Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/TheQ Editor/Archive

07 October 2014

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User LauraHale stopped editing (except very few occasional edits) on 17 February 2014, after she had gotten into a dispute with User:Number 57. Two weeks before that, she narrowly escaped a topic ban at Administrators' noticeboard/Archive258. There were many problems with articles she created, often on Paralympians, and often with articles she brought to DYK. They looked good at first glance, but often contained many errors that were harder to spot and weren't checked because her contributions were accepted in good faith.

Less than two weeks after she stops editing when it is clear that there finally is some scrutiny of her creations, a new editor appears, User:TheQ Editor (28 February 2014). After some initial editing, TheQ starts editing Triathlon Australia, matching the Australian and sports interests of LauraHale. Soon after, she wants to start reviewing articles as GA's (as a "new editor", less than one month on Wikipedia, with no articles created and only a few edited...). TheQ makes all kind of wrong or misguided edits, e.g., which, if it is a sock of LauraHale, is deliberate disruption to look like a new editor. (If not, then it is just being over enthusiastic of course). A bit later, TheQ starts writing articles, the 1st and 4th of which are deleted, the 3rd, Octogoat, now up for deletion.

From the 5th article on, some two months later, the topic is suddenly Paralympic athletes, the same topic that was a central theme for LauraHale. The 9 articles she created include one on Mark Ideson, a wheelchair curler in Sochi, an event witnessed by LauarHale for Wikinews. TheQ also is very quick to start nominating articles for DYK and GA, another LauraHale characteristic. That TheQ's first DYK gets promoted by Hawkeye7 may be a coincidence though (Template:Did you know nominations/Mac Marcoux), although they were together at the 2012 Paralympics for Wikinews, and Hawkeye has "worked for" Laurahale in the past (see Wikipedia Signpost/2011-06-20/Arbitration report)

The problem is that the style of TheQ in those Paralympian articles is eerily similar to that of LauraHale. An article like Walter Wu contains all the problems earlier LauraHale articles on similar subjects had (apart from bad translations obviously), including bad counts of the most basic (and sourced facts), like the number of medals won at the 1996 Games (article states 6 gold and 1 bronze, infobox gives 6 gold and one bronze, but reality and sources give 5 gold and one bronze, since there wa no such thing as the "1000m Freestyle"). Other telling characteristics include poor prose and strange capitalization ("A shoulder injury of his right shoulder caused Wu trouble in Early 2000"), or seemingly lacking the most basic understanding of how medals are awarded ("He ended up winning the gold medal, coming first.": well, it would have been strange if he had won it coming second!). LauraHale was famous for her strange reinterpretations of sources, rewriting them just enough to make them incomprehensible or just wrong. John Scott McRoberts, another of the TheQ creations, has little prose, but contains the gem "He became a quadriplegic at 18 years old after diving into shallow water. When he moved, he said that he felt "like a duck out of water."" Seems very strange (at least to me), perhaps some self-deprecating humour? No, not really, the original quote is "He had sailed as a teenager and says he felt “like a duck out of water’’ when he moved to Victoria at age 30."

Or take Brianna Nelson: "She practices at Saanich Commonwealth Place where her freestyle had improved by a full second." What? What does this mean? Oh right, "In fact, her time in the 50m freestyle alone has improved by a full second." Or a bit lower: "Nelson's second Paralympic, After she had won the 2 silver medals in the 50 metre butterfly and 200 metre individual medley. She said[...]" Incorrect capitalization, punctuation, ..."

The most recent, Robbi Weldon,an "athlete who has competed in the 2010, 2012 and 2014 Winter Paralympics". There were no 2012 Winter Paralympics, but passons... "She won 5 medals, all of which are all gold." Uh, right, none of them are gold-plated chocolats.

Now, compare this style, this kind of stilted language, these poor writing skills, with an article like Aitor Oroza Flores; "he had a pair of fourth place finished", "Oroza finished first in is class". Or Alberto Suárez Laso: "[...] and, As of 2012, he is coached by[...]", or "He is a world record in the marathon for his classification." César Neira Pérez has things like "He was the number one cyclists to finish in the Road Trial race.". The list of her problematic and similar edits is way too long to include here.

