Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/VonOrange/Archive

Evidence submitted by User:Zloyvolsheb
On May 1 User:VonOrange made what appears to be this account's first edit to Wikipedia by creating Alfonso de Griego, a hoax article about a non-existent Spanish-born Russian composer (see ). Aside from one bot edit, one unsourced tag added by User:MWOAP, and one minor categories tweak by User:Tec15, the only other contributors to the article before its tagging as a possible hoax and nomination for an AFD on May 18 were User:Magnesium27 (who edited within a day of the article's creation) and the IP 76.120.114.125 (who edited on May 13 and May 20).

Although "Alfonso de Griego" is a non-existent person, it's notable that 76.120.114.125's first move upon showing up at the page was to edit the article as though he were a real person. After I had nominated the article for an AFD, the same IP address returned to removed the hoax article tag and the AFD template. The IP's mainspace contributions log shows no edits to articles other than Alfonso de Griego, neither does VonOrange's.

Although User: Magnesium27's contributions log looks a tad more innocent at first glance, his contributions to deleted articles having been taken out of this record, it's apparent from the speedy deletion nomination left on his talk page that this user had edited the speedily-deleted article Von Orange and is in all likelihood one more account of the same person - simply employed in tandem with the other two. In sum, it looks as though the same person has created hoax articles and violated the policy ban on sockpuppetry, having used three accounts to minimize scrutiny while puffing up a hoax article on a non-existent person.

Although the case looks pretty clear-cut, I think it might be helpful to confirm these suspicions using a CheckUser. It is extremely likely that there also are other accounts; given that the first edit by VonOrange was the creation of an article on a non-existent person, he appears to be an experienced user and has done plenty of editing previously. Zloyvolsheb (talk) 14:15, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Comments by accused parties
See Defending yourself against claims.

Please delete Alfonso de Griego, my brother was being stupid and was trying to tweak a person from real life from one of my textbooks to 'Alfonso de Griego', who doesn't exist. As for Magnesium27, that is my brother's account and the IP address is our shared computer. Neither of us has multiple accounts. As for Von Orange, that was a page my brother created to promote me as a musician. I live in metropolitan Denver and am well known among the local artist and musician community. VonOrange (talk) 03:28, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments
Requested by Zloyvolsheb (talk) 14:15, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

–MuZemike 00:37, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

I would say ✅, but I cannot use CheckUser to determine if two people are using the same physical computer, or if one person is controlling multiple accounts.

That being said, (this is @VonOrange), if your brother was "trying to tweak a person from real life from one of my textbooks to 'Alfonso de Griego', who doesn't exist", AND "Magnesium27 [...] is my brother's account", why did your account write 99% of Alfonso de Griego? Because that makes no sense; did you know you were writing about someone who does not exist? J.delanoy gabs adds 04:36, 24 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Note posted to talk page requesting a response to this inquiry. -- Sh i r ik ( Questions or Comments? ) 04:13, 26 May 2010 (UTC)


 * I'm inclined to think that VonOrange is telling the truth, after looking at the deleted contributions. –MuZemike 14:59, 28 May 2010 (UTC)