Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Macs15/Archive

23 July 2014

 * Suspected sockpuppets


 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.
 * Editor interaction utility

very similar user names created within 2 month of each other, editing a very obscure topic (1800s local elections in Wales) Gaijin42 (talk) 03:11, 23 July 2014 (UTC)

The behavior is very wierd. Im not seeing any good hand/bad hand type thing, and no multiple voting, but these are very obscure topics, and now there are 3 accounts with very similar names all editing the same articles. (plus another account I suspect based on overlap). It seems like the user is rotating through the accounts. There is very little interleaving of editing by the accounts. One account starts the article, then stops cold, and another picks it up. Im not sure why someone would sock in this way, but it is just triggering my SPIdey sense like crazy. If it was just a small group of editors interested in an obscure topic, I would expect overlap between their edits. Per WP:ILLEGIT, "Contributing to the same page or discussion with multiple accounts" is not a legitimate use of multiple accounts.
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pembrokeshire_County_Council_election,_2012&action=history
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Glamorgan_County_Council_election%2C_1889&action=history
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Glamorgan_County_Council_election%2C_1892&action=history
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pontypridd_Urban_District_Council&action=history

See these two interaction reports

Not that this is relevant to the SPI, but I nominated one of the articles for deletion, and it looks like its going to end up delete, so I may do a bulk AFD based on that result to drop these very old local election results where none of the politicians involved meet WP:POLITICIAN Gaijin42 (talk) 14:50, 31 July 2014 (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

 * That is several hundred edits to look through. Please provide some diffs. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  04:21, 25 July 2014 (UTC)


 * Thanks Gaijin42. I've endorsed one for sure, I'll leave the others up to you. If I had to make a personal call, I probably wouldn't check Elector61 at least unless I found something more.
 * I'm comfortable with an for GlamElector and Macs15:
 * The interaction summary between the two is convincing.
 * The history of Glamorgan County Council election, 1910 where the two accounts are editing within minutes of each other, but still in blocks of edits. ::*Ogmore and Garw Urban District Council election, 1894 there is half an hour between the two accounts, where Macs started it and Glam created it.
 * There are a number similarities in other behavioural BEANS aspects which also suggest a link.
 * PembsElector - I'm not convinced it's related to the above two, though possibly to Elector61 given this, but it's tenuous at best. Having said that the behavioural things are still there.
 * Regarding Macs15 and Elector61 - whilst there is a similar editing area bit of evidence suggesting a link (similar to what's above) this (one minute between edits) suggests that there might not be link unless their using two devices. Based on wikicheck for Elector61 I don't believe they are related.
 * I agree that this is really quite weird. Callanecc (talk • contribs • logs) 05:22, 3 August 2014 (UTC)


 * If you've got some time and the inclination, would you mind taking a look? Also Mac15 is the oldest account here, I haven't moved it as I'm waiting for CU. Callanecc (talk • contribs • logs) 05:29, 3 August 2014 (UTC)
 * The following accounts are :
 * PhilKnight (talk) 15:51, 3 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Oh, lord, just as Phil was posting the results, I was posting my review (took me a while, too). Ah, well, it was sorta interesting, but I wish I'd waited. :-) --Bbb23 (talk) 16:02, 3 August 2014 (UTC)
 * PhilKnight (talk) 15:51, 3 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Oh, lord, just as Phil was posting the results, I was posting my review (took me a while, too). Ah, well, it was sorta interesting, but I wish I'd waited. :-) --Bbb23 (talk) 16:02, 3 August 2014 (UTC)
 * PhilKnight (talk) 15:51, 3 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Oh, lord, just as Phil was posting the results, I was posting my review (took me a while, too). Ah, well, it was sorta interesting, but I wish I'd waited. :-) --Bbb23 (talk) 16:02, 3 August 2014 (UTC)
 * PhilKnight (talk) 15:51, 3 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Oh, lord, just as Phil was posting the results, I was posting my review (took me a while, too). Ah, well, it was sorta interesting, but I wish I'd waited. :-) --Bbb23 (talk) 16:02, 3 August 2014 (UTC)
 * PhilKnight (talk) 15:51, 3 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Oh, lord, just as Phil was posting the results, I was posting my review (took me a while, too). Ah, well, it was sorta interesting, but I wish I'd waited. :-) --Bbb23 (talk) 16:02, 3 August 2014 (UTC)

Macs15 is still the oldest account. I'll let Callan finish the clerking on this unless he doesn't get to it soonish, in which case I may do it for him.--Bbb23 (talk) 16:08, 3 August 2014 (UTC)
 * I've gone ahead with the blocking and tagging on the basis that Macs15 is the sockmaster. PhilKnight (talk) 16:17, 3 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Yup, I noticed, thanks, this only has to be moved.--Bbb23 (talk) 16:27, 3 August 2014 (UTC)