What are the chances that we have two editors, one created less than two weeks after the other ceased editing ("under a cloud", one might add), interested in the same topics (Paralympic athletes), making the same kind of errors, both heavily interested in DYK and GA (with the "new" editor getting her first DYK promoted by Hawkeye7)? I very much doubt that these are two separate editors (but it is the kind of thing that only becomes obvious when one is familiar with the editing of LauraHale, not something that can be captured in a few diffs), and if so, the new TheQ account is an attempt to avoid scrutiny while continuing the same kind of edits and behaviour. Fram (talk) 13:47, 7 October 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for the check. Note that there were also User:WikiMathhew, User:TheQ Tester and User:TheOther Q, quite a busy account creator! But these are clearly linked, so nothing problematic there at first glance. Fram (talk) 08:33, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

I've just delisted Walter Wu (was promoted to GA yesterday) and cleaned up and moved Swimming at the 1996 Summer Paralympics – Men's 100 metre freestyle B3. The problems with those articles again are eerily similar to the ones LauraHale had with hers. It's rather disappointing that even the errors listed above weren't corrected before or during the GA review, indicating that the Q Editor hasn't even read this SPI despite replying to it (well, replying to the CU results, not to the fundamental issue or her being LauraHale in disguise). Anyway, I understand that CU won't help me in connecting these editors to LauraHale apparently, but I hope that whoever closes this will take the time to familiarize himself with the edits and style of LauraHale and TheQ, just like Drmies did below. Fram (talk) 10:03, 31 October 2014 (UTC)

, thanks for the reply. Whether you are male or female is impossible for us to determine. LauraHale was in Spain until November 2013, her current whereabouts are unknown to us. Her userpage is just not updated anymore. I have at the moment not the possibility to disprove your claims; but I just don't buy them. The uncanny similarity between the topics you both edit, the style you both have (because you just happened to start from one of her articles), the errors you both make. You have now created Abdi Dini, which falsely claims he won the gold medal at the 2008 Paralympics. This kind of error is exactly the problem I much too often had with LauraHale, who was a poor writer and a worse fact checker. Like her, you can't seem to even get a birthdate right. Dini was born in 1981, not 1980 (whether he was really born on 1 January, or whether that is a fictitious date given when people only know their year of birth, is not known of course). Two people, with the exact same style, same interests, same serious writing and fact-checking deficiencies, and one started editing almost immediately after the other stopped editing? It's too much for me to believe that this is all a coincidence. Fram (talk) 08:08, 3 November 2014 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.''
 * The stiltedness spots is indeed noteworthy, though of course there are plenty of editors producing prose as tasty as IKEA furniture. But combined with the Paralympics interest this becomes a bit uncanny, and I see great similarities in how Q and LauraHale do the references for their creations. Drmies (talk) 01:27, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
 * TheQ Editor and I are friends outside of the internet. Our accounts were created as we were having a lesson on using Wikipedia, and I don't know of any other accounts he had, other than the TheQ Tester and Vacation Q. I'm gonna go ask him later, he's somewhere in that class over there... KidLucario (talk) 15:33, 14 October 2014 (UTC)
 * I think we should give TheQ Editor time to respond to this. I don't think anyone ever notified him. Per KidLucario, a lot of the similarities could be because these editors are just friends. Of course meatpuppetry is equally as bad, provided the confirmed puppets are being used abusively. I'm only saying all of this as from my experience TheQ Editor has been a great contributor, I find it hard to believe he's doing something like this, and if he is, I'm gravely disappointed. Isn't it possible the confirmed socks are merely other users editing from the same school IP? Can the checkusers verify it is a shared IP? &mdash;  MusikAnimal talk 15:50, 14 October 2014 (UTC)
 * I don't know about the checkuser thing but I do not own an account named "Billy on Boxes". The only accounts I own is User:TheQ Tester and User:Vacation Q. I've also created a few accounts before this but I don't think I made any edits with those? What do you think may have happened? Thanks,  ΤheQ Editor   Talk? 15:53, 14 October 2014 (UTC)
 * I'm wondering who Joydebbei is. KidLucario (talk) 16:53, 14 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Sorry, I totally forgot about this case in the past few days, but here is what I got:
 * One of my friends and I had a debate arguing about the reliability of Wikipedia. I dared him to find a fact on Wikipedia that is false.
 * At the "party" I described to DQ, on one of my breaks, that friend did a series of stuff under my IP.
 * He used User:Billy on Boxes and User:Joydebei to "edit" Wikipedia.
 * Billy on Boxes has edited before. Billy on Boxes was not created under my IP. (location unknown)
 * Joydebei was created under my IP.
 * I hope that makes it clear now. Thanks,  ΤheQ Editor   Talk? 20:27, 1 November 2014 (UTC)
 * This is just a coincidence. First of all, I'm male. The most coincidental part was the beginning. I used Community Portal to do all those things that were related to the works of LauraHale. The next part is linked a little. The article Mac Marcoux (my first article) were based on an article that I thought was pretty good (and created by LauraHale). And that's basically why my style is similar to LauraHale's. I started reviewing GAs when I stumbled across a userpage which brought me to the recruitment centre.

