Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Classyklowngrasper/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets

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See below. Bbb23 (talk) 17:04, 27 March 2017 (UTC)

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 * The following accounts are ✅:
 * Blocked, tagged, closing.--Bbb23 (talk) 17:05, 27 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Blocked, tagged, closing.--Bbb23 (talk) 17:05, 27 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Blocked, tagged, closing.--Bbb23 (talk) 17:05, 27 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Blocked, tagged, closing.--Bbb23 (talk) 17:05, 27 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Blocked, tagged, closing.--Bbb23 (talk) 17:05, 27 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Blocked, tagged, closing.--Bbb23 (talk) 17:05, 27 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Blocked, tagged, closing.--Bbb23 (talk) 17:05, 27 March 2017 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



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Classyklowngrasper has previously been indef-blocked for abuse of multiple accounts. This editor's primary focus was favoring the asbestos industry by promoting a non-notable documentary (the AfD-deleted UnSettled: Inside The Strange World of Asbestos Lawsuits) and attacking law firms that handle asbestos-related injury claims, and placing negative claims about those firms in other articles. Classyklowngrasper was blocked on March 27, 2017, and the articles created and revisions introduced by them and their socks were deleted or removed, primarily being non-notable or undue.

Approximately two an a half weeks after this block, on April 14, 2017, Wootwootmaster1776 was created and immediately (with their very first set of edits) began a draft with the same kind of criticisms of the same specific law firms pursuing the same asbestos claims, and later created Types of fraud in asbestos claims (itself a problematic topic, since none of these are unique to asbestos claims), which collects material deleted due to its introduction by Classyklowngrasper and socks, for example material rewritten from the also-AfD-deleted article Baron & Budd asbestos memo. Wootwootmaster1776 also restored the same material that was deleted from the Baron & Budd article, before rather oddly reverting himself. Almost the entirety of Wootwootmaster1776's contribution history has been focused on law firms pursuing asbestos claims.

Lastly, Stevechoyster was created on November 19, 2017. Although this account has only made a handful of edits, its three major edits in terms of bytes of information added have been to Baron & Budd, P.C. (specifically about the firm's asbestos claims practice ) and to Types of fraud in asbestos claims (specifically about Baron & Budd ). These new accounts each appear with the same facility in editing Wikitext as the old, focused on the same kinds of information in the same articles. bd2412 T 13:44, 22 November 2017 (UTC)  bd2412  T 13:44, 22 November 2017 (UTC)

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * The master is, so I can only compare the two accounts. They are . On the other hand, the following accounts are ✅:
 * They're all editing promotionally on completely different topics, so I'm guessing paid editing. I'd like a clerk to take a look at behavior (or perhaps someone from WP:COIN, such as ) to confirm the behavior, but these four should probably be blocked. What happens to the other account above is more up to discretion. ~ Rob 13 Talk 16:34, 26 November 2017 (UTC)
 * I screwed up the ping the first time around, so let's try again: . ~ Rob 13 Talk 17:13, 26 November 2017 (UTC)
 * In the meantime, I have blocked the four accounts above for sockpuppetry. Cheers! bd2412  T 17:57, 26 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Additional comment: Classyklowngrasper had an affinity for socks with "cat" or "dog" in the name (Divinecat888, Hellocatkeeper, Thaidoggyblacky, Arbythecat2009). Now that sock accounts connected to Wootwootmaster1776 have been identified, this supports the proposition that a group of socks including Superkatlover and Salmonthelovedog are part of the same sock family. Also, I don't think Stevechoyster is entirely off the hook - their pattern of edits is suspicious, no matter their IP. bd2412  T 20:03, 26 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Because I know additional technical information about the master, I ran a check of some of the above accounts. Based on what I saw, the four accounts are to the master. I also noted that the following accounts are highly  to each other:
 * I'm pretty sure saw that relationship, and given the behavior of the latter two accounts, I'm wondering why he didn't raise it. One odd factoid: Louislover1969 was created 10 days before Classyklowngrasper. I haven't blocked the three accounts. I'd rather let others sort this out as it's not clear-cut.--Bbb23 (talk) 16:53, 28 November 2017 (UTC)
 * I thought the behavior appeared unrelated to the master, but I'm also not as familiar with the master, so perhaps I missed something. ~ Rob 13 Talk 17:07, 28 November 2017 (UTC)
 * That's one question, but another is whether the three accounts are behaviorally related to each other.--Bbb23 (talk) 17:39, 28 November 2017 (UTC)
 * If Stevechoyster is likely to Classyklowngrasper on the basis of location identity, the complete topical overlap of that editor's handful of significant edits makes a very strong case for a direct master-to-sock relationship. With respect to Stephenthrompson and Louislover1969, I don't see the topical connection. There is a distinct sense of promotional editing with Stephenthrompson's Alliance for Biosecurity edits, although these could reflect an innocent interest in the topic. With Louislover1969, there is an odd time split, with one set of edits on April 14, 2016, and another set on October 13, 2017. The second set includes an article for "CampChef" drafted at User:Louislover1969/sandbox, which is curious, but you would think that if this was COI or paid editing, something would have been done with it by now. bd2412  T 20:17, 28 November 2017 (UTC)
 * I never said the three accounts were likely to the master; I said they were highly likely to each other. All three edited the same proxy. However, Louislover1969 also edited from an IP that shared the same location and ISP with the master.--Bbb23 (talk) 23:37, 28 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Sorry, my misunderstanding, although there is still plenty of reason to be concerned based on the edit histories. bd2412  T 23:57, 28 November 2017 (UTC)
 * I tagged the second group with dual (confirmed + suspected) tags, based on behavior analysed above. Closing.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  22:24, 12 February 2018 (UTC)
 * One of these accounts has asserted on their talk page that any identity between their account and the others is because they edit from "a public wi-fi spot" in a coffee shop. Is it possible to confirm this claim? bd2412  T 23:14, 12 February 2018 (UTC)
 * I thought the behavior appeared unrelated to the master, but I'm also not as familiar with the master, so perhaps I missed something. ~ Rob 13 Talk 17:07, 28 November 2017 (UTC)
 * That's one question, but another is whether the three accounts are behaviorally related to each other.--Bbb23 (talk) 17:39, 28 November 2017 (UTC)
 * If Stevechoyster is likely to Classyklowngrasper on the basis of location identity, the complete topical overlap of that editor's handful of significant edits makes a very strong case for a direct master-to-sock relationship. With respect to Stephenthrompson and Louislover1969, I don't see the topical connection. There is a distinct sense of promotional editing with Stephenthrompson's Alliance for Biosecurity edits, although these could reflect an innocent interest in the topic. With Louislover1969, there is an odd time split, with one set of edits on April 14, 2016, and another set on October 13, 2017. The second set includes an article for "CampChef" drafted at User:Louislover1969/sandbox, which is curious, but you would think that if this was COI or paid editing, something would have been done with it by now. bd2412  T 20:17, 28 November 2017 (UTC)
 * I never said the three accounts were likely to the master; I said they were highly likely to each other. All three edited the same proxy. However, Louislover1969 also edited from an IP that shared the same location and ISP with the master.--Bbb23 (talk) 23:37, 28 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Sorry, my misunderstanding, although there is still plenty of reason to be concerned based on the edit histories. bd2412  T 23:57, 28 November 2017 (UTC)
 * I tagged the second group with dual (confirmed + suspected) tags, based on behavior analysed above. Closing.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  22:24, 12 February 2018 (UTC)
 * One of these accounts has asserted on their talk page that any identity between their account and the others is because they edit from "a public wi-fi spot" in a coffee shop. Is it possible to confirm this claim? bd2412  T 23:14, 12 February 2018 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



