User:Arbor8/sandbox/sandbox
Summary
I believe that the users Corbridge, InaMaka, Getaway, 70114205215, JobsElihu, Keetoowah, at least three anonymous IPs and perhaps others are all socks of the same individual who has displayed a pattern of making hostile and unconstructive edits dating back to at least 2005.
I also believe, but cannot confirm, that this sockmaster has recently abandoned his most recent account, Corbridge, and started yet another sockpuppet, Palmtree6600.
It appears that the Sockmaster does not edit from multiple named accounts simultaneously. Rather, he engages in combative, POV editing for a period of time, accumulating a series of warnings, blocks and other complaints, then abandons the account and starts a new one. However, this is not a case of WP:CLEANSTART because the sockmaster never acknowledges his previous accounts and uses new accounts to evade blocks and avoid scrutiny.
In one instance, InaMaka admitted to making an edit from the IP 98.196.129.137 but claimed that it was a single case of forgetting to log in. However, the volume of the anon edits (200+ from 98.196.129.137 alone) suggests that this is not merely a case of an editor occasionally forgetting to log in, but rather intentional obfuscation.
Appendices
- Appendix 1: List of unrelated, low-traffic articles edited by many or all of the socks.
- Appendix 2: Nearly identical verbiage used in edit summaries across accounts.
- Appendix 3: Examples of tendentious editing.
- Appendix 4: Attempts at intervention/correction by other editors.
Reasoning
I believe the six named accounts and the anon IPs are all the work of a single sockmaster for three basic reasons: Timing of account creation/abandonment, multiple edits to several obscure, unrelated articles across accounts, and similar phrasing and tone in edit summaries and talk page discussions.
Note: In the interest of full disclosure, I want to be clear that I have previously had run-ins with InaMaka and Corbridge, as our areas of interest overlap quite a bit. In Corbridge’s case, I opened an RfC/U on 6 April 2011. It was as I was pulling together supporting diffs that I began to notice commonalities with InaMaka. Then, upon further investigation, I discovered the larger pattern involving accounts that predate my involvement with Wikipedia.
Timing
24 December 2004: Keetoowah makes his first edit. Initial efforts include complex edits to Condoleezza Rice, Lawrence Kansas, James Naismith, Stem Cells, Bill Self, Robert Byrd and Dennis Moore.
3 December 2005: Keetoowah makes his final edit.
4 December 2005: Keetoowah is blocked for two months per ArbComm ruling re: legal threats.
January – May 2006: Edits as anon IPs, including 72.177.223.95 and 70.114.205.215. Areas of focus include Ward Churchill, Concoleezza Rice, James Naismith, Kansas, Chad “Corntassel” Smith and Stem cells
26 May 2006: User account 70114205215 is created. Initial efforts include high level edits to Ward Churchill, Condoleezza Rice, Stem cells, and James Naismith.
22 June 2006: User 70114205215 is blocked.
14 July 2006: User account Getaway is created. Initial efforts include complex edits to Condoleezza Rice, stem cell, Sam Brownback, Texas 22nd District, Ward Churchill and several notable Cherokee people.
28 September 2007: Getaway makes his final edit, following a series of short blocks and a Wikiquette alert for combative editing.
3 October 2007: JobsElihu account created.
26 October 2007: JobsElihu makes his final edit, following a comment on his talk page that he is a sock of Getaway
6 November 2007: User account InaMaka is created. Immediately begins making multiple high level edits on articles including Bill Self, Rush Limbaugh, Condoleezza Rice, Jenna Hager, Mark Mangino and the University of Kansas.
5 November 2010: InaMaka is blocked for one week for tendentious editing. InaMaka has not made any edits since that block, after making 4,300+ betwen November 2007 and November 2010.
8 November 2010: The user account Corbridge is created, and immediately begins making multiple edits per day with a high level of proficiency.
6 April 2011: Corbridge is notified of an RfC/U regarding his conduct
15:33 GMT 8 April 2011: Corbridge makes his last edit
15:48 GMT 8 April 2011: Palmtree6600 account is created. Initial edits include facts about University of Kansas basketball and edits to Kristi Noem.
Naturally, considering the very large number of editors who participate in Wikipedia, there's bound to be a certain amount of overlap between articles edited by a number of different editors. This is particularly true among editors who focus on a particular area of personal interest (politics, sports, music, film, etc.). I would never presume that a simple commonality in articles edited would indicate sockpuppetry.
That being said, when two or more editors display a strikingly similar pattern of edits across a wide swath of unrelated, low-traffic articles, it raises some questions.
In this case, Corbridge, InaMaka, Getaway, 70114205215, JobsElihu, Keetoowah and the anon IPs all share a keen interest in:
• Specific localities in southeast Texas: Spring, Texas; The Woodlands, Texas; Texas 22nd Congressional District
• Duke Lacrosse rape investigation
• University of Kansas basketball players and coaches
• Chad “Corntassel” Smith, the current chief of the Cherokee Nation
• Dan Patrick, a Texas state senator and radio host
• Mark Parkinson, a former Kansas governor
• Karen Handel, a former Georgia Secretary of State
• Republican members of Congress and candidates, ranging from the well-known to the obscure
• Stem cells and “snowflake children”
• Jenna Hager (formerly Bush)
• Ward Churchill, a controversial academic and political activist at the University of Colorado
• Condoleezza Rice
• Sam Brownback
A longer list of low traffic, unrelated articles that have been edited by by multiple socks (with diffs) can be found at Appendix 1.
Edit summaries and policy debates
Finally, I believe Corbridge , InaMaka, Getaway, JobsElihu, 70114205215, Keetoowah and the anon IPs are all socks of the same sockmaster because of striking similarities in the language and tone of edit summaries and in their somewhat uncommon use of the quote parameter in refs.
In edit summaries, the named accounts and the Anon IPs all use the phrase "commentary of Wikipedians" frequently. Of course, this isn't remarkable in itself. However, the repetition and similarity are notable. They also share a peculiar affinity for the words “hooey,” “hogwash” and “horse hockey.” See diffs in Appendix 2.
Conclusion
While the alleged socks have not been editing concurrently (except in the case of the anon IPs), this case should be taken extremely seriously because of the disruptive, hostile and agenda-driven nature of the edits of this sockmaster. We’re talking about thousands of edits, mostly to BLPs, over the course of at least six years – the damage done to the project by this editor is immeasurable. What’s more, his migration to a new account each time consequences are leveled for his behavior makes clear that he is not editing in good faith and has no interest in respecting either the letter or the spirit of Wikipedia policy.
I’ve included a selection of talk page comments from each of the accounts in question to illustrate this sockmaster’s tendentious editing (Appendix 3), as well as corrective action that has been taken by other editors against the four most prolific socks: Keetoowah, Getaway, InaMaka and Corbridge (Appendix 4). That, combined with the edit summaries and the diffs provided provide more than enough evidence to ban this user, perhaps permanently.
I don’t know enough about Wikipedia (been editing for just under a year) to know whether it’s possible to prevent this sockmaster from just creating a new account and popping back up in a week or two. If it is, I think such an action is certainly appropriate.