Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Majorbuxton/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets



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

User has a similar writing style and previous edits and seems to have a conflict of interest with the content in the page based upon their edit comments. In addition based on the users edit of page "Meuse–Argonne offensive" and the fact that Mastriano has written a book about the Meuse–Argonne offensive I suspect that this account is Douglas Mastriano. Hyderabad22 (talk) 22:49, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.''
 * , CheckUser will almost certainly be declined, since Majorbuxton last edited in 2018 (the login records from them definitely aren't available anymore). Please provide paired diffs showing specific similarities in editing style, interests, etc. for behavioral analysis - just being interested in two specific articles isn't itself enough evidence. I will point out that Majorbuxton stopped editing right around the same time that the DrWillow account was created, so I could see this being evasion of COI concerns, but it's going to need some evidence. As an aside, I find it a little suspicious that a brand-new account has found SPI and seems to be very familiar with the history of this page - have you had a previous account? creffett (talk) 23:18, 14 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Creffett I've been editing under my IP until I was unable to continue to do so (you cannot submit a SPI request as an IP). In terms of SPI I simply read the page.
 * Examples include:
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Douglas_V._Mastriano&type=revision&diff=822228654&oldid=822228315
 * Within this edit MajorBuxton is also concerned with Mastriano's writing of a book about the Argonne offensive.
 * This edit by DrWillow
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Douglas_V._Mastriano&type=revision&diff=950981315&oldid=950948666
 * and this edit by Majorbuxton
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Douglas_V._Mastriano&type=revision&diff=825995971&oldid=825994962
 * frame the actions of Mastriano in similar non NPOV way and have similar usage of commas to break up sentences. The writing style is again similar. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hyderabad22 (talk • contribs)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * This case is, misfiled, and fails to provide any evidence of a violation of WP:BADSOCK. ST47 (talk) 23:56, 14 April 2020 (UTC)
 * The concern is apparently that, two years ago, the user got a message about COI and may have changed accounts to evade scrutiny. That may have been worth investigating at the time, but there's no point worrying about it now - issue a COI warning and block if necessary. ST47 (talk) 00:12, 15 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Case moved from DrWillow to Majorbuxton —&thinsp;JJMC89&thinsp; (T·C) 05:02, 15 April 2020 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



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

User has a pattern of disruptive and editorializing edits similar to several other users that have edited the Douglas Mastriano article. I believe the user has a COI and continues to make new accounts in an attempt to avoid a ban. Both users have attempted to change the name of "Controversy" section and both have reinserted badly sourced (and likely inappropriate) medals section. Both have participated in disruptive editing.

F&INerd: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Douglas_V._Mastriano&diff=prev&oldid=953534937 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Douglas_V._Mastriano&diff=prev&oldid=952488522

DrWillow: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Douglas_V._Mastriano&diff=prev&oldid=950986243 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Douglas_V._Mastriano&diff=prev&oldid=950939521 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Douglas_V._Mastriano&diff=prev&oldid=950327661

Hyderabad22 (talk) 22:20, 27 April 2020 (UTC)


 * Additionally please see previous check user request for DrWillow/Majorbuxton here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sockpuppet_investigations/Majorbuxton/Archive Hyderabad22 (talk) 22:33, 27 April 2020 (UTC)


 * Both users have referred to the same unsourced material pertaining to Dr Levine and the "1955 law" of which there is not a reference that exists. Both users referred to Dr Levine as "he" (Dr Levine is a Trans woman).


 * https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Douglas_V._Mastriano&diff=prev&oldid=953614412


 * https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Douglas_V._Mastriano&diff=prev&oldid=950942346


 * These accounts again seem to have a conflict of interest as they seem to be the subject of the article. The second account seems to have been made in an attempt to circumvent policies and evade sanctions. Additionally the user seems to have made this edit and this edit to seemingly avoid the three revert rule Hyderabad22 (talk) 06:25, 28 April 2020 (UTC)

