Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Mcferran/Archive

17 November 2011

 * Suspected sockpuppets


 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

Both IPs geolocate to Toronto, and one does so to a university there which is also where the alleged sockmaster is a librarian.

The users appear to edit similar articles relating to royal lineages & are currently all active at Mariano Hugo of Windisch-Graetz. The sockmaster & one of the IPs have also contributed to the AfD for that article. It seems to me (& others) a somewhat obscure article to attract the attention of three people from a relatively small, and subjectively distant, location. Sitush (talk) 00:05, 17 November 2011 (UTC)

The specific article referred to has been subject to IP socking & COI editing etc previously this year, which resulted in blocks being issued by related to someone editing from Italy. It was also deleted from both the German and Italian WPs, IIRC. - Sitush (talk) 00:15, 17 November 2011 (UTC)


 * I am aware that checkuser will not link IPs to usernames. I cannot recall whether any alternative examination can usefully be done, so my apologies if this just wastes the time of clerks etc. - Sitush (talk) 00:08, 17 November 2011 (UTC)


 * Reply to Timotheus Canens - If they are now admitting to editing while logged out then it is simply a case of them acknowledging that this is wrong/desisting in future. The confusion was arising because any combination of the three users would appear in a thread, eg: Talk:Mariano_Hugo_of_Windisch-Graetz and even at the AfD linked to above. It gives the appearance of more "support" for one side of a debate than is necessarily the case. - Sitush (talk) 05:12, 20 November 2011 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.''
 * Surely a person is allowed to edit from both his home computer and a computer at work. This is not sockpuppetry. 99.242.18.194 (talk) 04:49, 17 November 2011 (UTC)
 * You do seem to attract attention: Sockpuppet investigations/LouisPhilippeCharles. Favonian (talk) 11:20, 17 November 2011 (UTC)
 * I've just noticed this comment (18 months after it was posted). McFerran is the username for me, Noel S. McFerran, a librarian at the University of St. Michael's College in Toronto, Canada. I use Rogers Cable to access the Internet from my home. If I'm not logged in, then any edits I make are recorded as a Rogers Cable IP (which is what 99.242.18.194 is). I'm not LouisPhilippeCharles (or his sockpuppets); it's just that we both edit royalty articles. Noel S McFerran (talk) 17:34, 19 August 2013 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * So, let's assume that these are all the same person. Where is the abuse? T. Canens (talk) 09:14, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
 * The IPs are a few days' stale. Relist if necessary. —  Hello Annyong  (say whaaat?!) 01:28, 22 November 2011 (UTC)