Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Old houses/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets
I suspect that User:RoiSTL is blocked editor User:Old houses, who focused on old houses and engaged in edit warring and other conflict at List of the oldest buildings in Connecticut and Talk:List of the oldest buildings in Connecticut, until blocked by User:EdJohnston. See Special:Contributions/RoiSTL, showing same focus on "oldest houses" claims. Other similarities include having no user page, not interacting with anyone else, editing at a high level in a brand new account. User:Old houses never answered what accounts they had edited under before. User:Old houses was personally convinced that the rather specialized topic of dendrochronology is the bees knees, and RoiSTL-created Nicolas_Janis_House is all about that. (By the way i happened to notice that page and contributed sourcing and more.) I gave notice at User talk:Old houses just now, perhaps others who dealt more with Old houses could add more behavioral evidence if needed. And i could also develop more evidence (but, although i did post at User talk:Old houses and i opened still-not-archived discussion section Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_National_Register_of_Historic_Places at wt:NRHP, i did not interact much with them at all.) IMHO wikipedia does not particularly need "List of oldest houses in STATE" pages, or doesn't need them to be developed further, and i would request deletion/rollback of all their edits. --Doncram (talk,contribs) 08:11, 3 May 2023 (UTC)

Also, despite no notice given to RoiSTL, they noticed my posting to User talk:Old houses and/or this in progress, and, as I continued to edit here, they just created a user page. Which happens to assert association with National Park Service and their being a masters student. This behavior is similar to Old houses' in a certain way that i could explain, too. --Doncram (talk,contribs) 08:30, 3 May 2023 (UTC)
 * To clarify, is that your assessment based on behavioral evidence alone, ie. not using all the tools available? I understand you can make such a judgment; i would like to know how much to bayesianly (is that a word) update my priors. If you did use all tools, then i would have to reconsider more.
 * One further unsettling thing (and I haven't stated everything) is their blithe statement "I am a relatively new editor on Wikipedia" in their new userpage. Check out their very first edit, for example. --Doncram (talk,contribs) 18:03, 3 May 2023 (UTC)
 * User:Girth Summit, you gave your judgment, and i see u used the term "technically", and u know far more about this than i. But in my (less) experience i saw one judgment over-ruled by another, and otherwise i am just not sure what ur evaluation means, how certain it is and how u know what you do. Could you please explain more? --Doncram (talk,contribs) 02:58, 5 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Thank you for your further explanation (in section below). I will be in touch with RoiSTL, about whom i was apparently incorrect. --Doncram (talk,contribs) 20:36, 5 May 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

 * These accounts are technically ❌. Doncram, in your posting on Old houses' talk page, you mentioned RoiSTL in a way that would have triggered a notification (as I just did here to notify you) - it is no surprise that they showed up on the talk page. You mentioned that you were going to initiate an SPI case, so it's not surprising that they found their way here and, since you mention the lack of a userpage in the report, that they then created one - I don't see anything suspicious in any of that, and I don't see any compelling evidence to suggest that there is any coordination between the two accounts, it's probably just two different people with similar interests. Closing without action.  Girth Summit  (blether)  09:35, 3 May 2023 (UTC)
 * When I say 'technically unrelated', I mean I have looked at the technical data (using the checkuser tool), and there is nothing linking the accounts in any way, and nothing to make me suspect that they are taking any measures to obscure their IPs or evade detection. Girth Summit  (blether)  08:53, 5 May 2023 (UTC)