Wikipedia talk:Sockpuppet investigations/SPI/Clerks

For general information about SPI clerks, see Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/SPI/Clerks.

Clerks' Noticeboard

Trainee/clerking interest and discussion

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Patient Zero

Patient Zero (talk · message · contribs · global contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · user creation · block user · block log · count · total · logs · summary · email | lu · rfa · rfb · arb · rfc · lta · checkuser · spi · socks | rfar · rfc · rfcu · ssp | current rights · rights log (local) · rights log (global/meta) | rights · renames · blocks · protects · deletions · rollback · admin · logs | UHx · AfD · UtHx · UtE)

I would like to apply to become an SPI clerk - I have a background in anti-vandalism, LTA identification (and filing SPI reports with this knowledge), and using abuse filters (which I am able to read) in order to ascertain behavioural patterns of vandals and disruptive editors. Patient Zero^talk 18:59, 8 November 2022 (UTC)

Removing parameter numbers from socklist

I know I've brought this up before, but it's worth bringing up again. There's some process which generates socklist templates which numbers all of the socks. The one I'm looking at now is

{{sock list|1=Manipuri|2=Dipita Sinha|3=Leogirl24|4=Bishnupuriya|5=Ashim2k|6=BharatiGraminUdyog|7=Bmindia|8=Raja king333|9=Sinhasuvam|10=Anusingha|11=Yogaditya|12=Rajkumarrishi1|tools_link=yes}}

from Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Manipuri. I want to remove the first one because it's a duplicate. But to do that, I have to renumber all of the other entries to keep the template from breaking. That's just busywork. It works just fine without the numbers, so can we please adjust whatever process generates these to just leave the numbers out? Thanks. -- RoySmith (talk) 14:13, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Those numbers are used to designate the position of notes. For example, {{sock list|1=Spicy|2=Blablubbs|3=RoySmith|note2=({{clerk note}} original case name)}} renders as

• Spicy (talk⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log · CA · CheckUser(log) · investigate · cuwiki)
• Blablubbs (talk⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log · CA · CheckUser(log) · investigate · cuwiki) ( Clerk note: original case name)
• RoySmith (talk⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log · CA · CheckUser(log) · investigate · cuwiki)

I agree that it's inconvenient when you have to remove an entry from the list. Not sure if there is a way to get around it while being able to handle notes easily. Spicy (talk) 14:57, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

So are you saying that you, Blablubbs, and Roy are all operated by the same person? Well, that explains a lot.--Bbb23 (talk) 15:46, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Which means if I wanted to remove Spicy from the above list, I'd not only have to renumber the remaining socks, but also the note? Sorry, that's making humans do work that a computer should be doing. It's a bad design and should be fixed. -- RoySmith (talk) 17:11, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

If the username includes an equal sign, this current format means it is displayed correctly. However, without "1=" the equals sign in the username could be split into a template argument name and value. Dreamy Jazz ^{talk to me | my contributions} 17:23, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Ah yes, the wonders of in-band signalling :-) -- RoySmith (talk) 18:16, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Why couldn't we leave the numbers and the equal signs but still be able to remove from the list without renumbering? Couldn't the script recognize that the first in the list is the equivalent of #1 without us manually having to do it?--Bbb23 (talk) 18:47, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Is anyone using that numbered note syntax? I think it's nice that it's integrated in the same template, but spihelper does not use it. MarioGom (talk) 16:40, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

Mario, you did this just to play with our heads, right? -- RoySmith (talk) 21:24, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

YES. MarioGom (talk) 21:43, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

Spicy

For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past week, Spicy is our newest admin clerk. Congratulations! Now, go block some socks. -- RoySmith (talk) 17:14, 8 April 2023 (UTC)

I've been living under a rock for the past month, apparently. Welcome to the party, pal! Ivanvector (^Talk/_Edits) 18:49, 4 May 2023 (UTC)

Turnaround time question

I've only ever reported two sockpuppets; the first was dealt with almost instantly, so I was a bit surprised to see that the second one was still sitting at WP:SPI after two weeks. Is that a normal turnaround? I don't know how long it takes for the technical information to go stale, so I don't know how much it matters that there's a backlog. I was considering asking for training as an SPI clerk, but I also see there are two trainee requests at the top of this page which haven't been responded to. Is that because there's no need for more clerks, or conversely because we need more clerks and nobody has time to train new ones? I should clarify that I'm not complaining about the backlog -- I'm just curious as I know little about SPI. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 16:04, 6 May 2023 (UTC)

SPI is chronically backed up. I periodically scan the queue; if I see a new report on a case I've been tracking for a while, I'll probably jump on it right away. I assume most of the people working SPI do the same. If nobody jumps on it, it might be weeks before it gets looked at.

As for clerk training, my opinion is that we do indeed need more clerks. Even more than that, we need more admins working SPI, because once it is determined that an account is a sock, the next step is to block them, and that's something an admin needs to do. Sometimes a better strategy is to protect the page(s) that have been disrupted; again, it takes an admin to do that.

The biggest thing in the way of getting more clerks trained is finding people who have time to handle the training. If you're interested in helping out, my suggestion is to just jump in and start analyzing existing reports. It's really helpful if somebody takes one of the big rambling reports and boils it down to a small set of diffs which clearly demonstrate socking. It can be a lot of work to slog through edit histories looking for good evidence. If you can do that and distill it down to a concise presentation, that makes it a lot easier for an admin or CU to take the next steps.

Once you've gained some experience doing this, that's the time to request formal clerk training. The names on the list are discussed periodically. If people have seen you working SPI cases in a way that helps with the process, that really increases your chances of being chosen. -- RoySmith (talk) 16:26, 6 May 2023 (UTC)

Thanks, that's very helpful. I don't think I'll jump in until I'm sure I have enough time to commit, but I'll bear it in mind, and will take a look at some cases to understand what sorts of boiling-down would be helpful. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 16:29, 6 May 2023 (UTC)

Regarding the backlog, it ebbs and flows. I find that the backlog tends to contract in the months immediately following the appointment of new checkusers, typically from October–December, and then it will begin to grow again as we get into the summer months in the Northern hemisphere (typically from June–August), when a lot of people take time off to travel and focus on non-Wikipedia activities. I think a big reason the backlog is the way it is now is because we're getting to that time of year when our volunteers generally have less time to volunteer.

With that being said, burnout could also be a factor—the time when one first becomes a clerk or checkuser is probably the time when one feels most motivated to contribute in those roles, but as the time goes on, one's interests may start to shift. I would agree we could indeed use additional clerks right now, because the current set of clerks have been at it for a while, and we could use some fresh eyes. And we could always use additional patrolling admins. Several years ago, I wrote a recruitment ad for SPI at WP:AN, see Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Archive333#Admin help needed at SPI. I've been thinking about doing it again. Mz7 (talk) 02:19, 9 May 2023 (UTC)

Bonadea appointed trainee clerk

I'm pleased to announce that Bonadea is our newest trainee clerk. They will be trained by Blablubbs and I and I'm sure they'll make a great addition to the team. Please give them a warm welcome :) Spicy (talk) 15:23, 9 May 2023 (UTC)