Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Militaryfactchecker/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets
Earlier this month @Militaryfactchecker, who frequently edited the British Army Training Unit Kenya wiki, received a permanent ban from wikipedia. He committed many sins, including edit warring, soapboxing, plagiarism, and harassment (posting the lyrics to violent racist ethno-nationalist songs on my talk page).


 * 1) He would start edit wars with me to remove information he deemed was damaging to the reputation of the British military.
 * 2) He would cite almost exclusively from Ministry of Defence blogs and social media accounts with little attempt to use secondary sources.
 * 3) He was most active on List of equipment of the British Army.
 * 4) He was banned on the 2nd June by admin @Arado Ar 196.

The day after militaryfactchecker was banned, a user called @CptJohnMiller makes his first edit.


 * 1) He edits the same pages as militaryfactchecker. His first edit was militaryfactchecker's favourite page, List of equipment of the British Army.
 * 2) He first began editing the very next day after militaryfactchecker was banned.
 * 3) He is also fond of removing from the leads of articles information potentially embarrassing for the British military on the British Army Training Unit Kenya wiki, just like militaryfactchecker used to frequently do.
 * 4) Just like militaryfactchecker, he cites almost exclusively from Ministry of Defence Blogs and social media accounts with little attempt to use secondary sources

I believe @Militaryfactchecker and @CptJohnMiller are the same person, and that the latter is an alternative account used to evade a permanent ban.

Note: I previously made this report to WP:AN before another editor informed me of the existence of WP:SPI. I apologise for the mess. The History Wizard of Cambridge (talk) 01:43, 15 June 2023 (UTC)


 * Yeah, no idea what this means or what it has to do with me. CptJohnMiller (talk) 02:09, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Also note that after I accused CptJohnMiller of being a sock account for militaryfactchecker, he then edited his talk user page to express how much he hates communists. This is interesting because militaryfactchecker was very fond of accusing me of being a communist agent after I made a report about him. The History Wizard of Cambridge (talk) 05:20, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

Comments by other users

 * Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.


 * Added Uawrsica89we and an IP that appears related. Horse Eye&#39;s Back (talk) 03:38, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Am I being accused of being another account, that has been banned from wikipedia? I'm still fairly new to wikipedia and quite confused. I am this person because I edited 'list of equipment of the british army' a couple times? And also I didn't remove anything from the British Army Training Unit article, the exact same paragraph was already in the article further down the page, and more indepth CptJohnMiller (talk) 03:42, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
 * apologies, historically a hand wave has been sufficient for spotting additional ducks. Horse Eye&#39;s Back (talk) 16:39, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Note that there is a pattern of older IPs, on British Army Training Unit Kenya it appears to go all the way back to 46.103.122.163 . Noting for archival/pattern analysis purposes, too old to be actionable. Horse Eye&#39;s Back (talk) 03:55, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Well, let's examine the similarities between Militaryfactchecker and Uawrsica89we. Both accounts were created 39 hours apart: 1 and 2. Both accounts have uploaded at least one image to Commons, the only other project that either account has contributed to (see both previous links). Uawrsica89we's 9th and 10th edits were made to the article Royal Artillery. Militaryfactchecker's first edits were made to the same article. In fact, Uawrsica89we's very last contribution was made to Royal Artillery precisely one day to the minute before Militaryfactchecker first edited the same article here (which was also Militaryfactchecker's first contribution). Also, if you take a look at the top of Militaryfactchecker's contrib page here, you'll notice that they took a break from editing between 03:50, 21 March 2023 and then resumed editing on 17:10, 21 March 2023; Uawrsica89we's first edit was made at 17:19, 13 March 2023. This indicates that the person(s) operating both accounts not only seem to live in the same time zone; they also seem to have almost identical editing habits (which is odd even for people living in the same time zone). There's also this edit by Militaryfactchecker, where they change something related to the "Exactor" missile; several days earlier, to the same article and section, Uawrsica89we adds "and Exactor". That's all I can find. Hope this helps. Nythar  (💬-🍀) 13:20, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
Miller is ✅ and blocked (I’m working this mess backwards, I started on ANI, then, AN, now here.). I need to see some argument for checking Uawrsica89we besides a hand wave. At least a diff or two. Courcelles (talk) 12:41, 15 June 2023 (UTC)


 * @Nythar, thanks for the convincing case. Turns out they’re stale by a day, but you made the case persuasively enough I’ve blocked. Courcelles (talk) 13:24, 15 June 2023 (UTC)


 * Tagged Uawrsica89we. IP is stale. Closing. Thanks, Spicy (talk) 21:01, 18 June 2023 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
Pro forma so we can get these in the system. I already blocked both IPs for 3 months. Evidence linking Militaryfactchecker to 109.157.92.138 is their unique edit summaries, which use lots of forward slashes.

Evidence linking 109.157.92.138 to 2A00:23CC:B207:B601:7462:4792:22F5:23BB is that 23BB immediately resumed the exact same edit war on two pages immediately after 109.157.92.138 was blocked. and

I am a new admin and these are my first sock blocks, so feedback welcome on the duration and anything else I might have messed up :) – Novem Linguae (talk) 11:48, 22 June 2023 (UTC)


 * Thankyou Novem Linguae, militaryfactchecker and his sock accounts have been harassing myself and others for a month. I fear he will just come back with another IP any day now. Could we get extended protections on pages like British Army Training Unit Kenya, Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, and Murder of Agnes Wanjiru? The History Wizard of Cambridge (talk) 13:37, 22 June 2023 (UTC)
 * . The culture on Wikipedia is to protect articles as little as possible, so that everyone can edit. I checked the history of those articles and there was only one user disrupting each article. In that situation the preferred method is to block the user instead of protecting. All the users are already blocked. So for now I can't place protection. If socks return, there's a ton of places you can report them: in this SPI, WP:ANI, WP:AIV after giving them 4 templated warnings on their user talk page, WP:AN3). Or perhaps the easiest way to navigate the bureaucracy is to post on my user talk page, User talk:Novem Linguae. Hope this helps. Happy editing. – Novem Linguae (talk) 18:46, 22 June 2023 (UTC)
 * After consulting with other admins, I've reduced 23BB's block to one week, which is more in line with best practices around block lengths for IPs with one day of editing history. I am leaving 109.157.92.138 as 3 months for now since that got upgraded to a checkuser block. – Novem Linguae (talk) 18:06, 22 June 2023 (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

 * Everything is blocked. Closing and archiving.  Courcelles (talk) 23:02, 25 June 2023 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
This is a duck sock of Militaryfactchecker, see the blocked IP sock, who also refers to reverts of their edits as "griefing" (e.g., PINAC9 and 109.157.92.138's edit summaries). They also edit the same articles. Nythar (💬-🍀) 01:10, 2 July 2023 (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

 * Same country. No direct link to the case. . . Dreamy Jazz talk to me &#124; my contributions 14:43, 2 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Closing as account is blocked. Spicy (talk) 17:40, 2 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Yeah, the conduct here is crystal clear. Courcelles (talk) 21:27, 5 July 2023 (UTC)