Wikipedia:Suspected sock puppets/Jvolkblum (11th)

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.

User:Jvolkblum (11th)

Suspected sockpuppeteer

Jvolkblum (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)

Suspected sockpuppets

KevinMcAllister (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)
Hanae Mori (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)
202.95.157.17 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)
ConcertoNo.888 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)
Signal52 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)
DueAmici (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)
Hayes E Recollection (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)

Mintjulip52 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)

Report submission by

BlueAzure (talk) 22:41, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Evidence

KevinMcAllister was created at 17:14 on 30 May 2008, an account with the same name was created on the commons at 01:33 on 31 May 2008. The account on the commons was blocked due to this thread, the account was not mentioned in the thread before the block and had made no edits so the account must have picked up by a checkuser. Their first edit was to create a user talk page with a welcome template. Many of their edits have been to articles related to Westchester County. They have used mathematical symbols in many of their edits summaries (a few examples [1] [2] [3] [4]), a common Jvolkblum trait.

Adding Hanae Mori. This account was created 09:13, 6 June 2008, and its first edit 3 minutes later was to lecture a long-standing editor regarding Wikipedia policy.[5] Subsequently, it proceeded to edit articles in which Jvolkblum puppets have had a continuing interest. Along the way, it created a user page that looks remarkably like others created for Jvolkblum puppets. --Orlady (talk) 16:01, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

I am not Jvolkblum as you have claimed. My activity is specific to the Guilbert and Betelle article because I was searching online for that topic in particular when I saw the copyrighted text within the article. I signed up for an account to point out this issue. The original article had the following : Guilbert and Betelle was an architecture firm that was a prolific designer of schools and architectural buildings throughout the East Coast of the United States, notable for its adaptation of diverse styles to create a new American "Collegiate Gothic" style of school architecture. The firm was a partnership of Ernest F. Guilbert and James Oscar Betelle.
this is the same text from the website 'http://www.vineland.org/history/landisschool/architecture/architecture.htm' which reads: The firm of Guilbert and Betelle, architects of Landis School, were prolific designers of schools and architectural buildings throughout the East. James Betelle specialized in adapting diverse styles to create a new American style of school architecture
also, the article originally read: After Guilbert's death in 1916, Betelle became the owner of the firm. He was architect for hundreds of schools in five different states and a consultant on many more. Two of these schools, Greenwich High School in Greenwich, Connecticut and the Radburn School in Fair Lawn, New Jersey are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Betelle's organization was architect for such buildings as the Essex County Hall of Records, Newark, New Jersey, Hotels Robert Treat and Alexander Hamilton, Chamber of Commerce Building, Essex Club (now the New Jersey Historical Society) and a half dozen banks, also in Newark, New Jersey.
The same website 'http://www.vineland.org/history/landisschool/architecture/architecture.htm' reads: After Mr. Guilbert's death in 1916, J.O. Betelle became the owner of the firm. He set its policies, controlled its business, obtained the work and managed the entire organization. He was architect for hundreds of schools in five different states and a consultant on many more. Two of these schools, Greenwich High School in Connecticut and the Radburn School in New Jersey are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Included in the firm's work, his organization was architect for such buildings as the Hall of Records, Newark, New Jersey, Hotels Robert Treat and Alexander Hamilton, Chamber of Commerce Building, Essex Club and a half dozen banks, also in Newark, New Jersey.
I added an image of a school to the article because I found it available on the Wikipedia site already. I did not find any other photographs available. The other photograph on the website seems to have copyright issues as well which have been pointed out. I would appreciate it if I could be removed from this list. Thank You. --Hanae Mori (talk) 15:26, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

Also adding IP 202.95.157.17 (registered in Indonesia) that I am sure is Jvolkblum using a proxy; edits are to Beechmont, New York (recently created by a Jvolkblum puppet) and articles on related topics. --Orlady (talk) 16:01, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

Adding User:ConcertoNo.888, a sleeper account that has not yet edited here. This account was created on June 3 at 09:18 (a few minutes before several already-blocked socks of Jvolkblum). A user by the same name uploaded several images of New Rochelle (some already deleted; all with doubtful status) at Commons (see Commons contributions log). Some of those images were inserted into articles here by IP 202.95.157.17 (noted above). --Orlady (talk) 16:07, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

Adding User:Signal52: registered on 1 June; only edit so far was to an article in Jvolkblum's neighborhood (this diff). The edit added fairly trivial content (a hallmark of Jvolkblum) that was sourced to two NYTimes articles that cannot be found on the comprehensive NYTimes website (one of Jvolkblum's practices is to supply plausible-sounding nonexistent sources), with reference callouts improperly formatted in the same manner as many others I have seen from Jvolkblum. --Orlady (talk) 22:23, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

