Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/WhyHellWhy/Archive

01 July 2015

 * Suspected sockpuppets




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About a year ago, User:Callanecc blocked User:WhyHellWhy for 10 days for "agenda-driven POV editing". I recently discovered that User:KronosLine and User:Leftcry are socks of this user. (See the evidence presented on commons at ). In particular, KronosLine was created to evade the master's block (ie ), while KronosLine was abandoned for Leftcry after receiving a warning about discretionary sanctions on the same subject that they had been previously blocked for. While the accounts have now all been indefinitely blocked for disruption/socking on commons, the situation is slightly more complicated here since the master block that was evaded was not indefinite as on commons. Given that this was some time ago I'm not sure what action should be taken, but at the very least two of the accounts should probably be blocked, since they were used for evasion/avoiding scrutiny. TDL (talk) 05:41, 1 July 2015 (UTC)


 * There are many diffs presented on the commons evidence page I linked to above. It seems rather bureaucratic to require it to be repeated here, but if you insist:

A year ago User:WhyHellWhy was indefinitely blocked for "POV-pushing with pro-russian agenda, purpose-created account for edit-warring". A few days following a similar block on en.wiki, WhyHellWhy was abandoned and User:KronosLine began making identical edits pushing the same agenda and edit warring. KronosLine was subsequently abandoned by the user in favour of User:Leftcry, who has been engaging in very similar behaviour. When asked about the situation, Leftcry admitted to being KronosLine, but denies being WhyHellWhy (the indefed account.) However, given the evidence (see below) it's clear that Leftcry is evading WhyHellWhy's indefinite block.

Though evasive about the subject, Leftcry did admit to being "very familiar" with WhyHellWhy and to "have been following many of its edits", and yet couldn't even remember the name of the account they had edited with a few months earlier (KronosLine). It's rather had to believe that Leftcry innocently became aware of WhyHellWhy. WhyHellWhy had a mere 162 edits on commons, and yet KronosLine's was to resumed WhyHellWhy's edit warring. That edit came 4 days after WhyHellWhy was abandoned. Similar patterns exist on en.wiki: a few days after WhyHellWhy gets blocked for this edit, one of KronosLine's first edit is this identical revision.

Both Leftcry and KronosLine have been active in edit warring to retain past edits made by WhyHellWhy. Look at the history of File:BlankMap-World-v2.png for example: all three users have edit warred to depict Crimea as Russian. (No other editors have made such edits to the file.) Similar behaviour can be observed on File:Foreign Currency uses and pegs, Ruble included.png, File:BlankMap-World-v4-colored.png, File:Death rate world map.PNG, File:BlankMap-World-v4.png, File:DaylightSaving-World-Subdivisions.png, File:Christians distribution.png, File:RussianLanguageMap.png, etc.

There is plenty of other evidence of overlapping edits: compare vs  on en.wiki.

If there is any remaining doubt that these are the same person, then take a look at this. Aside from their common interest and POV edit warring on the Russian-Ukraine dispute, all three editors are very active in editing articles on Whitney Houston. That is a very striking coincidence indeed.

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

 * - In order to facilitate and expedite your request, please provide diffs to support your case. Please give two or more diffs meeting the following format:
 * 1) At least one diff is from the sockmaster (or an account already blocked as a confirmed sockpuppet of the sockmaster), showing the behaviour characteristic of the sockmaster.
 * 2) At least one diff per suspected sockpuppet, showing the suspected sockpuppet emulating the behaviour of the sockmaster given in the first diff.
 * 3) In situations where it is not immediately obvious from the diffs what the characteristic behaviour is, a short explanation must be provided. Around one sentence is enough for this.  Vanjagenije   (talk)  15:04, 20 July 2015 (UTC)
 * Can you take a look here, it's a tough case. Leftcry admits being KronosLine, but not WhyHellWhy. Evidence suggest they are all the same, but accounts were not used concurrently. Some block evading was made, but a year ago.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  07:28, 21 July 2015 (UTC)
 * If you believe that the evidence is persuasive that Leftcry and KronosLine are socks of WhyHellWhy, I would block both puppets indefinitely. The fact that the block evasion occurred a year ago doesn't alter that conclusion.--Bbb23 (talk) 22:12, 29 July 2015 (UTC)


