Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Collingwood26/Archive

29 October 2014

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Indef-blocked (and possibly de-facto banned given their conduct) editor Collingwood26 had a habit of removing Canada from the list of countries which took part in the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan in the War in Afghanistan (2001–present) article (examples, , , , , plus lots of others). In the Talk:War in Afghanistan (2001–present) thread an editor recently noticed that Canada was still missing from the 2001 list, and I added it and noted that a troll was to blame. Empire of War (whose account was created one month after Collingwood26 was blocked) has today reverted this, removing Canada with the edit summary of "Removed Canada from 2001 invasion - They did not send forces until 2002", which is basically identical to Collingwood26's edit summaries when making the same changes. Empire of War then made this post on the article talk page where they stated that my troll comments referred to them. Given that this revert was Empire of War's first-ever contribution to the article and as it's semi-protected they couldn't have edited it before registering an account, I think that this is a clear omission that they are Collingwood26.

As other similarities, both accounts have also tried to argue that there was a "white stolen generation" in the Forced adoption in Australia article making near-identical changes once the article was established (Collingwood:, , , Empire of War: , , , and more, which led to a block). Empire of War's edit warring in the 2014 military intervention against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant article (examples:, , ) to have Australia listed above France and the UK and remove the leaders of those countries from the infobox is also very similar to Collingwood26's edit warring to have Australia listed above Canada in the War in Afghanistan (2001–present) article (examples: , , ). Similar conduct by Empire of War has popped up in the Second Boer War article.

Given the similarities in POV pushing conduct in the same unconnected set of articles and Empire of War's post on the War in Afghanistan (2001–present) talk page, I think that this is a clear WP:DUCK case. Nick-D (talk) 10:33, 29 October 2014 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.''
 * The similarities seem fairly clear, having had some experience with the edits of both Collingwood26 and Empire of War. Both seem to have a history of being fixated on trivial infobox matters like flags in a number of articles on recent conflicts, not to mention other similarities raised above. Collingwood26 was blocked in Nov 2013 and Empire of War appeared the next month making very similar edits. Per the discussion at Talk:War_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80%93present) Empire of War practically admitted to being the one that originally removed the Canadian flag from the article; however, this occurred in Oct 2013 (before they were active) and was done by Collingwood 26, even if he subsequently denied doing so. Anotherclown (talk) 10:48, 29 October 2014 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
Thank you, Nick-D, for that very thorough report. You have given more than enough evidence to make it clear beyond all reasonable doubt, and checking the editing history I found even more evidence. I have blocked the sockpuppet. The editor who uses the pseudonym "JamesBWatson" (talk) 15:56, 29 October 2014 (UTC)