Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Magnatyrannus/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets


Potentially stale IPs


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

Magnatyrannus is an editor who was recently indeffed for edit-warring on taxonomy templates of extinct animals. The user and IP above show very similar editing patterns, namely making changes to the parent field of these templates without providing supporting sources and eliminating uncertainty (cf. vs   ).

Overlap on page edits include: and ;  and ;  and ;  and ;  and ;  and ;  and ;  and ;  and ;  and ;  and  (note: these are exactly the same edit), ... There's more but I don't think I should belabour the point.

There are less overlaps for User:Chiniquodon sanjuanensis, but note the following: they repeatedly proposed a very specific edit to Giganotosaurus  that Magnatyrannus later implemented. If not a straight-up sock, Chiniquodon is at least a meat puppet.

CC, who may be able to provide more diffs.

Given that both the user and the IP were active prior to Magnatyrannus being indeffed, I am requesting a CU to check for sleeper accounts. Lythronaxargestes (talk &#124; contribs) 03:25, 24 January 2022 (UTC)


 * Clarification of the timeline per 's comment below:
 * Chiniquodon first edited on July 26, 2021-August 6, 2021 with the three talk page edit requests. The article Giganotosaurus is semi-protected due to persistent vandalism. The user would have had no ability to make the desired changes.
 * Chiniquodon goes inactive for approximately 4.5 months following this.
 * Magnatyrannus first edited on August 11, 2021 with a talk page edit request on Prosaurolophus of a very similar nature . In this case, they would have had the ability to edit the page.
 * Magnatyrannus becomes extremely active starting from October 4, 2021. Eventually, they are indeffed on January 17, 2022.
 * Chiniquodon reactivates on January 22, 2022 (5 days after Magnatyrannus is indeffed), with their edits including an edit followed by a self-revert . Their motivations for doing this are unknown (possibly to get autoconfirmation), but Magnatyrannus also frequently did the same even after autoconfirmation (e.g.,  ;  ).
 * Combined with the behavioural patterns noted above, I don't think that Chiniquodon was initially created as a sock, but it is now being repurposed by Magnatyrannus as one. Lythronaxargestes (talk &#124; contribs) 07:46, 24 January 2022 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.''
 * It should be noted that Magnatyrannus had some sort of affection for the quite obscure species Chiniquodon sanjuanensis (formerly called Probelesodon), as indicated by this talk page, to the point where he edit-warred to keep it a separate article, so while circumstantial, seems a bit too much of a coincidence that this other account has exactly that name FunkMonk (talk) 08:09, 24 January 2022 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * I don't see a persuasive case that Magnatyrannus == Chiniquodon sanjuanensis. There's limited article overlap, and I'm not sure why an editor then in good standing would have created a sock to make an edit request that they then actioned on their main. Since CUs will not connect accounts to IPs, that leaves nothing checkable here, so . I will take a look at the behavioral evidence with the IP in a moment, to determine if there's grounds for a block. --  Tamzin  [ cetacean needed ] (she/they) 07:27, 24 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Well, this is a little sad. I welcomed Magnatyrannus months ago, after I, coincidentally, spotted them doing good work while I was looking into an unrelated SPI. I was sad to see they'd been indeffed recently (without disagreeing with the basis for the indef), and am sadder to see they do appear to be loutsocking around their indef. In addition to the identified overlap, comparing to, I see very similar edit summaries. The reviewing admin can contact me by email/IRC/Discord if they'd like to know the similarities I'm seeing, but I think it should be fairly self-explanatory. I also see a shared tendency for edit-warring on both account and IP. Furthermore, I learned, in the context that I originally noticed Magnatyrannus, that there are very few people working on these taxonomy templates, lowering the chances that this is a behavioral false positive.: Magnatyrannus has been on this IP since the end of November, and it's residential, so .I'm not going to take the time to fully evaluate the other IPs at this time, other to note that they geolocate similarly. Also,  is likely another past IP, FWIW.  --  Tamzin  [ cetacean needed ] (she/they) 07:43, 24 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Ah ok. Thanks. That's a more compelling case then, especially looking at how their edit requests were phrased. Not quite enough for a block. But enough for a check. with respect to Magnatyrannus and Chiniquodon sanjuanensis.  --  Tamzin  [ cetacean needed ] (she/they) 07:52, 24 January 2022 (UTC)
 * The two accounts are confirmed to each other. I'm blocking since this is clearly block evasion, but I will leave to decide how they should be tagged (Chiniquodon sanjuanensis is the slightly older account, but Magnatyrannus has made far more contributions). No comment about the IP address - I'll leave someone else to assess them based on behaviour.   Girth Summit  (blether)  09:17, 24 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Given that Magnatyrannus was already an established user at the time of their indef, and that CS was mostly a sleeper all this time, I'm going to keep them as the "master" here even if the other account is technically older by a few weeks. as such. Re-setting this to  for my above request regarding the IP. Also,, should Magnatyrannus be reblocked as a CUblock?  --  Tamzin  [ cetacean needed ] (she/they) 09:36, 24 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Yes - I've changed the block now. Girth Summit  (blether)  09:42, 24 January 2022 (UTC)
 * You closed this, but the block request for the IP is still pending, and the IP continues to edit. @reviewing admin: Please see my comment of 07:43, 24 January 2022 for block request. --  Tamzin  [ cetacean needed ] (she/they) 09:07, 26 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Ah, shoot, sorry - OK, I'll implement the IP block now, based on your behavioural assessment (I can't remember the IP details from the check I ran at this point). Girth Summit  (blether)  09:11, 26 January 2022 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
The first IPv4 address edited Quinkana, and Magnatyrannus showed an affinity for extinct crocodiles. (compare this and this) It also continued an edit war by two other IP's on Placentalia; (see this) Magnatyrannus had a tendency to edit war their version of a prehistoric narrative, and User:Hemiauchenia believes this IP belongs to the sockmaster. Given that it locates to Ontario as with previous socks, I believe it should be investigated and checked for sleepers. The two other address from Placentalia were not included as they didn't geolocate to Canada. Atlantis536 (talk) 03:58, 17 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

