Wikipedia:Long-term abuse/Bambifan101

Bambifan101
Shortcut: WP:LTA/BF101
Original name(s)	Okapi7
Wikilifespan	September 2006–May 2009 as "Okapi7;" August 2008–present as "Bambifan101"
ISP	Originally from Bell South, Atlanta, Georgia USA; moved to Comcast in Mobile, Alabama, since globally blocked.
Known IPs	Possible use of the computers of relatives and schools; various public terminals such as those found in retail stores and computer stores; mobile devices.
Physical location	Mobile, Alabama, USA
Sockpuppet investigations	Bambifan101
Instructions	Suspected socks should be tagged and reported to sockpuppet investigations for confirmation. When reporting, please link to this long-term abuse report. When the active abuse has been taken care of, please update this report with the latest information.
Status	Active

Basic information

Bambifan101 (talk · contribs · block log · arb · rfcu · ssp · SPI^confirmed_suspected)
Comprehensive edits analysis
Bambifan101 is the Wikipedia alias of a teenager from Mobile, Alabama who is a fan of juvenile-themed movies and books. Disney animated features are favorite targets (especially Bambi, The Rescuers and The Fox and the Hound) along with Furby, Teletubbies, Charlotte's Web (with most edits being made to the article on the 1973 animated feature) as well as but not limited to the Madagascar, The Land Before Time, Ice Age and Scooby-Doo animated film franchises.

Targeted areas, pages, themes

Habitual behavior

User insists that all of the pages and talk pages on said subjects are wrong and subsequently tries to "correct" them. User becomes extremely vindictive and defensive when cornered, claiming that his parents are wealthy and will soon be buying Wikipedia. Edit summaries generally have snide comments as well. He seems primarily to be seeking attention, stating himself that he does this out of boredom[1]. In one edit, he gave a name that traced back to a middle school in the same state as the IPs. This was sent offline to ArbCom; as it is impossible to know if he was being truthful, no contact was made with the school. He will frequently self-identify his own socks and appears to take serious offense if any badly editing account is misidentified as him and will quickly make a new sock to point out the error. He has even been known to tag his own socks as vandals. Due to his involvement in identifying and helping block many of these socks, the editor often stalks the contribs of AnmaFinotera (formerly the user Collectonian) to vandalize his talk page, user page, or recently edited articles to draw his attention. He has begun displaying the same behavior with other users who have become knowledgeable in his general behaviors and can identify him quickly, by following their recent contributions.

Usernames almost always refer to the aforementioned material; an example would be sockpuppet User:TheRescuers; that particular film tends to be a favorite target. A frequently recreated hoax about a 2013 remake was a favorite at one time as well. Although Bambifan101 edits rarely at this point due to the unprecedented blocks placed on his IP addresses, he performs as many destructive edits and/or acts of trolling as possible until the sockpuppet account(s) is/are blocked. User's grammar, spelling and syntax as seen on talk pages and edit summaries are poor. It is unclear whether or not this is just a ruse, but the poor quality of the entries remains consistent. Protests on talk pages tend to be partially or totally in capital letters. Edit summaries are similar and tend to be long, rambling and often proclaim how "wrong" previous edits were. He tends to contradict himself in his own defense, simultaneously denying and admitting his involvement. An example may be found here.

This user may have been a sock of User:Okapi7. This 2006 account had a number of similar edits, such as hoax movie titles. In May 2009, identical edits and summaries began appearing via this account, which has now been blocked.

Usernames and IP addresses

User originally used shifting proxies and/or a dynamic IP; suspected anonymous accounts almost always rendered back to BellSouth in Atlanta, Georgia USA. Recent anonymous edits appeared via Comcast Cable Communications in Mobile or on rare occasions, Road Runner Cable in Herndon, Virginia USA. User himself claims this the various IP ranges are a result of his editing from school, his home, his mobile phone, and relatives, but as user is not always truthful, this may only be somewhat true. He frequently employs the practice of piggybacking vandalism with his IP and named sock to try to keep the vandalism in place when editors are reverting a confirmed sock's edits. Reverters are urged to check the history of hit articles to ensure sets of edits are fully reverted.

User is also creating sockpuppets at the Simple English Wikipedia and is aware of this notice as evidenced here. He was originally nicknamed "Disney Anon" but Simple has since adopted this user's original English account name. Lists of Simple English sockpuppets showing this user's naming conventions may be found here.

