Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/TyrusThomas4lyf/Archive

22 February 2015

 * Suspected sockpuppets




 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.
 * Editor interaction utility

This user Bossanoven, formerly using the name Hoops Gza, came to my attention via a series of behaviours on mainspace, which included; creating hundreds of pointless redirects, unnecessary categories (many of which ended up deleted), badgering admins on their talk page, requesting blocking names that dont agree with their political agenda, wasting admins time by requesting blocking editors with old accounts or edits that were not vandalism, and aggression towards other users. The user also has a prior history of disruptive editing.

A review of their edit history, alerted me to similarities to a long-term abuser of Wikipedia, namely User:TyrusThomas4lyf. A long-term abuse file exists at:

To quote: "TyrusThomas4lyf sock-puppets are recognizable most easily by their typical (but not exclusive) focus on a certain range of NBA articles, signature edits, occasionally abusive edit summaries, and edit warring. Favorite articles (with some sample signature edits) include:


 * NBA records
 * List of NBA teams by single season win percentage
 * Quadruple-double
 * Michael Jordan
 * List of career achievements by Michael Jordan
 * List of National Basketball Association players with 60 or more points in a game
 * Rebound (basketball)
 * List of National Basketball Association top individual scoring season averages
 * Double-double
 * List of career achievements by LeBron James
 * Kobe Bryant
 * Dwyane Wade
 * Michael Johnson (athlete)"

Using WikiTools I was able to find a correlation of 62 articles identified between both accounts:

Example differences:


 * List of National Basketball Association top individual scoring season averages

a) Reverting the article lede

TyrusThomas4lyf:

Bossanoven:

b) Removing Elgin Baylor from the list

TyrusThomas4lyf:

Bossanoven:


 * List of career achievements by Wilt Chamberlain

a) Inserting free throws attempted

TyrusThomas4lyf:

Bossanoven:

Further evidence:


 * Their Userpage

What also caught my attention was the IP addresses associated with User:TyrusThomas4lyf.

The IP ranges identified are from: 99.129.68.185 to 99.150.126.129

The User:Bossanoven userpage was edited here:

99.141.32.137 is the same AT&T Internet Services Chicago service used by User:TyrusThomas4lyf.

A further examination of User:Bossanoven's userpage gave leads to their identity. These clues were used to identify the individual behind the account, who I won't publicly out here, and this evidence also links it to the account User:TyrusThomas4lyf. If the admins require it, I can email this information privately to people reviewing this case. Observer2015 (talk) 09:23, 22 February 2015 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.'' From Long-term abuse/TyrusThomas4lyf, it was established that the user primarily edits from Chicago and editing NBA-related articles. Consider these following Chicago IPs suspected to be socks of Bossanoven: This IP's edits from June 28–30, 2009, perform multiple edit on List of National Basketball Association players with most blocks in a game. Bossanoven edits the same article frequently in the time span as well. The users alternate when they are editing, likely the same user logging on and off.
 * Comments from Bagumba

IP edits mainly NBA lists from November 17–21, 2009, no edits since. Bossanoven created account on November 23, 2009, and edits NBA lists until November 29.

Requests for comment/TyrusThomas4lyf mentioned editing on "one man crusade to glorify" Michael Jordan. Both editors got into edit wars trying to assert Jordan as "the greatest basketball player of all time." Here are reverting edits made by others:
 * rv of TyrusThomas4lyf:
 * rv of Bossanoven:

The RfC also mentioned habit to "downplay the achievements of other players" like Kobe Bryant. It seems there is a similar stringent criteria applied in TyrusThomas4lyf's edits to Kobe Bryant as there are in Bossanoven's

Talk:List of National Basketball Association top individual scoring season averages shows dispute with TyrusThomas4lyf over the inclusion criteria for the list being 70 games played exclusively (Tyrus' belief), or allowing either 70 games or 1400 points (other's stance). Here are edits by Bossanoven to remove 1400 point criteria:
 * 
 * 

Finally, rebound rate is a statistic in the niche field of analytics. It was introduced into Dennis Rodman in this edit by IP mentioned in the long-term abuse page: Bossnoven twice tried to include similar "rebound percentage" statements in Rodman article at —Bagumba (talk) 06:33, 27 February 2015 (UTC)


