Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Gothic Forest/Archive

18 March 2012

 * Suspected sockpuppets




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It has come to my attention that the #76 account above has activity similarities to that of the indefinitely blocked account of user Gothic Forest. These similarities include editing activity on pages relating to music and basketball.

The reason why the Gothic Forest account was indefinitely blocked on 3 February 2012 was because the user behind it was editing music pages by frequently manipulating the infobox areas that display the music genres. Gothic Forest did this without discussion, save for inappropriately manipulating invisible text. Also, while Gothic Forest added sources some of the time, most if not all of those sources failed WP:RS. For this behavior, the user was blocked once on a previous occassion for 48 hours; therefore, the indefinite block is that user's second block. An example of the behavior described can be found at the history log of Where Lovers Mourn.

Onto the actual similarities of the two accounts, #76 has performed genre manipulations without discussion, like that of Gothic Forest. #76 has been performing edits since 8 March 2012. One of the pages that both accounts have edited is Vanitas (album), a page with, since creation on 3 December 2010 and as of this post, merely 11 total edits. Both accounts wanted to claim that the album is "gothic black metal", while adding the same citation from metalkingdom.net (Gothic Forest's edits: edit 1, edit 2; #76's edits: edit 1, edit 2). Both accounts have also edited the album page of Alternative 4 (history).

Another similarity between these two accounts is the editing activity on the page for basketball player Ekpe Udoh (history, in 250 edits per page format). Gothic Forest and #76 have added Udoh's career statistics to the page, as can be seen in the following edits: Gothic Forest 1, Gothic Forest 2, #76 1, #76 2, #76 3, #76 4, #76 5. These basketball-related edits are not so bad, but they should be noticed nonetheless due to the activity similarities between the two accounts.

I have come to the conclusion that the contributions from these two accounts have enough similarities to warrant the users behind them as being one in the same. Since the Gothic Forest account was permanently blocked, the #76 account was assumed to continue the person's activity on Wikipedia. If the accounts are indeed run by the same person, this is a case of block evasion. There is no need for genre warring to be on Wikipedia, and this user does not get that, despite all the times (s)he has been told why genre warring is wrong. Backtable Speak to meconcerning my deeds. 06:02, 18 March 2012 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * Your reasoning is convincing. The IP is now blocked for two weeks. Amalthea  12:10, 20 March 2012 (UTC)

20 August 2012

 * Suspected sockpuppets




 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.


 * 1) 98/Neo-Medieval and the banned user Gothic Forest have enough similarities in editing activity that launching a sockpuppet investigation would be reasonable. 98/Neo-Medieval and Gothic Forest are both pervasive genre warriors who refuse to discuss respective editing activity. When a source has been given by one of the parties, the source usually fails WP:RS and is presented in bare-URL format; an example of Neo-Medieval using bare-URL format in order to toy with genres is this edit.

Before I go into specific detail about the similarities between Gothic Forest and 98/Neo-Medieval, I want to specify why I'm grouping together #98 and Neo-Medieval. The last edit from the 98 IP took place at 7:00 UTC on Corvus Corax (band); a mere 41 minutes later, this edit was performed, being a page creation edit and the first edit from the Neo-Medieval account. Therefore, the creation of the Neo-Medieval account rendered activity on the 98 IP obsolete. As well, #98 genre toyed with Finsterforst, while both #98 and Neo-Medieval gave one edit each to all four related album articles.

Something worth noting about the creation of the previously linked Sverker page (history) and of Cantus Buranus II (history) is that after initial creation, Neo-Medieval donated many edits to the page, tweaking it, which may suggest that the show preview button was rarely consulted, if at all. This is similar in style to when user Gothic Forest made the pages of Kauan (band) (history), and the pages for that band's albums: Lumikuuro (history), Tietajan Laulu (history), and Kuu.. (history).

Anyways, onto the actual genre warring, Gothic Forest and 98/Neo-Medieval have some similarities in music taste; these three accounts have generally donated editing activity to pages of music relating to gothic metal, folk rock/metal, ambient, and black metal. All three accounts in question have change the genre of Somnium Obmutum (history), an album page which has existed for over five years yet has received 39 total edits (which is not even eight edits per year). On the Somnium Obmutum page, there have been other IPs performing similar practices, which could be this same person, although none of the IPs are currently active. Also, both Gothic Forest and #98 have edited Alcest (history of last 100 edits) and the related album pages of Souvenirs d'un autre monde (history) and Écailles de Lune (entire history). Gothic Forest and #98 have an interested in the band Anathema (band), since both accounts edited A Natural Disaster (history).

Gothic Forest regularly edited NBA-related articles. Although Neo-Medieval has not done that very much, the latter account still once edited the page for NBA player Al-Farouq Aminu. Neo-Medieval would possibly edit NBA-related pages more if the NBA was not currently in off-season.

Overall, 98/Neo-Medieval and Gothic Forest are not only genre warriors, but also have similar genre warring styles and methods. Both parties have nearly always refused to discuss or defend their actions, in favor of persistently continuing to edit and change genres to their own point of view, in spite of multiple warnings against that behavior. While genre warring, these accounts have sometimes but not always cited websites like, but not limited to, discogs, rateyourmusic, and metal-archives, which do not pass WP:RS; not only that, but the accounts rarely use any format other than bare-URL when citing said non-reliable sources. It is also worth mentioning that Neo-Medieval has received several warnings on his/her talk page against genre warring, including a final warning. While Gothic Forest has been banned, the similarities with 98/Neo-Medieval make me think that this person still lurks around Wikipedia. Backtable Speak to meconcerning my deeds. 09:17, 20 August 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

 * This is one I had to go around the hard way. It is easier to link 98 to both of the named accounts than linking the named the accounts themselves, but I am convinced that the amount of coincidence is too high to be chance.  Blocking both.  For future reference, the less verbose a report is, and the more "bulleted" with diffs it is, the more likely a clerk will jump on it quickly.  We are swamped here, and we love simplicity.  Dennis Brown -  2&cent;    &copy;   Join WER 22:28, 3 September 2012 (UTC)

25 December 2012

 * Suspected sockpuppets




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 * Editor interaction utility

This account is similarly named to Gothic Forest's previous sock account,. All these accounts have interest in editing Somnium Obmutum (history), and Neo-Medieval Music, just like Neo-Medieval (example here), cites the non-RS rateyourmusic as "fortification" for his/her own genre bickering. Backtable Speak to meconcerning my deeds. 07:12, 25 December 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

 * I've blocked the sockpuppet indefinitely. Closing. Reaper Eternal (talk) 15:14, 27 December 2012 (UTC)