Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Josher8a/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets



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The users share an interest in Paulina Larocca--exclusive in the case of Inelectra and almost exclusive in the case of ShanksyOnko. Josher8a created the Larocca article in their sandbox, and Javieralexvr moved it to mainspace. After it was deleted by AFD, ShanksyOnko recreated in in their own sandbox and moved it mainspace. Inelectra removed a G4 tag. —teb728 t c 05:46, 26 July 2019 (UTC)

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 * Please also see User:Edvance1957. Thank you.  Magnolia677 (talk) 18:58, 26 July 2019 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * The following accounts are ✅:
 * Inelectra is, and Edvance1957 is ❌.--Bbb23 (talk) 20:08, 14 August 2019 (UTC)
 * I blocked Inelectra too. Closing.  Vanjagenije   (talk)  22:19, 14 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Inelectra is, and Edvance1957 is ❌.--Bbb23 (talk) 20:08, 14 August 2019 (UTC)
 * I blocked Inelectra too. Closing.  Vanjagenije   (talk)  22:19, 14 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Inelectra is, and Edvance1957 is ❌.--Bbb23 (talk) 20:08, 14 August 2019 (UTC)
 * I blocked Inelectra too. Closing.  Vanjagenije   (talk)  22:19, 14 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Inelectra is, and Edvance1957 is ❌.--Bbb23 (talk) 20:08, 14 August 2019 (UTC)
 * I blocked Inelectra too. Closing.  Vanjagenije   (talk)  22:19, 14 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Inelectra is, and Edvance1957 is ❌.--Bbb23 (talk) 20:08, 14 August 2019 (UTC)
 * I blocked Inelectra too. Closing.  Vanjagenije   (talk)  22:19, 14 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Inelectra is, and Edvance1957 is ❌.--Bbb23 (talk) 20:08, 14 August 2019 (UTC)
 * I blocked Inelectra too. Closing.  Vanjagenije   (talk)  22:19, 14 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Inelectra is, and Edvance1957 is ❌.--Bbb23 (talk) 20:08, 14 August 2019 (UTC)
 * I blocked Inelectra too. Closing.  Vanjagenije   (talk)  22:19, 14 August 2019 (UTC)
 * I blocked Inelectra too. Closing.  Vanjagenije   (talk)  22:19, 14 August 2019 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



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The users are trying to create a page for film maker Mark Kendall, under different names, there seems to be a big sock farm who are professionally doing this. Meeanaya (talk) 05:56, 23 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Draft:Mark Kendall (filmmaker) and Draft:Mark Kendall (artist). — Preceding unsigned comment added by Meeanaya (talk • contribs) 06:05, 23 July 2019 (UTC)

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 * Moving to Josher8a, the apparent sockmaster. AG275421 and Live and let live . Others already blocked. Closing. Kevin ( aka L235 ·&#32; t ·&#32; c) 03:36, 16 August 2019 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



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blanked a series of drafts originally created by other Josher socks, no other edits.  Joel.Miles925  (talk) 13:38, 21 August 2019 (UTC)

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✅ to. . — Berean Hunter   (talk)  21:28, 25 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Close per the above. The SandDoctor  Talk 05:28, 28 August 2019 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



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This appear to be someone from the same sock farm. The account was registered a day before and a few days after  was blocked, editing in the same area and first edit was to recreate Draft:Mark Kendall (filmmaker) under Draft:Mark Kendall. GSS (talk |c|em ) 06:21, 10 September 2019 (UTC)

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 * JamesRodir and Derekfisherf are on the same proxy, and both seem like they're possible meat puppets or sock puppets of Josher8a. NinjaRobotPirate (talk) 00:55, 22 September 2019 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



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Looks to be a WP:DUCK case. I noticed a new editor, User:Cannot&wont, created Draft:123; on closer inspection, the draft looks to be an exact copy of Draft:Plastiq, a draft created twice by the Josher8a sockfarm. Requesting checkuser to flush out any sleeper accounts. SamHolt6 (talk) 23:36, 24 September 2019 (UTC)

