Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Pangear/Archive

Report date March 10 2009, 17:21 (UTC)

 * Suspected sockpuppets

The Pangear account had previously been editing Debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters and had got into some heated debates. Yesterday, the three suspected sock accounts registered and as SPAs went on a rampage on the page, removing and changing material with no discussion. The three were blocked for SSP and/or coordinated disruptive single purpose editing. All of a sudden today, User:Pangear logs on again and continues, posting messages on article talk supporting what the other three were doing. All 4 accounts have only been editing this article. User:U94fifo claimed in an unblock request that they share a proxy but even if there is more that one person, they are clearly cooperating elsewhere, as they have taken part in no disussions together on wiki. Mfield (talk) 17:21, 10 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Evidence submitted by Mfield (talk)


 * Comments by accused parties    See Defending yourself against claims.


 * CheckUser requests

. -- Kanonkas : Talk  19:29, 10 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Comments by other users
 * I reviewed a couple of unblock requests from these accounts. If they are using proxies, we would never be able to confirm for sure that they are the same people... and proxy use is necessary for editors from China.  However, their sudden, coordinated arrival and edits show a troubling pattern.  Even if this is caused, as one user suggested, by sudden interest aroused by an external source, it has still caused disruption.  Mango juice talk 19:11, 10 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments

. Dominic·t 19:38, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Account blocked. -- Kanonkas : Talk  19:43, 10 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Conclusions