Wikipedia:Suspected sock puppets/Michaeljohnsfans

User:Michaeljohnsfans

 * Suspected sockpuppeteer


 * Suspected sockpuppets


 * Report submission by

Torc2 (talk) 20:09, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

Both are SPAs. The puppeteer, created January 9th, has only made edits on three articles related to Michael Johns. The alleged sock, created January 10th, has only ever made one edit, a "keep" vote on Articles for deletion/Michael Johns (singer), which includes detailed references to WP:BAND and was made 13 minutes after account creation.
 * Evidence

It's taken a few hours to get up to speed with the Wikipedia lingo so as to understand what's been accused and prepare a response but please excuse any misunderstandings. Mjf08 is an SPA, created to enhance and flesh out Michael Johns related articles (created back in 2006 but still sparse even now) leading up to Tuesday's premiere of American Idol (season 7). Unfortunately these half a dozen minor edits attracted the attention of Brianyoumans who promptly proposed the articles for deletion, only to immediately invoke an AfD debate when objected to. Granted the initial proposal was in order, and perhaps the AfD debate too given no reason for objection was given, but that's where it should have ended. Some hours were then spent researching, ultimately identifying no less than 8 of the 12 WP:BAND points were satisfied (where any 1 would suffice) which should have ended the discussion here.
 * Comments

Kmkroeger, seeing the 8 points already raised and apparently consulting WP:BAND added one that had been missed: Also potentially #7 with his regular performances in Buckhead, Atlanta over a number of years. It is this action that is at the heart of the accusation, despite the earlier comment: If you don't like it, don't count the vote (but do consider the information that spent some time to collate).

Torc2 then joined in, likened these innocuous edits to being spammed with "street teams" of people doing nothing but plugging the artist, unjustifiably claimed that at minimum it's a conflict of interest, and possibly it's just advertising, stated that it was disturbing that the only other keep vote is from a new account and finally accused both of us of being involved in sock puppetry, presenting at best tenuous 'evidence' starting by simply stating that Both are SPAs.

It is no surprise that these articles (still plastered with obnoxious AfD messages despite convincing counter-arguments having been presented on NINE separate fronts) are getting increasing attention - the AI7 video has had 10k+ views in the first few days and fans are encouraged to 'Check out the Wikipedia article(s) and contribute if you have anything to add.'. What is surprising however is how much time and effort is going into biting the newcomers; while this experience has forced learning the ropes it's also proven a strong disincentive to contributing. The intention was to build an authorative, high quality resource of information, relying on Wikipedia's 'filtering' et al rather than hosting the content elsewhere and 'collaborating manually' or hosting an instance of MediaWiki soley for an about page. Mjf08 (talk) 18:42, 12 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Actually, I only accused one person of sockpuppetry. I make no apologies for noting the coincidence and am simply following Wiki's rules at Requests for checkuser for proper procedure during an ongoing AfD vote. Torc2 (talk) 22:20, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

Kmkroeger is almost invariably a sock and vote stacked=indef block and only 24 hours for the master since he's a new user. — Rlevse  •  Talk  • 01:50, 17 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Conclusions