Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Prince jasim ali/Archive

04 August 2011

 * Suspected sockpuppets




 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

I suspect that the two accounts above are operated by the same individual, as they meet many of the signs of sockpuppetry. I also believe that the creation of these multiple accounts was not done in good faith but rather is being used abusively.

Lines of evidence:


 * Both are brand new accounts, created on the same day and at a similar hour one month apart.
 * Both accounts seem to edit during the same general period of time, often within minutes of each other. However, they never edit/communicate with other editors at precisely the same moment (e.g. 09:50, 4 August 2011 vs. 10:19, 4 August 2011; 17:36, 4 August 2011 vs. 16:53, 4 August 2011 & 17:57, 4 August 2011).
 * Both accounts have used edit summaries from the start, including during their very first edits.
 * Both accounts appear to be from the Sudan and have almost solely edited articles related to that particular region (e.g., ).
 * Both accounts also seem to have a strong general interest in Arab affairs (see below).
 * Both accounts appear to harbor an antipathy toward Somalia and the larger Horn of Africa region. This is suggested by their mutual and consistent attempts to distance/disassociate the Horn areas from adjacent Arab territories, despite the fact that both Somalia and Djibouti are part of the Arab League (e.g., ).
 * Both accounts believe in and have been pushing for the idiosyncratic notion that the term "North East Africa" exclusively pertains to Sudan and/or Egypt rather than to the entire Northeast African region, including the Horn of Africa (the latter of which's article the Northeast Africa page has long re-directed to). For example, Prince jasmin ali: "north east africa is sudan which is now part of north africa" ; أبو الحارث بن قيس عيلان: "Beja people mainly lives in Egypt where it's part of Northeast Africa, While Horn of Africa alone exclude Egypt and Sudan".
 * Both accounts have been performing a lot of the same general types of edits; specifically, the adding and removing of categories, most of which have pertained to Sudan in some capacity (e.g., ).
 * The Prince jasmin ali account uploaded an image via a well-formatted file description page within 48 hours of having joined the website.
 * The أبو الحارث بن قيس عيلان account then added that same rather technical genetic map to the Arab people article.
 * Both accounts were using advanced website functions within hours of having registered each account. For example, both have repeatedly availed themselves of the HotCat JavaScript program, which they have both utilized to add and remove categories (often the same cats too; e.g., ). In fact, the Prince jasmin ali account awarded himself a Wikilove Barnstar as his very first edit . To do that, he would first have to have been aware of the existence of such an award, which of course few newbies are.

Besides the above, another veteran editor has expressed similar surprise at the level of sophistication of the أبو الحارث بن قيس عيلان account's edits, suggesting that he "suspect[s] someone who knows wiki returning because you would not know how to do what they are doing if you just created an account. There is serious method and agenda. It needs to be reported because it is un constructive and wide ranging".

Given the foregoing, I would appreciate if possible a Checkuser to confirm the relationship between the two accounts. Middayexpress (talk) 20:37, 4 August 2011 (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
✅ that the following are the same:
 * is a technical match, but the behavior should be double checked- they do not overlap time-wise with the other two. TN X Man  20:48, 4 August 2011 (UTC)
 * I've blocked and tagged the Arabic username. I've also blocked Antime: their edits may not match up, but the behavior does. It seems he's switched to a new username (Prince jasim) so I'll leave it there. —  Hello Annyong  (say whaaat?!) 01:18, 5 August 2011 (UTC)
 * is a technical match, but the behavior should be double checked- they do not overlap time-wise with the other two. TN X Man  20:48, 4 August 2011 (UTC)
 * I've blocked and tagged the Arabic username. I've also blocked Antime: their edits may not match up, but the behavior does. It seems he's switched to a new username (Prince jasim) so I'll leave it there. —  Hello Annyong  (say whaaat?!) 01:18, 5 August 2011 (UTC)

Late review: I have been asked to review this checkuser case from a cross-wiki perspective, and my findings are quite different from Tnxman307's. The editors are working from a Middle Eastern country that has a very small IP pool, so the majority of the users from this country will give similar CU results, especially when a fairly generic user agent is thrown into the mix. Then we add in the fact that, while two of the editors, Prince jasim ali and the "arabic" one, share what we Westerners consider an unusual point of view (with respect to which countries are in northeast Africa), it turns out it's the "normal" point of view for those living in that region, based on similar articles from other projects. In addition, Antime is a very longstanding Wikipedian, with over 13K edits on the Arab Wikipedia, and has ventured to this project over the course of years mainly to maintain appropriate categorization of related articles, and to add links to translations of articles. From looking at the cross-wiki contributions of all three editors, as well as taking into account the cultural differences and the fact that many Arab-speaking editors were focusing on articles related to Sudan in July and August due to major political changes there (a significant portion of the country seceded), my opinion is that we are talking about three completely separate editors. I am going to recommend that all three editors be unblocked; in particular, the block on Antime does not seem to be borne out by indepth review of the edits made by this editor or his longtime contributions to both this and other projects. For the record, I don't think anyone's behaved with ill intent in any way, nor would I expect that checkusers or SPI clerks routinely look at cross-wiki contributions when analysing most SPI cases; however, if you're interested I can give you links to a couple of tools I've found helpful when doing big-picture reviews like this. This is a cross-post to HelloAnnyong's talk page, and I also will draw Tnxman307's attention to this post. Risker (talk) 05:50, 26 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the review, Risker. I'll step up and take the hit on this one- I should have done a more in-depth check. I would be interested in the links that you have, if you'd like to email me/post on my talk. Thanks again and apologies to Antime and the others affected by the case. TN X Man  11:28, 26 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Sure, that's fine. Per Risker's advice I've unblocked both accounts. —  Hello Annyong  (say whaaat?!) 12:10, 26 August 2011 (UTC)