Wikipedia:Suspected sock puppets/ArlingtonTX

User:ArlingtonTX

Suspected sockpuppeteer

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

Suspected sockpuppet

76.210.12.232 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log) Arlington's suspected Anon IP Puppet

Note: User:ArlingtonTX himself is suspected of being a meat or sock puppet of confirmed Puppeteer User:BryanFromPalatine -- New Case Here

Report submission by

Fairness And Accuracy For All 23:58, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

ArlingtonTX is one of 5 editors who were created and immediately started editing and 'voting' on consensus on the hotly contested Free Republic article in support of confirmed puppeteer BryanFromPalatine's POV after Bryan received a 3RR Block.

At 21:07 on 10 December 2006 user ArlingtonTX was created.This was barely 24 hours after BryanFromPalatine was blocked for 3RR. His first post was responding to sockpuppetry charges by Ben Burch against puppeteer BryanFromPalatine. His second post was a vote in a consensus, agreeing with his puppeteer BryanFromPalatine and other members of BryanFromPalatine's sock crew. Almost every post of this user has been to Free Republic or to sock puppet cases related to his puppeteer BryanFromPalatine.

My first Wikipedia edit was on May 5, 2005 using this IP address: 66.158.35.253 I am voluntarily revealing my IP address to show that it is different from all the other alleged sock puppets; that I have an 18-month history of editing Wikipedia articles, with no particular agenda; and that my edits have never before stirred up any trouble at all. ArlingtonTX 23:36, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

User:76.210.12.232 is a suspected Anon IP Puppet of ArlingtonTX. The IP corresponds to Arlington Texas being 30 miles away in Plano.

Until very recently, I had no idea who was using that IP address. Just recently, Runesword claimed it. Plano is a lot more than 30 miles away, Bucko. And with traffic the way it is around here, it takes a long time to drive over there. But are you aware that there's software available that will enable someone in Boston to operate a computer in Tokyo and edit Wikipedia articles, showing a Tokyo IP address? EVERYBODY is a "possible sock puppet" of EVERYBODY. ArlingtonTX 23:36, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

At 02:52 on 29 December 2006 this Anon IP User vandalized the Free Republic talk page three times, trying to hide the findings of the sockpuppetry investigations where Admins confirmed that User:BryanFromPalatine and User:DP1976 were sockpuppets. This IP was blocked for 24 hours.

The material that Runesword removed was archived. Archiving a Talk page is not vandalism. An administrator named Durova archived the very same Talk page just a day or two later, commenting that said archiving was "long overdue." I notice that you have not complained about Durova's interpretation of the archiving process, nor have you claimed that he is one of Bryan's sock puppets. Like Runesword said, Durova's actions prove that this so-called "vandalism" had an innocent motive. ArlingtonTX 23:36, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

At 03:22, 31 December 2006 this anon IP user edited the comments of ArlingtonTX's request for an investigation of User:BenBurch a user ArlingtonTX opposes. HERE

This is surely a case of ArlingtonTX forgetting to log in before editing his own comments, and proves that ArlingtonTX (a suspected sock or meatpuppet himself) has resorted to sockpuppetry and vandalism with an Anon IP.

The material Runesword removed was resident right here at Wikipedia, on your own talk pages and in your own archives. Runesword posted links to it. Like he said, that had the same effect as an archive since it replaced a huge amount of text with convenient links. Runesword apparently didn't know how to create a proper archive according to Wiki protocol, but he did provide links, so that was his intention. As the author of the post that he allegedly "vandalized," I think it was an improvement and will incorporate Runesword's changes when I repost my request for an investigation of your meatpuppet relationship with BenBurch. I will remind the administrators who read all of this that on December 5, on his own talk page, BenBurch posted "Fuck you and the horse you rode in on," addressed to Bryan, then deleted it after he was sure that Bryan had seen it. All of the events that followed should be viewed as the predictable results of that abusive statement, and many others that have been posted and deleted by these two trolls. ArlingtonTX 23:36, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

I encourage a block on ArlingtonTX and the associated IP.

Fairness And Accuracy For All 21:31, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

I encourage you to grow up, and accept the fact that there are a lot of very real, flesh and blood people who don't think you play nicely with the other children. You are a textbook example of passive-aggressive behavior.

