Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Moksha88

Moksha88

Moksha88 (talk⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser(log) · investigate · cuwiki)

Populated account categories: suspected

For archived investigations, see Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Moksha88/Archive.

28 May 2021

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Suspected sockpuppets

• Apollo1203 (talk⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser(log) · investigate · cuwiki)
• Skubydoo (talk⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser(log) · investigate · cuwiki)
• Harshmellow717 (talk⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser(log) · investigate · cuwiki)
• Hexcodes (talk⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser(log) · investigate · cuwiki)
• Golfer1223 (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 • User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

These accounts have worked together for at least six years to consistently promote information reflecting favorably on Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) and associated entities, and remove information unfavorable to them. They've done this while working against a rival anti-BAPS sockfarm that they've managed to get banned (Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Swamiblue); the other sockmaster has tried to return the favor, but Moksha & co. have helpfully removed such accusations.

A brief note on scope here: The master account here was registered in 2006, and the evidence shows socking dating back to 2015. The accounts have over 6,000 edits between them; Apollo has PCR rights. And throughout these years of socking, these accounts have relentlessly worked together to skew talkpage discussions in their favor. If this sockpuppetry is confirmed, a thorough review will be needed of the damage they've caused in this topic area.

The five other than Moksha caught my eye when they all !voted to delete at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2021 May 26 § 2021 Swaminarayan Akshardham controversy, all citing rationales that were sort of uncanny-valley similar to normal RFD rationales. I checked their projectspace contributions and found that none of the five had ever !voted at RFD before; in fact, Hexcodes and Golfer had never edited projectspace at all before.

Interactions

All but Golfers and Hexcodes have heavily edited the same core set of BAPS articles. Golders and Hexcodes, meanwhile, have only shown passing interest in the topic, making their participation in the RFD all the more intriguing. And the six of them sure do tend to agree on things. The following is drawn just from Talk:Swaminarayan_Sampradaya, and is just a cherry-picked list, not exhaustive.

• Moksha88 agreeing with Apollo1203 ([1] (supporting an RM) [2] [3] (also notes mistake Apollo made) [4]), with Harshmellow ([5] (also notes mistake Harshmellow made) [6]), and with Skubydoo
• Apollo agreeing with Harshmellow, with Moksha (first edit to page), and with both Harshmellow and Moksha
• Harshmellow agreeing with Skubydoo ([7] [8])
• Skubydoo agreeing with Harshmellow, with Apollo ([9] [10] [11]), with Moksha, and with both Moksha and Apollo

They get along very well. They disagree sometimes, but never on anything important:

• Moksha reverts Apollo and asks him to justify his reasoning. They do. Moksha decides they agree.
• Moksha asks Harshmellow and Apollo their opinion
• Harshmellow notes a mistake by Skuby and Moksha. Moksha apologies.
• Harshmellow thanks Skubydoo and Apollo, then asks if Apollo can make an edit they're having trouble with technically.
• Moksha tells Harshmellow to keep talk on the page they're on, and then suggests a slight tweak to Harshmellow's idea

Meanwhile Golfer and Hexcodes have joined the other four to remove negative content from Swaminarayan Akshardham (North America). Hexcodes thanks Skubydoo for their edits.

Messages back and forth: Harshmellow to Skubydoo, several from Moksha to Apollo including a barnstar, Apollo to Moksha.

Similarities

I think all of that establishes pretty well that these accounts are working together. But are they the same person? Well, to start with a small thing, the main four almost always use curly quotes/apostrophes in talkpage comments: Moksha ([12] [13] [14] [15] [16]), Apollo, Harshmellow ([17] [18]), Skubydoo ([19] [20] [21] [22]). (Golfer has never edited talkspace. Hexcodes has rarely, and has only used quotation marks once, using straight quotes in that case; the others do use straight quotes occasionally too, though.) More damningly, though, we have a very particular tendency: parenthetical policy-shortcut references, often unlinked, e.g. don't engage in sockpuppetry (WP:SOCK). And the main four all share that for sure: Moksha ([23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28]), Apollo ([29] [30] [31]), Harshmellow ([32] [33] [34]), Skubydoo ([35] [36])

Futhermore, Moksha, Apollo, and Harshmellow have used their sandboxen to share proposed edits to an article.

All six editors' timecards show a bedtime of around 5PM-6PM UTC, although with varying amounts of nighttime activity. All write in clear, fluent English. And all six really don't want Wikipedia to discuss the human trafficking allegations against BAPS in New Jersey.

I've discussed this a fair bit with Blablubbs, who noticed several other similarities, which he'll post about when he has the chance. -- Tamzin (she/they) | o toki tawa mi. 11:16, 28 May 2021 (UTC)

Comments by other users

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

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