The following discussion is an archived debate of the case of suspected sockpuppetry. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page. All edits should go to the talk page of this case. If you are seeing this page as a result of an attempt to open a new case of sockpuppetry of the same user, read this for detailed instructions.

Suspected sockpuppeteer

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

Suspected sockpuppets

Delhite (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)
Dineshdsouza (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)
Cbhatia (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)
Banarsibabu (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)
Shonali2000 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)

Report submission by

Colin°^Talk 18:06, 14 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Evidence

Previous socks: AnneOswald (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log), KenClarke (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log) and AbdulYasser (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log).

Previous Checkuser.

• Three of these participated at the deletion review of Ashoka Jahnavi-Prasad: Vr, Delhite, Cbhatia
• All six participated at current AfD for Top 1000 Scientists: From the Beginning of Time to 2000 AD: Vr, Dineshdsouz, Delhite, Cbhatia, Shonali2000, (see below for Banarsibabu)
• Contributions to talk pages and discussions involve the insertion of many newlines and generally use more blank lines than desirable (above diffs and contributions).
• Identical spelling mistakes involving letter transpositions. "teh" "thsi" "woudl"
• No space after punctuation such as . or , causing sentences to run on.
• Previous three sockpuppets were AnneOswald, KenClarke and AbdulYasser (see above). Those sockpuppets had pages saying "I a a doctoral student in mathematics in Texas", "I am a graduate student at Stanford" and "I am a science teacher in Peshawar,Pakistan" respectively. User:Dineshdsouza's page says "I am an author of Goan origin based in the US.". User:Shonali2000's page says "I am a student of Lady Shriram College,Delhi". Cbhatia's wrote to Dbachmann "I am a student from Chennai based in Pune". User talk:Delhite says "I am a Delhi resident and a student of science at the Jawaharlal Nehru University." User:Vr wrote "I am a biochmist holding a PhD.". There's some similarity here (especially Dineshdsouze, Shonali2000 and the two previous socks), plus locations should be possible to confirm if required.
• Dineshdsouza has only made two edits, both today. But the user page is identical in format to two previous Vr socks and the AfD contribution has similar transposition typos and lack of whitespace after punctuation. I strongly suspect that this is not the "New York Times Best Selling Author" Dinesh D'Souza, as I'm sure he has better things to do than defend crap books and the user page says "His website:" before providing a link. A bit of a give-away?
• Shonali2000 was only created yesterday and has made brief contributions to other AfDs before showing the same command of keyboard skills as the others on the 1000 Scientists AfD.

Common interests:

• Top 1000 Scientists: From the Beginning of Time to 2000 AD. All six accounts have contributed to the current AfD. Delhite and Vr contributed to the previous AfD. Previous sockpuppet AnneOswald edited that article's talk page here, KenClarke edited multiple times and so did AbdulYasser. So has Delhite multiple times. Vr has edited it off an on since 2006.
• Ashoka Jahnavi-Prasad Three accounts edited the deletion review. Cbhatia added Prasad's name to May 10 as a birthdate. Delhite added him to the Rajendra Prasad article in January 2008. Vr added an almost identical paragraph back in September 2006.
• John Funder Delhite has added statements accusing Funder of scientific misconduct during August 2006. He added Funder to the Scientific misconduct article, then edited that article with details. Vr started editing Funder's article at the same time and has continued to attack Funder with many futher edits.
• List of Kayasthas. Cbhatia has edited once, Vr has multiple times.
• Mani Shankar Aiyar Cbhatia has edited twice, Vr has multiple times.
• List of figures in psychiatry. Delhite has edited to add Prasad. Vr has edited the list multiple times.

