Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Punyaboy/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets



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

All of these users have been active in the Indian rail and rapid transit area in 2017, sometimes editing articles that are not India-specific. The earliest I can find is Punyaboy, who first edited under that name at 05:09, 5 February 2017. Punyaboy made many copyedit requests through August, whether there were specific issues with the articles or not, despite requests by coordinators of the Guild of Copy Editors not to template unless there were such issues. Punyaboy posted retirement on 18 September at 09:35 after announcing a wikibreak on 11 September. In the previous 90 minutes prior to said retirement, IP 103.203.66.215 tagged 112 articles with copy edit templates. Subsequent to the retirement, 168.233.20.6 removed the GOCE requests from Punyaboy's talk page.

Tiromild edited from 14:58 on 13 September through 09:39 on 18 September (four minutes after Punyaboy's retirement), including a series of edits to Mountain railways of India on 15 September (starting here); Punyaboy had made several edits earlier in the year including a copy edit request on May 2, the most recent of which is. Penestowed removed two categories on 21 September:. Tiromild also tried to revise a DYK template from March 2010 on the article talk page (and change the DYK archive as well ); a similar talk-page revision was later attempted by 175.100.188.210 with these two edits, and 168.233.20.6 prematurely archived portions of the talk page on 2 October ; archiving talk pages, sometimes everything on them, is also a characteristic behavior.

Penestowed was active for about 44 hours from 14:46, 21 September through 10:37, 23 September, requesting an account deletion right before ceasing to edit. This account also made a great many copyedit requests, most of which were previously requested by 103.203.66.215. Two examples: A. H. Wheeler: 103.203.66.215, Penestowed ; Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India: 103.203.66.215 , Penestowed. Elephantos769 also edited Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India on 26 September, and 168.233.20.6 made an edit to the article talk page on 24 September.

Elephantos769 began editing at 06:52 26 September in the same set of articles, though mostly category work initially. As noted elsewhere, there are some common articles with the others.

168.233.220.6 and 168.233.20.6 are clearly related accounts; on 27 September, 168.233.20.6 made a series of 13 edits to List of educational institutions in Nagpur between 04:46 and 05:19; 168.233.220.6 did two more edits eight minutes later, at 05:27 and 05:28. 168.233.220.6 made many copyedit requests, including Dieselisation, which was added four hours after Tiromild made a series of 11 edits to the article ; Penestowed made 6 edits to it nine days later.

175.100.188.210 is also related; the IP added a copyedit template to High-speed rail in India at 15:32, September 22, three days after 103.203.66.215 had also added this same template 28 minutes after a Penestowed edit to the article ; Elephantos769 has also made half a dozen edits to this article. More telling is the DYK edits mentioned in relation with Tiromild above.

It seems very likely that there are other named and IP accounts, given the short duration and frequent creation of accounts, and the deletion request for the Penestowed account, hence the CheckUser request. I apologize for the length of this post. BlueMoonset (talk) 18:24, 8 October 2017 (UTC)


 * Since Jonesey95 is the lead coordinator of the Guild of Copy Editors, and posted to Punyaboy's page in an effort to stop inappropriate tagging and reverted the clear spam-tagging of 112 articles by 103.203.66.215, I am positive that 183.87.39.110 is mistaken in adding this particular name to the list. (I don't believe I am allowed to remove it, or I would.) BlueMoonset (talk) 21:17, 11 October 2017 (UTC)


 * I'd like to suggest that 183.87.39.110 should be checked; it seems odd, on reflection, that an IP's first edit (I don't think the 2016 or 2015 edits were the same editor) would be here, of all places, and with such knowledge of Wikipedia that it could find all of the additional sockpuppet accounts from among Punyaboy's 3481 edits, and even want to. BlueMoonset (talk) 21:22, 12 October 2017 (UTC)

