Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/PostcolonialLitNerd/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets



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PostcolonialLitNerd is a single-purpose account for Priyamvada Gopal. Nearly all of their 129 edits are related to Gopal. On 10 May 2021 they were blocked for edit warring and on Gopal. PostcolonialLitNerd edits sporadically, mainly when Gopal is edited by others or when Gopal is in the news.

The JodiMoran account was created on 1 July 2021. They made two edits unsubstantial edits to other articles, and then 9 minutes after creation made this edit to Gopal.

This first substantial is of interest as PostcolonialLitNerd was very adamant at removing the quote from The Times, as may be seen in this diff, this diff, this talk page diff, and on the talk page section.

The next time both accounts were substantially active was in January 2021. Here PostcolonialLitNerd mad a large edit, which was challenged and then the section was substantially edited by other editors. 15 revisions later, JodiMoran emerged from their hiatus and re-instated the exact same version.

Both accounts then edit warred to this preferred versions, with updates: PLN, PLN, JM, JM, PLN.

They agree with each other on talk, and their talk page formatting is identical: Jodi Moran vs. PostcolonialLitNerd. Note same indentation, same ping style, and same signature style and spacing.

JodiMoran also uses the same verbose edit summaries PostcolonialLitNerd uses. Also of note is that while PostcolonialLitNerd didn't use edit summaries in their first edits, JodiMoran with their first edit used a verbose edit summary and in their third edit used the minor flag. In their first ever talk page post, on 21 January 2022), they also formatted correctly. This is not typical new user behaviour. Pika voom  Talk 09:31, 22 January 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

 * ✅. Given the edit warring, and the obvious bad-faith attempt to pass themselves off in discussions as two separate people, I'm indef blocking both of them. Closing.  Girth Summit  (blether)  11:18, 22 January 2022 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



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Both are Gopal SPAs. The newly registered Redflycom made three small edits (like Jodi Moran), before turning to Gopal with this edit that repeats the change in this last edit by PostcolonialLitNerd, combining two separate paragraphs into one in order to hide the information in the beginning of the second paragraph. KG11257 then shows up less than an hour later, probably in order to obscure the prior edit, this after being inactive for half a year. Looking at KG11257's editing career of eight edits, they started using edit summaries consistently around the same time PostcolonialLitNerd did. Pika voom Talk 09:04, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

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

 * - -- RoySmith (talk) 16:16, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Redflycom is ✅. From the CU data alone, I would call KG, but I see enough clues in the editing history to feel comfortable blocking them as suspected. -- RoySmith (talk) 16:27, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



 * Tools: Editor interaction utility • Interaction Timeline • User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

Renton55 and Gobbledygoook are single edit accounts that showed up on Gopal after the last batch of socks was blocked.

An interesting smoking gun is the newly created Profgriff, who made four edits before jumping into Gopal with this edit that restores links to Gopal's contributor profile on several newspapers. PostcolonialLitNerd has pushed links for these profile pages several times like adding this link farm at the bottom or this addition of links to the lede here which is similar to the edit Profgriff just made. The edit by Profgriff uses the minor flag, and utilizes advanced reference formatting which either shows advanced Wikipedia knowledge or knowledge of the page as I removed these links (again!) last month, January.

Renton55's edit is suspicious as Gopal belonging to the an upper caste has been a point of contention, discussed on talk, that PostcolonialLitNerd has challenged repeatedly both directly and through the JodiMoran sock over here. Pika voom Talk 07:07, 17 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Either we have two sock masters (Renton55+Sylvia500, PostcolonialLitNerd+JodiMoran+Profgriff) + meat puppets (KG11257, Gobbledygoook) or we have one sock master, possibly with some minimal meat. Occam's razor favours a single master, especially since all the editing is focused on Gopal and related content. Also worth pointing out is that the currently suspected group, Renton55+Sylvia500+KG11257+Gobbledygoook, are editing in a tight time window (Mostly 03:00-07:00 UTC, Sylvia500 also has 22:00 UTC in June 2021) while PostcolonialLitNerd's editing time range is wider at 21:00 UTC to 13:00 UTC. The tight time window might correspond to when they are in a different location. Pika voom  Talk 11:27, 17 February 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
I'll tag these later three as suspected; I'll let decide if we need any fancy tags between Renton55 and Sylvia500. Girth Summit  (blether) 10:03, 17 February 2022 (UTC)
 * - please compare to previous accounts for confirmation. Thanks, Spicy (talk) 08:47, 17 February 2022 (UTC)
 * is ✅ to
 * and are more like the  account in the archives. They all geolocate to the same city, which is in the same country as all the confirmed PostcolonialLitNerd accounts, but some distance away - they may well be a different person, but based on the exclusive focus that all of these accounts have on this one article I'm willing to block as suspected. I'll add that Renton55 is ✅ to Sylvia500 (who has also been involved almost exclusively in editing that same article).
 * Thanks. Dual-tagged Renton and Sylvia, closing. Spicy (talk) 18:26, 17 February 2022 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
Since last time, the Gopal article was semi-protected. This account was created on March 11th. Yesterday, after making 12 edits to other academics in the discipline, this account jumped into Gopal using a minor-edit flag to mask an edit that inserts favourable language ("assertive presence on Twitter"). So gaming around the auto-confirmed. Has been using edit summaries from their first edit, and as previous socks misusing the minor edit flag as here. Pika voom Talk 06:28, 24 March 2022 (UTC)

