Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/HauntologicalPhenomenon/Archive

28 September 2012

 * Suspected sockpuppets


 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

It was suggested to me at ANI to open an SPI for this editor, even though I don't know who the sockmaster might be. I suspect it's someone previously involved in the perennial battles surrounding Mass killings under Communist regimes because he made his first edit there. My concerns, as stated on ANI are: -- Tijfo098 (talk) 09:17, 28 September 2012 (UTC)
 * 1) that User:HauntologicalPhenomenon soon after registration started participating in AfDs, and appears quite focused on that area alone, which may be a violation of WP:SOCK. The relevant section is "Editing project space: Undisclosed alternative accounts should not edit policies, guidelines, or their talk pages; comment in Arbitration proceedings; or vote in requests for adminship, deletion debates, or elections." (emphasis mine)
 * 2) possibly active deception by HauntologicalPhenomenon here, explicitly claiming to be "a new editor". Quite an improbable claim given that his 2nd edit was an elaborate argumentation quoting several Wikipedia policies.

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

Blatantly not new, and blatantly an "alternative persona" and blockable as such, but, with only 22 edits, hard to assign any specific editor thereto. The noticeboard discussions likely should mark him as having "very few edits" to be sure - no real new editor behaves in this manner. Collect (talk) 11:41, 28 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I would be happy to indef based on this but I am about to go on holiday for 2 days, and so in the spirit of AGF it doesn't seem fair for the blocking admin to be unable to respond to any related queries. GiantSnowman 11:47, 28 September 2012 (UTC)
 * By which policy would "blatantly not new" be a blockable offense? As long as an alternate account is not used to mislead/deceive/disrupt it is not inappropriate use of multiple accounts, see WP:ILLEGIT. Amalthea  13:52, 28 September 2012 (UTC)
 * @Amalthea. He doesn't claim to be an alternate account. He claims that he was editing as an IP for the last six years until he became familiar enough with the rules to open an account (most likely a lie). -- brew crewer  (yada, yada) 16:58, 28 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Read the edits.  Use of alternative personas to !vote is a different matter from other edits.  This person seems to have this persona substantially for !voting. Collect (talk) 14:14, 28 September 2012 (UTC)
 * (ec) Articles related to the Arab-Israel conflict are plagued by sockpuppets of banned editors. For that reason, new editors with obvious wiki experience are frequently CU'd and then blocked. User:Timotheus Canens, for one, can speak to this.-- brew crewer  (yada, yada) 14:16, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

I don't know for sure if it is related to HauntologicalPhenomenon, but User:Zrdragon12 is another recent apparition in the area (first edit 21 September 2012). He is also a very experienced and high-volume contributor suddenly waltzing in with a new account. The nearby !votes in the Mass killings under Capitalism AfD of HauntologicalPhenomenon and Zrdragon12 do look suspicious considering the combined circumstances of both new accounts. So I request a checkuser of the two accounts. Besides both being new accounts voting in that AfD they share a general interest in other leftist/Chomsky-ist politics. (The strict user counting AE rules at Mass killings under Communism beg for sock-puppetry, I'm afraid.) Tijfo098 (talk) 14:37, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

And guess what, Zloyvolsheb who !voted right above the other two in the AfD is an old account with an interest in both Communism and Israel-related topics, hitting the main areas of interest of HauntologicalPhenomenon's AfD participation. Tijfo098 (talk) 15:10, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

Please see Administrators%27_noticeboard/Incidents. Philip Cross may have provided information related to the Zrdragon12 account. He may be able to help via the functionaries.  Sean.hoyland  - talk 15:14, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

Based on their editing while logged out Zrdragon12/88.104.219.158 and HauntologicalPhenomenon/80.195.177.186 are probably not the same editor unless one of those IPs is an open proxy. They're both in the UK but rather far apart. There's almost a week time difference between the last edit of 80.195.177.186 and the first edit of 88.104.219.158, so it's not impossible that it's just one person traveling though. The question remains if any of these two identities may actually be Zloyvolsheb. A CU could easily resolve their current IPs and determine this. Tijfo098 (talk) 17:13, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

It's interesting that there's a gap in Zloyvolsheb's edits which coincides with the creation and activities of the HauntologicalPhenomenon account. Zloyvolsheb stopped editing on the 15th, HauntologicalPhenomenon started on the 16th but only made a few edits then and on the 17th. But they both resumed editing on the 27th. Tijfo098 (talk) 17:29, 28 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I don't edit here every day. Also, I am not interested in Israel-related topics, as you have claimed. I also don't edit from any other account. This looks like a hunt for anyone with some similarity to a guy who "doesn't look like a new editor" (as you admit you have no clue what other account this might be). You never even bothered to inform me of this SPI. No offense, Tijfo098, but you are on a fishing expedition based on a !vote. Zloyvolsheb (talk) 17:54, 28 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Possibly, but both you and HauntologicalPhenomenon have edited various lists of Jewish people and their AfDs  . Given that plus the coincidence in the Capitalist killings AfD, it was perhaps not outlandish to raise suspicion especially since we don't have much edits from HauntologicalPhenomenon to work with. Tijfo098 (talk) 18:09, 28 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I have been editing since 2010 and there's most likely a million articles I've probably edited at some point, including this or that list, but mostly related to the history of Russia and the Cold War. My first edit to Mass killings under communist regimes was in 2010, and I found the !vote for Mass killings under capitalist regimes because of my interest in that area. (I have been too busy to edit much recently, though I am still involved.) HauntologicalPhenomenon is a new account, we did not edit the same article at any point so far, and more than half of his few are Israel-related. He has already participated in several AFDs, which I tend to avoid, with my !vote as an exception to the rule. So I don't see a non-trivial, substantial similarity to his editing pattern. Zloyvolsheb (talk) 18:28, 28 September 2012 (UTC)
 * P.S. It would have been pretty weird for me to tell another editor that I'd be too busy to make a substantial edit regarding an objection I'd raised at Talk:Cold War, as I did on September 14th (see "I'll try to think of a succinct way of wording this kind of summary once I have a bit more time" ) only to begin a new life as the different user HauntologicalPhenomenon on September 16th. The AFD nomination I !voted in was put up by User:Nug on September 22nd and I did not even find it until a good five days. Zloyvolsheb (talk) 18:47, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

Zrdragon12 has indeed been editing as an IP for quite some time before registering, including from 88.104.218.11, 88.104.220.15, and 88.104.213.87. So it's not that surprising that he suddenly became a very active and experienced registered editor. HauntologicalPhenomenon claimed in one of the AfDs that he has been editing Wikipedia as an IP for 6 years I'm not able to find much evidence of that though. Tijfo098 (talk) 17:53, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

Just to mention that HauntologicalPhenomenon has done some POV edits bashing Sam Vaknin, an Israeli writer. As Vaknin is chief editor of Global Politician that probably motivated him to do an afd for it Articles_for_deletion/Global_Politician_%282nd_nomination%29 --Penbat (talk) 05:56, 29 September 2012 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * CU is of no use. You'll have to find a behavoir connection for now. -- DQ  (ʞlɐʇ)  11:06, 28 September 2012 (UTC)
 * This has sadly now turned into a fishing expedition, and that's not what SPI is for, and was not my intention when I said find behavoir evidence. If you find something conclusive that you can explain, with proper diffs and make a sock case, then refile, otherwise, we're done here. -- DQ  (ʞlɐʇ)  11:48, 29 September 2012 (UTC)