Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Nixon Now/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets







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I met Rupert Rostenkowski at an AfD he started Articles for deletion/Judi McLeod where the nominations (I do a lot of AfD editing) looked fishy, as did the brief editing record, so on 1 May I tagged him as an SPA and asked if he had had previous accounts on his talk page and whether he was the IP making changes to the page. He answered in a tone often used by sockpuppets, and ceased editing on 5 May. I went back to look at the AfD today, and saw a comment by Freedom789, who started editing on 4 May, immediately created a user page that reads: "Hi", and rapidly made ~100 edits before voting to "delete" Judi McLeod on 11 May. The two suspected socks overlap on a couple of other pages I could add that McLeod was a controversial journalist who morphed into a FRINGE online polemicist and that her article appears to have attracted large numbers of sockpuppets and IPs over the years since it was created in 2005.E.M.Gregory (talk) 20:44, 14 May 2018 (UTC) E.M.Gregory (talk) 20:44, 14 May 2018 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
✅ to +. . Please merge with Nixon Now.--Bbb23 (talk) 22:20, 14 May 2018 (UTC)
 * What should be merged with what? I don't understand.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  22:50, 14 May 2018 (UTC)
 * That's because you have a brain and I don't. I thought there was already a case for Nixon Now, but there isn't, so please move to Nixon Now.--Bbb23 (talk) 23:32, 14 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Done. Closing. Sro23 (talk) 02:13, 15 May 2018 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



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See below. — Berean Hunter   (talk)  23:02, 7 April 2020 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
✅ to each other and to the master: . There was also significant IP socking. — Berean Hunter   (talk)  23:06, 7 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Nothing more to do. Closing. Cabayi (talk) 15:34, 8 April 2020 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



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Recreating Frederick McMahon which was initially created by another confirmed sock-puppet, User:Ffolkways. Also general pattern of editing similar to User:Ffolkways of editing 1950s Toronto election articles. --Pontificalibus 06:20, 2 October 2020 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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 * I came here expecting to have to file the exact same request myself, and did not expect somebody else to have already noticed the same thing I noticed. Ever since the first time I saw a Sowny edit, I realized right off the bat that they were probably a new identity of a previous user — but I hadn't cottoned on to who, until I noticed that they have a pattern of starting new articles about mayors of pre-amalgamation Toronto suburbs, an old hallmark of Nixon Now and other past socks. To be fair, they do seem to have finally taken on board some of the feedback they were given in the past about how making a smalltown mayor notable enough for inclusion requires vastly stronger sourcing than they previously tended to offer — but being a sockpuppet of a previously banned user is still a problem. It's also not at all certain that their obsessive focus on suburban mayors from the 1950s is particularly beneficial to the encyclopedia: they used to be of the mistaken belief that because Long Branch and Forest Hill and Leaside and Mimico and Swansea and Weston are all neighbourhoods in Toronto rather than standalone villages now, their old pre-merger mayors all inherit the same automatic notability freebie that an actual mayor of Toronto proper would get. That's obviously not the case, but given their editing focus so far I'm absolutely certain that having an article about every single person whose name appears in List of reeves and mayors of the former municipalities in Toronto is what they're trying to build back up to. Bearcat (talk) 17:22, 2 October 2020 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * There are no non-stale users, which means CU is useless. Given your in-depth look, I think it would be best to make a choice on a regular block if you wish. -- Amanda  (aka DQ) 01:27, 3 October 2020 (UTC)


 * I'm unsure what to do here. I looked at the current version of Frederick McMahon and the deleted version created by Nixon Now.  They are substantially different.  If they were a sock, you would think they'd just copy-paste what they had written previously.  On the other hand, Snowy is on-track to rack up 30k edits in their first year, which sure doesn't sound like a new user (although wiki-addiction is a thing).  More suspicious, their times cards (Nixon Now vs Snowy) are almost identical.  If it's two people who live in the Toronto area, I'd expect broad similarities indicative of the sleep-wake cycle, but these seem more similar than that. -- RoySmith (talk) 15:02, 15 October 2020 (UTC)
 * I did some more digging. I was willing to look past the common interest in Toronto mayors, canadian politics, and socialism as all being vaguely related and popular subjects.  But, both Sowny and confirmed sock SolTrek editing List of late-night American network TV programs put it over the edge for me.  . -- RoySmith (talk) 19:17, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



