User:Musical Linguist/Easter

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Report of the Easter stalking and blocks, prepared by AnnH[edit]

Background (skip if it's boring)[edit]

This is a summary of the events that led to accusations that Christians were persecuting non-Christians at the Christianity article. This led to the setting up of a website attacking some of the Christian editors, identifying some of them by name, posting of photos and links to personal website, etc.

Giovanni33 (talk · contribs) registered on 7 January. He began to edit Christianity on 21 January. He made six edits to that article in close succession, implementing major changes without discussion (forgivable for a newcomer). When they were reverted, he confidently reverted straight back. He made ELEVEN reverts or partial reverts to that article between 1:31 and 18:51 UTC on 22 January. He was informed of the three-revert rule, and was asked to stop, but was not reported, as he was a newcomer. Nevertheless, he did meet with considerable resistance when trying to implement his edits.

On 23 January, after KHM03 had reverted Giovanni, 38.114.145.148 (talk · contribs) reverted back to Giovanni's version (first edit) with edit summary rv to better version. I've been following in talk page.[1] That user's next edit was to the Christianity talk page, in support of Giovanni, and signed "Belinda".[2]

Five minutes later, BelindaGong (talk · contribs) registered an account.[3] Belinda's first edit as a registered user was to revert the Christianity article back to Giovanni's version.[4] Her second edit was to support him on the talk page.[5] Other new users (with red links for user pages) who appeared around that time and supported Giovanni were TheShriek (talk · contribs), MikaM (talk · contribs), and Kecik (talk · contribs). All four new users voted to support Giovanni's attempt to insert something about ritual cannibalism into the Transubstantiation article. The vote is here. It MikaM's sixth edit, Kecik's seventh, TheShriek's eleventh, and Belinda's twenty-second. It seemed unlikely that all five were different users, so I requested a usercheck. There was a large backlog at WP:RFCU, and my request went unanswered for a few weeks. In the meantime, BelindaGong, Kecik, and MikaM continued to revert to Giovanni's version. TheShriek did not revert, and made very few contributions.

In the next few weeks, there was a lot of edit warring at Christianity. Belinda, Mika, and Kecik continued to revert back to Giovanni's version, following him to various articles. Giovanni was reported and blocked after continuing to revert despite warnings. Belinda was also reported and blocked. The WP:SOCK policy was brought up frequently on their talk pages, and on the Christianity talk page. Giovanni and Belinda were asked repeatedly, but pretended to have no connection to each other.

In mid-February, the usercheck results came through, saying that Giovanni was also Belinda, and TheShriek was also SOPHIA. There was no visible evidence of sockpuppetry from Kecik or Mika. Giovanni and Belinda were both blocked. An uninvolved administrator tagged TheShriek as a sockpuppet of SOPHIA. I asked her about it and she said they were married. They were both new users, who had joined on different dates, and had never edited the same articles at the same time. Their histories showed that they had not edited the same articles together, they had never voted twice between them, and they had not engaged in edit warring. I removed the notice from TheShriek's page. Later, I deleted it from the history.[6] KHM03, Str1977, and I tried to make it clear that we respected SOPHIA, and considered her to be totally innocent of any wrongdoing. Nevertheless, she left Wikipedia temporarily as a result of these events.

While Giovanni and Belinda were blocked, Freethinker99 (talk · contribs) arrived at the Christianity, talk page, said he was new but had read the talk page and agreed with Giovanni (first edit)[7] and then reverted back to Giovanni's version (second edit).[8] He was asked to review WP:SOCK, and said, "I have. Thanks."[9] Giovanni was asked on his talk page (the only page he could edit) to state frankly whether or not he had any connection with any of the new users who were reverting to his version, and he denied it — but forgot that he was logged on as Freethinker99![10] He then changed the signature[11] but we had already seen it.

Various explanations were given — he was married to Belinda, and had not wanted to make that public. He was a friend of Freethinker, and was at his house, showing him how to use Wikipedia. When he denied having any connection to any of the editors about whom he had been asked, he had "not seen Freethinker's name". Note that it had been there for 50 minutes when he made his reply, and would have been immediately above the first words that he was typing of his denial. His block was extended. The whole issue is discussed at Talk:Christianity/Archive 24

Note: There is absolutely no reason to suspect that Giovanni33 was involved in setting up the website that attacked and stalked the people who opposed him.

