Wikipedia:Long-term abuse/JarlaxleArtemis

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JarlaxleArtemis
Original name(s) JarlaxleArtemis
Wikilifespan 30 December 2004 – 20 August 2007 (as JarlaxleArtemis)
20 August 2007-present (as Grawp)
ISP Verizon
(*.lsanca.dsl-w.verizon.net)

PeoplePC or Earthlink
(*.dial1.losangeles1.level3.net)
Known IPs See #Anonymous IPs
Known hostmasks See #Host masks
Physical location Lakewood, California and Rossmoor, California
Severity High
Requests for arbitration

WP:RFAr/JarlaxleArtemis,

WP:RFAr/JarlaxleArtemis 2, WP:RfAr/JarlaxleArtemis 3
Instructions Revert and block on sight, full-protect user and talk pages and disable email for all socks.
Status Active

JarlaxleArtemis (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · edit filter log · block user · block log) was a persistently uncooperative editor who was banned from all Wikimedia projects. He now trolls and vandalizes articles and user pages. Since 2012 he has been particularly active vandalizing articles in the Israel-Palestine conflict area and should be considered one of the active vandals and sockpuppets in that area.

Feel free to report alarming threats made to you via edit summaries, talk page messages or emails to info-en@wikimedia.org which will forward information to the Wikimedia Foundation legal department.

History

JarlaxleArtemis has a long history of disruptive activity which has resulted in several short-term blocks, three Requests for Arbitration, a community ban from Wikipedia and an unprecedented ban from all Wikimedia projects. During his second arbitration case, it was discovered that he had created almost 50 accounts to harass or impersonate other Wikipedians, and also made a personal attack on Wikimedia board member Anthere. As a result, he was banned from all Wikimedia projects on September 18, 2005. In an unusual move, he was allowed back on probation two months later, but was community-banned from Wikipedia on September 17, 2006 for continued misbehavior.

JarlaxleArtemis then began harassing editors and administrators by posting personal attacks and personal information using both anonymous IPs and throwaway sockpuppet accounts. He also abused the password request feature to perform network flooding. He also engaged in wanton copyright infringement and mass creation of unhelpful or incorrect redirects.

Starting in August 2007, he took on a new persona, "Grawp", which he has used to disrupt Wikipedia and harass users and administrators.[2] As Grawp, he recruited people and coordinated at Encyclopedia Dramatica (where he kept a multipage list of his sockpuppets) and 4chan, among other sites. He and his associates usually conduct page-move vandalism by moving pages to nonsensical titles, mostly variations of "HAGGER" followed by a series of glottal stops and with spacings (example sock). The word is derived from a corruption of the name "Hagrid" as spoken by Grawp in the Harry Potter universe. Technical restrictions have helped to ease this, although they have not been successful at stopping it entirely. His edits and moves were often supplemented by a URL of a shock site that hacks the user's browser and contains malware. Edit summaries sometimes included "for great justice and epic lulz", followed by the shock site link. When blocked, he would post unblocks to the blocked account's user talk page using a huge image file that can crash some browsers (Firefox mainly), with the unblock request expressing a wish to crash the browser. Encyclopedia Dramatica later split into "Oh Internet" (which has a Grawp article) and encyclopediadramatica.se (which has articles on both names). After he returned as Grawp, many of his sockpuppets were found to be sleeper accounts and/or to have many "good" edits.

Other coordinated attacks included multiple creations of sockpuppet accounts with names intended to insult and harass legitimate users and administrators who attempt to deal with the sockpuppets. Many of these use alternate characters in an attempt to bypass abuse filters. As in the case of the "HAGGER" variations, an anti-abuse bot has been programmed to block such attacks, but not all sockpuppets are caught and blocked by the bot. Few of the sockpuppets actually edited the article space or perform page moves; many are simply childish taunts, but it should not be assumed that a sockpuppet creation is solely a taunt.

More recently he has used both anonymous IPs and sockpuppets, as well as hundreds of insulting and threatening emails, to revert, insult, and other wise harass individuals editing in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict area who he believes are critical of the state of Israel (see long list of relevant Administrators Noticeboard Incidents here) and individuals who did not agree with the assertion that Jews could not be ethnically German (see this 2013 Administrators' Noticeboard Incident). He also has left anti-Muslim slurs on various pages.

Repeated complaints to Verizon and to his family members have been completely unsuccessful at curbing his abuse, despite the involvement of the Wikimedia Foundation. His identity is known to Foundation board members, staffers and attorneys. Due to collateral damage resulting from his vandalism, large numbers of Verizon customers in Southern California have been unable to edit Wikipedia anonymously.

Modus operandi

JarlaxleArtemis uses Anonymous IPs and throwaway sockpuppet accounts for activities on Wikipedia and has been known to use or create as many as a dozen in one day. Some of his sockpuppets may be sleeper accounts with a number of "good" edits.