He has also been banned from various non-English Wikipedia projects; it is certain this individual does not actually speak the languages in question. In discussions found on those projects, he communicates only in English and uses machine-translated text in those site's articles. He has posted copies of his preferred versions of English Wikipedia articles at multiple projects, which are frequently deleted.

Multiple attempts have been made at offering him mentorship and a chance to be allowed to edit , however he almost always follows up by reverting to his usual behavior even as the discussions are going on. One good faith attempt was also made at Simple to offer this user a chance at rehabilitation. The offer was accepted, but was later followed up by this rant via a Bell South IP. He has made it apparent that he is attempting to edit a number of other Wikimedia Foundation wikis and has been subsequently blocked from those sites as well.

The most recent good faith attempt at mentorship was made via the talk page of a recent sockpuppet, User:TheRescuersfan101, in May 2009. The offer was accepted, but this same user logged on another previously blocked account and left this message to the administrator who offered to assist him. Range blocks have been somewhat useful in stopping this editor. The unfortunate result is that almost all of the Disney articles he targets have to remain under long-term to indefinite semi-protection.

This user also posted the password to the TheRescuersfan101 sockpuppet account, which was immediately changed for the user's protection while other users awaited his answer regarding mentorship. It was briefly used as a doppelganger account of administrator PMDrive1061 and was only used sparingly and with humor to communicate with other users.

In mid 2009, user developed an odd habit of creating accounts with names that insult characters from the shows he claims to love, and then tagging the userpages of those accounts as sockpuppets of other socks of theirs. For example User:I Hate Bernard The Clumsy Polar Bear was tagged as a sock by User:Skcusufknuks (read it backwards). Several socks have done nothing but create categories of suspected socks and tagged userpages for numerous apparent unused sleeper socks. This may be an attempt to create "busy work" for admins familiar with his editing patterns, as user has shown a pattern of not realizing how simple it is to revert their work with automated tools.

As of July 2011, he had begun abusing a new IP range (74.230.35.178) on the Tamil Wikipedia.

During attacks in May and October of 2011, user appeared to implement a new strategy to circumvent semi-protection of his target articles. In both attacks, minor edits were made to unprotected articles using an anonymous IP. Next, a new account would be created (User:Soulessnake in May and User:Victorious fan 2011 in October) that would undo the IP's edits. Upon reaching 10 edits, the new account would then be autoconfirmed and thus able to edit semi-protected articles.

There was a steward action on Slovenian Wikipedia. The steward warned about avoiding the blockade by Needpower. Consequently, admins checked the user's activity and deleted machine translated articles. Sockpuppets could be found here.

Anonymous edits and attempts to recruit established users

In June 2009, an anonymous user editing via an IP assigned to a Courtyard by Marriott hotel in South Carolina solicited help from legitimate users in "changing" the usual target articles. Later that same day, a registered user which was determined via checkuser to be editing from another hotel IP was blocked as was another very old sleeper sock, User:Deb2222. Deleted contributions on this account were original research claims about similarities to Disney villains, a subject argued by other Bambifan101 socks in various articles.

As more of his target articles are protected, he attempts to solicit help from administrators and established users in unblocking his target pages and has recently taken to placing unblock requests via Requests for Page Unprotection. Recent socks also have begun attempting to use established editors unfamiliar with his practices to perform edits for him on the protected articles, while still vandalizing any talk pages and articles he can reach. Established editors responding to requests from new editors regarding edits and restorations on any Disney-related article or other protected article are urged to use caution. His requests attempt to reestablish one of his preferred versions of articles or ask for inter-wikilinks to his many vandalized versions on other wiki projects to be added. He has also managed to convince users on non-English Wikipedia projects, such as User:OckhamTheFox from the Russian Wikipedia. This user was approached to perform edits on this site for him, including restoring his deleted articles, redoing his earlier versions of articles, etc. He appears to coach such users on what to say to avoid detection, yet he makes no attempts to hide the fact he is blocked from editing this site. In this instance, the recruited user appears to be fully aware of why Bambifan101 can not edit here.[2][3] Since Bambifan101 couldn't resist bragging about his circumvention and revandalizing under his IPs, he exposed the scheme himself. OckhamTheFox was indef blocked for editing for a banned user but later unblocked upon apologizing, ending his association with Bambifan, and agreeing not to edit any of his target articles again.