Enter Trollwatcher and John1838[edit]

On 6 February, 82.22.236.111 (talk · contribs) made a post to the Christianity talk page, insinuating the the Christian editors were "trolls" and signing as Trollspotter.[12]

On 10 February, 168.224.1.14 (talk · contribs) posted a "troll warning" to the Christianity talk page, signing as Trollspotter, and talking about the Christian trolls on that page.[13] This was followed by three similar messages from that IP [14] [15] [16]. He signs as Trollspotter or TrollSpotter, announces his intention to do "a case study of one of the worst offenders". Announces intention to "get a log on."

On 14 February, Trollwatcher (talk · contribs) created an account. His contributions followed the same pattern as the two anons who had signed as Trollspotter — making accusations against the Christian editors, very little interest in editing, but with a tendency to add links to articles (which were often reverted by the next editor).

John1838 (talk · contribs) created an account on 12 February, and started work on his user page, where he made "case studies" about the behaviour of the Christians on the Christianity page, calling them DWEECs (Devout Western Educated Ecumenical Christian). He invited people from the Christianity article to visit his page.[17] His page was deleted by Sasquatch on 21 February, recreated by John later that day, and deleted a second time (and protected) by CesarB. John then registered a new account as J1838 (talk · contribs) and put the same content on his new user page. It was deleted by CesarB, and protected. John reported it at WP:DRV and the consensus was to keep deleted. John then disappeared from Wikipedia until the middle of April.

More problems at Christianity[edit]

In the mean time, the edit warring continued at Christianity and elsewhere. Although MikaM and Kecik were not linked to Giovanni33 by any IP evidence, they were considered by many to be puppets of some sort. From the very start, when new users would be unlikely to know how to track contributions, they began to show up to vote to support Giovanni (or revert to his version) at articles that they would be unlikely to find by chance. He had not left messages on their talk pages asking for support at Transubstantiation, for example, and they did not have e-mail enabled. They would often show up when he had run out of reverts. There were linguistic similarities, and Kecik, to date, has thirty-two article edits, thirty of which are reverts to Giovanni's versions (different and sometimes unrelated articles); the other two are simply minor copyedits done straight after a revert.

There are currently nine users suspected of having or proven to have a connection to Giovanni33. They are:

There is extremely strong linguistic evidence linking these users (except BelindaGong) to Giovanni. I am reluctant to publicize a particular idiosyncrasy, as it may stop if I do. (Giovanni has a mannerism of frequently finishing a sentence, adding a full stop, and then writing "hehe" in lower case letters.[18] There are numerous examples. After I drew attention to MikaM doing it[19], none of the suspected puppets ever did it again. However, there is much stronger evidence than that, and I am very happy to e-mail it to any administrator who requests it.

On 7 March, a brand-new account RTS appeared, and reverted to Giovanni's version. He was reverted, and he reverted back. He made eight reverts, despite warnings. I was positive there was a connection between him and Giovanni, but did not want to block without proof, especially as I was involved in the article. Giovanni was absent from Wikipedia at the time, and given his history of using puppets and pretending not to, I thought he might be away from home, taking advantage of temporarily having a different IP. This, however, was just speculation. I spent a lot of time sending a welcome message to RTS, and typing up long explanations of the rules, although I was positive he already knew them. When he had made seven reverts, despite requests to stop, I reported him. He was blocked, but not before making an eighth. Then another new account, NPOV77 reverted back to RTS with an edit summary that said: "rv No RTS is right--there is no consensus to move to bottom as of yet. Also, you reverted POV content, which is why I decided to intervene. I am aware of the rules so I have 2 rvts left".[20] The puppetry was so obvious that I blocked instantly, and indefinitely. I then reported it at WP:AN/I, as I was involved in the article, and felt other admins should review it. Every admin who commented supported me. The discussion is found here and in the lower-level section below it. I didn't request a usercheck because (a) I suspected it was Giovanni, who didn't edit for a few days around that time, and because he said when he came back that he had been away, (b) there had been such a backlog at RFCU that my previous request had gone unanswered for weeks, and (c) it seemed to be normal to block for puppetry when it was very obvious and because other administrators seemed to agree.

