Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/PortugueseManofPeace/Archive

26 February 2015

 * Suspected sockpuppets




 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.
 * Editor interaction utility

– Underlying issue
 * The suspected sockmaster, first editing from 198.0.163.1, then using the named account 'Sophie.grothendieck', is involved in the high-frequency trading (HFT) hedge fund called . When he learned he is not supposed to make tendentious edits regarding HFT on Wikipedia, he apparently responded by creating dozens of sockpuppets.

– Comments about CU
 * The suspected sockmaster and suspected puppets said their IP addresses may be checked, which suggests that care was taken regarding IP addresses. I'd still expect some patterns. I'd expect a fair amount of IPs to geolocate near Cambridge or Boston, which seems to be the primary location of (see above link). I'd expect a fair amount of IPs to be from universities like Harvard or MIT. The suspected sockmaster seems to have access to university networks. Related to his occupation, the suspected sockmaster may travel a lot. He may also know how to use other IPs from other places. I therefore placed emphasis on collecting behavioral evidence.

– Replaces the term high-frequency trading (HFT) with something else
 * 64.150.44.98 128.103.224.4  166.137.246.84  Akafeatfausty  Jianhaogogogo  Mangousername  PortugueseManofPeace  Sophie.grothendieck

– Uses IPs to make an edit signed with a username or says it has a named account
 * 198.0.163.1 makes an edit and signs with Sophie.grothendieck (1 June 2014)
 * 207.181.197.4 says it is Twosigmainvestments (2 June 2014)
 * 24.62.94.251 replies to an ANI thread PortugueseManofPeace started (26 February 2015)
 * PortugueseManofPeace changes the IP signature to his (26 February 2015)

– Inserting smear blog sources, most of which target Michael Lewis
 * Sophie.grothendieck adds scottlocklin.wordpress.com/2014/04/04/michael-lewis-shilling-for-the-buyside LastDogStanding adds scottlocklin.wordpress.com/2014/04/04/michael-lewis-shilling-for-the-buyside  Businessdata adds medium.com/@liquidmkt/what-really-happened-in-trading-ford-in-4-6ms-faeee1f771d4  Photobombing adds medium.com/@liquidmkt/what-really-happened-in-trading-ford-in-4-6ms-faeee1f771d4  1955KennyT adds lewisfiction.wordpress.com  LastDogStanding adds lewisfiction.wordpress.com

– POV pushing against Michael Lewis, author of Flash Boys
 * Balloons4Dayzzz added undue material to BLP (removed by Orangemike) LastDogStanding changes states that "The market is rigged" to the tale of a "rigged market"  LastDogStanding removes "non-fiction book"  Zip413Zup adds polemic remark about Flash Boys

– Changes description of IEX to dark pool
 * 166.137.246.84 Sophie.grothendieck  TraderJenny

– POV pushing against IEX
 * 166.137.246.81 adds "reduces the transparency and fairness"
 * FEICNNA removes: IEX owned by non-HFT alleviates conflict-of-interest issues
 * Sophie.grothendieck changes "ambiguous" to "distasteful"
 * Sophie.grothendieck starts the Criticisms section on 29 May 2014
 * Twosigmainvestments re-inserts two sub-sections on 2 June 2014
 * Jameskoul adds "Sexism" to Criticism section
 * Jianhaogogogo adds "Gender discrimination" to Criticism section

– Edit warring at IEX article
 * Jameskoul Jianhaogogogo  Sophie.grothendieck

– Boastful claims in article about an HFT firm
 * Hopscotch20x: "previous version was borderline slander"
 * Mangousername: "derogatory statement about market makers"

– POV pushing to promote HFT
 * 1955KennyT: "just anti HFT" Jldalldorf claims quote stuffing would be "particularly targeting HFT firms"  Sunvshade changes "HFT were shown to have" to "Some have claimed"

– Changes "contributed to volatility" to "withdrawn liquidity"
 * 70.192.4.146 on 23 January 2015 PortugueseManofPeace on 22 February 2015

– Edits regarding Nanex, a company that criticizes certain trading practices
 * Jianhaogogogo: "Nanex is a biased source"
 * Jianhaogogogo: "too many citations from Nanex"
 * Photobombing calls Nanex "an outspoken detractor"

– Unlinking red-linked article suggestions, thinking it is a mistake
 * Kris1960
 * Photobombing: "Removed Wiki page tags that did not exist"
 * Sunvshade: "Corrected incorrect tags of Wiki pages that do not exist"

– Claiming front-running by HFT is a 'factual error'
 * 63.92.225.89 166.137.88.151  166.137.246.84

– Other observations
 * 7 of the 20 alternate named accounts invoked the (Tag: gettingstarted edit) on their first edits to make them appear like new accounts. Sophie.grothendieck and PortugueseManofPeace used the same boastful tone in discussions and showed similar behavior, like making a series of constructive edits during open COI/ANI discussions.