Comments

I have added another obvious sock, User:Banarsibabu. This new account has made a handful of edits today - one of them to the current AfD; another of them was to Dineshdsouza's userpage [1] with a link to "my website" - the sockmaster had obviously forgotten which account he was logged in with. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Iain99 (talk • contribs) 19:10, 14 February 2008

The userpage is "I am a 18 year old school student in Banaras", which sounds rather similar to the other socks. Colin°^Talk 20:20, 14 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, true. Actually the first version read "I am a 8 year old school student in Banaras". (The next edit added a decade.) -- Hoary (talk) 10:03, 16 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This is obviously unacceptable; we have commenting on talk pages with multiple accounts to make his views seem better supported than they are, we have multiple !votes on AfDs and DRVs, and we have the apparent impersonation of a living person. Vr has been warned about the use of socks before. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Iain99 (talk • contribs) 19:10, 14 February 2008

If confirmed, Vr's sock puppetry has been ongoing for nearly two years, despite previous warnings. His edits involve defaming one scientist and promoting another discredited "scientist". He has used socks to make multiple edits/reverts on articles and to stack !votes on several AfDs, starting with the List of Indians. Impersonating a notable person is the last straw IMO and he should not be let off lightly. Colin°^Talk 21:45, 14 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

In all of these user accounts I see a similarity of interest in (limited) articles, very strong similarity in the edits themselves along with much alikened English language syntax and talk page use, all of which rather strongly hints at sockpuppetry. Gwen Gale (talk) 08:39, 16 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The syntax seems unremarkable to me. What strikes me instead is the proneness to typing errors. (Together with idiosyncratic layout and narrow concerns.) -- Hoary (talk) 10:03, 16 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Typing errors too, as with the missing spaces (not hitting the spacebar, or a somewhat broken spacebar) which seems to be common among them. Gwen Gale (talk) 10:50, 16 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know if these are socks, but at least their comments in the 1000 scientists AfD and DR seem indistinguishable to me. At the very least, they must have gone to the same typing school. --Itub (talk) 14:11, 21 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I received a rather distressed message from [[User:Shonali2000 earlier today about being accused of sock-puppetry. I think it was left on my page as it was me who left the original welcome message on the user's talk page. I am willing to assume good faith here, and have offered to help this user through the process. However, I have not much experience in the Sock-puppet process, and certainly have very limited technical expertise in such matters. If someone could drop me a line on my talk page, that would be gratefully appreciated. It would certainly help me understand the evidence. Thanks! StephenBuxton (talk) 17:17, 21 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The evidence is clearly (and I think convincingly) set out at the top of this page. Technical expertise, or lack thereof, isn't an issue: there has been no request for checkuser. But I've dropped you a line on your talk page anyway. -- Hoary (talk) 07:41, 22 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Apart from teh ones Colin has nted I have made at least 500 edits.I am requesting checkuser-and if found unconvincing,I woudl liek Colin to be warned.(Delhite (talk) 08:01, 23 February 2008 (UTC))[reply]

I think the sockpuppetry/meatpuppetry worries outlined above have been put fairly. Delhite, I see less than 100 edits to a very limited number of user, project and article pages in your contribution history. What am I missing? Gwen Gale (talk) 11:31, 23 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You're missing the deleted edits. Yes, "Delhite" has made fewer than 100 preserved edits. He or she has also made fewer than 20 deleted edits, of which all are to Ashoka Jahnavi-Prasad, Top 1000 Scientists: From the Beginning of Time to 2000 AD, Talk:Top 1000 Scientists: From the Beginning of Time to 2000 AD and Zafar Agha. Perhaps "Delhite" was thinking of edits made by some other username(s). -- Hoary (talk) 15:17, 23 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Without a shred of irony, in assuming good faith that Delhite does indeed remember making "at least 500 edits," the rather inescapable answer would be, most were made with other user accounts. Gwen Gale (talk) 15:26, 23 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I note the sarcasm!The fact is that I was editing without registering for about 10 months before I was advised to do so! But I sincerely hope now that user check would be initiated!

(Delhite (talk) 05:57, 27 February 2008 (UTC))[reply]

WP:RFCU should be submitted here to look deeper. — Rlevse • Talk • 01:35, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Conclusions

RFCU found a sock farm. The master and all socks and others blocked indef and tagged. — Rlevse • Talk • 21:32, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

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