 * There is also this account: User:Archwayh, with minor differences, has an identical set of userboxes on their userpage as User:Bossanoven. Bossanoven even edited their userpage. Either they are very good friends or it's a "sleeper" account. Might need an IP check. Observer2015 (talk) 07:12, 27 February 2015 (UTC)
 * You forgot to read this: "Do not make accusations without providing evidence". What do you want from me whatsoever? I am active on the Hebrew Wiki most of the time, this is my English user. Archwayh (talk) 10:48, 27 February 2015 (UTC) I didn't notice this user edited my user page, going to undo it. Archwayh (talk) 10:50, 27 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Okay, here's some evidence; you, not user:Bossanoven, added a template on your userpage stating that you started editing Wikipedia on (year=2009|month=11|day=23), strange because that just happens to be the same day User:Bossanoven started editing on Wikipedia.. According to your edit history, you didn't start editing until December 2013.. So out of all the dates on the calendar, you just happen to pick the same day User:Bossanoven started editing? Observer2015 (talk) 13:54, 27 February 2015 (UTC)
 * You've got no idea of what you're talking about. If you will check, you would find out that I am registered on Wiki since October 2013. I chose this random date due the period in which I have started to contribute to Wiki as anonymous (2009). I don't remember to owe you anything. You can check my IP address and discover that I am from the state of Israel, not exactly the state in which this user above resides. Archwayh (talk) 17:56, 27 February 2015 (UTC) Further more, how it turned out that I chose randomlly the same date in which this user started editing? I don't know. As I've said before, you can see that on my Hebrew page, I wrote that I am registered since 2010. Archwayh (talk) 17:59, 27 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Oh!! I found out how it all make sense. If you will check my page, you'd see that I wrote that I am registered exactly in the same date I wrote on my Hebrew page - --User Wikipedian For|year=2010|month=10|day=8--. But - When I first started to contribute in the English wiki, I created my user page, and searched for templates in users pages. I copied the template probably from this user, and quickly changed the date afterword. Archwayh (talk) 18:14, 27 February 2015 (UTC)
 * I think we need more behavioral evidence that Archwayh is linked to Bossanoven; otherwise, assume they are not the same person. I'm willing to assume good faith that it's coincidental that Archwayh randomly picked Bossanoven's page to copy user boxes from, and Bossanoven wanted to change Hoops Gza (their old account name) links on Archwayh's page to Bossanoven. For what it's worth, Archwayh did acknowledge the changes Bossanoven made.  But I see no other relationship between the two.—Bagumba (talk) 23:44, 27 February 2015 (UTC)
 * There are at least 5 other accounts that have been editing music topics, that are IMO strongly suspect. These accounts were active between 2009-2014, and have edited the same articles User:Bossanoven / Hoops Gza contributed to, often adding the same categories and reverting edits. I don't have enough presentable evidence at this stage to submit but I have kept notes on the issue. With this investigation closing soon, I will file a SPI/CU request at a later date when I have gone through more edit histories and found more evidence. Observer2015 (talk) 05:47, 1 March 2015 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * The old socks of this sockmaster are all, so CheckUser can't help here, unfortunately. But, behavioral evidence of sockpuppetry is very strong.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  22:11, 24 February 2015 (UTC)


 * Apparent WP:DUCK of TyrusThomas4lyf based on matching Chicago locale of suspected duck IPs of Bossanoven, as well as editing habits on common NBA articles and insertion of similar POV as TyrusThomas4lyf. For the record, Bossanoven was informed of this SPI, and has not denied the charges. Honestly, not sure what can be said that can remove the doubt. As WP:GAB states, "Wikipedia admins can never be absolutely sure about sockpuppetry, and the most abusive users can be very devious in attempting to evade detection. If you are improperly blocked for sockpuppetry, you should realize that it may not always be easy or even possible to correct the situation." Bossanoven is arguably a reformed editor now, but leaving a trail devalues the integrity of Wikipedia if there is no acknowledgement of past mistakes.  Per WP:CTDAPE, socking "operates toward an end of exhausting the patience of productive rule-abiding editors on certain articles."  Blocking Bossanoven indefinitely as sock. I invite Bossanoven to take the standard offer.—Bagumba (talk) 06:33, 27 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Given long-term abuse of TyrusThomas4lyf, requesting checkuser to see if there are other socks or sleepers of Bossanoven. Also requesting longer term blocks of underlying IPs of Bossanoven than standard autobock provides.—Bagumba (talk) 06:33, 27 February 2015 (UTC)
 * - Note to CU - considering the LTA nature of the case, there is possibly evidence on CU Wiki or otherwise that can be used to check Bossanoven against. ☺ ·  Salvidrim!   ·  &#9993;  18:01, 27 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Noting that, as per above comments, I do not endorse a check of Archwayh, only Bossanoven vs. archives CU data of the LTA case. ☺ ·  Salvidrim!   ·  &#9993;  23:56, 27 February 2015 (UTC)
 * I second that Archwayh does not have enough behavioral evidence to pursue, unless somehow it comes up while checking Bossanoven. I would like to note that in addition to Chicago IPs, we should be suspicious of St Louis. 68.253.206.119 mentioned in the LTA page shows to be from St. Louis. In addition to the article overlap, the IP added TyrusThomas4lyf to a WikiProject member list.—Bagumba (talk) 00:12, 28 February 2015 (UTC)


