Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Stowed93/Archive

Report date January 20 2009, 17:13 (UTC)

 * Suspected sockpuppets


 * Evidence submitted by hexaChord

Rydens School (history: ) is about the only article the above edited (better: vandalised) the past few weeks. It may be the same person or some (former) pupils from this school. A checkuser could solve this mystery.--Avant-garde a clue- hexa Chord 2  17:13, 20 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Comments by accused parties    See Defending yourself against claims.


 * Comments by other users

Just about all edits from all four accounts appear to be vandalism, and I have issued all 4 with final warnings (uw-bv).
 * Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments

The earliest edits in the sequence appear to show Bumberclut and Stowed93 editing against each other, rather than in collusion, and it seems likely, based on the username that Stowed93 is the individual that Bumberclut is trying to insult.

It is apparent that whilst Stowed93 is vandalising, he is also removing the attacks that were added by Bumberclut that I assume are attacks on him. Neither Theghid not Islandthunder seek to remove these attacks.

On that basis, I am convinced that Stowed93 is not controlling any of the other accounts.

Whilst the other 3 accounts are all vandalising the article, I can see no particular common purpose between them, and no tag-team behaviour. When the vandalism of one is reverted, the others don't go out of their way to re-add that vandalism. Rather they add their own vandalism. The seeking of new ways to make their own mark suggests that there is more than one person behind it, and indeed they may all be trying to outdo each other with their vandalism.

The article is currently semi-protected (although 2 of the accounts are autoconfirmed, and could edit through the protection), although the mere fact of semiprotection seems to have stopped the vandals.

The most likely explanation is that there are 4 or 5 (there is an IP involved as well) people all known to each other, all former or current pupils, that they are all vandalising as a private game, but that there is no one person with multiple accounts, and that there is no one person directing others in their editing. Mayalld (talk) 12:51, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Mayalld (talk) 12:51, 22 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Conclusions
 * is unlikely to be running a sock farm.
 * but that any of the others are socks.
 * Any repetition can be adequately handled by blocking as vandalism only accounts.