013 (UTC) --Akhilleus (talk) 09:43, 5 September 2013 (UTC)

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

 * Blocked 67.42.65.208/29, master 2 weeks, closing. --Rschen7754 05:38, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

09 November 2013

 * Suspected sockpuppets




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

User:67.42.65.209 has been reported as a sock of BruceGrubb before. Recent edits to Christ myth theory, Talk:Christ myth theory , Talk:Historicity of Jesus , and Talk:Robert M. Price are in violation of Bruce's indefinite ban on editing articles about Christianity and his indefinite ban on editing articles about fringe theories. These edits are clearly Bruce: is consistent with a years-long interest in the work of John Remsburg,  repeats an argument about variations in the Christ myth theory that Bruce pursued for years (and he's the only editor who's thought Archibald Robertson was an important source for the article). is similar to previous posts where Bruce has denigrated the work of J.P. Holding. (Please let me know if I need to dig up links for this past behavior, but I think it's well illustrated in the archived cases.)

As far as I can tell the entire editing history of 67.42.65.209 is BruceGrubb: multilevel marketing and various comic book articles appear both in this IP's editing history and in Special:Contributions/BruceGrubb. Therefore, a permanent or long-term block of this IP would be appropriate--it is unlikely to inconvenience users in good standing, but will prevent Bruce from using the address to evade his ban. Also, Bruce's main account was blocked for 2 weeks on 25 September 2013 for block evasion, and has previously been blocked for evading these topic bans; a longer block would now be appropriate. I would do it myself, but (1) it's a good idea to have this logged on the sockpuppet investigation page and (2) I've previously had content disputes with this editor. --Akhilleus (talk) 12:33, 9 November 2013 (UTC) --Akhilleus (talk) 12:33, 9 November 2013 (UTC)

I'm adding a second IP, User:216.31.124.13. This IP has only one contribution,, but suggesting that an ancient source "has problems" on the basis of a blog post by Richard Carrier is similar to other posts Bruce has made, the post comes from the same general timeframe as 67.42.65.209's, and it's from a range Bruce has used before--see the report of User:216.31.124.112 in the archives. --Akhilleus (talk) 12:44, 9 November 2013 (UTC)

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * Both IPs blocked for three months to prevent their use in block evasion. Closing now. Mark Arsten (talk) 04:19, 14 November 2013 (UTC)

05 February 2015

 * Suspected sockpuppets




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

IP is from same geographic region as earlier BruceGrubb IPs and edits the same subjects (comic books, Christ Myth Theory and related articles. This edit to J. M. Robertson quotes a passage from a book by Archibald Robertson that BruceGrubb has quoted many times before--part of it is on a subpage in his userspace: . Other edits to Talk:Christ Myth Theory and Tacitus on Christ repeat longstanding themes of BruceGrubb's editing, for instance a reliance on the work of Richard Carrier. Since BruceGrubb is banned from Christianity-related articles and articles related to fringe theories, and Christ Myth Theory falls within both of those areas, this IP needs to be blocked. --Akhilleus (talk) 03:38, 5 February 2015 (UTC)

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * IP already blocked for ban evasion. Thanks for the report. Closing. Callanecc (talk • contribs • logs) 11:43, 13 February 2015 (UTC)

15 March 2015

 * Suspected sockpuppets




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

50.251.15.57 posts to a section on Talk:Biblical manuscript started by User:216.223.234.97, already blocked as a sock of User:BruceGrubb. The style of the comments is similar and it's clear they're made by the same person:. BruceGrubb is banned from edits on articles about Christianity, so this is using IP addresses to evade a topic ban. The IP and BruceGrubb's main account should be blocked. --Akhilleus (talk) 14:52, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
Blocked IP for a month, master account for a year. Fut.Perf. ☼ 21:15, 15 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Closing the case.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  21:30, 15 March 2015 (UTC)