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I feel really bad if I'm wrong about this, but my spidey-sense went off here. Wellington Bay is a brand new user who has immediately started creating articles for early 20th century Toronto municipal elections, as well as articles for related politicians. It's an odd move for a brand new user, and it's very very similar to Nixon Now's behaviour and that user's history of creating socks to get around their ban. (Again, so sorry if I'm wrong on this!) Singularity42 (talk) 21:47, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * - I think there are more accounts; will need a bit of time to look into this. Thanks, Spicy (talk) 08:39, 31 December 2021 (UTC)
 * I agree that between the very specific area of interest and the page recreations ( etc.), this looks like a Nixon Now sock. I also found
 * , who recreated several Nixon Now pages, has the same interest in historic Toronto politicians, and overlaps with previous accounts on many obscure pages. There also seems to be logged-out editing going on; often this account will create a redirect and a Toronto IP will come along to expand it: . Not asking for any action with the IPs, just nothing for the record.  These accounts, the IPs, and previous Nixon Now accounts tend to cite the same types of sources and have a particular way of formatting them that stands out.
 * and (see ) are also suspicious, but they are stale.
 * - please compare Wellington Bay and PsionicBarnstormerExpress, and check for sleepers due to the apparent concurrent use of multiple accounts. Previous accounts are stale for comparison, but there might be something in the logs. Thanks, Spicy (talk) 10:17, 31 December 2021 (UTC)
 * -  Girth Summit  (blether)  12:32, 31 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Both PsionicBarnstarExpress and Wellington Bay are ✅ to each other, as are the three accounts listed above. I don't see any logs that allow me to link this back to the Nixon Now account, but I do see a significant amount of overlap in editing interest between these accounts and the ones listed in the archives. Given the behavioural overlap, I'm blocking, but will leave to consider the question of tags, and whether this case should be moved given the age of the Imperial Preference account.  Girth Summit  (blether)  13:09, 31 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Both PsionicBarnstarExpress and Wellington Bay are ✅ to each other, as are the three accounts listed above. I don't see any logs that allow me to link this back to the Nixon Now account, but I do see a significant amount of overlap in editing interest between these accounts and the ones listed in the archives. Given the behavioural overlap, I'm blocking, but will leave to consider the question of tags, and whether this case should be moved given the age of the Imperial Preference account.  Girth Summit  (blether)  13:09, 31 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Both PsionicBarnstarExpress and Wellington Bay are ✅ to each other, as are the three accounts listed above. I don't see any logs that allow me to link this back to the Nixon Now account, but I do see a significant amount of overlap in editing interest between these accounts and the ones listed in the archives. Given the behavioural overlap, I'm blocking, but will leave to consider the question of tags, and whether this case should be moved given the age of the Imperial Preference account.  Girth Summit  (blether)  13:09, 31 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Both PsionicBarnstarExpress and Wellington Bay are ✅ to each other, as are the three accounts listed above. I don't see any logs that allow me to link this back to the Nixon Now account, but I do see a significant amount of overlap in editing interest between these accounts and the ones listed in the archives. Given the behavioural overlap, I'm blocking, but will leave to consider the question of tags, and whether this case should be moved given the age of the Imperial Preference account.  Girth Summit  (blether)  13:09, 31 December 2021 (UTC)


 * Thanks. I agree that these accounts are a behavioural match to previous socks, and I've tagged them all as proven. This case has been under Nixon Now since 2018, so despite the age of Imperial Preference, I don't think it would be worth it to move the case and retag dozens of accounts at this point. Closing. Spicy (talk) 13:37, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
Apart from adding an infobox to an existing article about a scientist, user's only Wikipedia contribution to date has been starting an article about Beth Nealson, a smalltown mayor in a pre-amalgamation suburb of Toronto in the 1960s — which, of course, dovetails rather neatly with Nixon Now's longstanding obsession with old-time suburban politicians in Metro Toronto. Bearcat (talk) 19:21, 7 August 2022 (UTC)

Comments by other users

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * CU - this account is, so no Checkuser data will be available. I'm not really convinced based on the limited amount of behavioural evidence available. Nixon Now tended to write longer articles and cite sources in a different format. In any case, the account has not edited in several months, so a block would not be preventative at this time. Feel free to re-report if the account continues to edit in a similar manner. Thanks, Spicy (talk) 19:50, 7 August 2022 (UTC)