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

I have been involved with this page by protecting it. I concur that DrWillow and F&INerd are almost certainly the same person. Aside from adding information highly promotional to the subject and cited to the subject's website, both want to add a table of the subject's military awards ( DrWillow, F&INerd ) - which does not have consensus since it has been reverted by multiple other users. The F&INerd account is younger than DrWillow so it must be a sock, not the master. The F&INerd's second edit was to file a report at Edit filter/False positives/Reports, hardly the action of a new user. The DrWillow account was created in 2018 but was still actively editing this month so I don't think this is a stale request. And even if checkuser is not called for or is not helpful, I believe this could be a case of WP:DUCK. -- MelanieN (talk) 16:53, 28 April 2020 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * There was a request for page protection which I declined, followed by an appeal on my talk page. Given the result at Sockpuppet investigations/Majorbuxton/Archive, I doubt a checkuser will come up with anything except stale. The timeline of the accounts is interesting, but without more WP:BADSOCK evidence, I wouldn't be comfortable acting on that alone. — Wug·a·po·des​ 05:39, 28 April 2020 (UTC)
 * So I slept on this, read the perspective of, and read the updates by . The concern is that the user behind the accounts has a conflict of interest or is attempting to push a particular point of view, and that multiple accounts are being used to evade scrutiny by using multiple accounts to make evaluating editing patterns more difficult. Given Melanie's analysis of the evidence presented and the timeline of when warnings were given and accounts stopped editing, this seems the most likely interpretation, and so I'm comfortable acting on this. Given the behavioral evidence at Sockpuppet investigations/Majorbuxton/Archive, I believe that account is likely the sockmaster of all three. All three accounts have been accordingly. — Wug·a·po·des​ 20:49, 28 April 2020 (UTC)
 * - Majorbuxton is, the others are . Case should be filed under Majorbuxton. ST47 (talk) 15:19, 29 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Moved. Everybody's blocked. Nothing more to do. Closing. Cabayi (talk) 05:12, 30 April 2020 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



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

This page has a history of sock puppets being used to avoid scrutiny and to edit the content of the page because of a conflict of interest. User and previous socks have disregarded rules for verifiability for including material in the page. Changes the editor, Xenophon71 has made recently are similar in nature and kind to previous sock puppets used by the sockmaster. All accounts used by this editor have insisted on reinserting an unverified medals section into the article.

This edit by Xenophon71: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Doug_Mastriano&type=revision&diff=993031484&oldid=993029966

And this edit by DrWillow: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Doug_Mastriano&type=revision&diff=950986243&oldid=950981315

contain the same inline citation at the end of the section, added in by the user. 'National Personnel Records Center, 1 Archives Drive, St. Louis, MO 63138'

For both users they did not use the citation tool and instead placed the same "citation" in the article itself.

The new Xenophon71 account seems to be interested in the same type of NPOV and potential conflict of interest edits the previous sock accounts were interested in.

This account seems simply to be a new sockpuppet main account for the same previous user.

The second suspected sock PolandSpring1845 seems to have been created around the same time as the new main account and has edited pages around the same general time as Xenophon71 Hyderabad22 (talk) 06:58, 10 December 2020 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.''
 * Comment: I see that a connection has been confirmed with . That's an interesting account name, as Mastriano has the position in the Pennsylvania Senate for District 33. This seems to indicate a pre-existing interest in the target article at the time of that account's creation. —&hairsp;BarrelProof (talk) 01:07, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * Here's the diff between one of DrWillow's edit and Xenophon's: Special:Diff/950986243/993031484. You can see that the medal table is exactly the same except for having added extra spaces between each line. Not only is repeating the same edit from months ago suspicious, adding new lines between them seems like an attempt to evade detection. As for PolandSpring1845, I'm unsure. Xenophon edited a high school article and PolandSpring edited a school district article, and both seem like attempts to get autoconfirmed so that they can edit the page after MelanieN protected it the following day. My best guess is that it's a sleeper, but there's just not enough evidence to say it's definitely a sock. for PolandSpring and to check for any other sleepers (if PolandSpring results warrant it). — Wug·a·po·des​ 23:35, 10 December 2020 (UTC)
 * ✅ to each other:


 * Also found and ✅:


 * Previous accounts are too to compare them to the master. A behavioral investigation will be needed in order to make that comparison.  ~Oshwah~  (talk)  (contribs)   00:33, 11 December 2020 (UTC)


 * Not closing because I probably screwed something up and would prefer a second set of eyes. — Wug·a·po·des​ 01:10, 11 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Looks fine to me. Personally, I rarely use the altmaster parameter of sockpuppet in favor of just doing, but it's OK here. Closing. Mz7 (talk) 22:50, 16 December 2020 (UTC)