Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/DrSandop/Archive

24 September 2015

 * Suspected sockpuppets


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See here and here: Similar edits, similar edit summaries and same page. They are both aggressively edit warring as well as can be seen here and going above 3RR. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk, contributions) 11:52, 24 September 2015 (UTC)

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

One of my students decided to start editing the Inanimate Alice entry under the name "BradfieldCom", as they were concerned about keeping the article emphasis on the main Episodes, and were worried about the growing unnecessary focus by RooMorgue on more incidental elements. He thought his edits were being routinely ignored and reverted without reasonable explanation by both the user at 209.188.124.19 and RooMorgue - please see the 13 unexplained reversions/edits by both the user at 209.188.124.19 and RooMorgue dated between 03:47, 24 September 2015‎ and 05:04, 24 September 2015‎ - and told me his suspicions that the article may be being (his words) "vanity highjacked". As he also suspected RooMorgue was using the 209.188.124.19 IP address to mask their identity while editing (sockpuppeting?), they asked me to take over. EdTechUSA (talk) 13:42, 24 September 2015 (UTC)


 * Hi Vanjagenije,  here. My apologies regarding unknowingly contributing to WP:MEATPUPPETRY in Wikipedia, this is the first time I've been made aware of WP:MEATPUPPETRY (though that doesn't excuse it by any means!). And yes, my students and I do sometimes use the same computer, so I'll make sure to only edit from my account from now on, and if my students are editing, I'll make sure they do so from their own devices. Again, I'm really sorry for not being up to speed with all this - my students are very protective of Inanimate_Alice, they have studied the project extensively and some have even created their own story versions, which is why when they observed  repeatedly adding excessive promotional (and consistently unexplained) edits which bloated/slanted the article, they tried to correct it. On examining the article's editing history, 2 students in particular were quite distressed about how they thought the WP:CONFLICT and WP:ADVOCACY rules were being severely flaunted - and still are currently - by  and what we assume is their sock puppet accounts. I suspect the best course of action now is to request an investigation into  now that they have confessed on the talk page that they are strongly affiliated with Inanimate_Alice by having operated as both a freelancer and independent contractor on the project! I'd prefer not to have to do request such an investigation, but my students are so concerned about the emphasis of the article being hijacked for self-promotional/showcase purposes that I think I'll have to. EdTechUSA (talk) 23:53, 26 September 2015 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * - What you're describing is called WP:MEATPUPPETRY and is equally forbidden. Are you and your student editing from the same computer?  Vanjagenije   (talk)  08:34, 25 September 2015 (UTC)


 * If several of you are using the same computer (even sometimes), you should declare the connection on your user pages per WP:SHARE. You may use the User shared IP address tag for that purpose. I'm closing this case now, but be sure to declare connected accounts, otherwise your accounts may be blocked for sockpuppetry/meatpuppetry.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  00:02, 27 September 2015 (UTC)

Thanks Vanjagenije, that's really helpful. I just added a WP:SHARE declaration on my page. Now I just have to ask my other students at our next class and make sure they let me know when they use this computer, and add them as well! EdTechUSA (talk) 02:29, 27 September 2015 (UTC) — Berean Hunter   (talk)  21:39, 29 September 2015 (UTC)
 * I've reopened this at present while I'm looking at the other case, Sockpuppet_investigations/RooMorgue.
 * The three accounts are ✅. The claim that EdTechUSA is a teacher and that the two other accounts are his students is not supported by the CU. The IP addresses used do not belong to any educational institution. One of the IPs is a confirmed proxy server. To the extent that EdTechUSA's username means he's in the United States, that too would be false. Also, the idea that a teacher and students would get involved in an edit war as some sort of classroom exercise is beyond implausible. All three accounts have been blocked and tagged. Closing.--Bbb23 (talk) 05:10, 30 September 2015 (UTC)