Wiki143:Suspected sock puppets/Father's Wish

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The following discussion is an archived debate of the case of suspected sockpuppetry. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page. All edits should go to the talk page of this case. If you are seeing this page as a result of an attempt to open a new case of sockpuppetry of the same user, read this for detailed instructions. I am going to close this now, as it is just transcluding there on SSP. Any further information should go to the talk page of the abuse report page. Nothing more can really be done here. Iolakana•T 16:34, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Father's Wish

Summary: Several sock puppets and anon users believed to be the same user (or a group of users working together) are vandalizing the group of articles related to Avatar: The Last Airbender. The edits were shown to be a violation of WP:V and WP:C. This has been explained on many talk pages, yet the user(s) continue to insert the content. Their actions have included massive WP:3RR violations, ban evasions, personal attacks, blatant vandalism, and more.

Parties Involved

Numerous IPs, including but probably not limited to:

Articles (excludes user pages and user talk pages):

Complaint

The user Father's Wish has been continually contributing a massive amount of information to Avatar: The Last Airbender pages that he claims "he hacked from www.nick.com" that concerns future episodes the series. When confronted over this, he apparantly started creating other accounts or just not signing in at all when re-adding his unverifiable information or creating new pages based on it. A RfC was taken at Talk:List of Avatar: The Last Airbender episodes#Request for Comment: Verifiability of recent additions, and community consensus was reached that this information was not to be included on Wikipedia. Despite this, the listed IP addresses continuted breaking the 3RR and adding the information back to the page List of Avatar: The Last Airbender episodes. After semi-protection was secured, several pages, included the semi-protected page, were vandalized by newly-created accounts and IPs, and the information was added back to many of the pages in question.

This particular dispute has engulfed numerous pages, including List of Avatar: The Last Airbender episodes, Secret of the Fire Nation, Part 1, City of Walls and Secrets, Secret of the Fire Nation, Part 2, Tales of Ba Sing Se, When there was you and me, Template:Avatar, Avatar: the Last Airbender, and Wikipedia:WikiProject Avatar: The Last Airbender, among others. Some duplicates of pages with the unwarranted information have also been created: List of Avatar: The Last Airbender episodes2, Template:Avatar2 List of Avatar: The Last Airbender episode, Template:Avatars.

In addition, there is a (presently) less-prominent dispute: Father's Wish and other of his suspected persona have been adding a massive amount of material on numerous pages that has been copied verbatim from http://www.nick.com. He/she has refused to remove this plagairzed information and has added back said information several times after other editors removed it. Plagairized content is currently in the process of being identified and removed and is known to involve the following pages: Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation and List of Avatar: The Last Airbender minor secondary characters.

Further details regarding this case can be found at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Avatar: The Last Airbender#The current mess, where the user in question has also spoken. 06:59, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

Investigation by Neil916
  • I have reviewed the edit history over the many articles and have reached the conclusion that it is very unlikely that Script error: No such module "user". is the sockpuppeteer here. The reasons for my conclusions include:
    • The majority of the vandalism edits that are involved here revolve around the List of Avatar: The Last Airbender episodes article, and related templates, an article to which Father's Wish made only one minor typographical edit.
    • The edits by the anonymous SBC user based in Chicago began at 06:36 on 7/20/06 to the List of Avatar: The Last Airbender episodes article.
    • The anonymous SBC user did not duplicate any of the edits that were contributed by Father's Wish, and vice versa.
    • Father's Wish stopped contributing at 13:40 on 7/21/06, despite not being blocked until 20:16 on 7/24/06 at the height of the anonymous Chicago user's vandalism rampage.
    • The talk page history for Father's wish shows one edit at 13:34 on 7/21/06, responding to a question from Frye2387 where it appears that he made an edit without being logged in, and quickly logged in and made a further edit to that same section. The IP address used, 68.239.106.106 is a Verizon account based in Washington, DC. Father's Wish did not revert the change made by the anonymous user, so he either didn't notice vandalism to his talk page and ignored the "you have a new message" tag, or he logged in after realizing that he wasn't logged in after the first edit. I believe that a checkuser will confirm this.
    • The Chicago vandal has denied being Father's Wish, when he has no apparent motivation for doing so. In fact, if the complaint to his ISP had progressed as it was, it would have undermined the credibility of the person making the complaint if several unrelated users were responsible for these actions that a contactor was trying to pin on one person.

