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Mac

Report date December 11 2009, 21:37 (UTC)
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Suspected sockpuppets
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Evidence submitted by User:Johnfos
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User:Nopetro has engaged in disruptive editing for some time (see User talk:Nopetro#Inappropriate additions relating to renewable energy) and it now seems that he is a sock of User:Mac, a known sockpuppeteer (see Wikipedia:Suspected sock puppets/Mac (2nd nomination)) and indefinitely blocked user [1].

As someone who has edited and watched many energy-related articles for a long time, I have had my suspicions for a while, as Nopetro became more active after Mac was blocked in November 2008. Now I've compared these editing tool results with these and there are a lot of common editing patterns and pages which both have edited, across similar subject areas. For example, plug-in hybrid is the top edited article for Nopetro and the second top for Mac and both have been active at Portal:Electric vehicles. Both have also been very active on pages related to solar cells.

And (at the other end of the spectrum) there are some quite obscure pages which both have edited, eg., Template talk:Infobox Automobile and those related to Category:conversion templates. Both have also been active in creating many dubious category pages, some of which have later been deleted.

In summary, there is a strong correlation between the editing habits of Mac and Nopetro, and it seems that the Nopetro account is being used to evade the indef block on Mac. Johnfos (talk) 21:37, 11 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The off-putting complexity of the SPI process, the extraordinarily high standards of evidence required, the speedily declined CU request, and the comments from Tiptoety below leave me with the impression that WP is willing to turn a blind eye to blocked users who come back and start editing under a different account name. Johnfos (talk) 19:58, 12 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Johnfos, I am sorry you feel this way. The reason high standards of evidence is needed is because of the strong accusation you are making that could result in an editor losing all editing privileges and being blocked from ever editing again. Think of it as a court of law (even though SPI is anything but). If you were being tried fro murder you would want the evidence against you to be strong and you would want a lot of it. While I am in no way trying to defend a sockpuppet, I want to ensure that every party involved in every case receives a fair chance. I am asking of you what I would ask of anyone else. (Also the reason the CU is declined is because it is technically impossible for them to do anything here because the accounts data is stale, so it had nothing to do with your request). Tiptoety talk 20:59, 12 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I'm trying to assume good faith and so have submitted some more evidence in the section below. But if what you are looking for is the quality of evidence required to convict a murderer in a court of law, clearly I don't have that. Johnfos (talk) 23:45, 12 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Comments by accused parties   
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See Defending yourself against claims.

Comments by other users
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CheckUser requests
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Checkuser request – code letter: E (Community ban/sanction evasion )
Current status – Declined, the reason can be found below.    Requested by Johnfos (talk) 21:37, 11 December 2009 (UTC) [reply]

 Clerk declined User:Mac is  Stale for CheckUser purposes. MuZemike 02:03, 12 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments
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  • Other than the fact that both accounts have edited the same articles (which would be easy to do for two accounts that edit the same topic area), I see little evidence that supports the fact Nopetro is a sockpuppet of Mac. So, you will need to provide us with some diffs that show the two accounts making similar edits . Tiptoety talk 07:45, 12 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I mentioned Template talk:Infobox Automobile, as an obscure page where both Mac and Nopetro have made multiple edits. I say obscure because it is not frequently visited and only 18 edits in total have so far been made on this page in 2009. Yet both Mac and Nopetro have argued for price information to be included in the Template, and here are the diffs: [2] and [3]. This clearly shows the two accounts making similar edits.
Also, the evidence presented in the section above has not just shown that "both accounts have edited the same articles", in the same topic area. Electric vehicles and solar cells are different topic areas, yet both editors have been active there. And as I say, more importantly, both have edited some quite obscure pages not directly associated with either topic area. All of this cannot be put down to mere coincidence.
I would also add that, even though both editors have many edited pages in common, and the two accounts existed in parallel for a considerable time, I can find no evidence of them ever having spoken to one another on a Talk page. Of course there would be no need to talk if they were one and the same person. Johnfos (talk) 23:31, 12 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Conclusions
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This case has been marked as closed. It has been archived automatically.
In the absence of any denial from Nopetro, and on the basis of the evidence presented, I am still concerned that Nopetro is a sockpuppet of Mac. Johnfos (talk) 21:16, 16 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
30 May 2010
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Suspected sockpuppets


