Wikipedia:Suspected sock puppets/Matthvm

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. 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.

Matthvm (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log) is a user who has been indefinitely blocked for making persistent legal threats after being warned (and blocked 3 times before) for civility. He has several suspected sockpuppets, at least two of which were in place before his block, and, among other things, were used to back each other up on AFDs. Only Matthvm and one sock has been blocked.

The two original sockpuppets were:

• Patylucy (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log) (formerly known as Patycat)
• Jwalker2006 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)

The following sockpuppets have came up since the block:

• 20060706 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)
• 20060715 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log) (blocked on July 18)
• Compaquser (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)

Although I had suspected sockpuppetry as early as June, the first recorded complaint was on the Talk:Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia page by User:Saforrest, and more examples can be found on that page.

All 5 share the same interests: mostly Nova Scotia-related topics, particularly geography and transportation. Edit wars have ensued between me and this group over highway articles such as Nova Scotia Highway 102 and Nova Scotia Highway 111, and among other people over articles such as Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia. They are known for egregious spelling and grammar errors, and lack of civility.

Other idiosyncracies:

• Each of the original three voted in two AFDs: Needs Convenience and Lawtons. All three voted keep. Jwalker2006's 6th edit was to the Needs AFD.
• Matthvm was perma-blocked for making legal threats on July 15, the same day 20060715 showed up to continue the argument on Talk:Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia.
• Both 20060706 and Compaquser demanded the sockpuppet notice be taken off their user pages this week, and 20060706 also made an edit to Matthvm's user page today.
• Compaquser was auto-blocked last night for having the same IP as Matthvm, but was reinstated after he complained.

Kirjtc2 20:39, 4 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The evidence pages for the sockpuppets are not well formed, they all point to a talk page with a number of allegations, but not presented in a well structured manner. I asked that this be corrected but it hasn't yet been. Nevertheless I carried out an investigation of patterns of articles edited, the phrasing used, the interdependent editing, timing of edits and so forth and based on that evidence, even absent a Checkuser, I conclused all of the users listed above are sockpuppets of blocked user user:Matthvm. I have blocked them all and will be changing their tagging to confirmed, and adding a puppetmaster tag to blocked user user:Matthvm. Please advise of any questions or concerns. ++Lar: t/c 11:40, 5 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry about the evidence pages; I've been offline for the last couple of days. (Incidentally, I also think that Wikipedia:Suspected sock puppets needs to be more prominently linked from WP:SOCK, since I didn't find the former page when I was initially trying to figure out what to do.) --Saforrest 12:06, 5 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

User have been blocked. Iolakana|^T 16:17, 11 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]