Wikipedia talk:Suspected sock puppets/Israelbeach

Comment: This page was set up by who is very involved with the former user as a personal conflict. Beware of bias, as well as unsubstantiated/unevidenced claims ("the ends justify the means"?). I've removed one user from this list that was likely nothing more than a new user who voted in support of an article Israelbeach was campaigning to keep, where the only evidence was "contributions". This definitely runs into Assuming Bad Faith and Please do not bite the newcomers.

Add to this that this individual runs a news publication and a top-ranking in google website where he has commented about issues on Wikipedia and articles he was involved in, as well as Woggly himself, there's a great possibility that people just sympathise with him. It's pretty damn bad form to say that new users are automatically sockpuppets just because you don't agree with their views or their vote.

Please bear in mind WP:AGF and innocent until proven guilty (which seems to be the basis of WP:AGF). --Col. Hauler 11:05, 27 May 2006 (UTC) moved from project page by woggly 12:54, 27 May 2006 (UTC)


 * WP:AFG does not mean that one may never voice doubt about any new user to Wikipedia. New users whose only contributions to Wikipedia are to immediately join one side of a heated debate are a phenomenon described at Sock puppetry. It does not make much of a difference whether these users are all the same individual posting from different usernames, or this individual's friends from the real world who join Wikipedia for the sole purpose of supporting him in arguments. This is not acceptable conduct on Wikipedia, and it is covered by the policy against sockpuppets.
 * As for my dispute with Israelbeach, anyone interested in the details is welcome to read Requests for comment/Israelbeach and User:woggly/Israelbeach. The list of suspected puppets is a list, not a commentary. Any visitor here can follow the links and judge for themselves whether the suspicions are justified. The users under suspicion may also respond here and defend themselves, at the comment heading in their sections. --woggly 12:02, 27 May 2006 (UTC)


 * You haven't even told most of them that they're "suspected", and you don't categorise their user pages so how are they supposed to know you're attacking them? --Col. Hauler 18:26, 27 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Okay, so if I tag their pages and then add them back to the list, you will not remove them again? I will tag their pages. I'm not going to request a checkuser because it is clear that Israelbeach posts from multiple IPs, and it seems likely that some of these users may so-called "meatpuppets", so I don't expect checkuser to be conclusive. I honestly don't care if they all edit from different IPs. I list users here that have not made any significant contribution to Wikipedia other than to enter the Israelbeach dispute and edit articles relating to the Israel News Agency. If you feel you have proof that any of them are not meatpuppets, you can post it here, and they are also welcome to defend themselves. However, their names should be struck from the list after discussion, not unilaterally deleted. --woggly 18:54, 27 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Woggly, who placed a "suspected sockpuppet" banner on my page, did so without notifying me. This is part and partial of a harassment campaign that Israelbeach and those who support him have been subject to. Woggly, who is under great emotional stress placed these banners on almost all supports of Israelbeach before she decided to resign from Wikipedia. As for me being a sockpuppet, I believe in transparency as Israelbeach does. My real name is Lisa and I live in Israel. You can confirm these details through my email address: iwritetech@yahoo.com As Woggly states that she was not requesting a checkuser, I am now taking down the harassing banner on my userpage. Woggly, if you ever decide to come back to Wikipedia, you owe me and many others an apology! Karnei 13:01, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

As there was no real discussion about whether or not these users are sockpuppets/meatpuppets, I see no reason to "archive the debate". This page is necessary for keeping track of the many, many single purpose accounts participating in deletion discussions associated with the Israel News Agency and Joel Leyden. There seems to be a pattern of creating a sock account, making one or two valid edits, and leaving the account dormant until the most active account is blocked, at which point another dormant account wakes up again, appearing to be an old account.As long as they continue making valid, non-disruptive edits, or lying dormant, so be it. But if they should be used to harrass other users, or in a manner that is obviously circumventing Israelbeach's ban, I will take action. As this has been going on from both sides, I'm going to start keeping track of the sock accounts that oppose Leyden as well as those that support him. Being on this list does not mean the accounts are necessarily condemned, it just means that I'll be watching them. --woggly 06:38, 16 July 2006 (UTC)