Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/SiliconProphet/Archive

SiliconProphet

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

29 January 2023[edit]

Suspected sockpuppets[edit]

Scientifical Poet (talk⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser(log) · investigate · cuwiki)
Immanuelle (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 • SPI Tools

The extensive overlap among these accounts can be seen here. The accounts share the following characteristics:

adding new sections to comment on own talk page without being asked a question (for example, here and here as SiliconProphet and here and here as Immanuelle before and after a rename, the last of which appears to deny being the same editor depending upon whether "draftifier" is here used to mean "drafter")
shared interest in Manichaeism and Japanese protohistory, as well as a number of rare topics like Male egg and Female sperm
machine translation of articles from a wide variety of languages, with questionable accuracy (see concerns at User talk:Immanuelle/Archive 1#Foreign language competence) and often without attribution (see this for SiliconProphet and the current AfD at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Fuhitobe where I noted that the whole article appears to be a translation of a non-free source)
resubmitting draftified articles from the subsequent account, sometimes without alteration (see concerns raised at User talk:Immanuelle/Archive 1#Draft status for multiple articles)
edits are as few as 3 minutes apart; shift back and forth among accounts, e.g. at Folk Orthodoxy
two accounts share “S...P...” monikers and all have shared similar user pages

To be fair, I believe this editor is well-intentioned, work was involved in the drafts/new articles, and some of the drafts that were resubmitted were accepted. (Some that were accepted should not have been, either because of copyright issues or because of confusing or inaccurate machine translation.) However, a large proportion of the articles probably require WP:TNT or deletion at this point, as has been recommended by a number of editors looking at individual articles; without going through the originals line by line, it may be difficult to find where sources were lost or the translations are inaccurate. In other words, the ongoing issues are going to require extensive cleanup by other editors. Further, a contributing factor in the article approval process may have been the appearance that multiple editors were engaging with the articles. It was finding the third account that prompted me to see this as a WP:SCRUTINY issue, and I am not sure how many other undeclared accounts may be involved here. (If this is stale, duck blocks are likely in order for at least two of the accounts, with the third perhaps requiring further discussion here or at ANI.) Dekimasuよ! 06:35, 29 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Comments by other users[edit]

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

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

Looking at Himetataraisuzu-hime may give a good summary. This is a real, but very obscure, topic in Japanese mythology. The article was created by SiliconProphet on October 12, 2021. It was edited extensively by SiliconProphet, but was draftified per talk page consensus on October 14. It was moved back to article space by SiliconProphet on October 22, and SiliconProphet continued to edit the article, followed by extensive edits from Scientifical Poet. It was then draftified again by an uninvolved editor on January 13, 2022. Immanuelle then submitted it to AfC without significant changes the very same day. Immanuelle continued to edit the article and it was approved at AfC by an uninvolved editor on May 3, but a recent edit by an IP editor still notes: Overall, this section is dreadful and clearly the mangled product of autotranslate, but I don't have time to fix it all. I doubt the process would have gone this way if clearly dealing with a single contributor to the translation. Dekimasuよ! 07:04, 29 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
It may also be necessary to check these against the editor CycoMa1 (Editor Interaction Analyzer for this), who also appears with SiliconProphet at places as diverse as drafts on obscure Japanese gods (created once by CycoMa1, speedy deleted, and recreated by SiliconProphet, then allowed to lapse before being requested at WP:REFUND by Immanuelle here) and on Female sperm (30 minutes apart). SiliconProphet created Inbe clan on October 11, 2021 and CycoMa1 created Imbe clan on September 21, 2021; CycoMa1 appeared on SiliconProphet's article on the topic 3 minutes after its creation. Though there are a very small number of talk page interactions between the two (e.g. here, replied to 3 minutes later and very quick back and forth here), it is not clear to me that these are conclusive in showing that they are different editors. See also the history of Mizuhanome. I would like to maintain AGF but I am not convinced by something like "Copying from the draft I was working on. But, you bet me to it." CycoMa1 also appears to have active topic restrictions, and SiliconProphet's oldest contributions were on phylogenetic topics that overlap with CycoMa1's primary interests. Dekimasuよ! 08:45, 29 January 2023 (UTC) Striking for clarity, as I consider this aspect resolved. Dekimasuよ! 04:52, 7 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Dekimasu - I've been aware of this editor and their use of multiple accounts for some time. First of all, I am also familiar with CycoMa1 and I am very confident that they are not the same person. There are numerous reasons why - some of the most obvious are that they don't do machine translations, while the majority of SiliconProphet/Scientifical Poet/Immanuelle's contributions consist of such, and they have a very distinctive communication style that Immanuelle does not share (compare CycoMa1's posts in this ANI thread to this, for example).
It is clear based on behaviour (the userpages, machine translations and focus on the same extremely obscure drafts) that SiliconProphet, Scientifical Poet and Immanuelle are operated by the same person. As I mentioned above, I'd noticed this some time ago, but hadn't reported it to SPI yet because it wasn't clear to me whether or not their use of multiple accounts in isolation was abusive. In particular I don't think they have ever claimed that the three accounts are different people and they don't seem to be using more than one account concurrently at the moment (assuming no other accounts exist). However, I'm sympathetic to the argument that this is a WP:SCRUTINY issue, particularly in light of the history of content problems. You've mentioned ANI in your filing and I think that, considering the wide spectrum of issues raised here - not just alleged socking, but also machine translations, copyright issues, and mass creation of problematic content, ANI might be a better venue to address all of this than SPI. I will leave this open, though, in case anyone has other perspectives. Spicy (talk) 18:56, 29 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Given that there is a history of concurrent use, as well as the SCRUTINY angle/potential CLEANSTART violation considering the history of warnings/potentially problematic conduct, I decided to run a check. SiliconProphet and Scientifical Poet are Stale, and technical data offers nothing that would suggest that Immanuelle is currently operating any alternate accounts. --Blablubbs (talk) 19:30, 29 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Addendum for the avoidance of doubt: I agree with Spicy that CycoMa1 does not seem related to these accounts, and so did not check them. --Blablubbs (talk) 19:36, 29 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks to all involved. This is a relatively reassuring outcome, and I will take this to ANI as needed. Dekimasuよ! 07:51, 31 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Closing. Spicy (talk) 23:43, 17 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]