Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Museeritrean2514/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets
I pointed out on the ferry fiasco talk page that I think there might be a conflict of interest with the article, Museeritrean2514 who started the article and was responsible for 80+% of it at that point then says that they are going to "step back from editing this article for a period". Note that I didn't tell them to stop editing, I just tagged the article as having a COI and explained why I tagged it on the talk page. Then a handful of new editors appear who edit the ferry fiasco article and very little if anything else.

The User:Mavick cxp30 was created October 7 (day after Museeritrean2514 said they'd stop editing) to remove the COI tag. Zero other edits. Special:Contributions/Mavick cxp30

The User:0642WaveRider account was created October 9 (three days later), and has only made edits to or about that one article. No edits anywhere else. Special:Contributions/0642WaveRider

The User:Fogclearer account was created November 17 and made one single large detailed edit to the article and hasn't edited since. Special:Contributions/Fogclearer

Then there are a handful of IP editors with similar editing interests...
 * Special:Contributions/80.80.183.201 which has edited a total of five articles, two of them (Emma Harper and ferry fiasco) also edited by Museeritrean2514
 * Special:Contributions/77.101.220.35 which has edited a total of ten articles, six of them (Emma Harper, ferry fiasco, Proposed second Scottish independence referendum, Scottish National Party, and Sustainable Growth Commission) also edited by Museeritrean2514
 * Special:Contributions/167.98.46.84 which made one edit before Museeritrean2514 said they would stop editing but is now the biggest contributor to the ferry fiasco article currently responsible for 20% of the article. With 0642WaveRider being the third.

One interesting detail is that 0642WaveRider and 167.98.46.84 both like to mention The National newspaper and that it is "pro-SNP". None of the other five registered editors or seven anonymous IP editors mention the National on the article talk page, aside from myself.
 * 167.98.46.84 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Ferry_fiasco&diff=prev&oldid=1117229742 "The National Newspaper, which is strongly pro-SNP and pro-Scottish Government"
 * 0642WaveRider https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Ferry_fiasco&diff=next&oldid=1117581265 "The National Newspaper, which is a pro-SNP newspaper"
 * 167.98.46.84 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Ferry_fiasco&diff=next&oldid=1119999067 "As Mr WaveRider points out even The National(which is pro-SNP) has referred to it as a Fiasco." (this one is funny 167.98.46.84 were themselves the first to mention the National and pro-SNP)
 * 0642WaveRider https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Ferry_fiasco&diff=next&oldid=1122607304 "even the pro-SNP, pro-Scottish Government Newspaper “The National” have taken to referring it as Ferry Fiasco"
 * 0642WaveRider https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Ferry_fiasco&diff=next&oldid=1122618734 "even pro-SNP news sources such as The National Newspaper"

When I asked 167.98.46.84 to clarify a point, 0642WaveRider replied, and 167.98.46.84 just said thanks, with nothing else to add. Not too strange in itself but it just adds to the impression that they are one and the same.

A large number of Museeritrean2514, 0642WaveRider and 167.98.46.84 edit summaries start with "Adding". No of the other 30+ editors on the article use this in their edit summaries. AlistairMcMillan (talk) 01:51, 30 November 2022 (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

 * - there's certainly something suspicious going on here and besides the WP:SPA nature of these accounts, I notice similarities in edit summaries (e.g. frequent use of "added/adding in" and Unnecessary Capitalization - ). If these are the same person (or two people working together, which I think is possible) the accounts/IPs are being used improperly to edit war over COI tags and manipulate consensus (see Talk:Ferry fiasco). Please compare the named accounts to confirm. Obviously, CUs will not comment on the IPs. Thanks, Spicy (talk) 00:55, 3 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Museeritrean and WaveRider are ✅ to one another.
 * Maverick cxp is to the above two: same country, different device, geolocation puts them in different areas
 * Fogclearer is at best to the main group: shares a metro area, different devices, pretty sure it's a different ISP as well.
 * , of course. Going to leave this open for disposition, no blocks made yet. GeneralNotability (talk) 02:07, 3 December 2022 (UTC)
 * OK, here are my thoughts:
 * Mavick cxp30 and Fogclearer have one edit each - I'm not going to take any action with regard to those accounts in light of a weak CU result.
 * Based on the evidence above, I am convinced that Museeritrean2514 is either the same person as 167.98.46.84 or engaging in meatpuppetry with respect to them. 77.101.220.35 probably is too. Less sure about the 80. IP although it's certainly suspicious.
 * WaveRider and Museeritrean have been dishonest by representing themselves as different editors, see e.g. WaveRider's comment here that I think this is unfair. The article is consistent with all the references and source articles. Good work by Museritream getting it up and running.
 * As such, please block  for two weeks (anon-only, account creation blocked) and given the deception taking place here, please block Museeritrean2514 and 0642WaveRider indefinitely as confirmed socks. The other IP edits are too old for any sort of action. Thanks, Spicy (talk) 02:51, 3 December 2022 (UTC)
 * . DatGuyTalkContribs 08:25, 3 December 2022 (UTC)