Evidence submitted by Shawn in Montreal (talk)

Now editing (by his own admission) under the newly created ID "Nudecline," Nopetro's talk page had borne a tag for being a suspected sock of banned user Mac until just days ago, when it was removed. However, I think I may have found some proof. At User_talk:Nopetro#Nuclear_Power_and_PHEVs, he links to the obscure and improbable redirect Nuclear decline, created by Mac back in July 2008, and then promptly changes his ID to Nudecline accordingly. I find it highly unlikely that he would know of this redirect's existence -- nor feel compelled to assume it as his online identity -- had he not created it. I realize I don't have a whole lot of diffs to present here, but the pattern of editing and the interests appear similar to Mac. Indeed, the interests cited on the three userpages are also similar enough. So I am also requesting a CheckUser as I believe it is warranted in this case, please. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 22:20, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

  • Responding to Cool Hand Luke What I can say is that in his new identities as Nopetro and now Nudecline (or so I allege) he has shown himself to be unreceptive to community consensus that his category creation work is especially problematic. Now, whether that amounts to the same kind of behaviour as before, I can't say. In his new accounts he continues to create a great many redirects, but I've been more focused on CfDs of his categories, and am not aware of any great controversy regarding his latest redirects. The block was for "an expiry time of indefinite" unless Mac agreed to "join discussions." In his alleged new identities he does now respond to Talk page comments, although is either obstinate or has comprehension issues which result in little progress being made. Shawn in Montreal (talk)
  • In spite of his statement that he will now edit only as Nudecline, as of June 2 we see another edit as Nopetro, which is then followed by one as Nudecline on the same article, two and half hours later. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 18:10, 3 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • For the record, Nudecline has categorically denied being either Mac or Nukeless here. So if the editing patterns and deleted contributions records are indeed as clear-cut as have been stated, he's seeking to deceive the community. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 15:55, 4 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]


Comments by accused parties    See Defending yourself against claims.


Comments by other users
  • I'm probably just being blind here, but I'm not seeing what GoF is talking about. Do you mind being a bit more verbose? If it's private, feel free to email me or (in an extreme case) email the checkuser email list. Thanks, Shirik (Questions or Comments?) 23:57, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Mac and others since 2005
Mac and others summer 2008

I think these are socks. User:Nukeless was also suspected. I've made some charts to show editing from all four accounts. Same timezones, patterns, interests.

The contributions also fit very well together. Take a look at June 30, 2008 in the more detailed summer 2008 chart. On that day, Mac was mostly editing, except for some spells when Nopetro was editing. They both voted at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/U.S. presidential candidates position on plug-in hybrids within minutes of each other. An even better example is June 24, 2008. On this day, Mac was editing from 0541 pretty much continuously until 1357, except for a one-hour gap from 1003 to 1108. On the same day, Nopetro was editing from 1006 to 1106. Given their shared interests and common editing times, I don't think this is a coincidence. I think all four accounts are piloted the same user.

Whether this merits a block or some other sanction, I leave to others. If I understand Mac's block, it was just because he refused to respond to complaints about very annoying behavior related to redirects. Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/IncidentArchive488#Tired of cleaning up after Mac. If he doesn't do that anymore, maybe this is moot? Or was there another reason for blocking Mac? Cool Hand Luke 20:17, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