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 * On a proxy. Blocked based on behavioral evidence. NinjaRobotPirate (talk) 01:50, 25 September 2019 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



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Possible case of sockpuppetry. To begin, the suspected sockmaster (User:MasterWikiEdit) joined the project editing a number of different topics, including J. B. Hunt, which they added a good deal of content too. When this content was scaled back by other editors (most notably User:DGG), several new editors joined the project and seem to be collaborating with MasterWikiEdit. User:STinders, for example, make a few major edits to the J. B. Hunt article, only to be revert and for MasterWikiEdit to re-implement a very similar yet suspiciously different version of these same edits. Another red flag is the propensity for new editors to find their way to the article and remove maintenance templates, as was done here by User:Tacomanao here and User:Legend-dary here. However, the behavior that most strongly indicates sockpuppetry can be seen at Draft:Lisette Cooper (created by MAsterWikiEdit), which remained in the draftspace until User:Tacomanao moved it to the mainspace without any visible on-wiki coordination between the two; this is highly suspect given random drafts are not easily stumbled upon by new editors. Requesting checkuser to clear out any false positives. SamHolt6 (talk) 23:24, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

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 * The accounts are ✅ to . . Please move case to the correct master.--Bbb23 (talk) 01:46, 22 October 2019 (UTC)
 * , both cases are back at the point before I touched them. Cabayi (talk) 13:32, 22 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Bbb23 - ✅. Case has been moved and histmerge'd to Josher8a.  ~Oshwah~  (talk) (contribs)   20:59, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



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Possibly two more editors linked to the Josher8a sockfarm. The first editor (User:Simpleman2.3, now blocked) joined the project during one of the sockfarm's periods of activity, and indicated at Talk:J. B. Hunt that they were affiliated with the sockfarm, but later denied being involved with Josher8a. I would like checkuser to take a look, as this may determine whether they will be unblocked. The second editor (User:Torontotonian) joined the project several days after the most recently confirmed socks were blocked, and immediately began editing in regards to Draft:Lisette Cooper, which the Josher8a sockfarm has been heavily involved with. It is possible this is a false positive and that Torontotonia is an unrelated paid editor, but certain points (like their being knowledgeable enough to add disabled categories in a draft and cite sources correctly) may imply they are not a new editor. Again, checkuser will go a ways to sort this out. SamHolt6 (talk) 23:52, 4 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Additional comment- Post checkuser, I have also noticed that today both editors I suspected (and one confirmed sock of Josher8a) returned from their editing breaks, all making edits without overlap in the span of <30 mins; it raises suspicions when a blocked editor (Javieralexvr) returns after a month of inactivity to appeal their block a few minutes after two “new” editors begin editing topics previously targeted by this sockfarm. leaving this to you to evaluate as behavioral evidence in conjunction with the topic overlap discussed above. SamHolt6 (talk) 04:28, 7 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Additional comment - In support of User:GSS's comment below, today User:64tsbitz made three edits (concluding with this one ) in relation to Draft:Mark Kendall (filmmaker), which has been created multiple times by the Josher8a sockfarm. 6 minutes later, User:Javieralexvr (a confirmed sock of Josher8a) return began editing again, petitioning again for an unblock. In addition, it should be noted that User:64tsbitz's new incarnation of Draft:Mark Kendall (filmmaker) contains some in line references that are listed as being retrieved months before this draft was created; this strongly indicates this editor is either a returning editor or editing on behalf of another, as they (as a non-admin) should have no on-wiki way of recovering these sources. This is more behavioral evidence that should be evaluated. SamHolt6 (talk) 22:40, 7 November 2019 (UTC)