To prove further that I am not LauraHale, just look at how often we edit and the time we usually edit. LauraHale claims she lives in Spain. Some of her edits were made when it was the middle of the night for me as I live in a completely different time zone. Also, LauraHale rarely gives edit summaries when I give almost every time. Keep in mind that I edit (create) Paralympic related articles simply because of volunteer work and a little bit of interest. I would be really be glad to work on other sport articles without the "born blind" and "fell off and broke his back. Had to spend months in hospital". I also work on Paralympic related articles because I see people create them as a stub when it could have a lot of reliable sources. That's why I try to create Paralympic related articles to the best of my ability (and that is why I have them go to GAC).  ΤheQ Editor  Talk? 21:10, 1 November 2014 (UTC)


 * I think we should ping here. She may or may not see this, but it doesn't hurt to try. Second of all, although our editing styles may be the same, our editing pattern is not. See contributions for LauraHale and my contributions.   ΤheQ Editor   Talk? 20:46, 3 November 2014 (UTC)
 * You make it sound like it's my story like I'm making it up which I assure you I am not. The information I listed above are all the things I know about, though I can describe to you more closely if you want but I don't think those details will matter. Also, are you interpreting this right, because on the email I sent you, I could only give you limited information to you, but after I had a talk with my friend, (believing him) I could give you more information which I listed above. Lastly, I do not know everything. I do not know how he knows how to use templates two minutes after he first edits and why he's using two accounts. I have a theory on why he chose the name Billy on Boxes and using two accounts, but I can't be certain about it. Thanks,   ΤheQ Editor   Talk? 20:39, 5 November 2014 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * LauraHale is ❌ to TheQ Editor
 * TheQ Editor is ✅ to:


 * TheQ Editor is to:
 * Vandalism while logged out, then logging in to warn, with the IP blocked later
 * Vandalism while logged out, then logging in to warn, with the IP blocked later
 * Vandalism while logged out, then logging in to warn, with the IP blocked later


 * TheQ Editor is to
 * -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  17:23, 7 October 2014 (UTC)
 * All the and  users are obtained from a school IP, hence the inability to call it confirmed. The likely group pulls the same technical details as TheQ. The possible has different details. As for the ✅, as far as I can tell, that is a static residential IP, which in the entire time that TheQ was editing, these accounts appeared with the same technical details.
 * I don't try and explain the results as YOU would know more about this than I would. I made my comments for MusikAnimal which you may wish to review. If you are convinced you are innocent, please drop me an email where I can ask you questions privately, which will all be based on the CU data. If you answer all the questions truthfully and properly, and it explains why I see what I see in checkuser, then I am willing to amend the result. And just to be clear where we are right now, the ONLY two accounts your claiming are your own are User:TheQ Tester and User:Vacation Q? -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  16:48, 14 October 2014 (UTC)
 * We have about 700 people in this school, so more Wikipedia accounts being created and accessed from here is very likely. "Vandalism while logged out" might be TheQ Editor, but as I've said, many other people (some of them not too bright - no offense) are using this IP, therefore the vandalism may be from them. Also, during the lesson last year, our school IP was blocked for a while due to overzealous classmates editing Wikipedia with no accounts. KidLucario (talk) 17:01, 14 October 2014 (UTC)