 * CheckUser is unable to add anything productive to this case. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  15:59, 28 February 2015 (UTC)
 * To be clear, there is no extra data that was kept, and the CU logs compared with the current results for the suspected sock do not match, though that was 8 years ago, and i'd say far from usable. -- DQ   (ʞlɐʇ)  17:33, 4 March 2015 (UTC)


 * With sock blocked and tagged and no sleepers identified, this can be closed.—Bagumba (talk) 07:02, 8 March 2015 (UTC)

29 October 2015

 * Suspected sockpuppets


 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.
 * Editor interaction utility

AWCM (for short) has been creating many hundreds/thousands of redirects to articles, for mis-spellings, mis-pronunciations, and any conceivable variant of the name. For example Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa (disambiguation), or from the What Links Here section, see for the degree of obscure. Or just check his contribs, as 99% are creating redirects.

Ok, now to the sock suspicion. After I and others asked about this behavior on his talk page, not asking him to stop, but to reality-check the plausibility of the redirects, he said he would take that into consideration. See and. The post on my talk was this account's last posting as of this moment.

Today, TX6, another account a week or so old, picks up the same behaviour, see.

A telling behavioural pattern is that both accounts create the list of redirects in their sandbox first. AWCM and TX6. Crow  Caw 17:54, 29 October 2015 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.''
 * These contributions seem extremely similar to . Look through his contributions and compare the the subjects between Bossanoven and TX. It seems like Bossanoven was obsessed with Nazi Germany, Sports, and creating junk redirects, and we have the same situation here. It's obvious that TX isn't a newbie: the oldest contributions were made using HotCat? That'd be weird for a true newbie... -- Tavix ( talk ) 21:37, 29 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Expanding more with specific behavioral examples:
 * Bossanoven and TX both use HotCat to add surnames to specific surname categories.
 * Bossanoven and TX both are obsessed with creating possessive redirects relating to Nazi Germany. Examples: TX: Adolph Hitler's Nazi S. S. and variants Boss: Adolph Hitler's mother and variants.
 * They both create redirects using every form imaginable of an acronym (eg: SS, S.S., S. S.)
 * They both use a sandbox to create their redirects. I wasn't able to prove Bossanoven's because it was deleted and I can't view deleted material, but it's inferred at User_talk:Bossanoven and located at User:Bossanoven/sandbox. -- Tavix ( talk ) 21:50, 29 October 2015 (UTC)


 * Additionally, we can connect A window cleaner with Bossanoven by looking at his usage of the word "and" when creating redirects. Take a look at the redirects Bossanoven created for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and compare that to the redirects Window created for Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris. Both use weird substitutes for "and", such as 'n', n', 'n, +, etc. -- Tavix ( talk ) 23:46, 29 October 2015 (UTC)