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Both accounts edited the article Vada O. Manager, a rather promotional article on a subject of questionable notability. Special:Contributions/Salmonthelovedog (a sock being discussed in the 22 November investigation) developed the article; this account was blocked on 26 November. Special:Contributions/Brnobaud edited the article on 27 November. The account was created in 2016, and only had one post that year -- to create the user page. In 2017, Brnobaud only edited two articles, including the one in question. It looks to me like it could be a "sleeper" account. K.e.coffman (talk) 01:52, 1 December 2017 (UTC)

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 * A couple of things encourage me to think that K.e.coffman is probably right. There is the timing of Brnobaud's sudden awakening from a long rest to start heavily editing an article on a not very prominent subject article just after the creator and virtually only previous editor of the article had been blocked; there is the sudden editing both by Brnobaud and by an IP address after the article had been tagged for speedy deletion as created by a blocked editor (substantial editing by another editor invalidates that deletion criterion). However, with the best will in the world I don't think that is conclusive enough to justify a block, nor even strong enough evidence to justify a CheckUser. I am therefore somewhat reluctantly closing this report without action. The editor who uses the pseudonym "JamesBWatson" (talk) 11:24, 7 February 2018 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



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Seems to be a connection through Camp Chef/Vista Outdoor paid editing and sandboxed Camp Chef draft by one of the Classyklown socks. pointed out at Sockpuppet investigations/Lesbianadvocate/Archive that Happytraveler123 is a virtual Vista Outdoor SPA.

Since Happytraveler123 is blocked but not marked as part of any farm this is for consideration of bringing hthem into this one. ☆ Bri (talk) 16:10, 17 January 2018 (UTC)


 * this might be speaking out of turn but does this answer the question for JamesBWatson? Bri.public (talk) 23:26, 28 January 2018 (UTC)

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 * - Since this is your block, could I get you to weigh in here? Do you remember which sockfarm this account was linked to? Sir Sputnik (talk) 16:52, 26 January 2018 (UTC)
 * As shown by the link provided above by Bri.public (aka Bri), I blocked Happytraveler123 as I was certain that it was an undisclosed paid promotional account, and also "close to certain" that it was a sockpuppet of . Checking again now, I have seen such striking connections to the editing of other Lesbianadvocate sockpuppets that I am now certain rather than close to certain, so I shall tag Happytraveler123 as a sock of Lesbianadvocate. (Much of the evidence was hidden in a long history, among much innocent-looking editing.) As for the connection to the Classyklowngrasper sock farm, I can confirm that both sock farms contain history of editing in relation to Camp Chef and Vista Outdoor, and "Camp Chef" is a brand owned by Vista Outdoor. However, I have not seen any other evidence linking the two. It may be all one large sockfarm, but my guess is that it's two different marketing agencies which have both been used by Vista Outdoor. That impression is based on the large amount of evidence of connections within the two groups contrasting with the small amount of evidence of links between them. The editor who uses the pseudonym "JamesBWatson" (talk) 10:57, 7 February 2018 (UTC)


 * Thank you. It looks like we're done here. Closing. Sir Sputnik (talk) 01:21, 9 February 2018 (UTC)