Wikipedia:Suspected sock puppets/unknown

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:MastCell

Suspected sockpuppeteer

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

Suspected sockpuppets

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

Report submission by MSTCrow 16

51, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Evidence

The user, AMDZone, was created on July 4th, 2007. Within what appears to be within a minute of his account creation, he created a spurious AfD for Fudzilla. The fact that immediately after he created the account, that he was familiar enough with the system to create an AfD and leave all of the appropriate tags thereof, strongly points to an experienced user abusing the system. The entirety of his edits are all on July 4th, three creating the AfD, and one saying "Hi" on his userpage, for a total of 4 edits. I do not know who the sockpuppeteer is likely to be, only that the abusive user exists.

AMDZone's edit history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/AMDZone

Update: As Fudzilla was deleted out of process by MastCell, who despite the fact that the emerging consensus on deletion was 4 in favor and 7 against at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Fudzilla, deleted the page without comment. I now suspect that he could be the sockpuppeteer of this sock. - MSTCrow 00:21, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Comments

I'm not really sure where to start here. I guess I could ask why I'd bother to create a sockpuppet to nominate the article for deletion, or why I'd care enough to go to such lengths, etc. But OK: I saw this thread on AN/I, in which a user asked an admin to close the AfD. I watch AN/I, and I close AfD's, so I thought I'd take care of it. Never heard of Fudzilla before. As to "out of process", head over to deletion review rather than making frivolous and rather far-fetched accusations. I suspect AMDZone is someone's sock, but the AfD's already run its course, and solicited input from quite a few editors, so it didn't seem to make sense to close it. MastCell ^Talk 04:32, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

I'd just like to point out to the accuser that AFD results are based on a mix of consensus and the merits of the arguments presented, not a majority vote. Admins close AFDs, nothing suspicious about that. This needs much stronger evidence. Someguy1221 06:10, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

As best I can tell, the posited accusation is this: I wanted to delete Fudzilla but didn't want to nominate it from my own account. So I created a sock to nominate the article. Then I waited until the AfD was 2 days or so overdue for closure, and until someone posted on AN/I requesting an admin to close it, at which point I closed the AfD. I understand being upset over the outcome of an AfD (that's what deletion review is for), but this is ridiculously far-fetched. MastCell ^Talk 15:34, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Conclusions

This is a totally frivolous nomination. I commend MastCell, one of our most outstanding administrators, for his forbearance in dealing with this most unpleasant situation. My feelings for the accuser are the opposite, and I will tell him as much on his talk page. Shalom ^Hello 03:01, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

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