This user is causing ongoing disruption by playing games with different usernames. Why isn't he being blocked? Whatever happened to the idea that "one username should represent one person" per Wikipedia:Username policy? Johnfos (talk) 20:43, 3 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • He seems to have a political agenda, and seems to be intent on messing with articles, and I see no real reason to him around. I say indef block, possibly hard block. Old Al (talk) 22:57, 8 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    • Well, his 'political agenda' is clearly renewable energy, high tech, public transit and an opposition to both carbon and fission power. But I don't think it's fair to say his "intent" is to mess with articles. Rather, I'd say his gnome-work and intention are quite good. It's only when he gets into article, redirect and especially category creation he really falls to pieces. English is clearly not his first language, and I wonder if he doesn't have some sort of comprehension disorder. Would it be possible just to block him from further category creation, at the very least? His track record as Nopetro was just horrid, and he's become a regular fixture at CfD (thanks to me, most lately). Shawn in Montreal (talk) 23:42, 8 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
      • He's a not really straight troll, but he does not seem to see what the encyclopedia is about, and it's not like he's never been warned. I think that he really doesn't care, and places his opinion on top, possibly just overdoing IAR, and doesn't seem to want to stop. Old Al (talk) 01:17, 9 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
This is a very sad situation where an editor who has contributed very low quality material to WP has evaded an indef block and continued to struggle on. But in doing so he is continuing to damage the project, so he must be stopped. Johnfos (talk) 23:22, 23 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
CheckUser requests
Checkuser request – code letter: F (Other reason )
Current status – Declined, the reason can be found below.    Requested by Shawn in Montreal (talk) 22:20, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

 Clerk declined, Nukeless and Mac are  Stale, and Nudecline == Nopetro by own admission. CU is not going to tell you anything here. Decide on behavior. Tim Song (talk) 22:03, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments

The overlap in pages edited between Mac and Nopetro includes a whopping 782 pages, including 730 articles. That, plus the editing time pattern CHL noted above and similarity pointed out by Good Olfactory here, is sufficient to convince me that these are socks. I'll hear from others on what sanction, if any, should be imposed. T. Canens (talk) 02:09, 23 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Input requested at ANI. T. Canens (talk) 06:18, 25 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Based on the ANI discussion, I have blocked all three accounts indefinitely as socks of Mac. T. Canens (talk) 02:44, 27 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
This case has been marked as closed. It has been archived automatically.
28 June 2010
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Suspected sockpuppets


Evidence submitted by Shawn in Montreal (talk)

Banned User:Mac aka User:Nudecline made this comment on his talk page, a few days after a new user appeared to make this edit to PIGS (economics), just as Nudecline seemed to be winding down editing activity on the latest account.

What's also interesting is that the banned user has been active on the Spanish language site and so has this new editor, making the same edit here. The Spanish edit even includes the same "GIPSY" reference as Nudecline's talk page rant -- this in particular seems to more than just coincidence.

Mac/Nukeless/Nopetro/Nudecline has a habit of assuming a new identities. Is it worth a check? Shawn in Montreal (talk) 14:22, 28 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]


Comments by accused parties    See Defending yourself against claims.


Comments by other users


CheckUser requests
Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments

 Clerk note: moved from Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Fanavaridas. SpitfireTally-ho! 15:26, 28 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

 Confirmed that Nopetro is Nudecline. Technically, Fanavaridas is  Possible, based solely on being in the same major metropolitan area and on the same major ISP. --jpgordon::==( o ) 17:33, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

 Clerk note: No action taken on Fanavaridas after comparing the accounts. They different enough that I cannot conclude socking. –MuZemike 19:40, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

