Wikipedia:Suspected sock puppets/UkraineToday

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.

User:UkraineToday

Suspected sockpuppeteer

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

Suspected sockpuppets

193.243.156.214 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)
80.249.229.122 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)
Melbcity (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)
193.243.156.191 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)
Ukraine2006 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)
217.12.205.67 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)

Report submission by

Timberframe (talk) 14:58, 18 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Evidence

The strogest evidence concerns 193.243.156.214. This IP was used to manually revise his auto-inserted username from 193.243.156.214 to UkraineToday in http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:UkraineToday&diff=prev&oldid=155390393 the day before UkraineToday was indefinitely blocked on 4th September 2007- that's the clincher, since he's writing in defence of UkraineToday in the first person and 193.243.156.214 has continued to be used following the block. Likewise, 193.243.156.214 responded to a question addressed to UkraineToday in http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Craats&diff=155213656&oldid=155098962. (And this on the user page for Craats - the name of the author of the blogsite cited in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wynne which I have twice removed as contrary to WP:BLP - coincidence?)

Supporting evidence

Same topics - Current Ukrainian and Australian politics, in particular continuing the lines taken by UkraineToday in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutional_Court_of_Ukraine and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Ukrainian_political_crisis

Comments

This user is also responsible for deleting a bot message from Melbcity's talk page concerning an image of Kiev (see http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Melbcity&diff=prev&oldid=184448364). Melbcity's writing shows exactly the same characteristic spelling errors and aggressive style towards other editors as UkraineToday, and again the twin tie-ins to Melbourne, Australia and Ukraine; could this be another of his sock puppets? More - compare the edits in Andrew Landeryou (of Melbourne) by MelbCity on 11/02/2006 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Andrew_Landeryou&diff=39201304&oldid=35862896 and by 193.243.156.191 the next day http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Andrew_Landeryou&diff=39319008&oldid=39318840 - they are identical. I'm not saying for certain that 193.243.156.191 and 193.243.156.214 are one and the same, but they have the same narrow contribs interest - Ukrainian politics and Melbourne, and 193.243.156.191 also cites the dubious http://melbournecitycouncil.blogspot.com (looks to me very much like a plug by a vested interest).

The same names - UkraineToday and Ukraine 200x crop up in two Ukrainian news sites, currently in forum.pravda.com.ua/ and in the past in en.for-ua.com/forum/. He has been banned from the latter several times and has used many different user names to evade the bans (exactly the same behaviour as I'm seeing here). Both publications have histories of allegations that he is Anthony van Der Craats, author of melbournecitycouncil.blogspot.com, which makes his citations of this blog self-publicity.

It seems that 193.243.156.214 is just the latest of several manifestations of blocked user UkraineToday. The behaviour is remarkably similar, as is the dual theme - Ukraine and Melbourne. You could say the same of non-current users 81.17.128.174, Ukraine2006, 193.243.156.191, and 217.12.205.67 and Melbcity. All the IP addresses relate to ISPs in Kharkov, Ukraine. If these aren't all the same person then that town must be breeding people with very specific interests in Melbourne.

Of these alter egos, Ukraine2006 and Melbcity appear to have been used in good faith before UkraineToday was blocked, and while they highlight multiple identities I see no evidence of malicious intent. I mention them here only because they form part of the bigger picture encompassing the external evidence below. Similarly 193.109.100.247 appears to have been used only in good faith before UkraineToday was blocked but should be considered as a potential future sockpuppet IP. The same could be said of 193.243.156.191 had it not been used to add a self-publicising link. 217.12.205.67 was used to self-publicise another of his blogs, Ukrainetoday.blogspot.com; the user account was subsequently blocked for this and other and for extreme bias(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:217.12.205.67). 81.17.128.174 was blocked as a sockpuppet of UkraineToday in September 2007.

Some of this is speculation on my part but the admins could quickly confirm whether Melbcity's IP comes from Melbourne or Kharkov, and whether Ukraine2006 and UkraineToday share IP with any of those I listed here as being behaviourally similar.

External evidence

In the above I have limited myself to facts which are verifiable from within the wikipedia environment. Outside of this environment I moderate a forum from which UkraineToday alias Ukraine2006 was banned for gross POV pushing and flaming attacks on fellow users. Since this ban he has emailed me from time to time using various usernames and IP addresses. These confirm that UkraineToday, Ukraine2006 and Anthony van Der Craats are all one and the same entity and have used IP addresses including 80.249.229.122 and 193.243.156.214, both of which have been used to edit Wikipedia since UkraineToday was indefintely blocked on 4th September 2007. I am prepared to make my email account accessible to a reputable Wikipedia editor in order to present the email headers containing these user names and IP addresses in their as-received state. Like all the other IP addresses I've mentioned, 80.249.229.122 is based in Kharkov.

This evidence confirms my sockpuppet suspicions and also supports other editors' concerns (as well as my own) that this user is using Wikipedia to publicise his personal blogsite and in turm cite his own work as external references for his contributions to Wikipedia articles, including the biography of a living person.Timberframe (talk) 14:33, 19 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Conclusions

193.243.156.214 is an obvious sock. Melbcity, 193.243.156.191, and Ukraine2006 have not edited since 2006, so I'm not convinced since he stopped before UT was blocked. 80.249.229.122 (inconclusive) and 217.12.205.67 (already blocked indef as open proxy) have not edited recently. Blocking 193.243.156.214 for one month-block evading sock, looking into others more. — Rlevse • Talk • 01:06, 23 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]