Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Cal 505/Archive

09 March 2015

 * Suspected sockpuppets




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The impetus for this SPI case is the re-awakening today of Penny block after months of inactivity, along with the sudden blanking of Kelme43's talk page. This intertwined contribution tool shows that Kelme43 became active right after Penny block went dormant in mid-December, and it shows that they both resumed activity within minutes of each other today. Looking into their edit history showed me two or three closely related groups of editors that engage in edit warring about the genre of the same kinds of music articles. It's possible there are several pools of socks here, but at least one pool is connected to Jimi Lewis.

Jimi Lewis was blocked indefinitely on 13 July 2014. Cal 505 was created 19 July. Split55 was created on 1 August. Penny block was created on 3 August. I975pro was created on 18 August. Kickstart01 was created on 6 September. Kelme43 was created on 14 December. Delgada1975 was created on 20 December 2014. Totalshare wsa created on 20 January 2015.

The very first edits of Stopdrop12 and Penny block were to tweak the "alternative rock" genre of the Coldplay album Mylo Xyloto. Looking through the article's history, Jimi Lewis added the genre of "post-Britpop". After a few different people worked on the genre section, including Stopdrop12 and Penny block, Cal 505 showed up to re-add "alternative rock" with its disputed Metacritic reference. Five months later, Delgada1975 removed the disputed Metacritic reference and the alt rock genre, adding three more genres and references: pop, R&B, and electronica. Kelme43 appeared to change "pop rock" to "rock", contrary to the cited reference. Delgada1975 reverted that. So Delgada1975 was working against Kelme43, but Stopdrop12, Penny block and Cal 505 were all supporting "alternative rock".

At Beacon (album), one of the Spain IPs changed genres, adding "indie pop" and removing "post-punk revival". Jimi Lewis then shifted genres around. A week later, Jimi Lewis shifted them 'round again while removing "synthpop" and adding a reference for "new wave" (one from AllMusic sidebar genres that we don't use.) This was reverted. UK IP 109.158.148.222 showed up to shift the genres round and remove "synthpop" again. Cal 505 tweaked the genre punctuation in one of his early edits on the first day of activity. UK IP showed up to swap genres around. Cal 505 then removed the genres of "indie rock" and "new wave". Split55 showed up to re-add three genres: "indie rock", "synthpop" and "new wave". This was reverted. Stopdrop12 added "indie rock" as a genre. It was removed as unreferenced, and two weeks later Penny block restored "indie rock", supported by a (poor quality) reference, which also supported the "dance-punk" genre. A month later, I975pro appeared to shift the genres around. Cal 505 changed the punctuation of "dance punk" to "dance-punk", reversing his earlier edit. Months later after the "indie rock" and "dance-punk" genres were removed because of poor referencing, Stopdrop12 added them both again. This was reverted, then Cal 505 added a low-quality reference for "indie pop". So it seems like there are several teams, with the Spain IP and Cal 505 agreeing on "indie pop" inclusion, while Split55 and Jimi Lewis agreed on "new wave" inclusion. Editors supporting "indie rock" were Split55, Penny block and Stopdrop12.

At Tourist History, a Spanish IP shifted genres, removing "new wave" while adding "indie pop". This was reverted, but then he returned to remove "new wave" and "synthpop". Jimi Lewis restored these genres. This was re-reverted, then two weeks later, Split55 added "new wave" and "indie pop". More genres were removed as unsupported, then Cal 505 showed up to change "indie pop" to "indie rock", "dance-punk" and "post-punk revival". This was reverted, but Split55 showed up support Cal 505's version with references. A UK IP removed "dance-punk". The genres were trimmed down by others, then Split55 re-added "indie rock", "post-punk revival" and "new wave". A UK IP came by to remove three genres while adding "dance punk". Split55 added "indie pop", "post-punk revival" and "new wave". After some more back-and-forth, a Spain IP removes "indie pop" and adds "dance punk". Some more genre warring, then Stopdrop12 came by to shift "indie rock" up in importance. This was reverted, so I975pro showed up support Stopdrop12's version. Split55 then removed "indie pop". Kickstart01 restored "indie pop" and "dance punk". Totalshare then came to shift "indie rock" up in importance. It's hard to tell who's who because of the changing positions of the Spanish IP and Split55 regarding the inclusion of "indie pop". However, "dance punk" was added by a UK IP, a Spain IP, Cal 505, Split55 and Kickstart01. It looks like I975pro, Stopdrop12 and Totalshare are pushing the same idea.

Totalshare admitted to being Spanish here. Totalshare's first edit was the addition of the R&B genre which had earlier been added by Stopdrop12 but removed as unsupported.

Kickstart01's very first edit was "Restoring previous genres," showing that he was already involved in genre-warring.

I'm asking for checkuser to sort out the mess. All of the accounts here appear to be socks, but the exact connections are difficult to trace because of shifting tactics in genres. Binksternet (talk) 23:40, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
Checkuser comments: The following are ✅ - and those not already blocked have been blocked through the CU interface:

Note that no correlation can be made with, which is. As noted before, there remain lots of accounts that seem to focus on music genres. I'd suggest that this actually be split off the Jimi Lewis SPI and go with the oldest confirmed account. Risker (talk) 01:15, 15 March 2015 (UTC)
 * I've moved the case to the oldest account here. 2 of the IPs haven't edited since December, so it's much too old to action. The other IP has only made one edit to the mainspace, so it's not much to go on behaviorally. I'm going to leave it be for now. Mike V • Talk 02:48, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

07 April 2015

 * Suspected sockpuppets




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 * Editor interaction utility

The previous batch of socks was blocked on 15 March. This account was registered a week later. The very first edit was adding Contemporary R&B genre to a song article which was previously targeted by Totalshare, a blocked sock who also added the genre of Contemporary R&B. The second edit of Lyfeisgood added the Experimental genre to a song article which had been targeted by blocked socks Blacksantahoho and Cal 505. Lyfeisgood moved on to the Maroon 5 article to add Pop as a genre. The Maroon 5 article had previously been of interest to Cal 505 and especially to blocked sock Delgada1975 who also added the Pop genre. Note that all of these socks were blocked as part of the sockpuppet group. Checkuser is requested to ferret out sleeper or parallel accounts, as quite a few were identified last time. Binksternet (talk) 08:25, 7 April 2015 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.''

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * -  Vanjagenije   (talk)  10:17, 7 April 2015 (UTC)
 * ✅ to the past archive:
 * Mike V • Talk 15:15, 7 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Mike V • Talk 15:15, 7 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Mike V • Talk 15:15, 7 April 2015 (UTC)
 * <b style="color:#151B54">Mike V</b> • <b style="color:#C16C16">Talk</b> 15:15, 7 April 2015 (UTC)
 * <b style="color:#151B54">Mike V</b> • <b style="color:#C16C16">Talk</b> 15:15, 7 April 2015 (UTC)
 * <b style="color:#151B54">Mike V</b> • <b style="color:#C16C16">Talk</b> 15:15, 7 April 2015 (UTC)