Recent activities

  • Reverts legitimate edits, often repeatedly: He usually does so without an edit summary, but sometimes alleges vandalism or writes an insulting edit summary. Sometimes he uses applications such as Twinkle. He may revert the same legitimate edit numerous times in an attempt to wear down editors and keep the POV or vandalism edit in the article.
  • Posting personal attacks and personal information: He routinely vandalizes article talk pages and user pages and talk pages by posting personal attacks. These attacks may be accompanied with personal information and contact details for the victim if he has been able to find them.
  • Creating attack user names: These contain personal details, libel and/or other abuse using the user names (or real names, e-mail addresses, or web addresses) of legitimate users or administrators. He does this to insult and harass them, targeting them because he disagrees with their edits, they reverted his vandalism, or they attempt to deal with his sockpuppetry. Sometimes he will do an edit using the attack user name. Administrators usually will delete the name from edit summaries and/or the whole attack user name account. If this is not done, appeal to an administrator to do so. (Note that in some instances, the impersonation is done on another project and then brought to the English Wikipedia through unification.)
  • Reverting own sock edits: He knows administrators quickly strike attack user names and/or edit summaries. So he uses one sock to revert another one of his sock's edits made with the attack user name or edit summary, using an edit summary that describes the nasty name or edit. Thus an administrator striking the first attack user name and/or edit summary may miss the revert or think the revert is from a legitimate editor. Thus, for example, one of his several death threats against Chuck Hagel is still listed in the edit history. If this happens, bring it to the attention of the administrator who struck the original edit.
  • E-mail flooding: He creates accounts, usually with racist names or ones reflecting his political POV, on proxy email services, including mailinator.com and hmamail.com, in order to abuse Wikipedia email and send scores of obscene and threatening emails to editors. MediaWiki has not yet been able to create a filter to prevent such abuse. Again, feel free to report alarming threats to info-en@wikimedia.org which will forward information to the Wikimedia Foundation legal department.
  • Pagemove vandalism: May move articles to nonsensical or offensive titles.

Less recent activities

JarlaxleArtemis often engaged in the following activities using his main account and may do so again using Anonymous IPs or either attack or non-attack sockpuppet accounts. For details, please consult JarlaxleArtemis's previous three Requests for Arbitration listed in in the info box.

Activities outside Wikimedia websites

Means of identification

Favourite pages

With his original User:JarlaxleArtemis account, he was most active on the following pages: Wikipedia:Sandbox, Drizzt Do'Urden, Artemis Entreri, Drow, List of minor characters in Xenosaga, Jecht, -phob-, List of terms in Xenosaga, Vhaeraun, Talk:Main Page, List of antagonists in Xenosaga, Midi-chlorians, Derro, Spira (Final Fantasy X), House Baenre, Dartz, General Grievous

Reporting abuse

Do not engage suspected Anon IPs or sockpuppets of JarlaxleArtemis in debate and do not make legal threats against him on Wikipedia or any other Wikimedia Foundation project you may run into him. (See Wikipedia:No legal threats.) Feel free to report alarming threats made to you via edit summaries, talk page messages or emails to info-en@wikimedia.org which will forward information to the Wikimedia Foundation legal department.

Sockpuppets

Editors or administrators who suspect that a vandal is JarlaxleArtemis can do the following:

  1. If you think the account may be a new sockpuppet or a sleeper account, first look for a pattern of abusive edits in the editor's contributions list.
  2. If unsure, you may inquire on the editor's talk page as to whether they have edited previously as an Anonymous IP or using another account. This sometimes is enough to either stop him from using that account or to make a hostile reply that will confirm it. If an editor makes a polite denial, it may mean you are incorrect but should feel free to observe the editor's future edits.
  3. When reverting either a sockpuppet or Anonymous IP that you are pretty sure is JarlaxleArtemis, link to this page - Wikipedia:Long-term_abuse/JarlaxleArtemis - in the edit summary to help explain the revert and to help alert any administrative watchers as to what is happening.
  4. To alert administrators to sockpuppets with an account, tag his user page with:

    {{sockpuppet|JarlaxleArtemis|evidence=[[Wikipedia:Long term abuse/JarlaxleArtemis]]}}

  5. If he reverts it, you can bring the matter to a friendly administrator or to Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents. Feel free to go to Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents if the behavior is particularly disruptive, no administrator is stepping in and you do not know which one to contact.
  6. If you are being constantly stalked and reverted and have brought the matter to the attention of administrators or their noticeboard and people agree he (or any one) is causing you a problem you can ask for "Rollback" privileges which will make it much easier to revert his most obvious and repeated vandalisms.

To find all all tagged accounts and IPs see:

Maintenance

  1. When the administrator blocks the sockpuppet account, replace the above "suspected" template with:

    {{SockpuppetProven|JarlaxleArtemis|[[Wikipedia:Long term abuse/JarlaxleArtemis]] and [[Wikipedia:Requests for checkuser/Case/JarlaxleArtemis]]}} {{Indefblockeduser}}

  2. Also ensure the sockpuppet user and talk pages are fully protected.

Anonymous IPs

He uses Anonymous IPs from all around the world. While it can be easier to get these blocked, it also is easier for him to create them.
1. His Anonymous IP accounts usually engage in fairly obvious vandalism, usually without an edit summary. However, if the edit summaries are abusive and are on articles in the topic area he currently is abusing and are accompanied by abusive posts on your talk page or a number of abusive emails, it may be him. Feel free to state your situation on the talk page of this project page to get others' advice.
2. Tag the edit summaries of your reverts of his vandalism with Wikipedia:Long-term_abuse/JarlaxleArtemis to help explain the revert and to help alert any administrative watchers as to what is happening.
3. As above, if he reverts it, you can bring the matter to a friendly administrator or to Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents. Feel free to go to Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents if the behavior is particularly disruptive, no administrator is stepping in and you do not know which one to contact.

See also