– Role-playing
 * MelissaHebert created on 21 February 2015, PortugueseManofPeace created on 21 February 2015, Akafeatfausty created on 22 February 2015, Shazam puta created on 23 February 2015. Engaged in a role-play where MelissaHebert started a COI filing with no user notification and the other three targeted articles or talk page. PortugueseManofPeace and Akafeatfausty made identical edits, like replacing the term "high-frequency trading/HFT" with "predatory".  Kristina451 (talk) 23:05, 26 February 2015 (UTC)


 * Viewable registration information of 198.0.163.1 has been modified from what it was days ago (first link). However, WHOIS still displays "IP Location: United States Somerville Dome Yard Llc" and the IP still geolocates to Cambridge, MA. May someone please confirm this? Maybe Thank you. Also, hours after CU endorsement, the Sophie.grothendieck account made its first edit tagged with mobile edit. The IPs 198.0.163.1 disclosed by Sophie.grothendieck and 24.62.94.251 perhaps involuntarily disclosed by PortugueseManofPeace (see above) both geolocate to Cambridge, MA. Kristina451 (talk) 21:56, 28 February 2015 (UTC)


 * Out of 10 IPs listed, 5 geolocate to Cambridge/Chelmsford/Somerville, 3 from elsewhere currently blocked as anon. only. Kristina451 (talk) 15:35, 1 March 2015 (UTC)


 * Diff links and explanation provided by suspected sockmaster are manipulated. "I was the one who undid these" is false. Diff says "4 intermediate revisions by one other user not shown" and the one other user undid. Kristina451 (talk) 13:54, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.''
 * Hi, I think the accusation on this page is made in bad faith. See poster's history and block log. Please feel free to discuss any findings. Thanks! (: Sophie.grothendieck (talk) 01:48, 28 February 2015 (UTC)



Most of the claim seems to be based on finding 2 or 3 IPs out of 30 that edit these articles from Cambridge or Boston. HFT and market making firms hire mostly - and in the case of the top few, exclusively - from these 2 universities and Boston is the third largest financial city in the country. It's statistically healthy to find a couple of editors on these topics from these cities. I had actually expected more. It may help to further carry out a t-test for a suspicious prevalence. Loved reading the novel bit about frequent traveling though!

Best, Sophie. Sophie.grothendieck (talk) 02:57, 1 March 2015 (UTC)


 * Poster also gives a misleading impression of many IP editors from MA by hiding the context. These IPs were picked from edits in 5 separate articles over an 9 month period. If he searches such a wide sample space and selectively omits the non-MA IPs, he is guaranteed to find a few MA IP addresses (selection bias). He omits that there were other non-MA IP editors on those articles that match these characteristics, such as opting to say "liquidity fading" or "liquidity withdrawal" instead "front-running" These are common phrases to refer to a very specific thing, you can easily find multiple editors that use the same phrase.


 * The poster's other charges are also concocted by cunningly hiding the contextual details that prove my innocence. I will only speak for the ones that mention me.


 * - "Jameskoul adds "Sexism" to Criticism section Jianhaogogogo adds "Gender discrimination" to Criticism section "


 * * I helped to undo these and mentioned it on the talk page.  I was also responsible for the request for page protection to stop accusations of gender discrimination.


 * - "Changes description of IEX to dark pool"


 * * No POV pushing here. IEX has a Form ATS on file, so the SEC defines them strictly as a dark pool. Difference between a dark pool and exchange is night and day.     Other editors added the same content on List of dark pools article. Not unusual that multiple editors wanted to make the same fixes.


 * * There is nothing derogatory about referring to IEX as a dark pool. Some dark pools can be held in greater respect than exchanges: Liquidnet, for example, has an average trade execution size of 100 times that found on any US exchange! One innovative change introduced by IEX is that they price their trades according to the direct feeds, which I have sincere respect for.


