Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Seaniemcf2/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets



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Last night there was a whole fuss on Grace O'Malley with language-warriors trying to chance the name in its Irish form. I am pretty sure Seaniemcf2 was one of these IPs, but I have no clue which one, as he registered shortly after the page was semi-protected. This very fresh editor knew his way around Wikipedia, straight away being able to sign his edits correctly (real new users have difficulties with that) and rather obnoxious and claiming that the conflict was also mentioned on Twitter. Last night, editor DarkerDai registered. This brand new user knew his way to the Teahouse before being invited to it and signing correctly, suggesting that this is not a really new user. Both the suspected sockmaster and the suspected sockpuppet are voting in Talk:Grace_O'Malley, giving the impression that there are more people voting than there really are (I suspect). The Banner talk 11:08, 2 July 2020 (UTC)

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

I'm not a sock puppet, the Gráinne mhaol thing has blown up on Twitter and that is why so many people are making edits. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Seaniemcf2 (talk • contribs) 11:26, 2 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Just wanted to confirm that yes, this is a thing on Twitter right now; see thread, here, here, and and here, just as examples in the past 24 hours. Schazjmd   (talk)  15:03, 2 July 2020 (UTC)

Hi, I'm confused. Is the Teahouse not for new editors who are trying to find their way around? I was directed to it from the help section. I merely wanted to find out about unprotecting a page and was not aware of the full process. When I contacted an administrator, it was on the basis that I should contact the original one who protected the page, as per the guidelines outlined in the help section. As for the the discussion page, I was directed to it by an email sent from the Volunteer Response Team (who are incredibly helpful). — Preceding unsigned comment added by DarkerDai (talk • contribs) 15:42, 2 July 2020 (UTC)

As for DarkerDai, to be fair, there's a big notice to sign one's posts at the top of creating a new section, and it's at the top of the Teahouse, so him signing his post for the Teahouse can just be explained by reading the manual. How he found the teahouse is another thing, but it shouldn't be held against new editors for actually putting in some effort to have a clue. He posted at Help_desk too in response to this, which has the Teahouse advertised at the top, and the help desk is the 2nd Google result for "Wikipedia help", which seems like a plausible explanation to me.

As for the IPs, since there's Twitter canvassing, that would explain that. Seems a bit of a stretch to assume they're all the same person. Most the IPs are different residential ISPs across Ireland, and while that doesn't definitively rule out socking, I'd think "many people responding to tweets" is a more plausible explanation than botting or use of residential proxies. Seems to border on fishing to me. ProcrastinatingReader (talk) 14:18, 4 July 2020 (UTC)


 * Hi I've just had a quick look through my history to find out how I got the link for the Teahouse and the email address to contact the volunteer team. It was through the contact page. It has the link for the Teahouse and an email address. As for signing off on posts, I think the Teahouse automatically does it on a new post but I'm not 100% sure. I had another user explain it and the indent response to me as I wasn't familiar with the system and wasn't signing off replies. I am (very slowly) getting used to the setup. Sorry for any confusion I've caused. DarkerDai (talk) 14:43, 4 July 2020 (UTC)
 * I believe that made the report in good faith; one of the new editors had posted on TB's talk page about the article, and after an argument with TB, a different new account brought up the same issue on Bishonen's talk page. Not being aware of the Twitter issue, I thought they were probably the same person as well, and I can see why TB was suspicious.  Schazjmd   (talk)  15:44, 4 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Apologies, that was completely my fault. I had contacted the original administrator who protected the page, not realising that there was a full process to it all (through the Discussion). I also contact the email address provided with the same complete misunderstanding. DarkerDai (talk) 16:23, 4 July 2020 (UTC)

I just wanted to comment that just opened a few COI requested edits. That doesn't seem that "sock-puppet-ie" to me. &thinsp;Darth&thinsp; Flappy  &laquo;Talk&raquo;  17:58, 4 July 2020 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * - I do not see sufficient behavioral evidence to link the two accounts other than the shared interest in Grace O'Malley, and that has been sufficiently explained by the fact that this article has drawn attention on social media. I also note that the two accounts have shown fairly different behavior while interacting with other editors. While I can believe that one or more of the IPs was an unregistered version of one of the listed registered accounts, editing while anonymous and then creating an account is not a sockpuppetry violation. The page was semi-protected, so that should limit the disruption. Closing without further action. GeneralNotability (talk) 01:15, 6 July 2020 (UTC)