Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/HĐ/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets

 * HĐ retired on 1:14 UTC, 13 May 2021. User account Ippantekina was created 15 minutes later, on 1:29 UTC, 13 May 2021.
 * Ippantekina's first edit is the creation of a Japanese album article, with perfectly formatted references and following almost all Wikipedia conventions. Quite unusual for someone's first edit. HĐ was involved in countless articles related to Japanese music, this and this one come to mind.
 * Within the next few days, the Ippantekina account starts commenting like an expert and cites WP:UNDUE (Diff) and WP:FANCRUFT (Diff).
 * Ippantekina quickly learns the ropes and submits a Taylor Swift song to FAC three months after joining Wikipedia. The nomination statement bears an uncanny resemblance to HĐ's nomination statements, referring to the singer as "Ms. Swift" and "America's Sweetheart". Notably, HĐ had been nominating Swift songs to FAC for several years leading into March that year. In just a few months, Ippantekina starts regularly nominating successful FACs about Taylor Swift, something it takes even experienced editors several years to learn.
 * Ippantekina does not consult HĐ on their talk page before nominating Out of the Woods (song), the latter's GA on which they hold a huge majority of authorship, for an FAC. They manage to answer all questions that are raised anyways.
 * Extensive edits to the Vietnam article from both accounts. These edits,, to remove "unnecessary notes" stick out as especially damning. Kind of similar edits on Economy of Vietnam as well, removing the word "Saigon" from the same image's caption
 * Extremely similar edits on Template:Maroon 5. Both users have redirected Maroon 5 articles on notability grounds: Special:Diff/997236476, Special:Diff/1061532593, and then immediately gone to remove them from the template.
 * The users have uploaded identically-formatted audio samples for songs by Taylor Swift (File:Cornelia Street by Taylor Swift (song sample).ogg and File:Taylor Swift - Red song sample.ogg).
 * Identical comments while uploading media files related to Taylor Swift, "another portion to accompany the article", HĐ and "another portion to best accompany the prose", Ippantekina.
 * Similar ways of thanking reviewers with emojis for reviewing their GANs ("Thank you very much for reviewing the article :)", Ippantekina, "Thank you very much for the quick review! [...] ", HĐ and "Responded :)", HĐ)
 * Similar edits updating certifications on Marunouchi Sadistic, another obscure point of mutual interest between the two accounts, (Special:Diff/989309750, Special:Diff/1088825641)
 * See extremely similar edits on Gong Li, regarding "fancruft" and "puffery".
 * Ippantekina updating an HĐ GA.
 * Ippantekina removing audio samples uploaded by HĐ (Special:Diff/1095217157, Special:Diff/1095217054), which had an insufficient fair-use rationale, despite never having otherwise edited those articles.
 * There's other stuff that can probably be analyzed from the interaction report but I stopped here. To the best of my knowledge, HĐ was not under any sanctions when they retired but they did go through a very difficult FAC and have an AN disccusion slightly backfire. If they created another account to regain the community's sympathies as a new user and get the tough reviewers off their back, this does seem like disruptive use of multiple accounts. Not a legitimate WP:FRESHSTART either since the accounts are editing the same articles and doing identical work. NØ 09:55, 10 June 2023 (UTC)


 * Regarding Bbb23's comment below, both the HĐ (Diff, Diff, Diff, Diff) and Ippantekina (Diff, Diff, Diff) accounts have been used to repeatedly remove the same sentence from Gong Li while publicly presenting as different users. Overlapping "trims" from both accounts on the Vietnam article as well. Sorry but without a public declaration this is the same person, this does seem to constitute sockpuppetry. The new account got a first-time nominator's spotcheck on their first few FACs as well. I would have to insist the user reveal any connection, and, of course, offer my apologies in case I am wrong.--NØ 15:19, 10 June 2023 (UTC)

Comments by other users

 * Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.


 * Ehhh, my cover was blown :p here’s my confession: yes I have two accounts that are HĐ (supposedly retired now) and this one. MaranoFan seems to think I created this account to sort of redeem my reputation (?) but no… Though it first started as an experiment - I shed the old account and wanted to contribute to Wikipedia as a Gnome with this newly created account, turned out it’s impossible to go fully undercover :) now I have some FAs to my badge of honour and there’s no going back, least for the near future.. Anyways I’d still be off till 15 June so I’ll only resume normal activities then.. only replying to this thread due to urgent notification. Cheers, Ippantekina (talk) 18:03, 10 June 2023 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * - Assuming that the two accounts are the same person, I don't see any evidence of socking. It would be preferable for to declare the relationship, but that is not required. According to Ippantekina's userpage, they are on break until June 15. I am therefore putting the report on hold to give them an opportunity to respond. If a clerk or another patrolling admin thinks this report should be closed without waiting, that's fine. Bbb23 (talk) 13:11, 10 June 2023 (UTC)
 * , thanks for the response. Are you willing to do the following: (1) put a declaration re the other account on each of the userpages; and (2) promise not to edit with the HĐ account?--Bbb23 (talk) 18:27, 10 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Yes, I'm fine with both. Actually I have not logged into the HĐ account for a long while now... I have a small query: will the Featured Articles/Good Articles/DYKs that went to the HĐ account's credits be transferred to my current account? Cheers, Ippantekina (talk) 02:50, 14 June 2023 (UTC)
 * , any update on this? Could you instruct me which appropriate measures should I take to put a declaration on both user pages i.e. any templates, formats...? Ippantekina (talk) 08:31, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
 * I suggest the declarations be informal, i.e., no templates. So on HĐ's userpage something like: "I have stopped editing with this account and will be editing only with User:Ippantekina. See Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/HĐ for more details." On the Ippantekina userpage: "I have stopped editing with User:HĐ and will edit only with this account. See Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/HĐ for more details." The references to this case should be wikilinked.--Bbb23 (talk) 13:52, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
 * thanks, will do once this investigation concludes. May I know an indicative timeline as to when this investigation will elapse? Also re my previous query, will HĐ's credits for FAs/GAs/DYKs transfer to Ippantekina? Ippantekina (talk) 14:42, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
 * You've got it backwards on the timing. You should post the notes on the two userpages now, and once I'm satisfied I will close here. As for your question, it would have been far better for you to request a rename rather than what you did, and had you done so, everything would have been under the renamed account, including the "credits" (sounds like a filmography). As it is, I'm not knowledgeable enough to answer your question.--Bbb23 (talk) 14:56, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Okay, as the "credits" thing is a separate issue I'll find some ways to work around that later.. Would a redirect from HĐ to Ippantekina work (I'd add a note on Ippantekina explaining that this user once operated under the name HĐ)? Ippantekina (talk) 15:09, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Stick with what I've proposed.--Bbb23 (talk) 15:27, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Should be done by now, Ippantekina (talk) 15:50, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
 * nudge, Ippantekina (talk) 07:14, 18 June 2023 (UTC)
 * , thanks for the nudge. I noticed your comment a few days ago and meant to act but then forgot - my apologies. What you did on the two userpages looks fine. Happy editing! Closing. Bbb23 (talk) 13:21, 18 June 2023 (UTC)