First appearance of HK30[edit]

On various occasions there had been some edits from 206.61.48.22 (talk · contribs) in support of Giovanni. On 12 April, that anon reverted Christianity twice, to Giovanni's preferred verions. Then HK30 (talk · contribs) appeared and reverted again. I suspected it was the same user. I also recalled that RTS and NPOV77 had been based on the user name Str1977, one of Giovanni's opponents, and it seemed likely that this name was based on KHM03, another of Giovanni's opponents.

Some of HK30's edits can no longer be seen in the history of pages. He made fourteen edits to the Christianity talk page, but I had to remove them because of personal information added by Trollwatcher. Administrators can still see deleted evidence. In addition to the reverts he made from his IP before registering, he reverted the article six times. One of the reverts contains an edit summary that suggests familiarity with the accusations made by Trollwatcher/John1838. He mentions DWECC, which is obviously a typo for DWEEC — an uncommon word. He made other edits to user talk pages, which I had to remove, as explained below.

HK30 continued to revert, despite warnings. Finally, he answered on his talk page, making silly jokes like "Don't ban me please! I'll convert." "Ok, thanks. I'm not good at faking it anyway." "I hope I won't get banned now. I'll convert if it will save me, but Tom below said that is not necessary." "Would it help if I convert, too? If I convert can I be an administrator, too?" "Will you help me to convert? Will I get to be an admin, too?" I offered him a chance to undo his ninth revert to avoid being blocked, and he undid it with the edit summary "Musical Linguist told me to undo my change, so I rv my last edit to avoid being blocked. I knew I should have converted!"[21] All rather childish (see also this) and slightly disruptive, but nothing to suggest banning him, except for the obvious (and later to become more obvious) connection to a user who had used puppets in the past.

Harassment and posting of personal details[edit]

This section concerns a website which attacks some of the Christian editors, and which recently published a photo of KHM03, which he had never used on Wikipedia, gave his name, and linked to his personal website — which gave further information about his location, his family, their names, etc. None of this information had ever been given on Wikipedia. KHM03 had never used his surname on Wikipedia, had never uploaded a photo of himself, and had never linked to his website. Additionally, his website had never linked to Wikipedia. The harassing has been added to the spam filter, and can now no longer be linked to. I do not intend to "get around" this by giving the name, from which the address can be deduced. Any administrator can find out the address of this website by looking at the deleted edits.

On 6 April, On 6 April, User:82.22.236.111, who used to sign himself Trollspotter, posted the message to

asking for comments on a certain website, which was linked to in the posts. I saw the message, and had a look at the website. It was obviously modelled on the deleted userpage of John1838, and on comments that 82.22.236.111 had made on John's talk page[22]; in some cases it was the same, word for word. I saw the message and looked at the website. I considered it to be a rather nasty attack on several of the Christian editors, and recognized the connection it had to John1838 and Trollwatcher, but then thought nothing more of it.

On the night of Holy Thursday / Good Friday, when most of the Christian editors were on wiki-breaks for Easter ceremonies, SimplePilgrim (talk · contribs) appeared, saying on his talk page that he used to be John1838. He added links to that website. SOPHIA saw these links, and saw that the website now gave personal information about KHM03. She reverted the link. HK30, who had also received SimplePilgrim's message, reverted her, and posted the link to more pages. He then (a new user!) tracked her contributions, and followed her around Wikipedia, reverting her, although she told him in the edit summary to see WP:AN/I, where she had reported it.

The edits have now been deleted, but these contributions from SimplePilgrim can be seen by administrotors who loook in the history of the targetted pages. The pages are:

On the night of Holy Thursday/Good Friday, User:HK30 received the link from SimplePilgrim, reverted SOPHIA twice when she removed it, followed her round Wikipedia reverting all her attempts to remove it AFTER he had looked at the website and was aware of its contents, and in spite of SOPHIA's edit summaries referring him to WP:AN/I, and posted it to KHM03 and Str1977, neither of whom had been included in the SimplePilgrim spamming. HK30 added (or re-added) it to:

On the morning of Good Friday, after SimplePilgrim had been blocked, a newly-registered account, with a name that was based on my real-life name posted the link to:

This editor also "stole" the entire contents of my user page.

