Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/TheDelhiBoy2/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets
Two newly created accounts have been editing Amar Singh (art dealer) on their first day of creation, here and here. TheDelhiBoy2 got indefinitely blocked yesterday, so checking to see if block evasion. Another account seems to be a dormant SPA with a previous one week block for edits on the same page, while a further account is the article creator. Uhooep (talk) 01:21, 29 October 2023 (UTC)

Comments by other users

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

I'm doing a school project on Wiki as part of it we had to create a page. My page got denied as I didn't have enough good references which made me sad. So I spoke to my mentor and learned why. I decided to add more references to the page associated with the gallery which exhibited the work of the person I was making the page of.
 * If I'm not allowed to do this, should I edit other pages? GlasgowGoatHerder (talk) 13:00, 30 October 2023 (UTC)


 * Comment - I was just coming here to file a case for TheDelhiBoy2 but see one was already filed. Here is the evidence I was going to provide - Currently a discussion at COIN about user:GlasgowGoatHerder and their editing of Amar Singh (art dealer). The edit history of that page shows User:TheDelhiBoy2 first edit on Wikipedia (October 27, 2023) was to that page and that user was blocked for disruptive editing of that page on the same day. The next day, a new account was created by User:LollipopWhimsy who also began editing the page. User:GlasgowGoatHerder created an account the day after that and has been editing the page up to being taken to COIN. I believe LollipopWhimsy is TheDelhiBoy2 who created an account to avoid the block. While I want to assume good faith about GlasgowGoatHerder, I am suspicious about their activity as the account was just created and began editing the same page as the other two accounts. --CNMall41 (talk) 05:58, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

Referenced material which could be construed as negative to Amar Singh was removed by TheDelhiBoy2 (diff diff diff) whose final mainspace edit was to tag the Amar Singh (art dealer) article for speedy deletion (diff). LollipopWhimsy also removed lines which could be construed as negative towards Amar Singh (diff diff diff). These two accounts were created on 27 October 2023 and 28 October 2023 respectively, and Amar Singh (art dealer) makes up, in one case all, and in the other instance the bulk, of their Wikipedia contributions. GlasgowGoatHerder (a student who apparently came to Wikipedia to create a page for a school project (diff)), created an account on 29 October 2023, wrote a draft about Amar Singh's portrait artist, removed lines questioning Amar Singh's philanthropic claims (diff), and went as far as questioning the reliability of Airmail as a citation for controversies about Amar Singh - all on the first day of their account creation. An unexplained diff by the IP (seemingly using a VPN in Glasgow, Scotland, and now temporarily blocked for disruptive editing) on 30 October also removes material which could be construed as negative towards Amar Singh. TheDelhiBoy2 was using the same apparent VPN IP in Glasgow, and a draft created by the school student GlasgowGoatHerder comes back as a likely G5 candidate when SPI tools are run against TheDelhiBoy2 (in addition to having obvious subject matter overlaps). GlasgowGoatHerder has removed the exact same references as the IP, one day apart (diff diff), and if they are really a school student from the United Kingdom, then they are editing Amar Singh (art dealer) within school hours, which makes me inclined not to believe their stated motivations for editing Wikipedia. Separately, Sk1728 wrote about Amar Singh's grandmother Veena Singh (a fairly obscure figure without a Wikipedia article as of yet yet) in February 2021 (diff); LollipopWhimsy writes about the same grandmother on 28 October 2023 (diff), and the IP adds back information about the same grandmother on 30 October 2023 (diff). An administrator, Missvain, previously flagged Editorworldwide14 as a possible sock of Sk1728, however the now former admin, TonyBallioni, who closed that particular investigation declined to check Editorworldwide14 against the suspected master Sk1728 at that time. Also, Sk1728 created this article in February 2021, Editorworldwide14 only shows up to make their first contributions when there is an AfD on the article, and TheDelhiBoy2 LollipopWhimsy GlasgowGoatHerder and the IP come along for the first time on 27/28/29/30 October 2023, just a couple of weeks after Airmail writes a long-form controversial piece about the subject, published 14 October 2023. I think based on the editing and the time frames involved, there is sufficient reason to check whether these accounts are acting in concert and being used to evade blocks. Uhooep (talk) 08:55, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
Hmm. Of these accounts, two have been inactive for years. Of the other two, only one has edited Amar Singh (art dealer) on its first day. I think we need some WP:DIFFs of suspicious edits before we can take action. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 08:19, 29 October 2023 (UTC)
 * requested diffs and changed the status of the case accordingly to "moreinfo". Some diffs were provided, and, with an edit summary ("information given") but no comment in the report, changed the status of the case to "CU", even though a CU was not requested by the filer. It should have been Jo-Jo, another patrolling admin, or a clerk that should have changed the status. I've changed the status back to "open", although I'm not averse to a CU being requested, depending on whether enough diffs have now been given (not links, btw, diffs - , please convert any links to diffs) to make a prima facie case.--Bbb23 (talk) 13:22, 1 November 2023 (UTC)
 * With respect to Sockpuppet investigations/Sk1728 and the two stale accounts listed here, it would be more accurate to say that TonyBallioni declined to run a check because, in his view, there was insufficient behavioral evidence to warrant one.--Bbb23 (talk) 13:52, 1 November 2023 (UTC)


 * - I think there is enough evidence to compare LollipopWhimsy against the master. I also think should be included in the check. Obvious username similarity. Although the master is a WP:SPA, seemingly interested only in the Amar Singh article and TheDelhiBoy never edited that article, there are obvious topic similarities and this business of tagging articles for A7 that should not be tagged. Bbb23 (talk) 15:56, 3 November 2023 (UTC)
 * - Please, compare LollipopWhimsy to TheDelhiBoy2.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  00:39, 3 December 2023 (UTC)
 * I limited my attention to just comparing LollipopWhimsy to TheDelhiBoy2. Nominally ❌ but there's enough odd stuff happening that  is probably a better fit. RoySmith (talk) 23:08, 9 December 2023 (UTC)
 * stale case ST47 (talk) 01:03, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
Original SPI filed in October 2023. At the time, only the accounts TheDelhiBoy2 and LollipopWhimsy were compared although there were other potential socks listed. Just calling this out as I am not sure if TheDelhiBoy2 would actually be the master for this case as they were found not related to LollipopWhimsy. Original filing dealt with editing of Amar Singh (art dealer). Two recent accounts have been editing the page (Artswatch234 and 2134.elt). Both are SPA and focusing on the page for Amar Singh. What caught my attention is the similar usernames (note the numbers) and the fact that both have extremely long edit summaries which is unusual. Going back to the account LollipopWhimsy, I see that this user also used extrenely long edit summaries. So, while I am not confident that TheDelhiBoy2 would be the master, I am certain that the accounts Artswatch234, 2134.elt, and LollipopWhimsy are related. CNMall41 (talk) 04:44, 8 January 2024 (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

 * Inconclusive. The two recently active accounts are obviously related in behavior, but CU shows nothing of use. ST47 (talk) 01:04, 9 January 2024 (UTC)
 * The non-stale accounts have not edited since this SPI was filed. Calling it a day here. Spicy (talk) 18:06, 4 March 2024 (UTC)