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

I have also added few more suspected sockpuppets (see the list in previous section).The evidences are, The User:Mudsy 2205, seems to have returned years later as User:Punyaboy as claimed by self. Same for User:Nonukhanna2009, and User:Kartik.dok,  All these accounts seem to be operated by one person who had returned as Punyaboy. The User:Jonesey95 also has reverted exactly the same edits by IP 103.203.66.215. It appears that User:Jonesey95 needs to be checked as sockpuppet too. Another one, User:Helixcame seems to be again a sockpuppet of Punyaboy. He or She is also editing rail related articles for past few days. Lastly, User:PratikBhake too appears to be belonging to this case, has made edits to List of educational institutions in Nagpur at the same time as IP 168.233.20.6

Checking the edits made by all these users/IP, it appears that most of them have retired or so. Also, the only problem with the above users/IP is that they request for copy-edits. There is no vandalism as such in any of these edits, except by IP 103.203.66.215, who was clearly copy-edit serial tagger. I am not aware of how wikipedia acts in such cases (whether copy-edit addition is considered vandalism and/or benign multiple accounts are anyway subjected to be closed) 183.87.39.110 (talk) 15:21, 11 October 2017 (UTC)

Comment by Jonesey95
Clerk, please remove or strike my name from this list. I am obviously not a sock of anyone, and my behavior is the opposite of that of Punyaboy and editors with similar editing patterns. I have been working to undo some of the negative effects of that editor's changes to pages. – Jonesey95 (talk) 00:15, 12 October 2017 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * I haven't reviewed the evidence yet, but I find it implausible that is a sock of anyone. Can you double-check if you meant to include that account on the list and remove it if not? ~ Rob 13 Talk 15:11, 15 October 2017 (UTC)
 * , please check this page's history. My name was added to the list not by BlueMoonset, but by an IP who may be one of the alleged socks. Confusing, I know. – Jonesey95 (talk) 16:00, 15 October 2017 (UTC)
 * Ah, that makes more sense. I've removed your username, . ~ Rob 13 Talk 16:05, 15 October 2017 (UTC)
 * - ~ Rob 13 Talk 16:09, 15 October 2017 (UTC)
 * The following accounts are ✅ to each other:
 * . I've declined to check at this time because the evidence presented does not justify a check. If a clerk feels differently after reviewing the contributions in more depth, feel free to relist with more evidence. ~ Rob 13 Talk 16:22, 15 October 2017 (UTC)
 * - Please block the six confirmed account. The IP's are sufficiently dynamic that block individual address won't accomplish anything. The remaining accounts are either stale or not supported by evidence. Sir Sputnik (talk) 19:45, 27 October 2017 (UTC)
 * Sir Sputnik - ✅.  ~Oshwah~  (talk) (contribs)   19:47, 27 October 2017 (UTC)
 * . I've declined to check at this time because the evidence presented does not justify a check. If a clerk feels differently after reviewing the contributions in more depth, feel free to relist with more evidence. ~ Rob 13 Talk 16:22, 15 October 2017 (UTC)
 * - Please block the six confirmed account. The IP's are sufficiently dynamic that block individual address won't accomplish anything. The remaining accounts are either stale or not supported by evidence. Sir Sputnik (talk) 19:45, 27 October 2017 (UTC)
 * Sir Sputnik - ✅.  ~Oshwah~  (talk) (contribs)   19:47, 27 October 2017 (UTC)
 * . I've declined to check at this time because the evidence presented does not justify a check. If a clerk feels differently after reviewing the contributions in more depth, feel free to relist with more evidence. ~ Rob 13 Talk 16:22, 15 October 2017 (UTC)
 * - Please block the six confirmed account. The IP's are sufficiently dynamic that block individual address won't accomplish anything. The remaining accounts are either stale or not supported by evidence. Sir Sputnik (talk) 19:45, 27 October 2017 (UTC)
 * Sir Sputnik - ✅.  ~Oshwah~  (talk) (contribs)   19:47, 27 October 2017 (UTC)


 * Tagging and closing. Sir Sputnik (talk) 19:59, 27 October 2017 (UTC)