Since many of the pages involved in the vandalism spree have been deleted, I am unable to review their histories. In addition, since they were deleted, I can't tell if any of them were touched by Father's Wish.

Reviewing the history of all the pages involved shows a clear case of multiple users pushing POV and performing random acts of vandalism. It appears to me that several of the editors involved with reverting the vandalism were too quick to jump on the bandwagon conclusion that all of those acts of vandalism were performed by a single user who, while certainly guilty of apparent plaigerism and contribution of unverifiable content, doesn't appear to deserve to be lumped into the same category of some of these other vandals.

The anonymous vandal from Chicago merits a separate discussion and I am inclined to believe that his activities merit action of some sort, but the discussion should be moved to a separate location, because I don't believe that Father's Wish is really involved in this.

I'd like to add that my conclusion involves only the involvement of Father's Wish here, not the obvious sockpuppets created by other users in order to evade blocks.

Neil916 00:29, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

If this is true, which seems highly likely, then it also highly likely that the Chicago IP vandal did not begin creating sockpuppet accounts until after List of Avatar: The Last Airbender episodes was semi-protected, because it was after that event that numerous accounts started popping up making the same edits. On this basis, all the user accounts on this page are sockpuppet accounts except for Kashdadon, whose sole edit was to make the "When there was you and me" article (which has since been deleted). Should this all turn out to be true, I'd suggest removing the block on Kashdadon's account; however, all the other accounts were, to my knowledge, created after this event and engaged in very similar vandalism (during which a time that Father's Wish did not make any edits), and as such I'm very inclined to believe that, Father's Wish and Kashdadon excluded, all the other listed accounts are sockpuppet accounts of the Chicago IP vandal, and should thus remain blocked, and appropriate action will continue to be taken against this user at the abuse report that I have filed against at Wikipedia:Abuse reports/Father's Wish (though that abuse report may be erroneously titled). –Prototime (talk • contribs) 00:47, 29 July 2006 (UTC)
Yes, it appears incorrect since this investigation. Can I please have the name of the page(s) that was [were] deleted so I can check the logs and see if, in fact, Father's Wish edited them as such. Thanks, Iolakana|T 13:18, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
To my knowledge, the only deleted articles have been Tales of Ba Sing Se, When there was you and me, List of Avatar: The Last Airbender episodes2, Template:Avatar2 List of Avatar: The Last Airbender episode, Template:Avatars. –Prototime (talk • contribs) 04:44, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
Ok, Father's wish did not edit any of them (Template:Avatar2 List of Avatar: The Last Airbender episode does not exist). I can post the logs on a sub-page of this case, if you wish. Iolakana|T 15:55, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
Comments

As of the time I write this message, he is creating more accounts and committing more vandalism than myself and numerous other editors can keep up with. –Prototime (talk • contribs) 06:59, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

He is now going so far as to vandalize my userpage and talk page. H2P 07:11, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

Possibly due to the same relation, Template:User-multi just vandalized my talk page. H2P (Yell at me for what I've done) 19:10, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
That new IP address is an SBC user in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Neil916 19:38, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

gotta keep the truth up, prototime and the rest are reverting to a vandalized state. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.74.117.57 (talk • contribs) 03:02, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

So you admit to owning all these accounts, then? –Prototime (talk • contribs) 07:05, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
Actually is me and 4 buds doing this on proxies. but hey, we know it's the truth, we saw it on the nick's xml file and we're gonna keep it up until we make some sort of compromise or apology. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.74.117.57 (talk • contribs) 03:10, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
You're WAY beyond compromise anymore H2P 07:11, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

This user is still making new socks and continually vandalized pages, and even has admitted to these actions and continues to do this. Can something PLEASE be done about this as soon as possible? It is extremely difficult to make any worthwhile edits to pages relating to Avatar: The Last Airbender when the editors are just policing articles day-in and day-out. –Prototime (talk • contribs) 16:16, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

I'm assuming this is where I respond to accusations? I'm not a sock puppet. I added the Tales of Ba Sing Se page because the link that was on the episode list page at the time did not go anywhere and because I thought it was a real episode because it's listed on TV.com. I also made a minor edit on The Secret of the Fire Nation (Part 2, I think) just to correct some spelling. That was before all the reverts. I did not know how the info had been obtained at the time, nor had I read any of the policies rules (but that's something I intend to do before I make any more edits). I don't know if any of you will believe me, but I am telling the truth. Xair