 * I've blocked the /48. I'm not real fond of blocking large ranges, but it looks like the /48 is entirely Magnatyrannus, at least for the past few weeks.  Any admin should feel free to unblock this range without need to consult me if it looks like legitimate traffic is being impacted.  Also, TIL we have List of informally named dinosaurs, which is pretty cool. -- RoySmith (talk) 16:10, 17 March 2022 (UTC)
 * Just to clarify, this was a non-CU action. Insert standard disclaimer about CUs and IP. -- RoySmith (talk) 16:11, 17 March 2022 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
Proforma - already blocked and tagged. Girth Summit  (blether) 09:25, 27 July 2022 (UTC)

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


 * Talk:Vickers Type C was created by Patachonica. This leads me believe that this farm may be connected to Sockpuppet investigations/Extrapolaris, a very long-term sock farm. Extrapolaris and his socks have a long history of editing obscure aircraft articles, along with dinosaur-related articles. Given that, I don't expect this user to cease socking at all, given their perennial inability to understand what socking really means, and why they should not do it. I hope I am wrong, but this farm shows all the hallmarks of Extrapolaris. BilCat (talk) 22:55, 27 July 2022 (UTC)


 * I understand. It may just be another user with similar interests and "issues". We get plenty of them. I just wanted you all to be aware. Extrapolaris's socks have gained my trust on many occasions, and I don't want it all to blow up in your face as it has mine. BilCat (talk) 23:28, 27 July 2022 (UTC)
 * I also don't have access to what account created Talk:Vickers Type C, (I'm. not asking either.) so obviously. I had to kick this upstairs for someone else.to look at. BilCat (talk) 23:36, 27 July 2022 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
The old accounts are stale, but between editing habits while logged in, editing habits while logged out, and CU logs, I'm treating this as confirmed. Lots of LOUTSOCKing to evade detection when returning to pages edited heavily by the master, requesting undeletion, and some (fairly mild) abusive messages on user talk pages while logged out. Blocked and tagged, closing. Girth Summit  (blether) 09:27, 27 July 2022 (UTC)
 * For the record, I G5'd a number of articles created by the sock account. --Jack Frost (talk) 20:05, 27 July 2022 (UTC)
 * I have a stake in this at this point, having gone out on a limb to downgrade Magna's indef to a tempblock, but I don't think that's likely. Extrapolaris appears to be in Irvine, while Magna appears to be near Toronto and hasn't shown any inclination toward CU evasion that I know of. The deleted content of the talkpage was just, and the associated article was created by an account ruled unrelated to Extrapolaris at . I don't see much else aviation interest from Magna, and the Extrapolaris sox edit summary style doesn't match the tells I noticed in my behavioral inquiry into Patachonica prior to GS' check. So I think the Vickers overlap is likely a coincidence. But again I'll admit I have a bias at this point.  --  Tamzin  [ cetacean needed ] (she&#124;they&#124;xe) 23:11, 27 July 2022 (UTC)
 * I do appreciate that, BilCat, and I'll keep the possibility in mind for sure. Wikipedia anti-abuse work is an endless dance between optimism and cynicism... I guess we'll see which way this one goes. --  Tamzin  [ cetacean needed ] (she&#124;they&#124;xe) 23:35, 27 July 2022 (UTC)
 * May I recommend User:SD0001/deleted-metadata-link.js? --  Tamzin  [ cetacean needed ] (she&#124;they&#124;xe) 23:53, 27 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Post-archival Note attempt to joe-job Magnatyrannus at   --  Tamzin  [ cetacean needed ] (she&#124;they&#124;xe) 03:50, 26 September 2022 (UTC)