06 August 2010
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Suspected sockpuppets
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Evidence submitted by Dpmuk
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Identical move request for Oil well to Fossil-fuel well to that made by User:Nopetro a confirmed sock of Mac. Both also added their request to the top of the talk page rather than the more usual location - Hamiltha and Nopetro. The Hamiltha account was also created two days after the last confirmed sock was blocked. They also are editing in the same broad subject area - alternatively powered vehicles and more generally climate change and similar topics, for example both have edited Electric bus ([4] and [5]). Taken together I think it's enough to warrant further investigation. I'll leave it to for someone else to decide whether this needs a checkuser. Dpmuk (talk) 10:32, 6 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I started this investigation about user Hamiltha and provide evidence for that link above (enough that an admin has already blocked). I have no view about any other possible sockpuppet added to this investigation. Dpmuk (talk) 13:35, 16 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Evidence submitted by Beagel
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The account of user:Hamiltha was created on 2 July 2010, five days after user:Nopetro, a sockpuppet of Mac was blocked. Since then, he has edited same or similar pages as Nopetro with a similar editing pattern with creating dubious or nonsense redirects; adding nonsense redlink categories and adding fossil fuels related neologisms. By these edits he asked to move Oil well to fossil-fuel well. The same request was made by Nopetro only less than three month earlier and was speedy declined. Beagel (talk) 06:25, 7 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Notice. I only now discovered that the SPI is already opened so it should be merged to the investigation above. Beagel (talk) 06:31, 7 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Evidence submitted by Shawn in Montreal
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I would also ask that a Checkuser be performed on User:Bsea. In particular, I draw your attention to his recent edits on one of Mac's favorites, Solar panel. Note this repeated additions of blogs to promote future developments in solar panels, and red links for these companies, plus his poor command of English in his edit summaries plus use of close paraphrasing to circumvent his language problems in the articles -- all hallmarks of Mac. Furthermore, throughout July, User:Bsea was active in creating a number of interwiki links to Spanish WP articles. We know that Mac was/is active in the Spanish language Wikipedia. One can see here that Bsea's work in fact goes back as far as Sept. 2008. It had been dormant for an entire year, until just days after our recent blocking of User:Nopetro and User:Nudecline, on June 26. The reactivation of this account and the work cited above is evidence enough for a CU, I believe. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 17:45, 8 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Comments by accused parties   
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See Defending yourself against claims.

User:Bsea.

Hay, I’m not a SoockPappet and I can prove it.

  • First, take a look that User:Mac account was blocked in 17:51, 10 November 2008 see and my first edit in English Wikipedia was 21:02, 23 September 2008 see here, so my account was created before the blockade.
  • Second, compare the contribution of my edits summaries and User:Mac ones, you will see the pattern of the summaries is, very, very different in bout cases. Take a look to the detail that User:Mac use the arrow symbol to point where he or she edited, and I don’t use it. Also the large number of edits per day that Mac have and I don’t.[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Bsea check Bsea].
  • Third, Another thing you can see is may edit to Spanish WP version of the article, I invite anyone to follow one article, and enter to the Spanish WP version and see the history, you will see that User:Bsea created the Spanish page. This is another pattern that User:Mac doesn’t have.
  • Fort, the only page that I edit related with User:Mac is solar panel, I made 3 edits see history.
    • First one (put info from a U.S. department of energy blog, a .gov page, I think the U.S department of energy a reliable source (here, is very slow wait 3-4 minutes) ).
    • Second one (undid revision (User:Barek, who is an administrator) maybe this was the real problem, (next time I will check the user first)).
    • Third one was change the link to a faster one from chek , to this one.
  • About my English poor summaries, my edits are made and corrected in a Word processor, the summaries are spontaneous, check this in user Mac to.

To end, in Comment by Other user the only one commenting was User:Swan in Montreal and an IP that could be him to or some one else.--Bsea (talk) 03:10, 14 August 2010 (UTC).[reply]

The reason of my little contribution to English WP is my medium level of English written, getting better every day, I don’t now what going to append when I will begin to edit in French WP?. Being positive, I learn a lot of wikipedia system and written English (need more).--Bsea (talk) 03:11, 14 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I fix the links so they point now to the right place--Bsea (talk) 16:18, 14 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]


  • Another proves.

User:Nudecline was proved to be Mac, and Mac is suspected to be Spanish (see Comment by Other). See this comment in the [summaries], about the [winner of the football word cup 2010]. This proves that Nudecline are Spanish. Now see my user page in Spanish WP, you will see an Argentinean flag. Which I put it before of being suspect of SoockPappet (see) and here. Nobody lay with his nationality. Maybe a little bit with the level in Babel box, but never with nationality. --Bsea (talk) 16:27, 14 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]



