Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Gdagostino/Archive

20 November 2012

 * Suspected sockpuppets




 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

Both users are WP:SPA. Both users' edits center around, with some crossover at. User:Gdagostino is the subject of the first article, at least he said so here. He previously asked for Examiner.com to be whitelisted at Help; User:Behindthewall made a matching comment at the D'Agostino talk page. Behindthewall has also posted there using "we"; it is otherwise quite similar to Gdagostino's sole post at talk offering to provide any sources requested.

Behindthewall inserted a swath of text citing Gdagostino in the WikiLeaks article here, then argued tooth and nail at talk to include it; most of that discussion has been hatted here. A similar TLDR discussion happened at the D'Agostino talk page regarding the use of sources.

Gdagostino participated in the deletion discussion of the D'Agostino article, basically saying it's "unfair" to delete his bio because (Italian) Wikipedia "accepted" his "donation," the full text of a paper "written to re-define the meaning of the term high concept." Like Behindthewall, Gdagostino seems to insist his works simply are important. The level advocacy by Behindthewall on this topic is, to me, the biggest single indicator that the accounts are related. They also show similar English usage (they could both simply be Italian, though). Note both users have also made similar contributions at the Italian Wikipedia (see global edits here and here). Edit history indicates this person probably also used the account  to create the D'Agostino article.

If it's not socking, it sure is meaty. JFHJr (㊟) 17:01, 20 November 2012 (UTC)

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

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * - Courcelles 18:03, 21 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Possible but not certain. Courcelles 18:08, 21 November 2012 (UTC)
 * There is a good chance that Behindthewall is acting on behalf of Gdagostino, who has a declared COI, but I'm not seeing the kind of overlap that screams "abuse" between the two accounts, including the deleted edits where there is over a year gap between the editors touching the same article. For instance, Behindthewall didn't go vote at the AFD Articles for deletion/Gianluca D'Agostino while Gdagostino did make a comment. Same with Citizenkn, which has a long gap between editing the same article, without overlap. I am inclined to think they aren't trying to abuse anything, even if they are editing with a COI.  Dennis Brown -  2&cent;    &copy;   Join WER 20:54, 30 November 2012 (UTC)
 * I have to agree with Dennis Brown&mdash;this looks more like COI editing than sockpuppet abuse. Closing, then, with no action taken. Reaper Eternal (talk) 02:20, 3 December 2012 (UTC)