Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Joseph507357/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets
Figure the easiest way to lay this out is via timeline.

Background: There is an existing consensus on the Utah NHL team article and among WikiProject Ice Hockey users that Utah is officially and de jure an expansion team, rather than a de facto relocation of the Arizona Coyotes, going off how the NHL itself and reliable sources have described it. A comparable situation to what the league and team(s) have declared is the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens situation from the late 90s.


 * May 7, 19:24 - Joseph507357 removes the phrase "expansion team" from the article, claiming it's not a new team. This is immediately reverted per prior consensus.
 * May 22 - Joseph507357 posts on the talk page complaining about the "expansion team" designation, asserting (without sources to the contrary) that it's a relocation. He then wrongly asserts that WP:BURDEN does not fall on him, and goes so far as to delete @1995hoo's discussion comment (which is unacceptable by WP norms). 1995hoo restores his comment shortly afterwards, and reprimands Joseph on the latter's talk page.
 * May 25: In three separate edits, the first IP listed above (9356):
 * Changes "expansion team" to "relocation team"
 * Removes the NHL source clarifying that Utah is an expansion team (which contradicts Joseph's argument)
 * Leaves an angry note once again asserting that it was a relocation, not an expansion, and demanding we stop changing their edits. All three edits are quickly undone by 1995hoo, again.
 * May 26: The second IP above (C330) leaves another angry note asserting the same thing, also dropping in the juicy nugget that, "It’s a free encyclopedia and I’m entitled to edit the page," as well as another demand to stop changing things, and a nice little WP:PA. This one is instantly reverted by ClueBot NG's anti-vandalism filter.

In short: Joseph and both IPs took the same position on the team's status, and did so in a similarly angry/confrontational manner, with similar verbiage/grammar, over a similar period of time. Joseph also hasn't edited since he removed 1995hoo's comment, so I'm not sure if this is an attempt to evade scrutiny on his main account or not. The  Kip  (contribs) 04:57, 27 May 2024 (UTC)

Comments by other users

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

I appreciate @The Kip opening the investigation. I’ve commented on these before, but I would have had to do some research to familiarize myself with how to open one and it might have been a few days before I got around to that. Setting that aside, there's not too much I can add to The Kip's comments beyond my own observations. I became suspicious on May 25, and voiced the concern in an edit summary and on the article's talk page, but I didn’t do anything further because it was a single incident and I figure I should give the benefit of the doubt even if the evidence is pretty damning—the nondisplaying comment about "stop changing my edits" might have left some room for doubt, but I tend to think it was not a "reasonable" doubt. Yesterday's little rant took away any doubt I might have been willing to harbor. What I find particularly objectionable here is that the first of the IPs removed a citation to an article discussing how the NHL Board of Governors is treating the Utah franchise as an expansion team (as The Kip has noted, similar to what the NFL did in the 1990s with the Ravens). Deliberately deleting a citation that supports a point of view other than what the one user is advocating smacks of bad faith in my mind. (Edited to add one more thing I forgot:) I also note that Joseph's original edit summary deleting my comment from the Utah team's talk page was intentionally misleading because it said, "Deleted false information." 1995hoo (talk) 12:52, 27 May 2024 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * It's obvious that the IPs in the /64 range are the same person, but other than the few edits involving the Utah team, I see no similarity in the articles Joseph and the IPs edit. The IP is Canadian, and I strongly suspect that Joseph edits from the US, somewhere along the northern tier of states, probably Minnesota. Insufficient evidence, closing. Bbb23 (talk) 14:00, 27 May 2024 (UTC)