Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Rambo Apocalypse/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets



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Tag teaming on Racial views of Donald Trump to insert a POV tag and the first edits of Saxestruck are about obscure Football controversies, which is also one of the interests of Rambo Apocalypse. When RA is away is exactly when S is editing Guerillero  &#124;  Parlez Moi  20:48, 18 May 2020 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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I looked through both accounts briefly and observed at least two pieces of relevant evidence. Evidence 1: They both edited the page of an obscure footballer, Wayne Shaw (footballer). The footballer's main claim to notability is an incident three years ago. Yet both these users edited the page in the last three months. Evidence 2: Saxestrunk appears during the period when RA has just been blocked from editing. Snooganssnoogans (talk) 21:05, 18 May 2020 (UTC)

I have nothing to do with the other account, but I can certainly see why the Wayne Shaw issue looks suspicious, it would be an astonishing coincidence.

I strongly suspect this is a set-up. The Saxestrunk account was set up in the midst of a dispute between myself and other editors on the Racial Views of Donald Trump page. I had recently been blocked from editing the page for a week but signaled I was not willing to give up the issue.

The first edits were on a very obscure article I've previously edited. Two commas were added. If I were genuinely setting up a sockpuppet I wouldn't go back and add two commas to an extremely obscure article which has been edited about ten times in the last year. Nothing could make the deception more obvious.

You could suggest I'd done it by mistake, but I've got no reason to go back to an article about a fat goalkeeper eating a pie, this isn't an article I'm heavily involved with. Someone looking to set me up has every reason to go and edit an extremely obscure page. Rambo Apocalypse (talk) 21:13, 18 May 2020 (UTC)

I looked on the interaction timeline tool, this user edited one of my posts on the talkpage with a correction here: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Racial_views_of_Donald_Trump&diff=prev&oldid=956507411. This is not something someone operating a sockpuppet account would do, unless by mistake. In the case of a mistake we would expect the same IP address to have made both edits, I invite the administrators to check whether this is the case. Rambo Apocalypse (talk) 21:33, 18 May 2020 (UTC)

I found this SPI as I was about to file my own on these accounts. They may be technically unrelated, but they are almost certainly the same user, or at least two users operating in very close coordination. I agree with the evidence provided by Guerillero and Snooganssnoogans. Both accounts edit at very similar times of the day. They have used similar edit summaries when adding the POV tag to the article.


 * Rambo Apocalypse: " or attempt to address concerns."
 * Saxestrunk: " except from a non-plurality if editors gaming the system in talk"


 * Here's the smoking gun: Here Saxestrunk makes a correction to an comment by Rambo Apocalypse. Uh oh!

I suspect that Rambo Apocalypse is a sock of a blocked or banned editor, but I don't yet know who. - MrX 🖋 11:02, 19 May 2020 (UTC)


 * It's possible, maybe even likely, that is the master. They also tried to edit war a POV tag onto the same article and they all edit at similar times of the day. Still checking...


 * Multiple people are putting a POV tag on the article because there are blatant POV issues with the page. Saxestrunk is clearly a sockpuppet, but it's not mine.  Nobody running a sockpuppet, let alone multiple sockpuppets, would edit their own comments in different accounts from different IPs or go back and edit obscure articles that nobody else touches.  It's too obviously self-incriminating. Rambo Apocalypse (talk) 11:37, 19 May 2020 (UTC)

It should be noted that MrX is one of the people involved in the dispute. He must have forgotten to declare his interest in his comment above. Rambo Apocalypse (talk) 12:11, 19 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Irrelevant as this is not a vote. If it were, I would have added my own !vote that this complaint appears valid. And there's nothing unusual about socks mixing up accounts. O3000 (talk) 12:50, 19 May 2020 (UTC)
 * You don't think there's anything unusual about a sockpuppet going back and editing an obscure article that the main account last edited months ago to add two commas? Do you agree that if I were mixing up accounts on multiple occasions we would expect to see some crossover in IPs?   Rambo Apocalypse (talk) 13:10, 19 May 2020 (UTC)
 * No. I admin a small forum myself and have seen this and other behavior. And the first forum where I was admin was back in ARPANet days. O3000 (talk) 13:16, 19 May 2020 (UTC)
 * You think I'm smart enough to switch IPs every time I switch between accounts, but stupid enough that I would go back with my alt and edit an obscure page that has been edited by a tiny, tiny percentage of editors on Wikipedia including my main, and correct typos from the main account with my alt? Come on.  This doesn't make any sense, as you well know.  Rambo Apocalypse (talk) 13:25, 19 May 2020 (UTC)
 * As you well know is an ad hominem argument. The rest is argumentum ad lapidem. O3000 (talk) 14:38, 19 May 2020 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * The editors are ❌ but the behavioral evidence still sticks out to me. -- Guerillero &#124;  Parlez Moi  20:55, 18 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Saxestrunk was blocked as a sock of User:Architect 134 Guerillero  &#124;  Parlez Moi  19:37, 19 May 2020 (UTC)