 * - "Sophie.grothendieck changes "ambiguous" to "distasteful" "


 * * No POV pushing here, this was the choice of wording by IEXCommunications themselves.


 * - Diff links and explanation provided by suspected sockmaster are manipulated. "I was the one who undid these" is false. Diff says "4 intermediate revisions by one other user not shown" and the one other user undid. 


 * * There were several editors successively undoing this back and forth and I was on the side of undoing it. Picking on this and calling it as "manipulated" is another bad faith accusation, it is self-explanatory that I diff'ed my version and Jianhaogogogo's version and the trivial, intermediate edits are visible. I have edited my response for clarity.

Best, Sophie. 22:10, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * -, thanks for detailed investigation. Although the user may be aware how to manipulate IPs, still worth checking.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  20:27, 27 February 2015 (UTC)


 * All but 4 accounts other than that are stale, and they are editing within the relative confines of the sockpuppetry policy. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  06:00, 7 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Of the three confirmed accounts, Kipp.rogers is the oldest (by minutes) but is unused, and MelissaHebert has only been used for three edits, so I have with PortugueseManofPeace as the master and principal account. None of the IPs have been active since February (and a few of them are under a rangeblock already). Per DQ, nothing done towards the other accounts. Of note: the filer has since been indef'ed as WP:NOTTHERE so it appears that the report may have be filed in less-than-good-faith. ☺ ·   Salvidrim!   ·  &#9993;  18:40, 18 March 2015 (UTC)

15 April 2015

 * Suspected sockpuppets




 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.
 * Editor interaction utility

please investigate for 3RR violation using sockpuppets in these articles.


 * Frontrunning


 * Two Sigma Investments


 * Dark liquidity

admin already warn her about 3RR and i ask her use article talk, edit comment and writing pattern is obvious come from same person.

i think she is spoof japan ip because she dont like me to come from japan ?? she has a lot repeat revert in same article and many previous ban .... Mkb764920 (talk) 14:25, 15 April 2015 (UTC)

development - she make further 3RR even after this Sockpuppet Investigation ...


 * Dark liquidity
 * Frontrunning  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mkb764920 (talk • contribs) 10:17, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.''

Note: This SPI case would appear to be in direct retalliation of the sockpuppetry allegation made over at WP:ANI (See WP:ANI) — Preceding unsigned comment added by DieSwartzPunkt (talk • contribs)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * I'm looking at the interaction between this SPI and Sockpuppet investigations/Sophie.grothendieck based on Kristina451's allegations at ANI.--Bbb23 (talk) 23:44, 21 April 2015 (UTC)
 * is ✅ as . Indeffed and tagged. The allegations against Kristina451 are spurious.
 * Note to clerks: Before closing this case, I would merge Sockpuppet investigations/Sophie.grothendieck creating Sockpuppet investigations/PortugueseManofPeace. After doing that, I would merge this case into the Portuguese case. Thus, only one viable case would be left, and the other two would point to it.--Bbb23 (talk) 22:34, 22 April 2015 (UTC)
 * - Could you please comment on whether you've found any involvement from me? These two have been dragging me into their dispute and I've tried to tell Kristina451 nicely that I'm not involved but he refuses to believe me.   and I have both told Kristina451 to mediate his problems at WP:RFP. I hope they would leave me out of this as I'm no longer active on WP. I'm in favor of renaming the title of the SPI, but it should be made more explicit that I'm not involved in this fiasco. Thanks, Sophie. Sophie.grothendieck (talk) 23:14, 22 April 2015 (UTC)
 * The findings regarding your involvement are at the case opened in your name. My interpretation of thosse findings is that you were not involved as a checkuser did not confirm your account and the clerk admin did not sanction you on a behavioral basis. When I ran the CU here, I did not check you as I saw no reason to do so. I don't think anything else is necessary.--Bbb23 (talk) 23:39, 22 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks for clarifying, I hope you have a good day ahead of you. and  Now please leave me alone. Sophie.grothendieck (talk) 00:15, 23 April 2015 (UTC)

— Berean Hunter   (talk)  14:15, 27 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Merged cases per 's direction; leaving for another clerk to check my work before closing.
 * Closing.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  18:48, 27 April 2015 (UTC)