Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Fightloungemike/Archive

15 March 2012

 * Suspected sockpuppets




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I believe this is a case of meat-puppetry in attempt to sway the results of two AfDs: Articles for deletion/UK MMA Awards and Articles for deletion/OMMAC 1. A forum posting made at "The Fight Lounge" by its admin named "Mike" requested its users to come to Wikipedia to vote keep. The socks that I have listed all have usernames that are very similar or match exactly to Fight Lounge users who !voted keep on the AfDs. (Note, there are a couple IPs recently involved in those AfDs, however, I cannot provide proof they are part of the meat-puppetry and doubt it can be proved so I have left them of this SPI.) In this forum thread, "Mike" admits what he is doing is against Wikipedia policy and will be deleting the thread. However, I have taken screenshots of the forum thread and can submit that as evidence if need be. WP:MEAT suggests that meat puppets should be treated the same as sock puppets even if they are physically different people, and while it also says accusing people of meat puppetry may inflame matters, I think this is a temporary issue that this SPI could help resolve for a longer period of time. TreyGeek (talk) 16:33, 15 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Also, because of the disruptive and sometimes abusive behavior of the sock-master, I have elected not to notify them of this discussion (as item 4 of the SPI notes allows). If someone feels that notification should be provided, they may do so.  --TreyGeek (talk) 16:36, 15 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Another FYI, an ANI report has just been placed about . --TreyGeek (talk) 18:16, 15 March 2012 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
Nope, good call on being discreet. This is a good place to consolidate and gather evidence and keep for reference, but I'd say there's little else to do here. It's obvious what's going on and the admin closing the discussion will take it all into account. WilliamH (talk) 17:35, 15 March 2012 (UTC)
 * I'll close this case page then, I believe all AfDs are done. It has been pointed out to Fightloungemike that recruiting editors to support him is against policy, and the (likely abandoned) meatpuppets won't be blocked either, so there is nothing left to do. Amalthea  15:45, 19 March 2012 (UTC)