Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Ichika Kasuga/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets



 * Tools: Editor interaction utility • Interaction Timeline • User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

has been engaged in a discussion at Talk:List of highest-grossing R-rated films. On April 8, an IP who had never edited Wikipedia before (nor, to date, since) joined the discussion, making three consecutive edits repeating virtually the same points as had. This is perhaps a bit suspicious in and of itself, but there are additional indications that they are the same person. One of those things is that the arguments are not only similar in content, they are similar in phrasing as well. Furthermore, there are several shared linguistic idiosyncracies—such as rise [objection/objections] (as opposed to raise), WP: Original Research (capital "R" and space after the colon), Box Office Mojo and The Numbers doesn't [work/operate] on every place (improper use of doesn't and on), a propensity to begin sentences with Again, even when bringing something up for the first time, and ending posts with Thank you.

Finally, what I consider to be the smoking gun: said When I said ‘’Money conversion varies from site to site’’ [...], which was in fact something that had been posted by the IP, not by the logged-in account.

That this is not a simple case of forgetting to log in is demonstrated by the IP referring to the logged-in account in the third person. To my eye, this is a fairly obvious WP:LOGOUT violation. TompaDompa (talk) 12:48, 12 April 2021 (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
The fact that the user is referring to edits made by the IP as the user's own edits strongly suggests that this is a simple case of not logging in. I recommend closing this investigation, and treat them as the same user in discussions and reports of disruptive activity. A checkuser cannot confirm an IP address association with a username anyway. ~Anachronist (talk) 00:21, 13 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Not just accidental logged-out editing, here we see the IP acting as if they are separate people. That's bad-faith logged-out editing. Both the IP and account have been given a week off. Closing. GeneralNotability (talk) 01:29, 13 April 2021 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



 * Tools: Editor interaction utility • Interaction Timeline • User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

As a result of the previous SPI report three days ago, 106.203.132.203 was blocked for a week. Now, another IP from the same range—106.203.132.248—has started editing material on the same topic (currency conversion relating to the box office gross of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train). This seems like a rather clear case of WP:BLOCKEVASION to me. TompaDompa (talk) 08:18, 15 April 2021 (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

 * Blocked the /24 for a week for block evasion. Closing. GeneralNotability (talk) 02:06, 16 April 2021 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



 * Tools: Editor interaction utility • Interaction Timeline • User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

As SomeoneElseMightGetItWrong pointed out at Talk:Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train, a new account, Phano Mie, started editing out of the blue and reverted all of TompaDompa's edits to the article Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train where they undo some of the content that was originally added by Ichika Kasuga. Here is two instances of that happening (1, 2). In the latter of those, Phano Mie mentions telling an administrator about a possible SPI investigation. That administrator was Anachronist, who also happens to have commented in a previous SPI of Ichika Kasuga (1]). They also both only use visual editor or 2017 text editor to edit. Additionally, they share similar speech patterns, for instance, both tend to separate larger messages into sections with bullets (Ichika Kasuga, Phano Mie) and starting new messages with "Sir" (Ichika Kasuga, Phano Mie). With all the evidence presented above, I think we have enough to warrant a CU. This is my first time doing this so apologies if I did anything wrong. Link20XX (talk) 21:41, 23 June 2021 (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

 * First off, the blocked account is a ✅  sock of Ichika Kasuga. From a technical standpoint, I'm calling  as .--  Jezebel's Ponyo bons mots 21:56, 23 June 2021 (UTC)
 * Catopst was created 2 days after Ichika was blocked, and Phano was created a day after Catopst was blocked. Plus all the other things noted here would probably be enough to block even without CU.  With the likely finding from CU, tagging as proven is a no-brainer. -- RoySmith (talk) 02:09, 24 June 2021 (UTC)
 * Because these socks appear to be targeting a single article, I have put it under extended confirmed protection. ~Anachronist (talk) 03:20, 24 June 2021 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



 * Tools: Editor interaction utility • Interaction Timeline • User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

The latest sock to be banned was, on 24 June. This new account was created on 26 June. They edit the same kind of content as the previous accounts, namely anime films and the Demon Slayer movie in particular (though not the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train article itself, as it is now under WP:ECP). One similarity in particular that I'll draw your attention to is listing the Demon Slayer movie's various grosses in different markets on the List of highest-grossing anime films article by using a bulleted list inside an explanatory footnote (introduced by Ichika Kasuga, re-introduced by Serana Moegi). Another is the argument that Wikipedia does not request reputable (or reputed) sources, but reliable ones (Phano Mie, Serana Moegi). Note also the shared idiosyncratic grammatical error here: "does [...] arrived" by Phano Mie and "doesn't asked" by Serana Moegi. Another linguistic similarity: "Reexplaination" by Ichika Kasuga and "explaination" by Serana Moegi. TompaDompa (talk) 20:04, 1 July 2021 (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

 * blocked, tagging as proven for all the reasons noted in the report, plus some patterns I noted regarding several unusual edit tags. -- RoySmith (talk) 13:12, 3 July 2021 (UTC)