Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Highyack07/Archive

Report date March 4 2010, 01:06 (UTC)

 * Suspected sockpuppets

made several edits to User:Highyack07, which was already deleted several times over BLP concerns. George Sterner also made a BLP-violating article on a different person (actually a falsification of info in an existing article) on his own user page and it was speedied by J Milburn. See User_talk:TenPoundHammer for a suspicion from another user that these might be socks. Ten Pound Hammer, his otters and a clue-bat • (Many otters • One bat • One hammer) 01:06, 4 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Evidence submitted by Ten Pound Hammer, his otters and a clue-bat • (Many otters • One bat • One hammer)


 * Comments by accused parties    See Defending yourself against claims.


 * Comments by other users
 * User talk:69.122.40.229 may be George Sterner logged out. This anon IP just blanked highyack07's page.--Morenooso (talk) 22:54, 5 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Additionally George Sterner editted his userpage to reflect the character, Train, which led me to highyack07. He continues to edit the page beyond the warnings he has been given.--Morenooso (talk) 22:54, 5 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Here are my full observations: highyack07's case, Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Highyack07 came to my attention because of an edit he made to Ronald Reagan's article. In the infobox, he inserted the name, Train, for which he has some affinity. At the same time, he did a redirect which was complicated for me to follow but one I finally figured out. After seeing his userpage, which was where the redirect went, I was mortified. I left a warning on his talkpage with a note to any Admin seeing my warning to take a look at his userpage. Sure enough, an Admin saw it, cited BLP issues and blocked him. Then another user, George Sterner re-editted the blocked userpage of highyack07. When I saw that another page patroller, Ten Pound Hammer had caught one of George's edits, I mentioned on his talkpage that I thought George was a sockpuppet of highyack07. Ten Pound Hammer looked at what I wrote, followed the trail and then filed the sockpuppet case.
 * Today George editted his userpage to reflect the Train persona/thoughts/characters as depicted on highyack07's userpage. This just about convinced me that he is the sockpuppet of highyack07. When I noticed today that he had removed the sockpuppet tag on his userpage, I restored the tag and issued him a maintenance tag warning. A short time later an anonymous IP, User:69.122.40.229 blanked George's userpage. This led me to believe that since George got a level four warning, he logged out and then blanked the page. I issued a warning to the anonymous IP, tagged it with the sockpuppet tag and then added my observations to highyack07's sockpuppet case.--Morenooso (talk) 03:14, 6 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments

Both indeffed; moot. Peter Symonds ( talk ) 10:40, 6 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Conclusions

Evidence submitted by Spitfire
Already blocked, but I'd like it if a check could be run for any sleepers + ip blocks please (per request by Morenooso at User talk:Aunt Entropy), kind regards, SpitfireTally-ho! 10:00, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Comments by accused parties
See Defending yourself against claims.

Comments by other users

 * I don't think the sockmaster is done. He has too big an ego if you look at how he has editted his userpages to reflect Robert McNamara (he seems to like just one pic of RM and not the one that shows up in the WikiCommons media link) as Train with a redirect on Ronald Reagan's page as his VP. This guy is good too. He knows how to manipulate templates. I don't understand how he built his sockpuppet userpage, Train12, so quickly and with the templates he used. He placed a template on Train12 that would make the average patroller or Admin think that he understands BLP issues that might leave him alone. Plus I am not sure if he tried to use a template to unblock Train12. This guy has great Wikipedia editting skills. Too bad he uses them for the Dark Side of the Force. He seems to have an affinity for the name, Train, and that one pic of Robert McNamara that shows up on his userpages. How he was able to get back on Wikipedia and then gain so much knowledge to be able to quickly build a new Train12 persona indicates to me that he is most likely an established editor possibly with another account that he does not "jerk around" with where he learned these skills in building sockpuppet pages The sockmaster may not have been found yet.--Morenooso (talk) 19:46, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments
Requested by SpitfireTally-ho! 10:00, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

see above comment, SpitfireTally-ho! 10:00, 8 March 2010 (UTC) all accounts have been tagged and blocked, SpitfireTally-ho! 20:39, 9 March 2010 (UTC)
 * I wasn't expecting much, and I was right. ✅ straight match for a/m accounts, and . - Mailer Diablo 20:32, 9 March 2010 (UTC)