Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/BernardZ/Archive

BernardZ

BernardZ (talk⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser(log) · investigate · cuwiki)

20 May 2018[edit]

Suspected sockpuppets[edit]

Macquaire (talk⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser(log) · investigate · cuwiki)

Tools: Editor interaction utility • Interaction Timeline • User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

Macquaire is a rarely used account that periodically becomes active in order to support BernardZ in disputes, eg. [1] (for [2]), [3] (talkpage), [4] (for [5]), [6] (for [7]).

BernardZ claims that Macquaire is "a mate who tends to follow me on Wikipedia," which may indicate meatpuppetry but is probably just false.

I've requested CU, but would recommend a block based on behavioral evidence even if CU comes up false due to the user's statements. –Roscelese (talk ⋅ contribs) 20:34, 20 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Comments by other users[edit]

Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.

The Editor Interaction Analyzer report [8] is interesting. The two editors have overlapped on 4 articles, 2 article talk pages (the only two article talk pages Macquaire has ever edited), and 2 user talk pages (the only two user pages Macquaire has ever edited). These overlap edits account for 42% of Macquaire's 26 edits (in 3 years time). Looking at their edit count page [9], they are truly a haphazard editor. Their edits are not evenly distributed by month, but clump together in widely separated months [10]. They don't edit at any regular time of day - their "time card" is all over the place, except for Thursdays at 16:00 UTC. [11]. These are all signs of a sock -- not a meatpuppet -- which is pulled out of the drawer whenever the master needs support.

Further, among BernardZ's top edited articles are Johannes Kepler, Dark star (Newtonian mechanics), Fermi paradox, and Drake equation, [12] while Macquaire has edited Partial pressure and James Prescott Joule [13]. BernardZ has edited Mustafa Badreddine and Edward Said, while Macquaire has edited Mustafa Amin. BernardZ has edited Vela Incident, while Macquaire has edited 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown.

A CU would probably be a good idea to check for any other socks, but I don't think there can be much doubt that Macquaire is a sock of BernardZ, and not "a mate that follows me around". Beyond My Ken (talk) 02:56, 22 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Given the behavioral evidence, DoRD's results are unexpected. But if these two aren't socks, they must be meatpuppets. Beyond My Ken (talk) 17:19, 22 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I didn't expect those results, either, but they're thousands of miles apart and don't appear to be using any proxy/VPN trickery. —DoRD (talk) 17:37, 22 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

OK, thanks for that. Beyond My Ken (talk) 23:03, 22 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments[edit]

Clerk endorsed - To help determine whether sock or meatpuppetry is more likely. Sro23 (talk) 22:35, 20 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]
The accounts are Unrelated. —DoRD (talk) 17:03, 22 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Nothing left to do here. Closing. Sro23 (talk) 01:12, 3 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]