Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/TheDreamBoat/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets



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TheDreamBoat was previously filed at Atlantic12 SPI and BarcrMac SPI, although it was deemed to be unrelated to these. Evidence is being discussed at, but I thought opening a formal SPI report is the way to go. I'm pretty sure these two accounts cannot be confirmed by CheckUser, since they might be tightly coordinated MEAT, rather than strict socking. See their core interest on MEK, coupled with cover up (gnoming) strategies and how both started a copy-pasta campaign at AfD with a pretty nice time alternation. MarioGom (talk) 16:58, 28 July 2021 (UTC)


 * Note: ANI discussion now at Archive 1073 -- RoySmith (talk) 16:19, 16 August 2021 (UTC)
 * @MarioGom for those of us will a less than complete TLA codebook, what's MEK? I usually think methyl ethyl ketone, but I suspect you've got something else in mind. -- RoySmith (talk) 16:27, 16 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Never mind. People's Mujahedin of Iran. -- RoySmith (talk) 16:29, 16 August 2021 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.''
 * Obvious ducklings of the same flock. The real master is murky, and they might know how to bypass CU from the past case. But as I have commented here, there are three main points of similarity. First, shared overlap and POV in Iran politics articles. Second, starting in February 2021 and persisting through July 2021 both accounts switched their previous activity (which was different) to almost exclusively voting in AfDs, maybe to build activity or maybe another reason. Third, as documented in ANI they both vote in a very similar sloppy copy-pasted manner, sometimes making the mistake of voting twice in the same AfD. This evidence should be sufficient to behaviorally link the pair, irrespective of CU or a possible master. The pair violated the multiple account policy multiple times by participating in the same discussion.-- Eostrix  (&#x1F989; hoot hoot&#x1F989;) 17:05, 28 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Rondolinda was indef blocked by who wrote your limited English reading comprehension skill has resulted in error-laden content, all of which require clean-up of some kind (example of poor English). So how did Rondolinda jump in the middle of a WP:RSN debate between  and I  in perfect English? It was their first, yet precocious, edit in wikipedia space. Rondolinda copies and pastes short generic comments at AfDs, but their comments at Iran discussions are detailed. They never respond to questions in their votes at AfD, but they did respond to me and responded to  at Iran politics discussions.VR talk 17:23, 28 July 2021 (UTC)
 * TheDreamBoat was involved in MEK disputes in 2017. They then went dormant on Dec 13, 2017, but showed up on May 10, 2019 to vote at an RfC on that page. They again went dormant immediately after the vote, but showed up in December 2020 to vote on the same page. Both votes were in favor of the position held by (and the 'pro-MEK' side). This lead  of accusing TheDreamBoat of being canvassed to the discussion because of their dormancy. So TheDreamBoat then went on a spelling change spree until concern was expressed about these edits. They stopped doing that, and in February 2021 started copying and pasting votes at AfDs.VR talk 18:07, 28 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Here are some more clues from Rondolinda which I think need to be taken into account:
 * 1) Rondolinda's first edits are focusing on MEK related pages:, ,
 * 2) He did this edit on a MEK-related page and went on hiatus followed by his new edits being completely different from the pre-hiatus ones. I reported pretty much the same behavior for other accounts which I deemed to be pro-MEK. I would describe this as a strong behavioural evidence.
 * 3) He is there when his help is needed.
 * 4) He uploaded some MEK-related files which were deleted later  – though you may see his upload being credited here.
 * 5) TheDreamBoat was reported multiple times by multiple users (see Sockpuppet investigations/Atlantic12/Archive and Sockpuppet investigations/BarcrMac/Archive) and he 'mysteriously' escaped the CU checks.
 * There are some more clues which I will email to Ponyo, ASAP. -- M h hossein   talk 07:34, 30 July 2021 (UTC)


 * Another important point is that TheDreamBoat switched to a completely different editing behavior (of AFD voting) when I expressed my concern here, where I said: "TheDreamBoat is a dromant account which comes to the RFCs whenever needed. Previously, he !voted after more than one year of dormancy and the current one comes after around a 6-month-long hiatus." -- M h hossein   talk 13:58, 30 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Mhhossein and some of his relentless supporters (most of them now blocked such as user:Expectant of Light, user:Kazemita1, user:Saff V.) have been trying to get me blocked for years mostly because I have a different opinion than they do when it comes to Iranian political topics. They have also made such accusations against other editors that go against their POV. I will substantiate in the current Arb case. Stefka Bulgaria (talk) 08:38, 31 July 2021 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * Your instincts are correct, ; checkuser isn't much help here. .-- Jezebel's Ponyo bons mots 17:08, 28 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Proxy use? --Blablubbs (talk) 18:11, 28 July 2021 (UTC)
 * The best I can do is . Different geolocations, but not impossible to pull off. A bit of travelling from one of the accounts. More likely coordinated than straight up socking.-- Jezebel's Ponyo bons mots 18:19, 28 July 2021 (UTC)


 * My only involvement in this case is as a checkuser, and that tool is not helpful here. Please either present your evidence here, or email it to the Clerk handling the case (, if they're ok with receiving the details by email) if it can't be presented here.-- Jezebel's Ponyo bons mots 17:16, 2 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Noting that I haven't forgotten about this, though real life, other cases, and hesitancy to take this on have come in the way somewhat. I suspect that whatever the case outcome, it might involve administrative judgement outside of the socking side (which is something I can't really engage in as a non-admin clerk), and that it might benefit from being processed by someone familiar with the MEK and related editing disputes and patterns (a particular accumulation of bees' nests that I still struggle to wrap my head around). If another clerk feels like taking this on, I'd be grateful (my original question was mostly asked out of curiosity), otherwise I'll try to get to it, but I can't promise that I will be quick. Apologies for the wait and the inconvenience. --Blablubbs (talk) 23:41, 12 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Closing with no action taken. There's certainly extensive shared interest in contemporary Iranian politics, but that's hardly uncommon.  And, sure, the AfD spamming is suspicious, but my hunch is that they were both responding to some off-wiki suggestion that they could bulk up their edit count by doing this.  On the other hand, I see distinctive interests going back many years (math, music, dance, technology) between the two.  Also, I see a bunch of technical and language-skill indicators that are quite different between them (ask me off-line).  I would be very surprised if these were the same person, even without the negative-ish CU result.  I agree with Ponyo's conclusion of More likely coordinated than straight up socking. -- RoySmith (talk) 17:44, 16 August 2021 (UTC)