Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Detroit Joseph/Archive

05 April 2014

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Detroit Joseph repeatedly attempted to insert negative material in Farshad Fotouhi, a BLP. His edits were rejected by consensus and BLP policy. He persisted in his efforts and was topic-banned by the community for his trouble.

So shortly after the topic ban is imposed, two brand-new accounts show up, each making a few legitimate edits before making a beeline to reinsert the exact same information. The account names are also obviously tendentious.

 NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 17:41, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.'' User:Corruption Watchpitbull - only edit of substance was to Farshad Fotouhi, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Corruption_Watchpitbull all other minor edits were simply to attain auto confirmed status so as to be able to make the single edit to Farshad Fotouhi life story - a total copy of the content the topic banned user https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Detroit_Joseph#Topic_ban  - User:Detroit Joseph was previously adding Mosfetfaser (talk) 18:38, 5 April 2014 (UTC)
 * You must be feeling real proud of yourself right now. You caught the evil sockpuppeteer! He's worse than Hitler! But why stop at this? Why don't you call The Detroit News and tell them to fire Lauren Abdel-Razzaq, an obvious sockpuppet of Tom Henderson from Crain's Detroit Business? There are more newspaper articles in the pipeline (drop time will depend on how much FOIA games WSU plays) and they will also be written by Tom Henderson sockpuppets. Truth to the Forefront (talk) 02:42, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

Wow, what a long backlog! Wikipedia does not have enough sockpuppet-hunters to deal with all the editors angry at their inability to revert published mainstream newspapers. It sure is going to take a long time to come to the predetermined conclusion.

But what I want to know is this: where were all these self-righteous idiots when John Seigenthaler was getting slandered with ZERO newspaper articles? "A new policy, 'biographies of living persons', was created on December 17, 2005; editorial restrictions, including reference requirements, were introduced." With Fotouhi, there are FOUR references with more in the way in the next few months. You see, 4 > 0. Truth to the Forefront (talk) 13:06, 7 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Don't forget that some admins can change edit timestamps. It's not easy, but it can be done. This won't present any problem with Truth To The Forefront, but they will have to adjust some of Corruption Watchpitbull's edit timestamps. (But they might also decide that one sockpuppet is just as bad as two and it's not worth the trouble). So that's why I won't be supporting my argument with diffs, they can change the timestamp and say it proves nothing at all. Whatever. Detroit Joseph (talk) 19:53, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * Thse two are quacking extremely loudly, but in the meantime I have fully protected the article. Black Kite (talk) 23:40, 5 April 2014 (UTC)
 * - King of  &hearts;   &diams;   &clubs;  &spades; 22:00, 8 April 2014 (UTC) King of  &hearts;   &diams;   &clubs;  &spades; 22:00, 8 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Detroit Joseph:
 * Truth to the Forefront:
 * Corruption Watchpitbull:
 * The last two are identical, the first is a similar attack on the subject with similar wording and the same sources. Black Kite (talk) 22:08, 8 April 2014 (UTC)


 * - Please do a sleeper check as well. King of &hearts;   &diams;   &clubs;  &spades; 22:11, 8 April 2014 (UTC)
 * All three named accounts are ✅ to one another. No sleepers at this time. ​—DoRD (talk)​ 22:31, 8 April 2014 (UTC)
 * All blocked and tagged. Black Kite (talk) 23:12, 8 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Closing. King of &hearts;   &diams;   &clubs;  &spades; 23:18, 8 April 2014 (UTC)

14 April 2014

 * Suspected sockpuppets




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Went straight for his favorite topic with. Suggest that the master account be upgraded to indef. Favonian (talk) 20:45, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

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 * Facepalm Notifications is ✅. ​—DoRD (talk)​ 18:05, 15 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Sock blocked and master upgraded to indef. Closing. Favonian (talk) 06:06, 16 April 2014 (UTC)

08 July 2014

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Fixation on Farshad Fotouhi, as seen with User:Corruption Watchpitbull, etc. Tendentious AfD nomination while inserting previously-rejected accusations and making personal attacks against the article subject in the AfD. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 02:17, 8 July 2014 (UTC)

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I know what's gonna happen next, I read Wikipediocracy. You'll spend a few hours pretending to carefully weigh the evidence, and all of a sudden you will arrive at the preordained conclusion. You have successfully silenced the truth. For now. Oater Films (talk) 02:45, 8 July 2014 (UTC)
 * I don't know what you read there, but you might try this instead. ​—DoRD (talk)​ 13:10, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * - Fixation on Farshad Fotouhi makes it look fairly likely, but would a CU mind taking a look please. Thanks, Callanecc (talk • contribs • logs) 12:50, 9 July 2014 (UTC)
 * ✅ plus.
 * is ✅ from Detroit Joseph, but they are using a shared IP. ​—DoRD (talk)​ 13:10, 9 July 2014 (UTC)
 * Blocked and tagged all three. Regarding Caller, technical evidence combined with the suggestive user name persuaded me. Favonian (talk) 13:22, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

14 July 2014

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1 2 Probably related to User:Detroit Joseph (SPI). User claims to have a sock farm. -- John Reaves 14:48, 14 July 2014 (UTC)

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 * ✅ match to . Please merge to WP:Sockpuppet investigations/Detroit Joseph. ​—DoRD (talk)​ 16:01, 14 July 2014 (UTC)
 * ✅, --  DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  16:54, 14 July 2014 (UTC)