Blocking of editors[edit]

SOPHIA reported this on WP:AN/I; the discussion is now archived here. SimplePilgrim was blocked for a month. HK30 was blocked indefinitely by one admin; another; in a block clash, another blocked for a month, then realized and said that the month would give us time to review the situation. I knew nothing about it at the time, but received an e-mail from SOPHIA and another from KHM03 the next day. KHM03 said he felt "very violated", and wanted the links removed from the history and archives. I was forced to come back from my planned wiki-break, and spent over three hours deleting and partially restoring pages. (I had not, at that stage, found this!)

I blocked Trollwatcher indefinitely, as he had been missed out by the blocking admins. I went through the contributions of User:168.224.1.14 (eight days) and User:82.22.236.111 (one month), both of whom had made similar posts to those of Trollwatcher, had signed as "Trollspotter" (before Trollwatcher had registered and chosen a name), and had added external links to the same websites. I had absolutely no doubt that there was a connection.

I was accused on the website of having blocked Robsteadman, HK30, Trollwatcher, and SimplePilgrim for referring to that website; the only one I actually blocked was Trollwatcher. (I blocked Robsteadman a few months previously, before I had had any contact with him, for massive edit warring in an article in which I had no involvement.) SimplePilgrim and HK30 were blocked by another admin without my knowledge; Robsteadman was blocked by another admin at a later stage, and over a completely different issue.

More harassment[edit]

Two more newly-created accounts, one based on KHM03's real name, the other based on my real name (and copying my signature) sent creepy messages to KHM03's talk page, mentioning his wife, his family, and his dog by name. They can be seen in the deleted edits. Also, his superior was sent an extremely inappropriate e-mail. KHM03 decided, to the great regret of many Wikipedians, to leave Wikipedia. He felt he could not allow a hobby to place his profession and family at risk.

Block of users[edit]

SimplePilgrim[edit]

I think there can be no doubt that SimplePilgrim should be blocked indefinitely. He

  • showed no interest in editing, other than creating attack pages
  • created a user page (and talk page) to attack some Wikipedians
  • created it again when it was deleted
  • registered a new account and moved the former contents of the protected deleted user page to his new user page
  • has an obvious connection to the attack website, as it is based on his user page (and also on some contribtuions Trollwatcher made)
  • posted links to that website on sixteen pages, asking people to visit the website at a time when it gave photo, full name, etc. of KHM03. (He denies this on his talk page, but I know that SOPHIA had seen that website on 6 April, and had done nothing beyond saying that she hated this "cloak and dagger" nonsense. When SimplePilgrim linked that site on 13 April, SOPHIA immediately started reverting, complaining that it gave personal information about an editor, and asking for help at WP:AN/I. I did not see that site between 6 and 13 April, but it is clear that at some stage between 6 April and 13 April a lot of personal information was added, and that it was there at the time that SimplePilgrim added the links.

HK30[edit]

In the case of HK30, I do not think that he was involved in creating the attack website. However, he

  • Certainly has a connection to Giovanni33, despite no IP match. The linguistic evidence is very strong
  • Joined Wikipedia for the purpose of reverting for Giovanni, and supporting him on the talk page.
  • Started reverting as soon as he had registered his account. Went on reverting despite warnings, then said he hadn't read his meesages. (The orange bar would have flashed every time he opened a new page.)
  • Was flippant and unapologetic when told about the rule — "if I convert, can I be an administrator too", etc.
  • Followed SOPHIA around Wikipedia, reverting her attempts to remove the link, and even added it to a few places himself, after he had looked at the website and had seen the personal information and attacks on it, and despite being referred to the the discussion at WP:AN/I
  • Sent a harassing message to one of the victims of the webiste (Str1977) telling him about the webstite, adding that the claims seemed to be true, and asking Str1977 did he have a photo.
  • Made threats of going to the press and creating websites after he was blocked.[23]
  • Created and used the account Mercury2001 to evade the block and continue edit warring.[24]
  • Made several posts to another website which was discussing the attack website (link available to admins on request), accusing Essjay of dishonestly in pretending that KHM03's employer had been contacted, mocked the attempts of Wikipedia admins to prevent this site which had led to stalking being linked on Wikipedia pages, said that the website was harmless and legitimate, said that he thought KHM03's story was a fake, and talked about "infiltrating" Wikipedia.
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