Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/WhatsUpWorld/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets



 * Tools: Editor interaction utility • Interaction Timeline • User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

User:WhatsUpWorld has repeatedly and occasionally disruptively made edits on political figures, changing the lead formatting and unnecessarily capitalizing the names of titles, among other patterns of edits, all of which KistoDamin's edits include. Edits by WhatsUpWorld installing the phrasing "an American politician who served as" or similar to the first sentence of an article: Edits by KistoDamin doing the same:

Edits by WhatsUpWorld changing "re-election" to "reelection": Edits by KistoDamin doing the same:

Edits by WhatsUpWorld removing the Oxford comma: Edits by KistoDamin doing the same:

Edits by WhatsUpWorld capitalizing titles: Edits by KistoDamin doing the same:

Edits by WhatsUpWorld installing the phrasing "A member of the X party": Edits by KistoDamin doing the same:

Edits by WhatsUpWorld to the article Spiro Agnew: Edits by KistoDamin to the same making similar changes:

Another similar edit: and

These changing the order of the word "previously": and

These making the word "Results" lowercase: and

Both have made a number of edits relating to US Politics, France, and the Netherlands, and I can provide more examples of the above if necessary, but neither using edit summaries makes it more of a slog to look though diffs. Reywas92Talk 04:19, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * Group 1 - the following accounts are ✅ to each other and to WhatsUpWorld:
 * KistoDamin is to WhatsUpWorld and the Group 1 accounts.
 * . WhatsUpWorld was indeffed at fr.wiki for sock puppetry. All of the other accounts have edited fr.wiki but have not been blocked there. Some of the other accounts edit other wikis, notably wikidata. Closing.--Bbb23 (talk) 14:51, 24 September 2018 (UTC)
 * KistoDamin is to WhatsUpWorld and the Group 1 accounts.
 * . WhatsUpWorld was indeffed at fr.wiki for sock puppetry. All of the other accounts have edited fr.wiki but have not been blocked there. Some of the other accounts edit other wikis, notably wikidata. Closing.--Bbb23 (talk) 14:51, 24 September 2018 (UTC)
 * KistoDamin is to WhatsUpWorld and the Group 1 accounts.
 * . WhatsUpWorld was indeffed at fr.wiki for sock puppetry. All of the other accounts have edited fr.wiki but have not been blocked there. Some of the other accounts edit other wikis, notably wikidata. Closing.--Bbb23 (talk) 14:51, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



 * Tools: Editor interaction utility • Interaction Timeline • User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

WP:DUCK overlap on Dutch cabinet/political articles, username pattern, general edit summary/similarities in gnomish editing habits; also note almost complete overlap in common articles edited Mélencron (talk) 05:19, 24 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Follow-up explanation: it's a newly-created account with a similar username pattern which immediately began to make the same sort of small gnomish edits as the sockmaster on Dutch politics-related articles, of which half were previously edited by the master and with a similar editing pattern (edit summaries infrequent and tedious formatting tweaks: e.g. – the connection seems obvious to me though the evidence may seem circumstantial to an outside eye). Mélencron (talk) 21:17, 29 January 2019 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
. The link provided as evidence doesn't have anything to do with the account to be checked. They aren't in the history of that article. — Berean Hunter   (talk)  08:55, 24 January 2019 (UTC) — Berean Hunter   (talk)  11:33, 31 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Can you explain this? -- The SandDoctor Talk 20:48, 29 January 2019 (UTC)
 * HeyItsJustMeHey is blocked on french wikipedia as a confirmed sockpuppet for the banned user Maxam1392 (see here). Maxam1392 is known here as WhatsUpWorld -- Arcyon (talk) 08:53, 31 January 2019 (UTC)
 * They are editing across several wikis; en.wiki, fr. wiki and nl.wiki are a few. Considering the checkuser results from at fr.wiki, I am requesting global locks from the stewards at meta., would you please assist? Thank you. I'm blocking locally in the meantime.
 * They are editing across several wikis; en.wiki, fr. wiki and nl.wiki are a few. Considering the checkuser results from at fr.wiki, I am requesting global locks from the stewards at meta., would you please assist? Thank you. I'm blocking locally in the meantime.
 * They are editing across several wikis; en.wiki, fr. wiki and nl.wiki are a few. Considering the checkuser results from at fr.wiki, I am requesting global locks from the stewards at meta., would you please assist? Thank you. I'm blocking locally in the meantime.
 * They are editing across several wikis; en.wiki, fr. wiki and nl.wiki are a few. Considering the checkuser results from at fr.wiki, I am requesting global locks from the stewards at meta., would you please assist? Thank you. I'm blocking locally in the meantime.
 * They are editing across several wikis; en.wiki, fr. wiki and nl.wiki are a few. Considering the checkuser results from at fr.wiki, I am requesting global locks from the stewards at meta., would you please assist? Thank you. I'm blocking locally in the meantime.
 * They are editing across several wikis; en.wiki, fr. wiki and nl.wiki are a few. Considering the checkuser results from at fr.wiki, I am requesting global locks from the stewards at meta., would you please assist? Thank you. I'm blocking locally in the meantime.
 * They are editing across several wikis; en.wiki, fr. wiki and nl.wiki are a few. Considering the checkuser results from at fr.wiki, I am requesting global locks from the stewards at meta., would you please assist? Thank you. I'm blocking locally in the meantime.
 * They are editing across several wikis; en.wiki, fr. wiki and nl.wiki are a few. Considering the checkuser results from at fr.wiki, I am requesting global locks from the stewards at meta., would you please assist? Thank you. I'm blocking locally in the meantime.
 * They are editing across several wikis; en.wiki, fr. wiki and nl.wiki are a few. Considering the checkuser results from at fr.wiki, I am requesting global locks from the stewards at meta., would you please assist? Thank you. I'm blocking locally in the meantime.
 * They are editing across several wikis; en.wiki, fr. wiki and nl.wiki are a few. Considering the checkuser results from at fr.wiki, I am requesting global locks from the stewards at meta., would you please assist? Thank you. I'm blocking locally in the meantime.
 * They are editing across several wikis; en.wiki, fr. wiki and nl.wiki are a few. Considering the checkuser results from at fr.wiki, I am requesting global locks from the stewards at meta., would you please assist? Thank you. I'm blocking locally in the meantime.
 * They are editing across several wikis; en.wiki, fr. wiki and nl.wiki are a few. Considering the checkuser results from at fr.wiki, I am requesting global locks from the stewards at meta., would you please assist? Thank you. I'm blocking locally in the meantime.
 * Thanks Berean Hunter ;-) -- Arcyon (talk) 17:22, 31 January 2019 (UTC)
 * I've just locked them all. I also blocked the affected iP range globally. Thanks for reporting. R adi X  ∞  03:24, 3 February 2019 (UTC)


