Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Mary Bard/Archive

Evidence submitted by JohnInDC
Nominal puppetmaster Mary Bard was recently blocked for 48 hours for persistent insertion of the same trivial, unreliably sourced material into the article for author Betty MacDonald and several related pages. Mary Bard's contribution history shows edits only to those pages. The user name "Mary Bard" is a reference to one of Betty MacDonald's sisters (MacDonald was born as Elizabeth Bard).

The other accounts - Pigglewigglefans and Betsy Bard - present identical patterns. First, the names - "Pigglewigglefans" is a reference to the Mrs. Pigglewiggle series of childrens' books that MacDonald wrote, and "Betsy Bard" was the name by which MacDonald was known while growing up. Second, both of the puppet accounts have edited exclusively on these various related pages. Finally, all three accounts at one or another time have attempted to insert essentially the same trivial, unreliably sourced material into at least one of the pages - compare these sample edits of Mary Bard, Pigglewigglefans and Betsy Bard. All three accounts may be affiliated in some fashion with various fansites relating to MacDonald and Mary Bard (who was also apparently an author, albeit not one with a Wikipedia article yet).

As noted, Mary Bard is active, and currently blocked. The two puppet accounts have been dormant for several months. JohnInDC (talk) 16:22, 18 May 2010 (UTC)


 * I would also note that each of the three accounts has, at one point or another, drawn complaints from editors about their unsound or disruptive edits to the various pages, and none of the three has ever responded on a Talk page in any fashion. JohnInDC (talk) 16:28, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

Comments by accused parties
See Defending yourself against claims.

Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments
The accounts look to be related. I have an inclination though that this could be a case of a forgotten password incident. I'm not seeing any real sockpuppet abuse a this moment either. If the older accounts do resume editing, please re-report.  E lockid  ( Talk ) 03:15, 20 May 2010 (UTC)