Wikipedia:Suspected sock puppets/Franklin222

User:Franklin222

 * Suspected sockpuppeteer


 * Suspected meat-puppet


 * Report submission by

Tenebrae (talk) 05:07, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

At Vince Colletta, an article about a deceased comic-book artist, User:Sbowers3 has inserted verbatim the same SOAPBOX quotes as had has a previous editor, User:Franklin222, on 01:27 20 January 2008. The quotes are attributed to an unknown "Robert Bradley" &mdash; which links to that name's disambig page but which is certainly not one of the sports figures or others there. The "attribution" turns out to be a forum posting, which is disallowed per Verifiability policy.
 * Evidence

It is the very same edit made previously by Franklin222, whom I contacted on Jan. 12 and 24 on his talk page to note that personal opinion and WP:SOAPBOX material was inappropriate. By his own claim, his material was WP:COI as well.

Given the verbatim nature of the Sbowers3 edit, this appears to be meat-puppet collusion,


 * Comments

I try to help out in lots of places: vandalism patrol, New pages patrol, Help desk, New contributor's help page, etc. At the Editor's assistance request page I saw a request by Franklin222, investigated the situation, and tried to help both him and the project. Read what I wrote at WP:Ear. l told him that he was wrong on four of his edits, that the fifth one seemed okay but he made a technical mistake, so I corrected his technical error. What I didn't notice was that the blue-linked Robert Bradley was not notable, since it linked only to an irrelevent dab page. From the nature of his quote he appeared to be a professional cartoonist and so would be relevant. Had I followed the link I would have told Franklin222 that the quote also could not be included. I would add only that COI is not a prohibition; it is a caution. And Franklin222 was not trying to add material that was his own personal opinion; he was trying to add quotes from other persons. If the quotes are verifiable and do not violate undue weight he should be allowed to include them even though he is the son of the subject.

If you had bothered to look at my contributions I don't see how you could have concluded that I was anybody's puppet. A simple note on my talk page could have quickly settled the matter. Sbowers3 (talk) 13:31, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

The very first instruction in WP:SOCK is Assume good faith. Well I will AGF on Tenebrae's part even though he obviously did not AGF on my part. Sbowers3 (talk) 13:35, 29 January 2008 (UTC)


 * I do, as a rule, assume good faith, and I also frequently help out newbies and the like, often posting the welcome template (as I in fact did with User:Franklin222.


 * But the editor above, despite his or her stated good intentions, made an inappropriate revert without posting any an explanatory edit summary, and without communicating any rationale on either the Vince Colletta page nor my own talk page.


 * Neither he nor Franklin222 notified me of any discussion at WP:Ear.


 * And Franklin222 never responded to my initially friendly and then civil postings on his talk page.


 * I assume good faith. I made attempts at communicating, and was rebuffed. When I went to a third party, I notified the editors above. They did not do me the same courtesy. Given this lack of dialog, from both Franklin222 or Sbowers3, and the inappropriate nature of the edit, I don't believe a reasonable person could continue to assume, to make assumptions, in the face of these facts.


 * It's fine. Sbowers3 seems to have investigated the edit further, for which I thank him. The article itself honors the artist with the depth of its biographical facts and the pointing out of his considerable accomplishments, and the quotes section contains two laudatory (and one neutral) in addition to two critical &mdash; all scrupulously attributed to journalists or to industry professionals with firsthand knowledge, and numerically and journalistically balanced. Thank you. --Tenebrae (talk) 13:58, 29 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Thank you for your response. No hard feelings, I hope. I added a comment to Franklin22 at WP:EAR. I'd appreciate it if you would strike out the sockpuppet comment at Talk:Vince Colletta. Sbowers3 (talk) 17:31, 29 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Will do, and thanks for your gracious reply. With collegial regards, --Tenebrae (talk) 18:59, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Closing as this seems resolved. — Rlevse  •  Talk  • 19:28, 2 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Conclusions