 * Nothing else to do here. Closing. Deskana (talk) 20:21, 8 February 2019 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



 * Tools: Editor interaction utility • Interaction Timeline • User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

Crosswiki sockpuppet following similar activity to previous socks as described in Sockpuppet investigations/WhatsUpWorld/Archive, primarily including unnecessary formatting/capitalization changes inconsistent with MOS:JOBTITLES, largely failing to use edit summaries despite being asked to, additional capitalization changes with a focus on France-related articles, with many such minor edits often made in quick succession on the same articles. Please also take note of the common crosswiki SUL patterns, which reflect activity based on the Dutch and French Wikipedias with similar behavior, as is the case for the sleepers identified in the previous case here. Mélencron (talk) 01:34, 12 April 2019 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * —DoRD (talk)​ 13:13, 12 April 2019 (UTC)
 * —DoRD (talk)​ 13:13, 12 April 2019 (UTC)
 * —DoRD (talk)​ 13:13, 12 April 2019 (UTC)
 * —DoRD (talk)​ 13:13, 12 April 2019 (UTC)
 * —DoRD (talk)​ 13:13, 12 April 2019 (UTC)
 * —DoRD (talk)​ 13:13, 12 April 2019 (UTC)
 * —DoRD (talk)​ 13:13, 12 April 2019 (UTC)


 * per DoRD's comment. Lock request submitted on meta per the archives containing locked socks. This should probably be kept open until the request is reviewed. The SandDoctor  Talk 15:43, 12 April 2019 (UTC)
 * All locked. Closing. The SandDoctor  Talk 04:40, 13 April 2019 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



 * Tools: Editor interaction utility • Interaction Timeline • User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

WP:DUCK; newly-created account with exact same editing patterns as most recent socks mentioned in case archive (wholly unnecessary anti-MOS:JOBTITLES changes as here). Note that SUL for the account, like other socks, reflects crosswiki activity on nl/fr.wikipedia. Mélencron (talk) 19:01, 25 April 2019 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
— Berean Hunter   (talk)  22:47, 28 April 2019 (UTC)
 * - Accounts are DUCKy but master has a history of sleepers. qedk (t 桜 c) 18:26, 28 April 2019 (UTC)
 * ProjectBetter is ✅ to WhatsUpWorld. Already locked.
 * is also ✅ using the same UA as but on ProjectBetter's IP. They need to be locked globally.
 * Closing Locked. --qedk (t 桜 c) 08:17, 30 April 2019 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



 * Tools: Editor interaction utility • Interaction Timeline • User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