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

 * - same country as all of the socks, and same city as the Renton55/Gobbledygoook/KG11257 group. It's a new IP range though. Behavioural evaluation needed.  Girth Summit  (blether)  16:01, 24 March 2022 (UTC)
 * After some off-wiki consultation, closing with no action taken. -- RoySmith (talk) 20:24, 26 March 2022 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
This is another WP:SPA on Gopal. Much of the same claims made in the archived investigations into PostcolonialLitNerd's coterie of socks apply. Firstly looking at editorial actions on WP, and then stylistic behaviours that indicate a connection:

LumumbaX was created on 27th July 2022, made one unrelated edit and since then has only edited the Gopal page. Two months later, LumumbaX returned and immediately started extensive re-writing exactly along the lines previously advocated by PostcolonialLitNerd and their socks. The line of editing is an uncritical acceptance and enshrinement of Gopal's own approach to any criticism's of her in media controversies. The main example is denying that they are controversies: PLN says so and so does LumumbaX. LumumbaX goes on to remove all hint of them from Gopal's page under the same reasoning. PLN presents Gopal as a significant media commentator and public intellectual, LumumbaX's first four edits to the article emphasise this1 2 3 4.

As for formatting and stylistic behaviours:

LumumbaX's creation of account, minor edit of an unrelated page and immediate total focus on Gopal matches the behaviour of PLN's other socks. LumumbaX, as with the already established PLN socks use verbose edit summaries as soon as they hit opposition. LumumbaX has made minor changes to talk section headers to frame the discussion more favourably, as did JodiMoran (a previous PLN sock) - maybe it's more common than I think but it seems like idiosyncratic behaviour to me. Samuelshraga (talk) 11:04, 8 January 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

 * "LumumbaX" and are ✅ to each other. Nufan36 shares the same behaviour - editing about Gopal and her area of study. The two of them are extremely  to the master based on log data, and as such I'm blocking both as proven.  firefly  ( t · c ) 13:12, 8 January 2023 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
Like PLN and all the socks, OmegaPiii is a primarily Priyamvada Gopal focussed account that edits to restore or gatekeep material added by PLN or socks:


 * PLN creates, OP defends same material - also ties in with this other PLN sock's focus on connecting Ferguson to Gopal
 * On other material related to decolonisation: PLN creates - another sock edits - OmegaPiii defends

PLN has become an increasingly sophisticated sockmaster after that point, and admitted that they started reading their own SPI page. PLN started using socks with camouflaging small edits on academics in related fields and trade unionists as opposed to just Gopal SPAs. OmegaPiii also does mostly small edits on academics in related fields and trade unionists.

OmegaPiii and the PLN stable of socks perform the vast majority of their edits between 00:00 and 07:00, sometimes up to 09:00 (there are occasional deviations from the timeframe but all the socks are pretty consistent with this).

So: an account that comes to a page that is consistently edited by banned socks, with the same agenda over the same material as the banned socks, and the same outside editing pattern as the banned socks, at the same times of day as the banned socks. Samuelshraga (talk) 10:35, 12 March 2024 (UTC)


 * @Ponyo, the archived report was very sparse. I think this one has a lot more detail for a behavioural evaluation per @Girth Summit's comment. This user seems to have gone dark since I posted this, but PLN socks have already admitted to reading their SPI page so that's not surprising. Samuelshraga (talk) 11:40, 2 May 2024 (UTC)

Comments by other users

 * Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.


 * Sorry to butt in, but fix Ponyo's ping of (no space). Queen  of  Hearts 08:20, 12 April 2024 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * Accoring to the archives, you both reviewed the case against OmegaPiii back in March 2022. Is there any merit in revisiting it?-- Ponyo bons mots 19:25, 5 April 2024 (UTC)
 * - no objections from me if you think the report warrants it. I don't remember the case, but obviously at the time I came away thinking it was possible, but not definite. Girth Summit  (blether)  09:51, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Releasing from hold to allow for a behavioural investigation if an reviewing admin/Clerk feels it's warranted.-- Ponyo bons mots 19:10, 2 May 2024 (UTC)
 * The behavioral patterns look like several of the more recent PCL socks. Combined with the 2022 technical evidence, it's enough to warrant a block. The Wordsmith Talk to me 00:59, 13 June 2024 (UTC)