Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Stephen70/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets

 * ( original case name)



Editor interaction shows high degree of overlap betweeen the users on articles related to Crystal Palace (the area / the structure and the football club): All editors getting involved in recent edit war over Oldest football clubs and Crystal Palace F.C., and the formation date of the latter, using common allegations of a vendetta / biased editors. Spike &#39;em (talk) 12:03, 20 June 2022 (UTC)
 * and and
 * I've added another prolific Crystal Palace editor, with similar article coverage and edit summaries to many of the above. He does seem to be reverting other editors on this list, but socks often have strange behaviour! Spike &#39;em (talk) 14:43, 20 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Some similarities in editting / edit summaries:
 * GreasyJoe: ditto; minor word edit; added punctuation;added link reference
 * Budge the 4th: ditto; minor word edit; added punctuation; Adjusted link ref
 * Cooperkyle: ditto; minor word edit; added punctuation;added link ref
 * Bobby the first: ditto; minor word edit; added punctuation; added link ref
 * Stephen70 : ditto; minor word edit; added punctuation; added link ref Spike &#39;em (talk) 16:16, 20 June 2022 (UTC)

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

I wasn't sure if CU was needed myself with the smaller initial list, but given the number of suspected socks it does seem necessary. Spike &#39;em (talk) 14:44, 20 June 2022 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
I believe this sock farm is significantly bigger and have added several suspected socks to the list. Two (Stoutly Stan and Freddie the 5th) are stale. All are WP:SPAs with similar usernames, similar mixes of minor/non-minor edits, and similar edit summaries. Because of the number and because I only trolled through two articles looking for them, I have requested a CU to confirm and look for others.--Bbb23 (talk) 13:25, 20 June 2022 (UTC)
 * - please CU to confirm and check for others per the evidence above. Some of these accounts are quite old but the behavioural evidence is compelling. Will wait to move to the oldest account until CU is completed in case an older master is found. Thanks, Spicy (talk) 17:57, 20 June 2022 (UTC)
 * -  Girth Summit  (blether)  08:08, 21 June 2022 (UTC)7
 * The listed accounts are all ✅ to one another, plus:
 * The other two listed accounts are indeed stale, I'll leave this open in case someone wants to perform beavioural analysis on them. The oldest account is Stephen70, will move there and block all the confirmed accounts. Girth Summit  (blether)  08:18, 21 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Regarding and, they haven't edited in 3 or 6 months, so closing per WP:BLOCKP. -- RoySmith (talk) 01:09, 19 July 2022 (UTC)
 * The other two listed accounts are indeed stale, I'll leave this open in case someone wants to perform beavioural analysis on them. The oldest account is Stephen70, will move there and block all the confirmed accounts. Girth Summit  (blether)  08:18, 21 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Regarding and, they haven't edited in 3 or 6 months, so closing per WP:BLOCKP. -- RoySmith (talk) 01:09, 19 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Regarding and, they haven't edited in 3 or 6 months, so closing per WP:BLOCKP. -- RoySmith (talk) 01:09, 19 July 2022 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
Focus on Crystal Palace F.C. and related articles. Edit summaries very similar to previous socks (see archive). Zacback: Ditto; added punctuation; minor word change; link reference

Pete Dawkins (this is less compelling): minor word change.

Requesting checkuser as master has previously used multiple concurrent accounts and evidence for second editor above is not as strong as I'd like. Spike &#39;em (talk) 09:40, 18 July 2022 (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

 * Both ✅ -- RoySmith (talk) 01:18, 19 July 2022 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
recent new editor editting crystal palace articles only including edit waring over date of foundation. User name is the usual "false name + random number". Requesting check user as master tends to have multiple accounts on the go at once. Spike &#39;em (talk) 15:36, 22 August 2022 (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

 * - looks pretty suspicious compared to edit histories of past socks, e.g. . Endorsing CU to check for others and confirm as there are some differences in edit summaries between these accounts and previous ones. Thanks, Spicy (talk) 11:29, 24 August 2022 (UTC)
 * - -- RoySmith (talk) 14:21, 24 August 2022 (UTC)
 * All of these are ✅ -- RoySmith (talk) 14:29, 24 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Also semi-protected a bunch of Crystal Palace related pages. -- RoySmith (talk) 14:36, 24 August 2022 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets

 * ( original case name)

Summary: Don Eadier and Catford Massive are sockpuppets of Kenneth Wyatt. The accounts' edit the same articles, have correlating editing patterns with switching of accounts back and forth across the past 8 months, back each other up in discussions such as in this one, and write in extremely similar manners of writing with excessive exclamation marks and a lack of commas. All three accounts only edit about Crystal Palace F.C. and things related, and have been consistently abusing multiple accounts, including by making reverts for things that one of their other accounts explicitly complained about. The person running the multiple accounts references extremely specific things, like complaints about specific players being included in Crystal Palace's squad, on different accounts, like Wells-Morrison and Nascimento (better explained further down in text). On top, accounts do not assume good faith of other editors and are rude.

