Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Vegavairbob/Archive

Report date July 11 2009, 05:03 (UTC)

 * Suspected sockpuppets

Quack: Suspected puppetmaster is an editor with a lengthy track record of ownership and other uncoöperative behaviour (ANI #1, long/ugly/recent ANI #2). He has repeatedly been asked to stop making long series of numerous tiny edits one after another after another, particularly to Chevrolet Vega, which he describes as "his" article. He has sometimes outright refused and sometimes said he'd stop, but at no time has he actually stopped...and that provides us with some solid sock evidence in this case. Take a look at the edit patterns of 75.127.130.122: precisely the same pattern, with identical edit summary tone and style.
 * Evidence submitted by Scheinwerfermann (talk)

Quack-quack-quack: 75.127.130.122 has repeatedly edited Vegavairbob's user page. Not to add new information or to vandalise, but to alter and update wording, one and two words at a time, in rapid sequence, just like Vegavairbob himself does:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,.

Yet more of this same kind of quacking: 96.224.71.26 has edited Vegavairbob's comments in talk page discussions and on User:Vegavairbob and at ANI. Not to refactor or vandalise or reformat, but to reword, just like Vegavairbob himself does: ,, , ,.

With 71.167.61.206 the sock behaviour is (exactly) the same—same style, same tone, same articles—but he was identified as a probable sock early on, and warned not to continue:, ,.

Quack: All three IPs resolve to New York. Lots of people live there, including Vegavairbob.

And from the "Remember who you're editing as before you accidentally incriminate yourself" department: On 26 June, Vegavairbob added an image to Bumper (automobile). The image he added was not illustrative of the subject matter. On July 6, an illustrative image was provided. On 10 July, immediately upon returning from his break following the end of ANI #2, he reverted twice. He was told (again) to build consensus at Talk:Bumper (automobile), but did not do so. Instead, he went in as 75.127.130.122 and reinstated the image, against consensus, in a new location in the article:. He then, on the talk page of an admin whose ear and shoulder he's made consistent use of, as Vegavairbob, described himself as having made that exact edit: Scheinwerfermann (talk) 05:03, 11 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Comments by accused parties    See Defending yourself against claims.


 * Comments by other users

Is there any evidence of using these addresses to avoid identification or to create the appearance of multiple people to sway a consensus? At first glance to me it looks more like forgetting to log in sometimes. Vegavairbob may exhibit some problematic behavior but that doesn't imply that what you show here is deliberate malfeasance. —David Eppstein (talk) 05:53, 11 July 2009 (UTC)


 * I know this IP 75.127.130.122 was used by him when he forget to log in when editing Vega article, he rapidly log in when noticed he was in with IP, this can be seen when checking the history log --Typ932 T&middot;C 07:16, 11 July 2009 (UTC)

My cursory "review" of these accounts did not show any evidence of sock puppetry. Scheinwerfermann, sock puppetry can be defined as using multiple identities to influence opinion/consensus. Simply editing casually under an IP by mistake is NOT sock puppetry. If this was the case us about all of us would be banned by now: we've all done it before unintentionally (forgetting to log in).


 * 75.127.130.122: nothing here, just general editing to mainspace articles.


 * 96.224.71.26: IP changes own (Vegavairbob's) comment, ditto, IP signs using his own email address "vegavairbob@gmail.com"


 * 71.167.61.206: nothing, next, adds comment, deletes own comment.

Nothing suspicious here. OSX (talk • contributions) 09:08, 11 July 2009 (UTC)

There were edits that could be construed as sockpuppetry. After being reverted twice on Bumper (automobile), one of the IPs reinserted it:,. --Sable232 (talk) 16:20, 13 July 2009 (UTC)

Requested by Scheinwerfermann (talk) 23:25, 18 July 2009 (UTC)
 * CheckUser requests

Puppetmaster may be sock farmer. Contrib history of — now blocked as suspected sock of puppetmaster  — consists entirely of edits identical in target, content, and tone to those of Vegavairbob and his (known) IPs. This edit in particular looks quackish; it appears to be an attempted end-run around blocks given to Vegavairbob and his known IPs for repeated such edits in violation of consensus. User talk:Vegavairbob links to User:60chevman.

I have declined the checkuser as the accounts seem to be obviously related. Sedd&sigma;n talk|WikimediaUK 20:41, 20 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments
 * Conclusions

Sock user account indefinitely blocked, and main account one month.75.127.130.122 was also blocked for a month as it is a static ip. Other two ip's are likely to be dynamic and there is little or no use in blocking at this time. Sedd&sigma;n talk|WikimediaUK 20:37, 20 July 2009 (UTC)