Comments by other users
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If so, this would seem to be a more sophisticated attempt to deceive the community. Mac/Nopetro/Nudecline revealed himself to be a Spaniard over the years, while never presenting himself as a Muslim, to my knowledge. User:Hamiltha's self-identification as a Muslim Wikipedian and the appearance of his User page are new wrinkles, to me, and I had been following him for months. Mac was never particularly clever at disguising who he was -- so if he is User:Hamiltha, this might make him all the more dangerous, as it would represent a real step-up in his ability to game the system. I agree the edit histories look worrisomely similar. We're still not done undoing the damage done to our category structure; I hope he is not back, again. I am going to add a tag to his user page that he is a suspected sock. He deserves to know, does he not? Shawn in Montreal (talk) 19:51, 6 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments
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Can users requesting checks please provide diffs showing the similarity between accused accounts and the suspected sockmaster? As it stands, all I have is your word, and in honesty that's not good enough for a check. -Deskana (talk) 10:47, 11 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

 Clerk declined with respect to the CU's request for additional information, as it's been a week, and nobody has stepped forward with any. –MuZemike 00:09, 19 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

02 October 2010
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Suspected sockpuppets
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Evidence submitted by Shawn in Montreal
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I've suspected for some time that indef banned user Mac has been back editing from a several different Madrid-based IPs. However, I lacked a "smoking gun." I think I now have one. This edit to one of Mac's favourites adds the redlinked Category:Printed electronics. No such category exists, because it was deleted back on August 13. Mac had created this category. (Admin Vegaswikian says so in his AfD rationale and it would be a simple matter for an admin to verify from the deleted history of the category). It's patently obvious (to me) that this anon IP is Mac, who is based in Spain; if not, this this IP dreaming up a non-existent Category:Printed electronics is one heck of a coincidence. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 22:12, 2 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Comments by accused parties   
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See Defending yourself against claims.


Comments by other users
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Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments
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28 January 2011
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Suspected sockpuppets

Please list evidence below this line. Remember to sign at the end of your section with 4 tilde characters "~~~~"

Multiply banned user Mac appears to back in force, now operating as Diamondland. All his trademarks are in evidence:

Comments by other users
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Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims. I am not any clon of anybody and less of tedious Nopetro and so on. I do not sell to any one. I have edited a lot of articles, some of them about computers, mobile phones and so on. I try to do the best for Wikipedia and the NPOV. [6] [7] [8] Renault, a top authorised source--Diamondland (talk) 07:37, 28 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

  • "and less of tedious Nopetro"? So he's attempting to distance himself from one of his sock IDs by denigrating him? Here's my question: how the heck does he know who Nopetro is or what he's done if he's a new editor who just joined in October 2010, while Nopetro was forced to stop editing on June 2. How does he have this magical familiarity with someone who left the project before he ever joined, as is his claim? Good heavens, he can't even deny it convincingly. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 15:27, 28 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments
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  •  Clerk declined - Declining this CU as we have no other accounts to compare to - they're all stale. — HelloAnnyong (say whaaat?!) 03:52, 28 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  • The behavioral case is strong. I agree with Shawn's observation about combustion vehicle. The user compare report shows a great number of coincidences, too many to be due to chance. (87 articles in common out of 595 unique pages edited by Diamondland). I see the creation of strange categories. I did not find any unusual redirects. Editor is also active on the Spanish wikipedia, which agrees with Mac's Spanish connection. Diamondland has been cautioned for creation of unusual categories there as well. It seems to me that Climate Change Information Network, created by Diamondland, is mostly a cut-and-paste from its second reference. EdJohnston (talk) 07:05, 28 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I have added the links to sources above. On the other hand, my Spanish is not very well, but I fully understand the warning means " CONGRATULATIONS, this article about F connector is a great beginning", not what you are saying. Adding references to public domain publications is allowed in Wikipedia.--Diamondland (talk) 08:00, 28 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
The warning actually says, according to Google: "I have corrected some of your edits to be incorrect: You should not create categories with a single article unless you are going to continue to create articles on them, or redundant categories, and there is a category where all are electrical connectors. In principle we would not need to add links to wiktionario because then almost the majority of the required items. The ads [possibly meaning maintenance tags?] and the lack of references should always go up. The term "muxación" is not correct." That appears to be a clear cut message to me. Chase me ladies, I'm the Cavalry (talk) 15:44, 28 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
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