1. There are several things that point towards the accounts belonging to one person. I will break it up into three sections: editing patterns, writing style, and references to similar specific things. Firstly, all three accounts only edit about the same subject; Crystal Palace F.C., and mostly about the "Players" section of the article. Kenneth Wyatt made their first edit on 2 October 2022, and there is not a single article that they have edited that is not about Crystal Palace. Catford Massive, their alleged sockpuppet, made their first edit on 15 October 2022, and have only edited about Crystal Palace F.C. (1861) among a few other Crystal Palace-related things. Don Eadier made their first edit on 20 May 2023, and all further edits have been about Crystal Palace as well, specifically the club's first-team squad. Now, if you look at the specific time periods that the user used different accounts to edit, there is a clear switching of accounts. From 2–3 October, the user used the newly-created Kenneth Wyatt. They then stopped editing until making five edits between 12–15 October, at which time the Catford Massive account was created. Catford Massive then made two edits on 15 October. The user then switched back to Wyatt, making three edits from 21–22 October, before briefly switching back to Catford for one edit on 23 October. Then, starting October 29, the user only edited on Wyatt, from 29 October all the way up to 9 December, when they supposedly took a break from editing. Now, notice how all the edits are specifically on different days. On 23 December, Catford Massive is resurrected, making ten edits on that specific day. On 24 December, Kenneth Wyatt wakes up, making no edits on the previous day but making six edits on December 24 specifically. On 27 December, we switch back to Catford Massive making two edits, a day on which Kenneth Wyatt did not edit. However, the very next day (28 December), Wyatt makes four edits, before continuing to make seven edits on 29 December. The user then only edited using the Kenneth Wyatt account until 16 February. On 9 March, Catford Massive edited again for the first time since 27 December, making five edits. The user then started using Kenneth Wyatt again, making their first edit in a month on 15 March and continuing to edit continously until 31 March. Then, in April, the user decided to switch back to Catford Massive, editing only on 11–12 April. Kenneth Wyatt returned on 8 May, continuing to edit sporadically until today. However, on the specific date of 21 May, Kenneth Wyatt made no edits, having made edits on 20 and 22 May, while 21 May was the exact day that Catford Massive returned to editing, making three edits on that day, their first since 12 April. On 20 May as well, a day on which Kenneth Wyatt was very active, Don Eadier made their first edit. The patterns between the dates of which these accounts edited very similar topics are clearly closely linked, indicating that the accounts are all owned by the same person. Now, I want to point to the writing styles of the users. Firstly, let's focus on Kenneth Wyatt. In this discussion on GiantSnowman's talk page, you can see a bit of how Kenneth Wyatt writes. They use excessive exclamation points and question marks, many parentheses, and do not use commas whatsoever. Now, on this conversation in which both Don Eadier and Catford Massive engaged, the two accounts display the exact same writing style with absolutely no commas and excessive exclamation/question marks at the end of sentences. The writing styles are clear as day extremely similar, and along with the editing patterns mentioned in the monstruous paragraph above, point to sockpuppetry. Another last thing I want to mention about the writing styles is that all three accounts refer to Crystal Palace as "our club" or "us", something that only Crystal Palace fans would do, but even that most football fans do not do on Wikipedia for the sake of neutrality. It only furthers the idea that this is the same person. Now, the last thing that I will mention here that points to suckpuppetry is how different accounts refer to the same specific things, and then make interchanging edits. For example, in the edit description of this edit by Catford Massive, which was a revert of an edit I made, Catford Massive mentioned that Adler Nascimento was for some reason not a valid player to have listed in the first-team squad of Crystal Palace (even though he is on the squad list per the club's official website). Catford Massive wrote "Who is Nascimento??". Then, on the discussion with GiantSnowman that I previously mentioned above (this one, Kenneth Wyatt is the one to question the validity of Nascimento's inclusion in the first-team squad. This is such a specific thing that was noticed by two very similar accounts, that I think it points towards sockpuppetry. Also, in the discussion with GiantSnowman, Kenneth Wyatt explicity complained about this edit that I had made on Crystal Palace FC. However, it was Catford Massive who instead reverted my edit, although it was Kenneth Wyatt who had complained about the edit earlier. This seems like an extreme coincidence (or not), since two accounts complained and collaborated to revert a specific edit that I had made that was actually a constructive edit (for the most part). The users seemed to have been able to read each other's minds; Catford Massive had not edited that article in their entire editing history yet came and made that out of nowhere. Then, Catford Massive left an an angry message on my talk page, again referencing Nascimento, but this time challenging the inclusion of a player called Jack Wells-Morrison on CPFC's first-team squad. This was another player that Kenneth Wyatt had happened to mention in his discussion with GiantSnowman. Anyways, it's clear as day that the users are somehow mind-reading each other and making reverts instead of one another, essentially confirming their sockpuppetry. 2. Here, I just want to give some extra examples of how the accounts are being used abusively. Firtly, like I mentioned above, the accounts are being used to interchangeably make reverts, such as this revert which was done by Catford Massive in place of an editing complaint made by Kenneth Wyatt. In addition, although Kenneth Wyatt was the one who complained about my editing to GiantSnowman, Catford Massive was the one that confronted me on my talk page after being reverted. Then, the accounts are also pretending that they are not the same person in discussions to help their "cause". For example, in this specific discussion on the talk page of Crystal Palace F.C., Don Eadier was the one that opened the conversation, complaining about how the Crystal Palace F.C. website is a "disgrace". However, Catford Massive then responded to the conversation, essentially writing a comment in the exact same writing style as Don Eadier while pushing the agenda against the CPFC website by saying "I agree about the website being dreadful". Here, Don Eadier and Catford Massive really tried passing off that they were different people seemingly agreeing on the same subject to push an agenda in a talk page discussion. This is clear abuse of multiple accounts. Also, just to mention it, Catford Massive, Kenneth Wyatt, and Don Eadier are historically rude in their discussions. Catford Massive said he was "sick" of Merko's replies in the discussion, while I have also been called a "Stepford Clown" by Catford Massive on my own talk page (whatever that means). This specific person does NOT assume good faith in other editors. I hope that I have done enough to prove my case here. I don't think that CheckUser is necessary here, although it would help essentially confirm it, that Don Eadier and Don Eadier are both abusive sockpuppets of Kenneth Wyatt, and that all three accounts should be banned immediately. Thank you. Paul Vaurie (talk) 19:08, 11 June 2023 (UTC)


