Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Hentheden: Difference between revisions

===16 September 2024===

{{SPI case status|close}}

====Suspected sockpuppets====

{{sock list|1=Philthebanker|2=Risktrademike|3=HalleyCA2015|4=Deniss Alex|5=Tophe1984|tools_link=yes}}<!-- Add more accounts or IPs to this template as needed -->

A six year old sleeper account with zero edits awakened, and several brand new accounts created, a few hours apart, to support [[user:Hentheden]] in a flimsy DRV case.

* [[Special:Diff/1245965226/1245982770]] ([[user:Philthebanker]])

* [[Special:Diff/1245982770/1245991043]] ([[user:Risktrademike]])

* [[Special:Diff/1246021091]] ([[user:HalleyCA2015]])

* [[Special:Diff/1246030332]] ([[user:Deniss Alex]])

* [[Special:Diff/1246028054]] (likely same operator, forgot to log into one of their sock accounts; realizing their mistake, they quickly self-reverted their vote)

* [[Special:Diff/1246035588]] ([[User:Tophe1984]])

I don't know if [[user:Hentheden]] is the sockmaster or not, but it's probably worth checking. Note that I am involved as the closing admin of the subject AfD. Thank you! [[User:OwenX|Owen&times;]] [[User talk:OwenX|<big>&#9742;</big>]] 11:41, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

====<big>Comments by other users</big>====

:<small>''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See [[Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/SPI/Guidance#Defending yourself against claims|Defending yourself against claims]].''</small>

*I am not a puppet (although a puppet would be made to say that, wouldn't they). What happened is that Hentheden contacted people like me who actually care about the subject matter, Global Credit Data, to let us know that its entry was being removed and that there was a chance to have our say. I find it hard to believe that letting people know that there is an opportunity to make a comment or vote is against policy.[[User:Philthebanker|Philthebanker]] ([[User talk:Philthebanker|talk]]) 06:25, 18 September 2024 (UTC)

*:It is in fact against our rules, @[[User:Philthebanker|Philthebanker]]. You may review [[WP:Canvassing]]. I would guess you should also review [[WP:Conflict of interest]], which I have 0 doubt that the entirety of the list of accounts above have. [[User:Izno|Izno]] ([[User talk:Izno|talk]]) 01:15, 23 September 2024 (UTC)

*Lol I'm not a puppet master and I didn't even canvass. I vented my frustration about how crazy wikilawyering by deletionists was ruining wikipedia (showing the exact page) to one friend, who happened to care enough about the topic to intervene in the discussion. In no way did I ask them to intervene or write anything in the DRV. That Philthebanker then canvassed the DRV is entirely on them. But thank you to everyone involved for taking the time to make wikipedia worse by [[metawiki:Deletionism|removing notable information]] and discouraging editors - [[Wikipedia:Please do not bite the newcomers|newcomers]] and [[Wikipedia:Civility|oldies]] like me alike - from [[Wikipedia:Why is Wikipedia losing contributors - Thinking about remedies|contributing]]. [[User:Hentheden|Hentheden]] ([[User talk:Hentheden|talk]]) 22:47, 25 September 2024 (UTC)

====<big>Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments</big>====

*I have taken action to reduce the visual disruption of the DRV, as an uninvolved administrator. I second this request, although I think it's unlikely Hentheden is involved. The other five I suspect are linked. [[User:Daniel|Daniel]] ([[User talk:Daniel|talk]]) 23:00, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

*CU isn't all that helpful here, I'm afraid:

**{{noping|Risktrademike}} is {{confirmed}} to {{checkuser|MichaelDhaenens}}, which seems pertinent given [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/MichaelDhaenens].

**{{noping|Tophe1984}} is {{possible}} to Risktrademike

**Everyone else looks pretty much {{unrelated}}

**I did not check {{noping|Hentheden}} directly, but they didn't show up in the checks.

*That said, the behaviour makes me think that there is essentially no chance that there was not some sort of inappropriate off-wiki canvassing here. Given that I have very limited amounts of data to work with for individual accounts, I also cannot fully rule out spoofing, but that scenario seems less likely. --[[User:Blablubbs|Blablubbs]] ([[User talk:Blablubbs|talk]]) 14:12, 17 September 2024 (UTC)

*:Canvassing subsequently admitted by one of the accounts. :D [[User:Izno|Izno]] ([[User talk:Izno|talk]]) 01:14, 23 September 2024 (UTC)

* Blocked the one confirmed account to start. [[User:Izno|Izno]] ([[User talk:Izno|talk]]) 01:13, 23 September 2024 (UTC)

* Given the mostly negative findings, I think the right result here is talk page warnings of some sort for the clear response to canvassing and then otherwise to treat this as a one off for the currently unblocked accounts. [[User:Izno|Izno]] ([[User talk:Izno|talk]]) 16:48, 23 September 2024 (UTC)

*Issued a bunch of warnings, closing [[User:RoySmith|RoySmith]] [[User Talk:RoySmith|(talk)]] 23:35, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

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