Same pattern, edits to List of Presidents of France Praxidicae (talk) 16:50, 28 April 2019 (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
— Berean Hunter   (talk)  22:47, 28 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Per above. --qedk (t 桜 c) 18:27, 28 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Here we Correct is ✅ to and both are already locked as WhatsUpWorld. However, they are also ✅ to  confirmed by  as.
 * I agree with your findings, but I cannot explain why these accounts were globally locked as WhatsUpWorld, at least not technically. The "correct/corriger" accounts are consistent location- and UA-wise. The WUW accounts are not consistent with the "correct/corriger" accounts and often more technically problematic generally. Perhaps the steward can shed more light on the situation.--Bbb23 (talk) 23:13, 28 April 2019 (UTC)
 * I requested the locks due the behaviour overlap and I do not have access to CU tools to verify a difference between the groups, so I put them for locks under WUW on the other basis alone. --qedk (t 桜 c) 05:53, 29 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks very much,, that appears to eliminate one mystery. Ironically, it's rare to see global locks mention a master, usually it's LTA or cross-wiki abuse or something similarly unrevealing. Indeed, I'm often frustrated by this practice with users I'm unfamiliar with - a bit like untagged local blocks, although I confess to being "guilty" of the same thing at times.--Bbb23 (talk) 12:43, 29 April 2019 (UTC)


 * Locks of all accounts requested as all have cross-wiki abuse history. Keeping open until then. --qedk (t 桜 c) 15:55, 29 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Closing All accounts locked. --qedk (t 桜 c) 08:27, 30 April 2019 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



 * Tools: Editor interaction utility • Interaction Timeline • User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

See the previous three reports in the case archive dating back to April; behavior of this sock is highly similar to previous ones (anti-MOS:JOBTITLES changes and otherwise tedious edits to U.S./French politics/France/Netherlands-related articles), but the giveaway here is the dispersed activity across the French and Dutch Wikipedias which is consistent with this user. Mélencron (talk) 17:24, 16 May 2019 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * - TonyBallioni (talk) 16:42, 17 May 2019 (UTC)
 * ✅ and . . TonyBallioni (talk) 16:51, 17 May 2019 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



 * Tools: Editor interaction utility • Interaction Timeline • User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

Another extremely obvious newly-registered account with the same topical focus (French politics, U.S. federal/state politics ) making largely tedious/gnomish edits; note SUL matches that of previous accounts/crosswiki activity on Dutch Wikipedia and only foreign-language wikis linked to are fr/nl-wp. I'll also note that there appears to have been a recent change in editing patterns, with the user in question now appearing to make many similar edits while logged out (e.g. on Matthias Fekl) with IPs geolocated to the Netherlands. Mélencron (talk) 22:11, 23 May 2019 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * ✅ and TonyBallioni (talk) 22:27, 23 May 2019 (UTC)
 * Latest sock locked. The SandDoctor  Talk 05:19, 24 May 2019 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



 * Tools: Editor interaction utility • Interaction Timeline • User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

Obvious sock/new account similar to previous ones in the case archive; the giveaway is the SUL which indicatives editing activity on nl/fr Wikipedias, same topic areas (France/general politics in this case) with tedious formatting changes often running counter to MOS:JOBTITLES Mélencron (talk) 20:09, 2 June 2019 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * - Last sleeper check was in May, so I'm declining another one so soon. This sock is pretty obvious, I'm requesting a lock over at meta. qedk (t 桜 c) 17:49, 3 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Globally locked. Closing. -- qedk ( t  桜  c ) 12:57, 12 June 2019 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



 * Tools: Editor interaction utility • Interaction Timeline • User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

WP:DUCK, exact same behavior as previous report; SUL indicates nl/fr-wiki connection and little else, even making edits on the same articles just after those of the previously reported account. Mélencron (talk) 15:26, 4 June 2019 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * ✅ and . Closing. TonyBallioni (talk) 15:49, 13 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Globally locked. -- qedk ( t  桜  c ) 15:22, 21 June 2019 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



 * Tools: Editor interaction utility • Interaction Timeline • User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

as with previous socks, pattern of gnomish/tedious edits largely without edit summaries on French politics-related articles which previous socks have edited (Second Philippe government, Charles de Gaulle) as well as European politics more broadly; as with previous accounts, the real giveaway is the pattern of cross-wiki activity on the French and Dutch Wikipedias (see case archive). Mélencron (talk) 18:19, 25 June 2019 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
OpacityLeague is ✅. is. Blocked, and tagged. Please globally lock both accounts.--Bbb23 (talk) 19:05, 25 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Locked both. -- Ajraddatz (talk) 00:47, 26 June 2019 (UTC)


 * Thank you. Closing. Bbb23 (talk) 00:51, 26 June 2019 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



 * Tools: Editor interaction utility • Interaction Timeline • User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