 * Please see WP:TLDR - at the very least provide a very brief executive summary at the top. GiantSnowman 19:36, 11 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Apologies. I took a bit too much time doing this. I have provided a short summary above. If you have time, I would suggest reading everything, but at least read the summary, please. Paul Vaurie (talk) 21:27, 11 June 2023 (UTC)

Comments by other users

 * Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.

I agree with everything written by Paul Vaurie. These accounts are likely socks, and go on lengthy rants about supposed "true information" without providing any source whatsoever. Merko (talk) 11:41, 12 June 2023 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * - to summarize the lengthy filing, these three accounts are SPAs making similar edits on articles related to Crystal Palace F.C.. I think these accounts actually belong to Sockpuppet_investigations/Stephen70/Archive - the behaviour is identical. I'm endorsing CU to confirm and check for others as sleeper checks were often useful in the Stephen70 case. Thanks, Spicy (talk) 21:14, 18 June 2023 (UTC)
 * . --Blablubbs (talk) 22:43, 18 June 2023 (UTC)
 * These are ✅:
 * They also seem to Stephen70 just from a technical perspective. Merging, blocking, tagging, closing.  --Blablubbs (talk) 22:48, 18 June 2023 (UTC)
 * They also seem to Stephen70 just from a technical perspective. Merging, blocking, tagging, closing.  --Blablubbs (talk) 22:48, 18 June 2023 (UTC)
 * They also seem to Stephen70 just from a technical perspective. Merging, blocking, tagging, closing.  --Blablubbs (talk) 22:48, 18 June 2023 (UTC)
 * They also seem to Stephen70 just from a technical perspective. Merging, blocking, tagging, closing.  --Blablubbs (talk) 22:48, 18 June 2023 (UTC)
 * They also seem to Stephen70 just from a technical perspective. Merging, blocking, tagging, closing.  --Blablubbs (talk) 22:48, 18 June 2023 (UTC)
 * They also seem to Stephen70 just from a technical perspective. Merging, blocking, tagging, closing.  --Blablubbs (talk) 22:48, 18 June 2023 (UTC)
 * They also seem to Stephen70 just from a technical perspective. Merging, blocking, tagging, closing.  --Blablubbs (talk) 22:48, 18 June 2023 (UTC)
 * They also seem to Stephen70 just from a technical perspective. Merging, blocking, tagging, closing.  --Blablubbs (talk) 22:48, 18 June 2023 (UTC)