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Can someone please also check user ? a SPA whose only edits are recreating Draft:Mark Kendall under Draft:Mark Kendall (filmmaker). GSS &#x202F;&#128172; 02:52, 7 November 2019 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * - Check would be worthwhile - for sleepers in case of Simpleman2.3 if nothing else. The SandDoctor  Talk 01:35, 5 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Both are on colo webhosts, one of which has already been rangeblocked, the other of which I am still researching. as to sleeper accounts, though. ST47 (talk) 23:02, 5 November 2019 (UTC)
 * I've looked at Torontotonian. It's kind of odd that their third edit zeroed in on a draft of known Joser8a socks. Additionally, a lot of the same sources are present in both the current and most recent (deleted) versions. (Latter is an admin only link.) On its own, the latter would by no means be enough to warrant a block or conclusive enough to guarantee sockpuppetry is taking place. However, combined with the apparent "zeroing in" on Draft:Lisette Cooper, this is looking more likely. I will leave this open for a bit in case anyone else has any comments. The SandDoctor  Talk 04:41, 7 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Please see the comment above by GSS. There is overlap there too. The SandDoctor  Talk 04:43, 7 November 2019 (UTC)
 * 64tsbitz is on a proxy. Blocked based on behavioral evidence. NinjaRobotPirate (talk) 04:14, 8 November 2019 (UTC)
 * I've just gone over all of this. The confluence of edit times by Simpleman2.3, Torontotonian, and Javieralexvr is what convinced me they're all the same person.  I'll block Torontotonian in a moment and clean up the rest of this.  -- RoySmith (talk) 01:48, 12 November 2019 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



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Some of the socks of this puppetmaster have submitted BLPs of Lisette Cooper, a title that is now salted in both article space and draft space. This account is now attempting to evade the salting of the title by creating the draft in user space. Request microscopic feather examination to compare this account against known socks that are less than three months old, and to look for more sleepers. Robert McClenon (talk) 02:45, 31 January 2020 (UTC)

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 * - the non-stale socks were all using proxies. Based on the CU lok, AdrianaMerlan is on the same network as Josher8a was, before they started to use proxies. There was no sign of any additional accounts related to this master. ST47 (talk) 05:55, 8 February 2020 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



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Yet another recreation of Plastiq Inc. previously created by multiple Josher8a socks. The account was created yesterday and made not major edits outside this topic. Requesting CU for technical relation and sleepers. GSS &#x202F;&#128172; 16:38, 19 June 2020 (UTC)


 * Looking at their knowledge of disclosing paid editing status to create a well-formatted article this doesn't look like a brand new user to me and the article was previously deleted multiple times at Plastiq and Draft:Plastiq. GSS &#x202F;&#128172; 17:06, 19 June 2020 (UTC)


 * Thank you for checking Callanecc, the account is inactive since the article was created so they were registered "only" to recover their paid work with no interest to edit Wikipedia. GSS &#x202F;&#128172; 08:42, 20 June 2020 (UTC)

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 * is the best I can do here, . Callanecc (talk • contribs • logs) 05:05, 20 June 2020 (UTC)
 * This edit of PanzaMain's is basically a copy-paste recreation of Draft:Plastiq, which was worked on by several Josher8a socks. I note that the recreation was under a different title, which I assume was to obfuscate the history and get around the fact that Plastiq has been salted due to multiple recreations.  I'm going to G5 Plastiq Inc. as soon as I'm done here, and salt that as well.  -- RoySmith (talk) 00:25, 21 June 2020 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



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This account is again trying to submit an article on Lisette Cooper, which has been repeatedly submitted by various accounts who either are or appear to be Josher8a socks. The title has been salted in both draft space and article space, and calling it Draft:Lis is gaming of naming.

One sock has data that is not stale and should be checked, although the record shows that most of the recent socks have been using open proxies. If they are using open proxies, are they using them on purpose, and is that use in itself an indication of evasion?

I thought that I had seen this puppeteer before. Robert McClenon (talk) 23:30, 13 September 2020 (UTC)

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 * I think "Josher8a" is more likely to be a paid editing ring than a specific person who's repeatedly recreating articles. Regardless, the geolocation is consistent with early socks, and this seems like more of the same. NinjaRobotPirate (talk) 23:00, 14 September 2020 (UTC)