Wikipedia:Suspected sock puppets/Evrik (2nd)

User:Evrik

Suspected sockpuppeteer

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

Suspected sockpuppets

South Philly (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)
Student erotica (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)

Report submission by

Pigman☿ 02:24, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

Evidence

Since South Philly is already indef blocked for sockpuppetry, a sock connection to Evrik would amount to a current evasion of an indef block. A checkuser showed the South Philly and Evrik accounts unrelated but the checkuser admin on the case, Alison, also said "checkuser results suggest these users are obviously unrelated, but there do appear to be strong meatpuppetry concerns." Close examination of the edit histories of South Philly, Evrik and Student erotica indicates sockpuppetry rather than meatpuppetry.

My analysis of the editing patterns of the three accounts over the entire life of South Philly's account strongly suggests the use of two geographically separated computers for these accounts, possibly home and work or a similar arrangement. Evrik and South Philly's editing sessions never overlapped. Nor did either account ever overlap with the Student erotica account. There was usually a pause of between a half hour to two hours between log-ins and log-outs. There were a very few instances of faster switching (4 and 11 minutes) between edits of the different accounts which might be explained by signing out and in on the same computer. Unfortunately, the info on these particular examples is probably well outside the checkuser buffer/cache since they are over 6 months ago, so could not be examined by Checkuser. Two (or three?) accounts from the same geographic area (Philadelphia, PA, USA) who never overlap signins for twenty months seems highly unlikely to me. The two main accounts (Evrik and South Philly) both did heavy and long edit sessions, usually sequentially. The pause between the accounts' switchoff was always clean, clear, regular and unmistakable.

I'm not going to detail the specific WP policy violations committed by this use of sockpuppet accounts here because they are fairly well laid out at the South Philly checkuser report. The main concern is that this is a block evasion by an indef-blocked user.

I should also mention an early sockpuppet case against Evrik although the result was inconclusive and doesn't appear to be related to this case. Pigman☿ 02:24, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

Addendum: Also of note is that the very few times where switchover from one account to another was under a half hour occurred during disputes where the additional account opinion would make a marked difference in discussion and consensus. Pigman☿ 02:51, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

Comments

I recuse myself from this case as I have known Evrik for a long time via the ScoutingWikiProject. — Rlevse • Talk • 04:18, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

This is a total waste of time.

• First, Student Erotica was banned for being a sockpuppet of South Philly. To repeat what was said above, "a checkuser showed the South Philly and Evrik accounts unrelated."
• Second, when South Philly and Student erotica were both banned. I had no involvement and was not referenced in any manner. I'm amazed this is even coming up now.
• Third, to my knowledge I have never interacted with Pigman before but in reality this is retaliation, and an abuse of the system. Recently Pigman said, "After his recent appearance in a few RfAs, I decided to look into what User:Evrik has been up to lately." [1] Well, what he is referring to is my "oppose" vote in Kathryn NicDhàna's RfA. Pigman and Kathryn NicDhàna have worked together closely in the past. This is retaliation for that vote. My simple vote was responded to by pigman with this screed. Also, the claim of meatpuppetry was made a user who also supported Kathryn's RfA.
• Fourth, twenty months? This went on for twenty months and the last evidence was 8 months ago? Most of the activity listed by Pigman at Wikipedia:Requests for checkuser/Case/South Philly happened months ago. None of this was brought up at the time by any of the involved parties.
• Finally, I'm not sure about some of the wording used by Pigman, specifically "overlapping." I never overlapped, but some edits were within 4 and 11 minutes? Does wikipedia have a policy on overlapping edits?

Thanks. --evrik ^(talk) 06:37, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

The word "overlapping" refers to editing sessions. Since you and South Philly allegedly live in the same time zone (and city), it would be expected that at some points your different individual account editing sessions would overlap. That is, you would both be signed in and editing at the same time on occasion. Thus, the different account editing sessions would overlap in time. For example, you (Evrik) might edit from 7pm to 11pm and South Philly from 9pm to 1am. Editing from both accounts would overlap between 9pm and 11pm. These two accounts never overlapped editing sessions. For this to happen over a twenty month period is very, very unlikely. At some points, both accounts were editing quite heavily for long periods yet there was always a gap of around 45 minutes plus or minus between when one account stopped editing and the other began. These gaps were quite regular. Of course there were longer gaps but these in particular were noticeable for their regularity. There were two gaps in editing sessions between accounts that were shorter than 30 minutes (4 and 11 minutes) which interested me because these particular exceptions happened during conflicts where an additional voice and account could make a difference in 3RR and votestacking. These instances still did not result in overlapping editing sessions of the accounts.

While this is circumstantial evidence, it is extremely strong evidence. To be blunt, as an admin I believe the evidence is strong enough for me to block you without bringing it here. I'm bringing it here in the interest of transparency and your long history on Wikipedia. Pigman☿ 19:40, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

Well, I can't really speak as to the overlap, but I don't really know if what you say is true. The raw data may be there for every to see, but I'm not going to go through 20 months of edits in an effort to defend myself. This is ludicrous. It's a waste of time. I feel sorry for you that you felt compelled to waste your own time in doing this research.

I also believe that no matter what I say you wouldn't be convinced. I've said all I could say. I did file a notice here Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard#Problems with Pigman. --evrik ^(talk) 04:44, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

I find it interesting that neither here nor at your complaint against me on the Admin Noticeboard do you actually explicitly address or deny the connection I've asserted between the accounts. As to the waste of my time, I believe that, as an admin, investigating this sort of thing is part of my responsibilities on Wikipedia. I probably wouldn't have spent the time on it if I hadn't become an admin. I certainly wouldn't have posted this if I wasn't confident in my findings. These are extremely serious violations of policy, and manipulation of consensus through sockpuppetry goes to the heart of Wikipedia process of decision-making . If we can't trust that the voices discussing issues on talk and project pages are separate people, the process becomes very tainted and unreliable. Pigman☿ 22:56, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

• I am nobod's sock or meatpuppet. What you call meatpupptery, I call loyalty, you understand that concept pigman, don't you? It was your loyalty to Kathryn NicDhàna that made you feel compelled to start this whole mess. Also, your theory doesn't take into account that people also edit under IP addresses and on the other projects. Have you taken that into account, or did you just look at the english wikipedia? By the way, i've asked to be unblocked again. South Philly 00:48, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Conclusions

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