There's one other thing I'd like to add. There is an assumption that people who post from the same IP address are sock puppets, and that people who are located geographically close to each other are meat puppets.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

I'm the patriarch of a large extended family that has been editing Wikipedia from anonymous IP addresses for up to three years. We've recently reached a collective decision to start registering our accounts and participating in more discussions here at Wikipedia. We are all located in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago. The "tribe" includes a grandfather and grandmother, seven children and their spouses and significant others, at least three of our brilliant and precocious grandchildren, and a few close friends and advisors of the family.

BryanFromPalatine is part of our "tribe." So is DP1976. So is 12ptHelvetica. I'll have to call my daughter to find out for sure, but it's possible that Runesword is one of the younger members of our "tribe" who plays Dungeons and Dragons.

We are mostly conservative but we do have the entire spectrum of conservatives, from moderate to neo-con, and we also have two flaming left-wing partisans. DP1976, for example, is a flaming left-wing partisan. We are mostly Methodists, with a couple of Catholics. In fact, there is very little that all of us agree upon. As you might imagine, we have some lively and intelligent discussions; but the most important lesson that I've taught them all is to be polite, be patient and respect people, especially those who have devoted an entire career to the purpose of knowing the one thing that they happen to be talking about. This is a lesson F.A.A.F.A. and BenBurch have never learned.

We have responded in a predictable fashion to BenBurch's comment, "Fuck you and the horse you rode in on," to a member of our "tribe." Check our IP addresses. You will find that they are clustered closely together in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago, but they are not identical; and that most have a history (from one year to three years in length) of anonymously editing articles that have nothing to do with Free Republic. If we have a shared agenda, it is this: to let people like BenBurch know that such comments and such conduct are not acceptable. ArlingtonTX 23:36, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Comment to admin: Note that ArlingtonTX appears to claim that he is in Texas "Plano is a lot more than 30 miles away, Bucko. And with traffic the way it is around here, it takes a long time to drive over there." and in Illinois : "Check our IP addresses. You will find that they are clustered closely together in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago" "We are all located in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago". Note also the continuing personal attacks and incivility calling me a "troll" and "You are a textbook example of passive-aggressive behavior." Proven sockpuppet user:DP1976, and proven puppeteer user:BryanFromPalatine claimed that they shared IPs because they all worked for the same company and occasionally shared the same computer. Now, ArlingtonTX, an admitted member of this proven sock puppet army claims they're all members of the same family, and that the user who vandalized the Free Republic article and edited ArlingtonTX's own comments, is yet another member of this family, whose first edits on Wiki were to the only article that the sockpuppet army has focused on. He further postulates that this alleged female Dungeon and Drangon playing youngster signed up to edit the Free Republic article. Riiiiiiight. - Fairness And Accuracy For All 03:00, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

There are so many distortions and half-truths here that I don't know where to start. (1) There is a Plano, Illinois. It is close to the Northwest Suburbs. You may have been misunderstood when you referred to "Plano." Try to assume good faith. If it's Plano, Texas there's no clue and it probably isn't any "female Dungeons and Dragons playing youngster" in my family. (2) They aren't necessarily "all members of the same family." Notice that the description of the so-called "tribe" in the Northwest Suburbs included "a few close friends and advisors of the family."

(3) You are deliberately and carefully ignoring the prior editing histories of these IP addresses before they registered Wikipedia accounts. As anonymous IP addresses, 12ptHelvetica edited for 2-1/2 years on a broad range of topics, including Arcola, Illinois and Closet play; ArlingtonTX edited for 1-1/2 years on an entirely different broad range of topics, including WBBM-FM, Patrick Henry College and Arlington Heights, Illinois; and DP1976 edited for 1-1/2 years on yet a third different broad range of topics such as Clemson University. Checkuser has definitely linked two of these three accounts to IP addresses with the respective previous editing histories described here, and a Checkuser on ArlingtonTX should confirm the third. Yet those previous editing histories are being deliberately ignored.

This isn't the sort of editing history you'd expect from a sock puppet, is it? None of these anonymous editing histories had anything in common except the English language, nor did they edit Free Republic, before December 9 when they became aware of BenBurch's "Fuck you and the horse you rode in on" remark. Would you care to address these prior editing histories for the first time, and the timing of BenBurch's profoundly offensive remark relative to the registration of these accounts? Or would you prefer to continue ignoring them in your rush to judgment? -- BryanFromPalatine 17:17, 5 January 2007 (UTC)