Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Matt ivnet/Archive

Evidence submitted by Yworo
The article Michael Joseph (photographer) was created by Matt ivnet. It is also the only article the user ever edited. There has been a serial creation of new accounts, all of which attempt to add the same content and use the same references. The new users appear to already have the sophistication of the previous user. They also edit only the one article. Only the first two, Matt ivnet and Benpalmer seem to have edited for any overlapping period of time. I've seen this pattern before when some promotion company has been hired to promote the subject. If you examine the article history and the first few edits of each editor as they enter, I'm sure your duck detector will quack! Yworo (talk) 00:52, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

A little additional research shows that ivnet most likely refers to the website www.ivnet.tv, which offers among its services "Viral promotions" to "Bring traffic to your website". Yworo (talk) 02:25, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Comments by accused parties
See Defending yourself against claims.

Comments by other users
Yes, they do seem remarkably similar. Seconded. -- Hoary (talk) 02:26, 14 July 2010 (UTC) &para; That comment of mine narrowly preceded the suggestion above that a particular website, ivnet.tv, might be involved. I've no particular comment on this, but must say that ivnet.tv is a fascinating website: all (or almost all) of the links that first appear to be within it are actually to a different website, intervisionnetwork.tv, whose funding has run out and which is merely parked at Godaddy. -- Hoary (talk) 02:37, 14 July 2010 (UTC)


 * I guess viral promotions don't pay very well. Yworo (talk) 02:39, 14 July 2010 (UTC)


 * Some respect, please: this is a major player we're talking about. Whoa -- hang on! -- Hoary (talk) 02:44, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Hello Yworo, Hoary, and Teapotgeorge, maybe I can explain. Ben, Tom, and I all go to U of Miami together and are taking a film class in which the photographer is studied, he is well known as he lives here in FLA. Matt was orginally asked to start an article for this photographer. We did not know anything about Matt other than that he new how to start a wiki article. He has been asked not to do any further editing as to coi. From there we were told we could edit it. I assure you there is no "promotional intent" whatsoever. We respect the photographer and everything he has done for our community and simply wanted to make a respectible article about him. The same online references keep getting used, because thats what we found online via google search. Most of what was written about him was long before the main stream internet we have today. We welcome your expert help. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cindydoran (talk • contribs) 03:29, 14 July 2010 (UTC)


 * That also violates our policies, COI users may not recruit what we label "meatpuppets" to assist them with an article. It's also unfortunate for your story that the IP addresses involved are editing from New Jersey rather than from Florida. Oops. Yworo (talk) 03:38, 14 July 2010 (UTC)
 * WP:DUCK, but hey, at least he tried to be creative. Also, I forgot to mention, is there a meatpuppet notification board? I've never had the time to try and find it. Old Al (Talk) 04:28, 14 July 2010 (UTC)
 * "We did not know anything about Matt other than that he new how to start a wiki article". Quack-tacular! Doc9871 (talk) 09:40, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
IP range of the listed IPs is SpitfireTally-ho! 11:26, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Rangeblock would affect over 65000 people. NativeForeigner Talk/Contribs 04:48, 16 July 2010 (UTC)


 * This is a fairly busy range it looks like. Marking as closed for now, but if they start disrupting via IPs or more socks, then request semi-protection. –MuZemike 05:14, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

Evidence submitted by Yworo
Brand new user. Single purpose account. Adding the same promotional material using the same sources as the previous socks. Yworo (talk) 18:51, 23 July 2010 (UTC)

Comments by accused parties
See Defending yourself against claims.

Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments
Blocked and tagged. TN X Man 19:02, 23 July 2010 (UTC)