Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Goyah/Archive

22 November 2015

 * Suspected sockpuppets




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During the AfD discussion for the article Christian Gänshirt, I came to the gradual realization that there is a network of connected accounts that makes most of the edits on this and related subjects. The edits mainly centre around: Christian Gänshirt, Ganshirt's book Tools for Ideas, design tool (a concept in Tools for Ideas), buildings related to Ganshirt, Manifestmaschine (an event that Ganshirt was involved with), German architects, and German architectural writers and theorists. The above wikilinked pages have all been created by the accounts listed above. Tools for Ideas is written in a highly promotional tone.

showed up in the AfD discussion and made four consecutive "Keep" votes. 街路道 previously uploaded a self-authored photo of Ganshirt (evidence of a direct connection), and in the AfD discussion exhibited a lot of knowledge about Ganshirt's professional background. Additionally even though 街路道's user page has text written in simplified Chinese, as a Hong Kong resident I would say from experience that his/her English proficiency and manner of writing in English leads me to believe that they are not a native mainland Chinese. The Chinese text on his/her user page is also nonsensical. 街路道, like most of the other accounts, is a single-purpose account. He/she has not edited on the Chinese Wikipedia.

Many of the accounts were created around the same time. Goyah is the oldest, first editing in 2013, and appears to be a prolific editor on the German Wikipedia (and hence is an outlier compared to the other suspected socks, all SPAs with relatively few edits). Xisto01, P78, Regard X, Q**78, and Ach8 were all created within a month of each other in early 2014. 街路道 and Christian Gänshirt both first edited in October 2014. Frogday, Grassview, and Another notch all appeared in February 2015.

Various other pieces of evidence:


 * Some of the accounts have added photos with captions that attribute the photo to Ganshirt, which is odd not only in providing a citation in the caption itself, but also in citing Ganshirt with his surname only (Xisto01, 173.254.200.130 diff 1, diff 2, Frogday, Q**78). The edit patterns of the IP are a bit different so it is probably a shared computer or shared IP that the sockmaster used incidentally.


 * The Christian Gänshirt page was crafted in the sandboxes of both Q**78 (example diff) and P78 (diff) on the same day.


 * Most of the users similarly have simple little sentences on their userpages that I assume is intended to avoid their usernames being a redlink.


 * The only editors of Manifestmaschine, an event series that Ganshirt organised, were Goyah and Q**78.


 * Many of the users add references to Ganshirt's publications to various articles in an idiosyncratic way, see example diffs for P78, Goyah, Regard X,


 * Here, Goyah adds a reference to Ganshirt's work that is later formatted by both Xisto01 and Grassview. None of the users make any further edits to the page; they simply add references to Ganshirt and his work.


 * Most of the accounts are used to add numerous categories to various articles - mainly about German expatriates, architecture academics and writers, etc.

I could go on but this is getting lengthy. It is possible more sockpuppets are out there. Altogether this appears to amount to a sophisticated effort to use Wikipedia for promotional purposes, contrary to our policies on neutral point of view and what Wikipedia is not, as well as trying to game an AfD discussion. I wasn't sure if I should request checkuser or not so I'll leave that decision to someone with more experience in these investigations. Thanks, Citobun (talk) 11:35, 22 November 2015 (UTC)


 * Could an admin please look at this? I think this is a pretty cut-and-dry case of self-promotion of non-notable subjects. I want to take the rest of the questionable articles to AfD but I don't want the sockpuppets tainting the discussion again. Citobun (talk) 06:21, 21 December 2015 (UTC)

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

Right, we are such a network. For someone who is familiar with the way Wikipedia works this should be easy to see (and is intended to be), simply have a look at the lists of edits/contributions. All we did is provide information; all information provided conforms with Wikipedia standards, is verifiable and properly referenced. We never got involved in editorial conflicts or any discussions (| except this one). 街路道 (talk) 23:53, 28 November 2015 (UTC)


 * The policies are clear. Wikipedia is not a means of promotion. The use of sockpuppets for inappropriate reasons, i.e. avoiding scrutiny or contributing to the same page with multiple accounts (as you have), is prohibited. Editing with a conflict of interest is strongly discouraged and paid editing without COI disclosure is prohibited under the Wikimedia Foundation's terms of use. You never got in editorial conflicts because you obfuscated the promotional nature of your editing by using numerous sockpuppets to create the illusion of a diverse body of editors all working on these articles. Additionally, by continuously commenting on the AfD (and creating a separate comment every single time) and pretending to be a neutral party you are dissuading other editors from participating by seriously confusing the discussion. Citobun (talk) 09:11, 29 November 2015 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * The more and more you dig in to them, the behavior becomes even clearer. Blocked and tagged. Also is ✅ to 街路道. --  Amanda  (aka DQ) 00:36, 30 January 2016 (UTC)