 * UPDATE: TX's created redirects have been nuked due to an ANU thread, so non-admin clerks will be unable to make a fully informed comparison. Crow  Caw  21:48, 30 October 2015 (UTC)
 * While that's true, I'd like to see all creations of both TX and AWCM to be G5 deleted and blocked, so admin action is definitely still needed here. -- Tavix ( talk ) 22:15, 30 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Agreed, this was just in response to BBB below, so non-admin clerks will know what is up. Crow  Caw  22:25, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
Bossanoven is part of Sockpuppet investigations/TyrusThomas4lyf. Bossanoven is. Thus, from a technical point of view, the only accounts I could check would be A Window cleaner me and TX6785. Nonetheless, if a clerk feels the behavioral evidence is persuasive, this SPI could still be merged to TyrusThomas4lyf.--Bbb23 (talk) 00:52, 30 October 2015 (UTC)
 * - please, compare the two.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  23:03, 30 October 2015 (UTC)
 * The following accounts are ✅:
 * was blocked as a suspected puppet of TyrusThomas4lyf and never listed at the SPI.
 * I've blocked and tagged the new accounts and retagged Award Tour 2.0. Closing.--Bbb23 (talk) 04:36, 31 October 2015 (UTC)
 * was blocked as a suspected puppet of TyrusThomas4lyf and never listed at the SPI.
 * I've blocked and tagged the new accounts and retagged Award Tour 2.0. Closing.--Bbb23 (talk) 04:36, 31 October 2015 (UTC)
 * I've blocked and tagged the new accounts and retagged Award Tour 2.0. Closing.--Bbb23 (talk) 04:36, 31 October 2015 (UTC)

07 December 2015

 * Suspected sockpuppets




 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.
 * Editor interaction utility

Mass creation of useless redirects by "new" user. Alarm bells. His contribs should speak for themselves. — foxj 01:10, 7 December 2015 (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

 * ✅. Mike V • Talk 01:12, 7 December 2015 (UTC)

09 December 2015

 * Suspected sockpuppets




 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.
 * Editor interaction utility

Editing pattern is similar to a number of a number of sock accounts associated with TyrusThomas4lyf, namely 1) creating multiple redirects from spelling mistakes (in particular to the name Michael Jordan, of whom most have now been listed here, 2) creating multiple music categories, 3) editing basketball/NBA articles. See contribution history.

User:74.65.12.193 editing is also suspicious, namely the Michael Jordan worshipping. RochesterDrummer (talk) 10:36, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.''
 * I added 108.71.133.201 as well, which replied on the ANI case and has already been blocked for a month before (I assume during the last checkuser). Quack, quack! Nymf (talk) 17:10, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

CheckUsers should be aware that It's More Fun to Compute has been blocked following the recent ANI thread at  --Jules  (Mrjulesd) 16:09, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * ✅ T. Canens (talk) 18:02, 9 December 2015 (UTC)
 * I've tagged the (already blocked) It's More Fun to Compute, 108.71.133.201 blocked six months as well. Closing case for now. Mark Arsten (talk) 20:21, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

27 February 2016

 * Suspected sockpuppets


 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.
 * Editor interaction utility

Textbook behaviour of this sock: Pointless redirects, categories, WW2 and NBA obsessions. Crow  Caw 23:49, 27 February 2016 (UTC)
 * or any admin: what of this sock's contribs? Is it standard to nuke them all, regardless of usefulness? (Genuine question). Crow  Caw  03:34, 28 February 2016 (UTC)
 * (page stalker) Not an admin, but I can answer: any creation that has no substantial edits by others should be deleted via WP:G5. Blocked users are not allowed to contribute to Wikipedia, and it applies to all edits regardless of usefullness. See also: WP:EVADE and WP:BMB. -- Tavix ( talk ) 03:39, 28 February 2016 (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

 * Blocked and tagged WP:DUCK.—Bagumba (talk) 02:56, 28 February 2016 (UTC)

19 March 2016

 * Suspected sockpuppets


 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.
 * Editor interaction utility

Once again, the same pattern of creating pointless redirects based on implausible spelling and phonetic searches, with a heavy emphasis on WW2, and the requisite NBA thrown in as well. Crow  Caw 16:25, 19 March 2016 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.''

I strongly suspect User:Kazvorpal is a sock as well. Editing the same areas of interest:

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * - Indeed, they created many redirects similar to those created by .  Vanjagenije  (talk)  17:54, 19 March 2016 (UTC)
 * The following accounts are to be connected.
 * PhilKnight (talk) 00:44, 20 March 2016 (UTC)
 * PhilKnight (talk) 00:44, 20 March 2016 (UTC)
 * PhilKnight (talk) 00:44, 20 March 2016 (UTC)


 * I have blocked and tagged The Minimizer. — Diannaa (talk) 14:28, 20 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Closing the case.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  00:22, 21 March 2016 (UTC)

