Wikipedia talk:Simple sock puppets

Proposal
The aim of this policy is to deal with the problem that is Suspected sock puppets. Admins have basically stopped dealing with this page. The cases there are too difficult to judge upon, there's too much in-fighting in every case and its one massive headache. As has been noted, any debate that's reached that far has probably lost all good faith.

However, sockpuppetry is clearly an issue if abused. It is obviously frustrating to report sockpuppetry and for us to basically ignore the report. Clearly, then, this needs solving.

It seems to me that the best way to do this to create two pages:
 * Simple sock puppets
 * Complex sock puppets

The two really speak for themselves. The first page is for the reporting of obivous cases of sockpuppetry to be delt with quickly by admins who can block users on sight. It would be a good way of getting rid of people who are blatantly violating our polices.

The second is for the more complex sort of case where users suspect that sockpuppetry is going on, but in the form of two/three users who share the same opinion editing at one page. In effect, it may become a preliminary to requests for checkuser, acting as a filter to stop every suspiscion getting that far. It could even solve some cases itself. Hopfully by splitting the complex from the easy (as we do with vandalism) we can make the caseloaf much more managable. At the moment, Suspected sock puppets has basically collpased.

This is the simple page. In defining simple/complex, I've stolen the categories used at the reqeusts for check user page. Basically, I'm seeking feedback and I hope this, or something along these lines, can be introduced! Robdurbar 14:33, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Centralise
Oh, and it's just occured to me... to keep this all at once place, please place all comments at Wikipedia talk:Complex sock puppets? There's no point in having two parallel disucssions! Robdurbar 18:16, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Sockpuppets of unknown puppetmaster
Perhaps there needs to be a classification of John Doe sockpuppets. Sometimes it can be determined by an admin in a few minutes that an account is an alternate account of an experienced user, but it may be very difficult, if not impossible, to determine the principal account beyond a reasonable doubt. I think it may be useful to have a separate classification for such accounts. --BostonMA talk 13:40, 23 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Does it matter too much if we get the correct principle account? We could add in that incorrect identification of the principal account does not prejudice against prooving that sockpuppets are being abused. --Robdurbar 13:53, 24 January 2007 (UTC)