Bambifan101 later managed to recruit another non-English project admin, User:Meursault2004 an admin for the Indonesian and Javanese Wikipedias. Again, Bambifan101 told the recruited users exactly why he could not edit, including pointing them to this LTA, and the editor still proceeded to aid in revandalizing three articles by following Bambifan101's requests to the letter.[4][5][6] In this instance, he appears to have wanted to have been detected, as he instructed Meursault2004 to specifically note in his edit summaries that he was performing edits at another's request, sending up an immediate red flag to those familiar with Bambifan101's targets.

He has been particularly active at non-English wikis as User:Ice Age lover. As evidenced by a report made to Meta regarding a request for a global block, the amount of cross-wiki vandalism is significant: count; contribs. The account was globally locked.

He has also started getting involved in certain editors' discussions on talk pages, agreeing with them to gain their confidence, although he had no previous part in the discussion. He also adds notes of his hope that these editors will help in his edit summaries. The socks may refer to the "Disney Vandal" or to "Bambifan101" even if no mention had been made of either by other editors.

A June 2009 sock issued a childish death threat.

Range blocks, possible action by BellSouth and possible final resolution

Three BellSouth ranges were blocked for one year starting in November and December 2009, specifically 74.249, 70.146 and 68.220. BellSouth was contacted via e-mail by administrator PMDrive1061 on December 6 and confirmation into an investigation of terms-of-service violations was initiated on December 8. Privacy issues prevent any further contact by BellSouth on the matter, but it may be assumed that their quick response to the request for assistance was taken seriously and will be acted upon accordingly. Given this user's determination and access to multiple IPs, even this extreme measure has not totally ceased his actions.

These same ranges have been blocked at Simple English as well and the user is aware of the blocks first imposed on this site as evidenced by this exchange at Simple: [7].

That exchange, dated December 16, 2009, was from the last known Bambifan101 sock until January 13, 2010 when User:TehDogfather appeared and was later blocked. A checkuser of the account revealed it to be from a public terminal, possibly that of a library; the range was subsequently blocked as well. Blocked too was a school IP used both here and at Simple English which rendered back to the Mobile County Public School System.

A fourth BellSouth range, 74.230, was blocked for one year starting February 1, 2010 along with User:Animoviera14, another sockpuppet account created via User:74.230.35.24. The edit history shows a taunt on the talk page as to how the Animoviera14 account could have been overlooked as a sock. All target articles have been indefinitely semi-protected as a result; many of the articles had been protected previously but were vandalized soon after the lift of the block.

User:Jmac3568 and the rest of BellSouth range 70.146 were blocked on March 9, 2010. This range was used on the Malay Wikipedia to create at least two sockpuppets and possibly one copycat account under the usernames "Beverly Hills Chihuahua," "Wakkoswish764" and copycat Pickboththemanlol500.

A Comcast range was blocked for one year starting in August 2010 and the block on the Mobile County Public School system reset after renewed damage from those IPs across Simple English and several wiki projects, some unrelated to Wikia or the Wikimedia Foundation. It is possible that BellSouth did in fact suspend service on a TOS violation with new service on a static IP opened at Comcast. This resulted in a global block of the Comcast IP at Wikia and the aforementioned unrelated projects.

"Female" alter ego

Bambifan101 has recently taken to the use of a female alter ego which first manifested itself as User:Sexualityisimportant and later as User:Femalesrule. Messages on the user pages of such accounts refer to the importance of sexuality, of females, etc. Edits are to the same types of articles, i.e., juvenile-themed films and their actors. As this "character," this user creates rambling, original research articles backed with copyrighted photos on subjects primarily related to the attributes of Disney princesses. A now-protected example was "Never-ending deep sleep," stating the causes and effects of "enchanted sleep" on female fairy tale characters.

He has also created similar accounts under his usual naming convention, i.e., the incorporation of Disney movie titles in the username. User:Angelfromladyandthetrampii is just such an example; the following message was left on the userpage in what was likely an attempt to avoid suspicion:

Hello there. My name is Angel. I am female and I have long golden-blonde hair. I like the character of Angel in Lady and the Tramp II because merely coincidentally she is a lot like me.

2017

Bambifan101 hasn't showed signs that he'll stop disrupting Wikipedia for good as in year 2017. It is established that at least two socks (User:ILoveWinniePooh and User:IlikeBambi) are used by him, despite the denial of association in the latter's userpage.

Cases

Other notes

Confirmed and suspected accounts

Sockpuppet category (if any): Category:Wikipedia sockpuppets of Bambifan101
Suspected sockpuppet category (if any): Category:Suspected Wikipedia sockpuppets of Bambifan101