I wasn't completely sure if Xair was a sockpuppet account myself, but thought I'd add it to cover all grounds. You've been removed from the list; sorry for the mix-up. –Prototime (talk • contribs) 16:16, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

A compromise has been created. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Inclusivethings (talk • contribs) 12:18, 24 July 2006

Oh really, and what is that, may I ask? –Prototime (talk • contribs) 16:21, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
Look at the new episode page that I keep reverting to a good state. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Inclusivethings (talk • contribs) 13:08, 24 July 2006
You mean the one that's been deleted? H2P 20:12, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
Yes, the deleted one. All you have to do is unprotect the original list, change it to include the rumored titles and secrets of the fire nation, and put a nice box at top that says "may change on air" — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.229.8.161 (talk • contribs) 16:14, 24 July 2006
But, it's gone now, so you might as well just stop you're preventing us from actually making progress with editing the other Avatar pages H2P 20:15, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
I'll produce another copy soon, or the admin can undelete it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.229.8.161 (talk • contribs) 16:16, 24 July 2006

Accounts blocked. I will check over the IPs tomorrow. Iolakana|T 20:59, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

(It should be noted that several additional accounts and have been added to this list since you blocked what accounts you knew to at the time.) –Prototime (talk • contribs) 04:58, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

Okay all done, I will stop if a vote begins. I see no vote, I will not stop. Please link me to the vote when it does begin. Leave the link in this page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by AdrenalinePower (talk • contribs) 17:08, 24 July 20

Even if that was an option, it would not work, as I'm sure you'd just vote with about 50 socks.--Fyre2387 21:13, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
He's got you there. H2P 21:13, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
I promise to not vote. — Preceding unsigned comment added by AdrenalineRush (talk • contribs) 17:16, 24 July 2006
Thing is, a consensus on the matter was already reached on the original article’s talk page. You just choose to ignore the consensus.--Fyre2387 21:22, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
If you do not start a new one, it will persist. — Preceding unsigned comment added by AdrenalineRush (talk • contribs) 17:28, 24 July 2006
We don't need to start a new one when we already have an answer at the link Fyre just gave. H2P 21:29, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
Persist it shall — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.74.65.140 (talk • contribs) 17:41, 24 July 2006
How old are you? 12? H2P 21:42, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
I'm only 6 and a half years old, my first friend is 12, my second friend is 10, the third is 15, and the fourth is 14 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.74.65.140 (talk • contribs) 17:48, 24 July 2006
Somehow I find that doubtful, unless one of your friends is typing for you. --Passerby Cat talk cat 23:57, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
Look, we'll stop now. Seeya. We'll admit it too, we do a lot of things to wikipedia, we love how the admins do their job. Why do we do it? Because we get an adrenaline high from this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Calitosexy (talk • contribs) 21:51, 24 July 2006
That's gotta be the most disturbing thing I've heard today. H2P 05:17, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

Reviewing the history of the dynamic IP addresses this user has received from his Internet provider shows no overlap in contribution times, which shows that it is highly unlikely that there is more than one user involved here. I'd recommend reporting an abuse complaint to the user's ISP under Wikipedia:Abuse reports. Neil916 16:22, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

The claim by this user that he/she will stop vandalizing pages is unfounded, as he/she is still creating new accounts and vandalizing pages. –Prototime (talk • contribs) 19:00, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

