Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/MARdF/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets



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

Three accounts with a long-term interest in promoting the Prix Versailles. As discussed at COIN. Coordinated efforts include adding categories, articles and templates, and moving articles into those categories. For example:
 * Category:World selection for the Prix Versailles Passenger Stations
 * Category:World selection for the Prix Versailles Campuses
 * Category:World selection for the Prix Versailles Sports
 * Category:Prix Versailles-winning sports facilities
 * Category:Prix Versailles-winning architects and designers
 * Category:Prix Versailles-winning shopping malls
 * Category:Prix Versailles-winning architects and designers
 * Category:Prix Versailles-winning hotels
 * Purple economy (an idea by the founder of the Prix Versailles)
 * Template:Prix Versailles

Compare, for example, this contribs page for Idoumou33 to this contribs page for Pantell to this contribs page for MARdF. Finally, MARdF's 5KB edit with the summary "Media perceptions" looks clearly like promotional/insider editing.--- Possibly &#9742; 17:33, 23 July 2021 (UTC)
 * I should add that when one looks at this fr wiki contribution (or this one, or this one, or this one), the synergy is even clearer. --- Possibly &#9742; 18:01, 23 July 2021 (UTC)
 * User Idoumou33 has now updated their user page to say they may share an IP address with MARdF and Pantell. --- Possibly &#9742; 19:56, 23 July 2021 (UTC)

FYI, stewards found seven additional accounts, but I do not see any en-wiki contribs for them. Jules* asked for global locks on them all. Quite a bit of impressive teamwork here! 05:03, 26 July 2021 (UTC)
 * I have added Cervantes04 for CU, as they admit in their first edit to being from the same accounts, and are blocked on fr.wiki and Steward confirmed as being the same. They just !voted at an AfD.  --- Possibly &#9742; 09:30, 27 July 2021 (UTC)

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

I started the COIN discusssion about Prix Versailles and investigated some other Wikipedias. I found several similar accounts, e.g. fr:special:contributions/Cervantes04 (I have notified Jules*), es:special:contributions/Cervantes04, pt:special:contributions/Cervantes04, it:special:contributions/Gaudiem, (de:special:contributions/Gaudiem is older),es:special:contributions/Aspic80 and pt:special:contributions/Aspic80. COI or sockpuppet investigations in the other Wikipedias could be useful. TSventon (talk) 13:15, 24 July 2021 (UTC) Adding hu:special:contributions/FloricaMihalba, ro:special:contributions/FloricaMihalba and hu:special:contributions/Mihály64. TSventon (talk) 15:45, 24 July 2021 (UTC) Adding wikidata:special:contributions/TangoYalin, zh:special:contributions/TangoYalin (older contributions to ru and zh) and id:special:contributions/Satynath. TSventon (talk) 19:06, 24 July 2021 (UTC)
 * FYI: fr:Wikipédia:Vérificateur d'adresses IP/Requêtes/juillet 2021. Jules* (talk) 15:13, 24 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks Blablubbs and Jules*, do you have contacts who could start SPIs on es, hu and pt Wikipedias? I have only listed recent contributions. Is there a way of doing a cross-Wikipedia SPI? TSventon (talk) 15:45, 24 July 2021 (UTC)
 * We can make a request there! meta:Steward requests/Checkuser. It would be useful to detect other accounts. Jules* (talk) 16:52, 24 July 2021 (UTC)
 * I have submitted a meta request as suggested. You are welcome to post there if I have missed anything. TSventon (talk) 19:06, 24 July 2021 (UTC)
 * I have already submitted meta:Steward requests/Checkuser. TSventon (talk) 19:36, 24 July 2021 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * - they claim to be "from the same association" and that they have no direct relationship to the Prix Versailles; they are certainly coordinating very closely to the point of being behaviourally indistinguishable (see the edit summaries). CU might help us find out whether the "three distinct individuals" part checks out, so endorsing for that and to see if there are any others. Also ping In case you want to have a look at the frwiki side of this.  Blablubbs (talk) 11:38, 24 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Thank you and . Noting for non-French speakers that an frwiki checkuser confirmed these three plus  here. I'll keep the CU request for a local sleeper check. --Blablubbs (talk) 15:36, 24 July 2021 (UTC)
 * , noting the meta request - TheresNoTime 😺 19:12, 24 July 2021 (UTC)
 * and are ✅ to  and have been .  is stale here.  locally, would endorse a lwCU - TheresNoTime 😺 19:15, 24 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Cervantes04 indeffed per check-user result on fr.wp. Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 15:42, 27 July 2021 (UTC)


 * Tagged Cervantes as proven. Everyone's blocked and locked, I think we're good to close. GeneralNotability (talk) 13:31, 21 August 2021 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



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

Three more accounts with an interest in promoting the Prix Versailles and the Purple economy. Lagoyan created their account on 30 August 2021, a week after the opening of Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Purple economy on 23 August 2021. They made around sixty edits and then voted in the Purple economy deletion discussion on 3 September diff. On 4 September they posted a revised draft of Purple economy to its talk page diff. Lagoyan's edits follow a similar pattern to Bluetana. It would be useful to know if Lagoyan's IP links to MARdF's and Bluetana's, but it is likely that it won't, as MARdF's team now know that checkuser exists.

According to the fr check user investigation: "The Bluetana account was created the day after the opening of the AfD, rushed to make fifty changes and then voted in favour of conservation [of Economie mauve]". Bluetana's en Wikipedia edits do not appear to relate to Prix Versailles.

176.156.227.162 edited Purple economy on 23 August diff. Their other en Wikipedia edit was to Categories for discussion/Log/2021 August 2 diff. They also attacked me at fr:Discussion_Projet:Antipub, diff. TSventon (talk) 08:13, 6 September 2021 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.'' User:ST47 Thank you for dealing with this. I am not surprised that IP evidence does not link Lagoyan to MARdF as the original MARdF investigation will have warned them that IP addresses can be used in SPI investigations. I think there is a strong similarity between the edit histories of Lagoyan (en) and Bluetana (fr) up to their participation in Purple economy deletion discussions, but blocking them won't make much difference as they can always set up a new account. TSventon (talk) 15:24, 28 September 2021 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * I'll block Bluetana per the frwiki sock block. Lagoyan is technically only . ST47 (talk) 21:55, 27 September 2021 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
Recreated the Prix Versailles page after it was deleted in July 2021 due to lack of notability. The page, along with several related ones, were extensively promotionally edited by MARdF and previous sockpuppets, so it won't be a surprise if someone from this sockfarm was the one who recreated it. Miracusaurs (talk) 14:10, 3 March 2022 (UTC) Miracusaurs (talk) 14:10, 3 March 2022 (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

 * CU - Maxwellaaron is . The account hasn't edited in several months and the page is gone now. Nothing more to do here - you can re-report if this account resumes editing. Closing. Thanks, Spicy (talk) 18:57, 3 March 2022 (UTC)