Hello - I am not sure if this is the correct place to communicate this, but I am not Jvolkblum and do not know who he is. The two New York Times articles I linked to are legitimate. They are in the New York Times archive -- on the New York Times website you have to change the search box to search pre-1981 articles. Though you do need to pay to access the full article, the previews of the articles are available at http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10913FA355B1B778DDDA90994D0405B838BF1D3&scp=1&sq=A+Strategic+Retreat+for+Headquarters+of+Washington&st=p and http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60C11F9395410728DDDAB0A94DE405B8084F1D3&scp=1&sq=A+Washington+Memorial+Renovated%2C&st=p. I appreciate your vigilance, but please remove the sockpuppetry accusation from my account. Signal52 (talk) 22:46, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I've stricken the statements. --Orlady (talk) 23:03, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

Comments

Yeah, it's probably him. At this point, I'm almost tempted to just let him be and pretend we don't notice, as if to say, "We know it's you, so stop creating sockpuppets and we'll leave you alone." On second thoght, though, it's probably better to block and wait for Wikipedia:Suspected sock puppets/Jvolkblum (12th) which is evidently not too far in the future. (Can anybody talk to this guy? He's obviously a student in the New York area...) Yechiel (Shalom) 01:14, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

The trouble with that plan is that Jvolkblum and puppets can and do create major messes in the encyclopedia (and at Commons), including inserting deliberate errors in articles, uploading numerous copyvio images that they claim to be self-made, de-wikifying articles, and harassing other users by posting nuisance templates on articles. (What am I forgetting?) It requires an enormous amount of user effort just to reverse the changes and add deletion templates to the bad images, and that doesn't even include explaining the situation to other users who are skeptical about assertions that the Jvolkblum content is bad (for example, in Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/New Rochelle (Zip-Code Areas), New York and Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Castle, New Rochelle). --Orlady (talk) 16:01, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

Hanae Mori is pretty likely to be a sock based on their editing. In this edit they added a photo of New Rochelle High School (one of their main articles of interest) to Guilbert and Betelle, it also appears part of their promotion of New Rochelle as they moved a picture that was already in the article down to the bottom of the page. Most of their edits were to Guilbert and Betelle, which another Jvolkblum sock focused on the same day. DueAmici was created at 04:50 on 6 June 2008. Their only edits have been to list Image:Great-neck-hs.jpg as a possible copyvio, the image appears on Guilbert and Betelle. In this edit they appended their signature to a comment by 85.219.9.3 (talk · contribs). That IP address is from spain and the only other edits from that IP address were to revert the reversion of Jvolkblum socks [6] [7].

Hayes E Recollection was created at 05:47 on 7 June 2008, three minutes later they created a user page. Their first to articles edit were to a Sarah Lawrence College related article Fawaz Gerges [8] [9], which I had edited the day before. The rest of their edits have been to List of Sarah Lawrence College people which has been edited by many Jvolkblum socks recently. In two of their edits summaries they used a mathematical symbol (>) [10] [11], the same one was used multiple times by KevinMcAllister [12] [13] [14] [15]. In this edit they inserted in commented out form the most recent version of the article contents as edited by a Jvolkblum sock (that IP address was blocked as an open proxy). In the comment out section they claimed " this article keep getting vandalised". A previous sock Fajnzylberg101 (talk · contribs) had made an edit reverting the article back to Jvolkblum's version with an edit summary claiming that the reversion of Jvolkblum material was vandalism. BlueAzure (talk) 23:48, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

I submitted a RFCU today. The results confirm several names listed here, plus some others. --Orlady (talk) 02:33, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, Wikipedia:Requests for checkuser/Case/Jvolkblum (scroll down). Kevin McAllister and Hanae Mori are confirmed. I haven't checked the others. Anyone want to block them? Yechiel (Shalom) 23:43, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

Several of the names in this report have now been blocked based on Wikipedia:Requests for checkuser/Case/Jvolkblum results, together with several additional users. Specifically, blocks were applied to:

1. KevinMcAllister (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
2. DueAmici (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
3. MattHeffernan (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
4. Serbenica (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
5. BuckWestonJr. (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
6. MarwahKarsah (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
7. I'm Afraid I Must Go (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
8. Glo-DEAN (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
9. Hanae Mori (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

I am adding User:Mintjulip52 to this report; this new user's only edits have been restoring an article version created by Serbenica, a Jvolkblum sock and added a "citation needed" template in a seemingly random location within an article that is sourced but has no inline citations (this type of edit is typical of the Jvolkblum socks). --Orlady (talk) 18:49, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

Conclusions

Blocked all that weren't already blocked (except the one crossed out). I'm sure we'll see report 12 on him soon. — Rlevse • Talk • 14:01, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

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