Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Sentineldk/Archive

08 October 2012

 * Suspected sockpuppets




 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

The original author (Sentineldk) created the article Solidcam which was subsequently nominated at WP:AFD (Articles for deletion/Solidcam). The original author declared a COI. The article has since been amended to focus on the product (Solidcam) rather than the company which makes it which shares the same name.

It was pointed out (at the AFD) that the product in question still needed to pass WP:N whether the article was about the company or the product.

Within hours, five brand new accounts appeared, each making a single edit (to vote "Keep" at the AFD; none of them cited a single policy and all were basically WP:ILIKEIT "votes"). None has made a single edit beyond that.

The quacking is overwhelming.

In investigating this one, we should be conscious that the COI editor (and suggested sock-master) in question is a software engineer (or is at least COI-connected to a software company) so access to multiple terminals is obviously possible. Have requested check-user anyway but would suggest the behavioural evidence is enough. Stalwart 111  (talk) 22:42, 8 October 2012 (UTC)

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

Since this was raised there is now another 1 edit user throwing their "weight" to support this:


 * User:RoyDick

This pattern of voting is most suspicious.  Brookie :) { - he's in the building somewhere!}  (Whisper...) 08:35, 9 October 2012 (UTC)


 * Sentineldk is a friend of mine who asked me to help him and I used his internet to login, you can check my other logged in IP's. My account is from 2006 and I haven't used it much becasue I don't need to login to use Wikipedia, and with today Wikipedia a user like me is prevented contributing in any article, all the contributions I ever tried to create were deleted by admins, and don't lie about last use in 2007, you can see it being used in 2010 as well. Wikipedia has become a hostile nasty place ruled by abusive admins, be warned not to touch my account. --PeteRoy (talk) 23:02, 9 October 2012 (UTC)
 * Yeah, we call that meat-puppetry - also not okay - but thanks for confirming that's what you were up to. And I'm not an admin - I have the same user rights as you. If you don't want your articles deleted, start by creating articles for subjects that meet WP:GNG. You should tell your "friends" to do the same. You should also refrain from engaging in activities which are considered a serious breach of community trust. It's also not particularly clever to make threats warning others not to touch your account. If you edit in abusive ways you should expect others (especially admins) to take action against you. You have no-one to blame but yourself. Stalwart 111  (talk) 23:20, 9 October 2012 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
— Berean Hunter   (talk)  19:00, 9 October 2012 (UTC)
 * - for a sleeper purge. I note that a 2006 account which has been silent two years has awoke just for this AfD (PeteRoy) and suspect socking extends beyond what is presented in this case.

Group 1: The following are ✅ matches to each other and ❌ to any of the groups:

Group 2: The following are matches to each other but ❌ to any of the groups:

Group 3: The following are matches to each other and is ❌ to Groups 1 and 2.

and are  matches to each other.

,, and are ❌ to each other and to any of the groups above. No comment on IPs. IMO, I'm more incline to think this is meatpuppetry than socking. Elockid  ( Talk ) 23:39, 9 October 2012 (UTC)


 * I agree that this looks mostly like meat puppetry.
 * I have declared who actually made an edit the sockmaster of group 1. GabbassMo blocked two weeks for socking without a valid reason, GregAbbass indeffed.
 * Sentineldk and PeteRoy may not only have a likely technical relation but PeteRoy has admitted to having used Sentineldk's internet connection. Still, this may be meat puppetry.
 * I'm undecided about what to do with groups 2 and 3. De728631 (talk) 19:13, 11 October 2012 (UTC)
 * Just a drive by comment, but two weeks is a common length for meatpuppetry, to deny them the ability to gang up at the AFD. Dennis Brown -  2&cent;    &copy;   Join WER 01:25, 12 October 2012 (UTC)
 * I have instead closed the Afd. It had already been relisted and the consensus among unrelated editors was clear. De728631 (talk) 16:13, 12 October 2012 (UTC)
 * I've blocked (and tagged) the master, Mikemessa, and PeteRoy as likely socks. Given that the AFD that was the other accounts' sole focus has since been closed, and given that the accounts are all now inactive, I am closing this investigation without further action than that taken in relation to Mikemessa, the master, and the single sock in Group 3. AGK  [•] 22:49, 15 October 2012 (UTC)