20 March 2016

 * Suspected sockpuppets


 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.
 * Editor interaction utility
 * What do you think about, a new user who just started and all they do are unlikely redirects, though these are mostly unhelpful disambiguation style, though there are some Alternate-phonetics in there too... They appear to have started after I filed this SPI, and after The Minimizer's last edit, but before the CU was actually run. Crow  Caw  01:25, 20 March 2016 (UTC)


 * Mentioned this yesterday's report, where I wasn't sure. Since then he has begin to do the same WW2 pointless redirects as always. Crow  Caw  21:53, 20 March 2016 (UTC)
 * A CU would be nice. There's a spate of new accounts today doing these kinds of redirects. That's the only commonality so far, so I don't think it warrants listing them here yet, but I'll wager at least one is a sock of TT or IcarusTheGreat... Crow  Caw  22:09, 20 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Added Chapa1985. Editing the same articles as User:Bossanoven. Correcting spelling and adding templates, as did Bossanoven. 66.235.121.32 (talk) 22:18, 20 March 2016 (UTC)

Editing the Mama Campisi's article. Bossanoven reverted back to an edit that was critical of the chain, criticism added originally by Kazvorpal.

Kazvorpal - Bossanoven -

Editing the Homme article. An obscure Norwegian village:

Kazvorpal - Bossanoven -

Editing the Walking Dead article:

Kazvorpal - Bossanoven -

etc. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.235.121.28 (talk) 21:52, 19 March 2016 (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

 * Please, compare to those previous socks.  Vanjagenije   (talk)  00:27, 21 March 2016 (UTC)
 * is ❌ to the non-stale socks in the archive and the March 19th check. I didn't check as it wasn't clerk endorsed.-- Jezebel's Ponyo bons mots  17:54, 23 March 2016 (UTC)
 * An IP added Chapa1985 and Kazvorpal to this in an odd way; I don't think either one are related and the diffs provided don't really show anything. it looks like Quirk of Fate's edits have been scrubbed and I can't see them, do you want to take a final look for behaviour? Ivanvector 🍁 (talk) 17:58, 15 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Most of their articles are deleted, so you can't see those edits. But, otherwise, I agree that this should be closed.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  20:18, 1 June 2016 (UTC)

3 April 2016

 * Suspected sockpuppets


 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.
 * Editor interaction utility

Ye Classic has similar editing patterns to TyrusThomas4lyf including an interest in NBA records (diff1, diff2) and the creation of needless redirects (diff3, diff4). It is also only a 4 day old account so it would have been created after some of the socks in earlier complaints would have been tagged and blocked. Liz <b style="color:#006400;">Read!</b> <b style="color:#006400;">Talk!</b> 17:26, 3 April 2016 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.''
 * See also (no-pinged), who is completing the trifecta of TT4L by creating redirects to variant spellings of Nazi leaders, including mis-spellings of their full names including middle, c.f. Irwin Johannes Eugen Rommel. Unfortunately, I have a sneaking suspicion that both will show unrelated by CU, based on recent observations.  Crow <sup style="color:black;"> Caw  18:35, 3 April 2016 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * Blocked and tagged Ye Classic as a WP:DUCK.—Bagumba (talk) 22:42, 10 April 2016 (UTC)
 * for CheckUser since is also a WP:DUCK. Please block. Ivanvector 🍁 (talk) 18:01, 12 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Bourne code in blocked by and tagged. Closing. Ivanvector 🍁 (talk) 17:25, 15 May 2016 (UTC)

19 April 2016

 * Suspected sockpuppets


 * User compare report Auto-generated every hour.
 * Editor interaction utility

On Kobe Bryant, this user removed source information based on their personal opinion about why Kobe should not be compared to Michael Jordan, and also added negative statistics about Kobe to the article ( + ). This greatly reminds me of the behavior of TyrusThomas4lyf (and their many sockpuppets), who consistently tries to undermine the career accomplishments of NBA players other than Jordan (and especially Kobe in particular). User has also created redirects similar to the style that some of Tyrus's sockpuppets have been known for. A guy saved by Jesus (talk) 04:49, 19 April 2016 (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

 * Tagged and blocked as WP:DUCK—Bagumba (talk) 12:31, 21 April 2016 (UTC)
 * as unnecessary. Closing. Ivanvector 🍁 (talk) 18:02, 12 May 2016 (UTC)