Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Mikerichi/Archive

Report date July 3 2009, 11:06 (UTC)

 * Suspected sockpuppets


 * Evidence submitted by Andy Dingley

This relates to the Steven Wells article, with some relevance to Sons of Ben (MLS supporters association) / related AfD and crossover with Modena F.C. & Articles for deletion/Rasputin's penis

Steven Wells was an English ranting poet and music journalist who was highly notable within his niche, but whose WP article was poorly sourced and so not obviously so. In recent years he was a journalist in the USA and had some connection with soccer, particularly his local Philly team. He died very recently.

Deletions were attempted within minutes after the article had been tagged as a recent death:
 * prod by 72.56.25.58
 * Afd by Mikerichi

There appears to be some grudge on behalf of user:Mikerichi related to Philly soccer, leading to an agenda that led him to try and delete the Steven Wells after his death, as "death doesn't confer notability". This was sufficiently bizarre that it started UK press coverage "Wikipedia kills legendary journalist" that wasn't complimentary to the project, if not actually harmful. Fortunately wikiprocess appears to have worked well here. Talk:Steven Wells is where most of the story is, but check back through the history and watch for section deletions.

There's now an irate IP user:69.253.207.9 who is removing any comment on this from talk pages, inc. user talk pages, in a seeming attempt to defend the honour of user:Mikerichi. That smells a lot like sockery.


 * talk:Steven Wells
 * talk:Steven Wells
 * user_talk:Andy_Dingley

As far as article mainspace goes, common sense seems to have prevailed. AfD refused, article improved by referencing, all is good. As far as the "personal attacks" go, then I would judge these to have been fairly detailed and restrained, focussing on actions not ad hominem - but then I would say that, as much of those were my own edits. If any Admin-types want to pass comment here, and on my own actions, then you are of course free to do so. If I've stepped over any line, then please point it out.

Now though we have an IP deleting any talk: comment they dislike, and it looks like a sock. This is a disruption that is moving beyond the tolerable, so I'd appreciate intervention by the higher echelons.


 * Comments by accused parties    See Defending yourself against claims.

Author in question, user:Mikerichi nommed a page for deletion Steven Wells that had been tagged as lacking references for about a year and only had one reference at the time of the nomination. Andy Dingley and one or two others attacked that author on the talk pages for Andy Dingley, User:Mikerichi and Steven Wells assuming bad faith on the part of User:MikeRichi. I have deleted the personal attacks when I've seen them. Note that all of the deleted content involves talk pages and not actual articles. 69.253.207.9 (talk) 11:52, 3 July 2009 (UTC)

Also, this "anon IP" is a public WiFi spot, although AFAIK I'm the only person who's used it to edit Wikipedia. All of the recent edits are mine and this account has never been tagged with any sort of warning about vandalism, etc. 69.253.207.9 (talk) 11:58, 3 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Comments by other users

Requested by Andy Dingley (talk) 11:06, 3 July 2009 (UTC)
 * CheckUser requests

per Tiptoety below. I too am unconvinced that sockpuppetry is occurring here. Peter Symonds ( talk ) 13:50, 7 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments
 * [[Image:Symbol question.svg|20px]] Additional information needed: Please provide a code letter. SPCUClerkbot (talk) 11:07, 3 July 2009 (UTC)
 * - User:69.253.207.9 appears to be an internet cafe, allocating to New Jersey. The other, User:68.45.109.215 appears to be a static IP that geolocates to Philadelphia, and 72.56.25.58 is a dynamic IP for Sprint PCS (mobile phone). Based on that, I am not sure there is much that CheckUser can do here nor am I positive that sockpuppetry is taking place. Tiptoety  talk 17:45, 3 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Conclusions

No action taken as yet. Peter Symonds ( talk ) 13:50, 7 July 2009 (UTC)