Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/The Wurdalak/Archive

Evidence submitted by Jayron32
The article Is Google Making Us Stupid? is a honeypot for socks of two banned/indef blocked editors. These have always been User:The Wurdalak and User:Manhattan Samurai. AT one time, I had thought these two were the same user, but some additional investigation by a checkuser, and some ArbCom clarifications clearly established that these are different users, though they both are known for creating sock accounts to edit Is Google Making Us Stupid?. The article recieves a very low level of traffic, but there have been an occasional edit made by a throwaway account, and nearly all of these throwaway accounts seem to have a certain familiarity with Wikipedia indicating they are likely not new users. My gut feeling seems to indicate this more closely matched The Wurdalak than Manhattan Samurai, but I am not 100% on this. I would like to avoid a long-term semi-protection here, so I want to see a) if my interpretation of this evidence is correct, and these are all throwaway accounts of The Wurdalak or possible Manhattan Samurai, and b) IF possible, if we could handle this via something like a rangeblock or hard IP block or something which can shut down account creation for this banned user. An examination of the history of the article in question could be helpful as well. -- Jayron  32  05:02, 1 November 2009 (UTC)

Comments by accused parties
See Defending yourself against claims.

CheckUser requests
Requested by Jayron  32  05:02, 1 November 2009 (UTC)


 * — Jake   Wartenberg  17:47, 1 November 2009 (UTC)

Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments
✅ =

and appear to be ❌ from technical evidence (~ 10,000 kilometers away from the above, different UAs). J.delanoy gabs adds 23:55, 1 November 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks for checking that out. J.delanoy. Varks Spira had already been blocked, so I added the appropriate tag.  I also blocked and tagged all the rest of the accounts listed as confirmed hits.  Just two more questions:
 * The two unrelated accounts; is there any connection between those accounts and Manhattan Samurai? As I noted above, The Wurdalak and Manhattan Samurai have similar interests and MO's, to the point where it took some ArbCom investigating and other stuff to sort out that they were, in fact, seperate people.  Are the two accounts you note as unrelated to Wurdalak also unrelated to MS?
 * Would it be feasible, based on the technical evidence you have found, for you to institute some sort of hard-IP block or IP rangeblock to stop The Wurdalak from creating disruptive socks; sort of "head this off at the pass" intervention? Playing whack-a-mole with his socks can be tiring, and in at least a few cases, those socks have been used for outright disruption of their own regard, beyond just dodging his initial block.  Stopping this at the source would be great, if feasible.
 * Thanks again, and looking forward to your response on these issues.-- Jayron  32  00:33, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Answers....
 * I am not sure. Most of MS's socks that I know of are, and the CU log is a bit fuzzy in this case. You might want to ask Nishkid64. He ran quite a few of the requests.
 * Nope, unfortunately. He is editing from two /13s, probably more. J.delanoy gabs adds  00:50, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Alright. Thanks anyways.  -- Jayron  32  01:06, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

Conclusions

 * ✅ All confirmed socks have been tagged and blocked. No additional prophylactic action possible since the sockmaster edits from too large a range.  Everything done here.  -- Jayron  32  01:08, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

Evidence submitted by DoriSmith

 * 9 November:
 * On 2 September 2009, User:Varks Spira created an account and then immediately created the Oath Keepers article. The editor continued to regularly update the article until being blocked on 2 November as a sock puppet of User:The Wurdalak.


 * On 7 November, User:Children will try created an account and immediately started editing the Oath Keepers article in a fashion that didn't appear to be that of a new editor.


 * . Dori ❦ (Talk ❖ Contribs ❖ Review) ❦ 00:36, 9 November 2009 (UTC)


 * 11 November:
 * Added User:132.188.71.11 as anon IP is now also editing the article in question. That, combined with Varks Spira's statement that he  and The Wurdalak's history of mammoth socking pushed me to add a checkuser request here as well. Dori ❦ (Talk ❖ Contribs ❖ Review) ❦ 20:03, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

Comments by accused parties
See Defending yourself against claims.

Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments
Requested by Dori ❦ (Talk ❖ Contribs ❖ Review) ❦ 20:03, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

– I looked at this a couple of days ago, and I'm not wholly convinced of the behavioral evidence here. Could use some technical evidence to help out. MuZemike 00:22, 12 November 2009 (UTC)


 * ✅ - the following accounts as socks of :




 * - A l is o n  ❤ 00:56, 14 November 2009 (UTC)
 * All blocked. J.delanoy gabs adds  04:57, 14 November 2009 (UTC)

Conclusions

 * All tagged appropriately; closing. NW ( Talk ) 19:31, 14 November 2009 (UTC)
 * I went ahead and tagged the few that were not and indef'd the sockmaster. It is clear that they have no intent on improving their behavior, and are exhausting our patience. As ArbCom reduced their block a while back I will email them so that they are in the loop. Tiptoety  talk 19:34, 14 November 2009 (UTC)
 * For the record, User:Falsehoods Aplenty was also blocked as a sock by EdJohnston per behavioral evidence at User talk:Skomorokh. Jamie  S93  18:04, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Evidence submitted by Jayron32
Both users have exclusively edited the article Is Google Making Us Stupid?, which is pretty much the exclusive domain of The Wurdalak, or sometimes User:Manhattan Samurai, so it may be worth checking agains MS as well, though last time this was The Wurdalak. Asking for a checkuser to root out any sleepers. -- Jayron  32  04:12, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Comments by accused parties
See Defending yourself against claims.

Comments by other users
It seems to me the sockmaster is actually User:Manhattan Samurai, of which User:The Wurdalak is most likely a sock. Any evidence to that, other than behavioral?--Atlan (talk) 13:38, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments
Requested by Jayron  32  04:12, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

–MuZemike 17:42, 11 February 2010 (UTC)


 * , and ✅ that the following appear to match each other, based on currently available technical evidence:
 * This may or may not shed much light on the question of original account(s) behind the sockpuppets. – Luna Santin  (talk) 18:22, 11 February 2010 (UTC)
 * This may or may not shed much light on the question of original account(s) behind the sockpuppets. – Luna Santin  (talk) 18:22, 11 February 2010 (UTC)
 * This may or may not shed much light on the question of original account(s) behind the sockpuppets. – Luna Santin  (talk) 18:22, 11 February 2010 (UTC)
 * This may or may not shed much light on the question of original account(s) behind the sockpuppets. – Luna Santin  (talk) 18:22, 11 February 2010 (UTC)
 * This may or may not shed much light on the question of original account(s) behind the sockpuppets. – Luna Santin  (talk) 18:22, 11 February 2010 (UTC)
 * This may or may not shed much light on the question of original account(s) behind the sockpuppets. – Luna Santin  (talk) 18:22, 11 February 2010 (UTC)
 * This may or may not shed much light on the question of original account(s) behind the sockpuppets. – Luna Santin  (talk) 18:22, 11 February 2010 (UTC)
 * This may or may not shed much light on the question of original account(s) behind the sockpuppets. – Luna Santin  (talk) 18:22, 11 February 2010 (UTC)
 * This may or may not shed much light on the question of original account(s) behind the sockpuppets. – Luna Santin  (talk) 18:22, 11 February 2010 (UTC)
 * This may or may not shed much light on the question of original account(s) behind the sockpuppets. – Luna Santin  (talk) 18:22, 11 February 2010 (UTC)
 * This may or may not shed much light on the question of original account(s) behind the sockpuppets. – Luna Santin  (talk) 18:22, 11 February 2010 (UTC)
 * This may or may not shed much light on the question of original account(s) behind the sockpuppets. – Luna Santin  (talk) 18:22, 11 February 2010 (UTC)
 * This may or may not shed much light on the question of original account(s) behind the sockpuppets. – Luna Santin  (talk) 18:22, 11 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Accounts tagged for the moment as The Wurdalak. Does anyone else also think that The Wurdalak is actually a sock of Manhattan Samurai? –MuZemike 18:48, 11 February 2010 (UTC)


 * If you consider the wordy edit summaries to be the MO of The Wurdalak, this one specifically refers to himself as "the Lex Luthor of Wikipedia". That's a nick name associated with Manhattan Samurai. That's about the best link between The Wurdalak and Manhattan Samurai I could find.--Atlan (talk) 20:36, 11 February 2010 (UTC)