Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Cooperative Guy/Archive

24 July 2014

 * Suspected sockpuppets




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

There is an interesting discussion occurring at Talk:Disappearance of Madeleine McCann that is roughly split. User:Cooperative Guy made a very strong comment to this discussion. In his entire edit history, he has only made two edits: both to the same (unrelated) article (Harry Albright) around one year ago without any signs of activity since. Something immediately seems strange to me. User:Harry the Dirty Dog, and, to a lesser extent, User:SlimVirgin, have taken a very strong view in the McCann discussion (this is clear from a quick read of the discussion) with similar comments to Cooperative Guy in terms of tone or style. What makes this even stranger is that Harry the Dirty Dog has also made multiple edits to Harry Albright, despite this being a very obscure article. Something does not 'add up' here, which is why I am submitting it to be checked. 159.92.1.1 (talk) 22:20, 24 July 2014 (UTC)

Update: I have found something even more intriguing. The comments made by User: Cooperative Guy was added at 07:49 and 08:32 UTC. User: Harry the Dirty Dog makes most of his edits at other times of the day, but there are consistent, short periods of editing around this time. Indeed, one of his comments at this discussion was made at 08:32 precisely. This could just be a strange coincidence, but it needs to be checked. 159.92.1.1 (talk) 20:02, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

Also, look at the timing between Cooperative Guy's comments and Harry the Dirty Dog's comments. Cooperative Guy made an edit at 10:54 today : Harry the Dirty Dog made an unrelated comment on the discussion page eleven minutes later. Similarly for the original edit to the McCann discussion. Cooperative Guy's two edits last year were made seven minutes and fifty-five minutes  after the end of edit sessions by Harry the Dirty Dog. Harry the Dirty Dog has argued very passionately for his point of view at the McCann discussion (another user wrote earlier 'you've made your opinion very clear ~ i count thirteen comments and replies so far ~ perhaps you should stop'): is he using Cooperative Guy's account to help his cause? 159.92.1.1 (talk) 20:17, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.''
 * In summary: Cooperative Guy only has 5 edits, and all of those edits (with the exception of Cooperative Guy's user page) were to pages also edited by Harry the Dirty Dog. However, it is worth noting that the edits between these two accounts on Harry Albright are spaced more than 5 years apart. So this strikes me as weak evidence. With regards to the comments at Talk:Disappearance of Madeleine McCann, I can see the room for a concern, but to me it's stretching it a bit, and I don't know if it is enough for a CheckUser. I've sent the accused parties notifications; that might be helpful. Mz7 (talk) 23:41, 26 July 2014 (UTC)
 * With no further evidence beyond what has already been presented, this investigation should be closed with no finding of any kind. There's not enough evidence here to say beyond reasonable doubt that these accounts are operated by the same person. Regards, Mz7 (talk) 03:13, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * - Not enough compelling evidence here to warrant a CU - it's all very circumstantial. Yunshui 雲 水 14:15, 31 July 2014 (UTC)
 * As mentioned above, there is insufficient evidence to take any action at this point. Additionally, has not edited since July 25th. Closing as .  Tiptoety  talk 17:06, 6 August 2014 (UTC)