 * - While my results still stand, i'm in contact with TheQ to try and see if we can have things explained. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  16:35, 15 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Update: With some further digging and statements from TheQ, KidLucario is a second person, and not TheQ.
 * The answers given for the interaction between the confirmed accounts do not match the technical evidence, and are in fact, quite obviously incorrect, if not impossible. He gives indications that if anything he has no connection to the accounts. With the stale CU data, I can't see the original account creations in CU for Billy on Boxes, but it's not the first time that they edited, which even if the timeline given by TheQ matched what CU said, it would still contradict the partial explanation I am getting.
 * After 3 days of actual editing, Billy on Boxes, is using Twinkle, and deletion criterion with templates, and also edits AfDs.
 * It's also important to note that TheQ edits, stops, Billy on Boxes starts, stops, Joydebbei starts, stops, and TheQ resumes all in succession.
 * I have no additional details surrounding the likely accounts which I listed above.
 * The answers given are also brief and to the point, and really don't offer a true explanation. With all the listed above, I'm still convinced the three accounts are ✅ to each other, being the same person. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  16:54, 28 October 2014 (UTC)
 * I was asked to take a look by MusikAnimal, and LauraHale's two edits that are still fresh are from an entirely different continent than the other accounts' edits. Technically, it is about as ❌ as it could get. Courcelles 21:24, 3 November 2014 (UTC)
 * TheQ, your story gets more and more sketchy and difficult to believe as this case goes on. Not only is your statement above completely different from the emails you sent me, it looks like your creating the story as you go with the information/questions I provide you. You expect us to believe that your "friend" knew how to use templates in two minutes after his first edit? Your providing us mostly with information we already know or can speculate to and your unable to provide a decently plausible account of what happened. Also why would your friend even need two accounts to edit Wikipedia if he's brand new? Another part of your story that has a whole in it. --  DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  17:40, 4 November 2014 (UTC)
 * I want to go ahead and make clear my involvement with this case. I went out of my way to help verify that TheQ is unrelated to LauraHale, which is still being debated. Beyond that, I will refrain from upholding any sides. If it's not already obvious, I will not be closing this SPI. &mdash;  MusikAnimal talk 18:02, 4 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Sorry about that. Didn't read in to your involvement so I though you were going to be the closing administration, Hense the ping. Thanks for letting me know. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  19:11, 4 November 2014 (UTC)


 * I've indefinitely blocked the three confirmed sockpuppets —, , and . (Note that the username of  was changed to TheOther Q.)  TheOther Q was declared as a legitimate alternate account, but given everything that has been going on here, all other accounts used by  should be considered suspect until demonstrated otherwise.  —  Rich wales (no relation to Jimbo) 07:08, 22 November 2014 (UTC)
 * I've also indefinitely blocked the two likely socks — and .  —  Rich wales (no relation to Jimbo) 07:16, 22 November 2014 (UTC)
 * I'm going to close this SPI. No sufficiently convincing evidence (either CU or behavioural) was presented to link  to .  And although several confirmed and likely sockpuppets of TheQ Editor were found via CU, they had all stopped editing several weeks ago; I've already indef-blocked them all, but blocking TheQ Editor for inappropriate use of multiple accounts at this point would only be punitive (which Wikipedia sanctions are not supposed to be).  I'll put a warning on TheQ Editor's talk page.  If some people are still convinced that LauraHale is a sockpuppet of TheQ Editor, please feel free to come back to SPI, but please bring a solid behavioural case next time (remembering that a CU check found no relationship and is very unlikely to be repeated).  —  Rich wales (no relation to Jimbo) 18:27, 22 November 2014 (UTC)