Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Tony1/Archive

14 December 2014

 * Suspected sockpuppets




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 * Editor interaction utility

These two IPs have both commented on decapitalisation move requests at poorly-watched pages. Notably, both of them have had some form of interaction with Tony1, an ardent supporter of the requests. In the case of the first IP, Tony1 "endorsed" the post of the IP. In the case of the second IP, the IP says "as Tony1 says below". Use of the phrase "routine maintenance move" is particularly telling, as this is how the move has been consistently characterised by the proposers of the requests. I'm not sure that this is Tony, but I'm certain that it is someone. The "interaction" between the two made me think it was Tony. One other curious thing is how the second IP uses British -ise spelling, despite geolocating to America. Tony1 also uses -ise spelling. The first IP used "-ize" spelling, however. Perhaps proxies are at work? I'm not sure what's going on here, but I definitely think it should be looked into. RGloucester — ☎ 21:16, 14 December 2014 (UTC)  RGloucester  — ☎ 21:16, 14 December 2014 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.''
 * Mike V, you're just encouraging this individual to use a baseless allegation to try to influence the outcome of that debate. Shame on you. Tony   (talk)  04:57, 16 December 2014 (UTC)
 * If you haven't noticed, I've not "marked" the comments of the IPs, and have no interest in doing so. You should not take offence. It is quite clear that these are sock puppets of someone, and you can't blame me for attempting to investigate. There is no need to be fiery. RGloucester  — ☎ 05:02, 16 December 2014 (UTC)
 * I've replied here. Mike V  •  Talk  05:28, 16 December 2014 (UTC)


 * 24.130.183.252 was me. I don't log in on computers I do not control, and I was using someone else's at the time. I am an American (in Northern California, as the traceroute info showed, of course), but learned to read and write in England, and use the spellings rather interchangeably. In a discussion already using British/Commonwealth spelling I tend to naturally do so as well; it's not even a conscious decision.  That said, there's nothing even vaguely suspicious about someone using Commonwealth spelling from a major metro area in North America; people from all over the world live here, and the majority of English dialects use Commonwealth spelling of such words.  There's also nothing suspicious about an IP user being aware of WP policy and lingo; many anons are regular editors and contribute meaningfully to RM discussions.  The only thing noteworthy here has been the SSI reporter's WP:BATTLEGROUND / WP:WINNING attitude in this filing, as if even daring to disagree with him must be evidence of foul play, or at least an excuse to use argument to emotion and ad hominem fallacies to try to win the debate by manufacturing unreasonable and baseless suspicions about the opposition.  A sockpuppetry accusation predicated on nothing but spelling and someone not agreeing with the filer is a patent assumption and accusation of bad faith.  A sockpuppet is a fake user that a real one uses to masquerade as someone else and get their views into a discussion/process multiple times, i.e. to vote-stack.  There's not even circumstantial evidence of that going on here. There's a page at Meta that RGloucester should probably take to heart, but maybe I'd be a WP:DICK if I mentioned it. Finally, when multiple editors are coming to the same conclusion on the same policy basis, this is often an indication they're correct, not that there's a conspiracy; see WP:IDHT.  — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ ≽ʌⱷ҅ᴥⱷʌ≼  16:40, 18 December 2014 (UTC) PS: The IPv6 poster was not me, though I agree with the sentiment expressed.  — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ ≽ʌⱷ҅ᴥⱷʌ≼  04:54, 21 December 2014 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * Not justification to use CheckUser, moving to the open queue. Callanecc (talk • contribs • logs) 06:05, 15 December 2014 (UTC)
 * The IPv6 geolocates to Sunnyvale, California, USA and is provided by Google, while the IPv4 geolocates to Union City, California, USA and is provided by Comcast. With the evidence provided, there's a chance that the two IPs could be related, but I don't really see conclusive evidence to make a connection to Tony1. The California individual could have moved from Canada or Europe, which might explain the style of grammar. Your best bet is to tag the comments with the SPA template and let the closing admin take it into consideration. Mike V  •  Talk  21:27, 15 December 2014 (UTC)
 * That's two different California individuals, as I've clarified above. Not that there was any reason, linguistically or geographically, to assume they were the same person to begin with. The San Francisco Bay Area of California is home to the largest regional bloc of the WP editorial userbase. :-)  — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ ≽ʌⱷ҅ᴥⱷʌ≼  04:57, 21 December 2014 (UTC)