Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Marather.adt/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets



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

Marather.adt was created July 31. The other three were created Aug 6. All Users have a high overlap in editing the same articles, often within minutes of each other. Examples include Staining, Isozyme, DNA repair and Lysozome. Often, tables are being created by one User, added to by another. Citations are often to books published by Pathfinder Academy and other book publishers in India. Two of the Users - Dhawans.adt and Phatakey.adt have been notified to not add copyright content to articles, so I am concerned that all four are adding as-yet undetected copyright content. David notMD (talk) 13:17, 24 September 2019 (UTC)

User:Diannaa was able to confirm that the enzyme table is an exact match to page 358 of book available here. David notMD (talk) 20:52, 25 September 2019 (UTC)


 * As of 9/28, none of the four have done any editing since messages were left on their Talk pages. Nor have they responded to those messages. David notMD (talk) 10:37, 28 September 2019 (UTC)
 * On 9/30 Manes.adt edited Plant, an article not previously edited by any of the four editors. User:Begoon reverted as a copyright violation and left a warning on Manes's Talk page. David notMD (talk) 14:34, 30 September 2019 (UTC)
 * As of 10/7, no new edits and no replies on Talk pages. Most of their edits have been reverted. David notMD (talk) 15:16, 5 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Uma.adt edits in same time frame, but not involved in tag-team editing with the others. Differed, in that never provided references, and did provide Edit summaries. Added text, often to Lead. All or almost all edits reverte by various editors as not contributing to the articles. Stopped about same time as others. David notMD (talk) 10:57, 15 October 2019 (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

 * There's definitely something suspicious with the usernames. And yes, edits like this one certainly look like they're copying a table verbatim from some reference material. I don't see any reason for them to be using multiple accounts to do this, though, and the username format makes me wonder if they are coworkers or students of some sort. I'm going to leave each of them a talk page message and we'll see what we get back. ST47 (talk) 17:13, 25 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Okay, I left a talk page message. They're obviously all related, let's see if they come back with a good explanation as to how. ST47 (talk) 17:20, 25 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Checkuser turned up another dozen or so, all with the same username pattern. They're definitely all related to each other, but between the types of articles they're editing, and the slight differences in behavior (such as 's edit summaries, or different users' slightly different interests), I think they're a university group of some sort, or perhaps co-workers. A uni project would explain the similar usernames, as well as the common interest in bio/biochem topics. I'm going to close this without any action, but feel free to bring it to ANI if they're being disruptive, or back here if there's any sort of tag-team edit warring, block evasion, or other WP:BADSOCK stuff. ST47 (talk) 03:29, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets

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

Multiple accounts with the same username pattern and behavior (adding often tables or chunks of material that are often copyvio, to sets of articles on related topics), and completely non-communicative via their talkpages). Almost all created at nearly the same time, and at least some are currently active. I'm filing here a list of usernames matching the pattern (thanks ST47 and primefac) that were created this summer:



While I suspect good faith (likely school project), it's ongoing disruptive behavior to keep adding objectionable content, in addition to the copyvio aspect. DMacks (talk) 04:27, 9 December 2019 (UTC)

DMacks (talk) 04:27, 9 December 2019 (UTC) DMacks (talk) 04:27, 9 December 2019 (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
— Berean Hunter   (talk)  03:03, 18 December 2019 (UTC)
 * I've indeffed the lot for failure to communicate. There are quite a number of ranges and actually there are many more accounts, not all having the adt extension, but a checkuser would spend hours digging through them to find all of them. was indeffed for copyright violation and she is one of them apparently. Give them a notice when you see one and if they don't respond and continue to edit then indef them. Maybe one of them will finally break the silence or an instructor will chime in.
 * ^^^^ The SandDoctor  Talk 06:39, 18 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks! DMacks (talk) 07:37, 18 December 2019 (UTC)