BomberJacket is reinstating the edits made by PerfectUtopia. Their CU data are identical to Distostatic's. Pinging (previous SPI) and  (previous global block)--thank you both. Drmies (talk) 17:39, 30 March 2020 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
✅ + . . These three accounts should be globally locked.--Bbb23 (talk) 18:33, 30 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Request for locking posted on meta. Dreamy Jazz 🎷 talk to me &#124; my contributions 20:02, 30 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Thank you! Closing.--Bbb23 (talk) 20:15, 30 March 2020 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



 * Tools: Editor interaction utility • Interaction Timeline • User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

Same interest in Dutch subjects as the master and other socks: and American politics. Urgal's edits overlap with the master and socks on 28 articles, one user talk page, and WP:RMT: Urgal has previously socked.

I've requested CU based on the LTA nature of the case. - MrX 🖋 13:37, 24 July 2020 (UTC)

Urgal and the master both edit several other wikis and have similar namespace proportions: - MrX 🖋 13:48, 24 July 2020 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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 * (Putting this up here to keep admin comments clean) Behaviourally, this is strong. Along with the topic overlaps, many past reports have mentioned that WhatsUpWorld socks also have significant contribs on other wikis (frwiki, nlwiki, commons, and wikidata most often); here's a selective summary from CentralAuth:
 * en 17,712; nl 451; wikidata 68; fr 36; commons 21; es 18; de 9
 * fr 30,154; wikidata 510; commons 54; en 35; nl 3
 * en 129; wikidata 24; fr 22; nl 2
 * en 49; wikidata 34; fr 18; nl 7
 * en 29; fr 24; commons 4; nl 1
 * : en 7,403; de 6,674; wikidata 1,531; commons 631; es 113; fr 59; nl 32
 * Also note that Urgal is indef blocked on dewiki, the (machine translated) log says "recurrent violations against de:WP:KORR despite numerous addresses and recent ones Pre-blocking, bypassing blocking via IP; since no learning effect is discernible, behavior incompatible with further cooperation". KORR is a guideline similar to WP:ENGVAR about not changing spelling variants without discussion, but the German language has actual formal rules on this, unlike our English free-for-all whoever-spelled-it-loudest-is-correct approach; the log also seems to refer to IP block evasion.
 * Another note is that Maxam1392 is the master of this case on frwiki (fr:Wikipédia:Faux-nez/Maxam1392).
 * -- Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 14:32, 24 July 2020 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * I did not check because the case is stale, but based on logs of past checks of both users I find this technically unlikely. may have better insight here. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 13:53, 24 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Nothing much to add other than the geolocation is off, which you sussed out from the logs. I didn't rerun Urgal to see if that's changed though.-- Jezebel's Ponyo bons mots 16:46, 24 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks . I'm going to say at this time, since Urgal has been blocked for one year as arbitration enforcement, and further action is not required to prevent disruption. If more conclusive information comes to light, please re-file. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 16:54, 24 July 2020 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



 * Tools: Editor interaction utility • Interaction Timeline • User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

Noticed on fr.wp but I cannot request a checkuser there since the last one dates back to July 2019 so we're out of CU logs. The investigated user is also active there.

First the user name ressembles a pattern used by the SP for instance HeHeOui or YaUbHy. Second the topics he edits also match the ones of the SP: US, Dutch, and French politics. Finally, his edits are mostly of tiny syntaxic formatting of the introductory section like the SP usually does.

Beware that the user might have changed location since it's the holiday season (it already happened once and I had to request a new CU come September). (:Julien:) ✒ 07:51, 1 August 2020 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * Based on the limited data I have available this looks at least technically . Ping and  For your thoughts on this as well. Callanecc (talk • contribs • logs) 08:22, 1 August 2020 (UTC)
 * I don't know if you saw them already but YaYaHoPi is ✅ to:
 * They use a different device for each account, but their numerous logged-out edits give them away. They also have the same crosswiki edit distribution I mentioned in the last case, so behaviourally I'd say it's pretty likely these are our sockmaster. I did not see (from the last report) in any of my checks. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 11:12, 1 August 2020 (UTC)
 * They use a different device for each account, but their numerous logged-out edits give them away. They also have the same crosswiki edit distribution I mentioned in the last case, so behaviourally I'd say it's pretty likely these are our sockmaster. I did not see (from the last report) in any of my checks. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 11:12, 1 August 2020 (UTC)
 * They use a different device for each account, but their numerous logged-out edits give them away. They also have the same crosswiki edit distribution I mentioned in the last case, so behaviourally I'd say it's pretty likely these are our sockmaster. I did not see (from the last report) in any of my checks. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 11:12, 1 August 2020 (UTC)


 * lock requests filed. GeneralNotability (talk) 15:04, 2 August 2020 (UTC)