 * Yes, I'm sure they are socks of WhyHellWhy.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  23:44, 29 July 2015 (UTC)
 * I've blocked and tagged the puppets. Closing.--Bbb23 (talk) 00:03, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



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Striking overlap in interests:
 * Same sex marriage regulations:
 * Geopolitics:
 * Armed conflicts:
 * Russian topics:
 * Minimum wage in Canada:
 * All of these maps: TDL (talk) 02:41, 27 July 2016 (UTC)

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

 * I'm sorry, but I don't find the evidence sufficiently convincing here. A connection is possible, but I'm not willing to block based on mere possibility.  Closing without further action.  —  Rich wales (no relation to Jimbo) 01:46, 10 September 2016 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



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 * Same target articles, as seen here,, here,, here,, here, (numerous edits), here, ( exact same edit/edit-summary even!), here,, here,, here,, here,, here,, here,, here,, here,, here,, and many, many more diffs that can be provided.
 * Very same purpose of edits, very same target articles, (partially demonstrated, mainly thus post-Soviet states, Crimea, LGBT, Canada, Russia, Ukraine, maps), very same POV.
 * Very same proficiency in English as the sockmaster and the blocked socks.
 * Signs all comments in the very same way as the sockmaster and the blocked socks.
 * Huge intersection on numerous maps on Wikimedia by the new sock (Turnless) and the already blocked socks, which the editor interaction tool confirms..


 * I've interacted on many occassions with the sockmaster + already blocked socks, and I can pretty much guarantee that this is indeed a new sock of "WhyHellWhy". Though the archives are most likely stale, I requested a CU just in case some material might be left somewhere in the archives. - LouisAragon (talk) 00:57, 22 October 2016 (UTC)

Comments by other users
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Just want to comment as the user who originally discovered this sock farm, I am completely convinced that this is a new sock. I think the commons contributions are especially clear. For example this. The master would make requests to this user, and now the sock is continuing to make these requests. TDL (talk) 15:38, 22 October 2016 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
As far as I know, everything is stale. CU declined.--Bbb23 (talk) 11:43, 22 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Oh dear. The edit on Kiev Oblast, exact same edit with exact same edit summary--sure, but that's the only nail in this coffin. Pointing with diffs at target articles is less helpful than you may think. This business about the same signature or way of signing, that's possibly interesting, but there are no diffs for that. However, the interaction tool brings extra weight to bear on the matter: blocked. Drmies (talk) 00:50, 3 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Ran CU for a quick sleeper check, and found/blocked User:Gyumrilak. Drmies (talk) 00:54, 3 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Looks like we're done here. Closing. Bbb23 (talk) 01:00, 3 November 2016 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



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

Same peculiar combination of only having a focus on LGBT topics and CIS/Former Soviet Union states, including some very specific / low profile articles (Editor Interaction Utilizer). Completely in line with the sockmasted and earlier blocked socks;
 * Growupon added Poland to the Soviet Union article, the same way Turnless did
 * Growupon is bothered about the content listed in the "today part of" section of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic article, just like Turnless
 * Both Growupon as well as earlier CU blocked sock Turnless are concerned about wording in the Template:LGBT rights America.
 * Both Growupon as well as Turnless updated the Corporal Punishment page

- LouisAragon (talk) 20:21, 24 September 2017 (UTC)

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

 * CU is, moved to 'open' queue for behavioural analysis. Callanecc (talk • contribs • logs) 10:15, 7 October 2017 (UTC)


 * Please block this sockpuppet. The intersection across multiple articles and focus on the same unique topic areas are too great for it all to be just a coincidence. Sro23 (talk) 17:57, 8 October 2017 (UTC)
 * ✅ and closing.  Vanjagenije  (talk)  18:25, 8 October 2017 (UTC)