Yup, blackmailing us. I have blocked the Master sockpuppeter. Iolakana|T 19:19, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
OK, blocked IP addresses and accounts. Are there any more accounts or IP addresses left? Iolakana|T 13:40, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
Blocking the IP addresses is not likely to be helpful with the exception of the most recently used. The user has an AT&T Yahoo! DSL account with a dynamic IP address. When he turns his modem off and on, it assigns him a different IP address. It appears that in his area, he is being assigned addresses out of at least 4 class "B" IP blocks: 68.74.0.0, 68.78.0.0, 70.229.0.0, and 70.230.0.0. That means that there are about 260,000 potential IP addresses he could be assigned. He has no control over which IP address he uses and it is unlikely that he'll ever be assigned the same address twice. Obviously, range blocks would result in an undesirable level of collateral damage. That's why I suggested a report to his ISP in my comment above. If the vandalism, disruption, and sockpuppetry behavior continues, his IP being used at the time along with the exact time of the vandalism can be used by the ISP to pinpoint which subscriber is responsible for violating the ISP's terms of service and terminate the account accordingly. IP addresses can also be determined by administrators with checkuser rights if the user creates new sockpuppet accounts. There's a fair amount of work involved, so if the activity doesn't persist, though, it might be just as well to let the matter end here. Neil916 16:01, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
As Neil916 said, there are indeed tons of IPs he's been using, more than I or anyone else can keep track of (and at 260,000, I'm not surprised). Unfortunately, I logged on today only to discover that this user is still carrying through his attacks on pages with IPs. I guess I'll be filing an ISP abuse report after all, and I'll continually update this page with any new accounts he/she creates until that process is complete. –Prototime (talk • contribs) 17:10, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
Also please update the article list on this to include the articles being vandalized; I'm not seeing any recent activity that you're referring to on them, so I'm not sure what you're referring to. Neil916 20:40, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
The article that was vandalized earlier today is Secret of the Fire Nation, Part 2 (already listed) by 71.75.183.222, which apparantly has been utilized before (EDIT: would this IP be in an additional class "B" IP block, 71.75.0.0? If so, I'll be sure to mention it on abuse report I just filed). In addition, I've filed a Wikipedia Abuse Report concerning the IPs, which can be found at Wikipedia:Abuse reports#Father's Wish vandal. –Prototime (talk • contribs) 20:56, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
City of Walls and Secrets was also hit earlier today with the same old story, this time by 24.226.104.43. –Prototime (talk • contribs) 21:26, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
It's not likely to be the same user. The original contributor using the anon IP addresses was an AT&T Yahoo user located in Chicago, IL. 71.75.183.222 traces back to a RoadRunner account in an unknown location, likely North Carolina or South Carolina. The user has contributions dating back to May 14, 2006, and the recent changes don't seem to be of the same nature as the Father's Wish sockpuppet or even vandalism. 24.226.104.43 traces to a cable user in Cobourg, Ontario. The one change this user has made doesn't appear to be vandalism or reverting content. Neither of these two new accounts test positive as open proxies, so you could be looking at meatpuppetry, but more likely completely independent users. Neil916 23:05, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
I had a feeling that was the case; I've gone ahead and removed these from the list. Let's wait and see if they do anything else. –Prototime (talk • contribs) 23:42, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
  • An abuse report has been created: Wikipedia:Abuse reports/Father's Wish. I am the investigator; there will be another user, who is a contactor, who will try and contact the ISP. If there are any problem, contact me. Iolakana|T 19:49, 27 July 2006 (UTC)
I am the vandal, and I must apologize for the inconvience I have caused to everyone, I was pretty pissed that they wouldn't allow me to use the titles I obtained from Nick's XML file, but I have stopped for 2 days now. (All Chicago IP Addresses should be stopped). Unfortunately, I am not father's wish but rather a completely different individual. Again, I apologized and have stopped. [1]
On that same page, anonymous user Template:User-multi said:
"It's kind of weird how you think I'm Father's Wish when I'm not." [2]
I've asked that the conversation be continued here (which requires that this page be unprotected), because that page isn't an appropriate place for it. My question to the anonymous user: You deny that you are Father's Wish. Do you admit that you are the sockpuppeteer for the rest of the non-IP accounts listed at the top of this page? Neil916 00:13, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
  • I have added an "Investigation by Neil916" section to this page, which explains my conclusion that Father's Wish is not the same user as the anonymous Chicago vandal. Neil916 00:29, 29 July 2006 (UTC)
mmm.. so even when i apologize and stop you people persist? 68.74.184.117 04:02, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
Well that's because you've been acting like an immature child. We know that if you are allowed to even remain an able editor, you'll start messing up someone elses pages. I'll repeat your post: "We'll admit it too, we do a lot of things to wikipedia, we love how the admins do their job. Why do we do it? Because we get an adrenaline high from this." By this context, we know you will return and we can't be having that. H2P (Yell at me for what I've done) 04:06, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
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