24 January 2015

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I'm opening this SPI for User:Kgpaints, per his request at ANI. Kgpaints has stated that he has been the recipient of harassment, both on and off Wikipedia. I'll admit that the messaging on his talk page does seem to back that up. The names for the two Corruption accounts do seem to give off the impression that they're either the same person or at least a group of people working in tandem. These names do seem to correlate somewhat with a post that Ringcluder made on an IP talk page here over edits the IP made to the article Graham W. J. Beal, which has been edited by Ringcluder and Corruption Watchchihuahua. The IP's complains seem to center around the article being edited to present a specific point of view, which does seem to be somewhat substantiated by this version of the article. For all practical purposes the page appears to have been created by Ringcluder to serve as a soapbox to alert people to Beal's alleged corruption.

However Kgpaints's concerns mostly stem around the article Red Bull House of Art, which he claims had been "vandalized with handicap jokes and incorrect information" and which was later nominated for AfD. I do see where there was an attempt to address the information at Ringcluder's talk page, which seems to have been what set off the comments on Kgpaint's talk page. In any case, from what I can see with that page it looks like this all started with an edit Kgpaint made while as an IP (I believe this is that edit), which was a copy of the Local Wiki Detroit's version of the article.

Now Corruption Watchchihuahua did make an apology on Kgpaint's talk page that gives off the impression that it's not the same person, but Kgpaint's request along with the above do give off just enough to where a SPI is probably not a terrible idea. If there is harassment going on via sockpuppet accounts then it should be investigated. Tokyogirl79 (｡◕‿◕｡)   09:16, 24 January 2015 (UTC)

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 * Was poking around and found this weird forum...someone's been following the events here and documenting tweets I make, going back to document things as early as two years ago. Kgpaints (talk) 17:08, 24 January 2015 (UTC)
 * Comment: It looks like User:92.20.78.155 is related to this as well (and is possibly one of the accounts evading their new block), as they vandalized Kgpaint's post on ANI. I'm posting this here so it'll be part of the record for the SPI, but the user has been blocked for their vandalism for 2 weeks. Tokyogirl79  (｡◕‿◕｡)   05:22, 25 January 2015 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
Corruption Watchrottweiler and Corruption Watchchihuahua are ✅ as the same user. I'd like a more experienced CU to confirm that there is at least one sleeper. Dougweller (talk) 12:10, 24 January 2015 (UTC)
 * Ok, I can't link these 2 to Ringcluder (although perhaps someone more proficient can), but I can link one of the IP addresses used by Ringcluder to a check done last July by User:DeltaQuad in reference to Sockpuppet investigations/Corruption Watchsheltie. And that was part of Sockpuppet investigations/Detroit Joseph/Archive where you can also find Corruption Watchpitbull and Caller out of Corruption. User:Favonian may also know something about this group of socks. Dougweller (talk) 16:41, 24 January 2015 (UTC)
 * There are definite similarities with Detroit Joseph and his socks, in particular the hunt for real or imagined corruption in the Detroit area. An outburst such as this one is very much in the same vein as those of previous socks. Favonian (talk) 16:51, 24 January 2015 (UTC)
 * Added Truth to the Fourth Power to the list. Not only is the name very similar to another sock of DetroitJoseph, Truth to the Forefront, but Truth to the Fourth Power's first 2 article edits were to Farshad Fotouhi, which is a common interest of these socks (I also note the 2 edits were Oversighted). And Truth to the Forefront and Corruption Watchchihuahua are active at Articles for deletion/Red Bull House of Art, which was brought by Corruption Watchchihuahua, with Corruption Watchrottweiler editing the article. Dougweller (talk) 17:06, 24 January 2015 (UTC)
 * Well, that does it for me. Fulminating against Fotouhi is the sole reason for Detroit Joseph's Wikipedian existence. Blocking the job lot of them. Favonian (talk) 17:24, 24 January 2015 (UTC)
 * PS: Somebody savvy please merge to Sockpuppet investigations/Detroit Joseph. Favonian (talk) 17:27, 24 January 2015 (UTC)


 * Further socks/connections may be present. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  22:34, 24 January 2015 (UTC)
 * ✅ Corruption Watchrottweiler, Corruption Watchchihuahua
 * to the above.
 * ✅ to each other and to all the above:
 * -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  04:40, 25 January 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Will this be merged with Detroit Joseph? Dougweller (talk) 09:47, 25 January 2015 (UTC)
 * It should be yes. There is enough evidence in the CU log to lead me to believe it is him. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  17:17, 27 January 2015 (UTC)
 * With Truth and Ringcluder already blocked as convincing ducks and the other two being confirmed identical to those, all are blocked and the case is closed. Favonian (talk) 18:44, 27 January 2015 (UTC)
 * -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  04:40, 25 January 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Will this be merged with Detroit Joseph? Dougweller (talk) 09:47, 25 January 2015 (UTC)
 * It should be yes. There is enough evidence in the CU log to lead me to believe it is him. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  17:17, 27 January 2015 (UTC)
 * With Truth and Ringcluder already blocked as convincing ducks and the other two being confirmed identical to those, all are blocked and the case is closed. Favonian (talk) 18:44, 27 January 2015 (UTC)