Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Madchase/Archive

Add links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


Madchase

Madchase (talk+ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser(log) · investigate · cuwiki)

14 May 2024

Suspected sockpuppets

Almost all of these user accounts were created on the same day, just a few minutes apart, and they almost exclusively edit the same pages with the same perspective and writing style. Two of these accounts have copied copyrighted text from elsewhere verbatim. For example, see Minyue's edit at [1] (copied from 'The Work of British Women Mathematicians during the First World War' [2]), or look at the page history for Galton Laboratory, where Madchase posted copyrighted content (which has already been removed so I can't link to it). These accounts also focus of the same topics. For example, after Minyue's edits on Feb 27 to Ethel M. Elderton [3], Aj craik's only edit (on Feb 28) is to add a link to Elderton to Karl Pearson's page [4], which Madchase had also edited just a few minutes earlier [5]. JR2024 edited a page [6] to link it to Pearson, and Madchase edited it to link it to Galton. The JR2024 and Madchase accounts (and perhaps the user Vidalion, created on a different day) have been doing disruptive editing to the Francis Galton page that get reverted, not keeping with WP:EDITCONSENSUS. Another user, Jc2324, began making edits on Feb 28, a day Aj craik and Madchase were also active, and Jc2324 edits are to the same pages as these other users. They're more heavily cited, I think as a response to Madchase's edits getting deleted. See eg [7] Hi! (talk) 04:23, 14 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Update: I missed one. User:N16Breda was also created on the same day, and also edits on the same pages and topics almost exclusively. Like Madchase, her bio page says she attends University College London. It goes on to say "I've joined the Wikipedia editing collective to work on a UCL project designed to improve the visibility of women scientists who worked in the area of eugenics at UCL in the early twentieth century." So maybe that explains why several accounts would be created at the same time. Hi! (talk) 07:01, 14 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Comments by other users

Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

  • The editing pattern of these accounts seems very much in keeping with an educational project or editathon as opposed to sockpuppetry. I also note that a few of these accounts were created by Octavosaurus, who states on her userpage that she is an educator at University College London. I don't think any further action is needed from a CU or SPI perspective but I would suggest that Octavosaurus read Wikipedia:Student_assignments#Advice_for_instructors to help avoid confusion and conflict in the future. Thanks, Spicy (talk) 21:20, 19 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    Hi! I can confirm that these accounts are not sock puppets, but they are all students who I led in an editathon in the spring of this year focusing on eugenics history. The other users were very new to Wikipedia (as am I, in the grand scheme of things) and whilst they were trained by myself they were still very much figuring things out, including copyright issues. I am an accredited trainer through Wikipedia UK and have an outreach dashboard for this project which I’m happy to share. I will read the guidelines linked above but I don’t think there is any wrongdoing here unless I’ve missed something major. Octavosaurus (talk) 21:59, 19 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Sockpuppet_investigations/Madchase/Archive&oldid=1225179567"