Abelmoschus Esculentus

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

28 September 2018

Suspected sockpuppets

Having observing this suspicious account RHcosm since a couple of days and having analyzed their contribution, I am beginning to think this account is a sock of Abelmoschus Esculentus. Abelmoschus Esculentus was created on 5 March 2018, and has been editing ever since.

RHcosm was created on 11 September 2018, a few weeks after Bishonen had yanked rollback privilege from Abelmoschus Esculentus' account, and the reason given was "persistent misuse". Their contributions is worth looking at. Just like Abelmoschus Esculentus, RHcosm has been patrolling recent changes since day one; making reverts all the time using certain (semi-)automated tools with an apparent motive to rack up as many edits as possible in a short span of time, an obsession that can also seen in the contribution history of Abelmoschus Esculentus. RHcosm knows the ropes already.

Going through the editing history of the suspected sock and the master, I see a large number of strikingly identical similarities. I'm just pointing out a few of them, which should suffice for a CU investigation. After registering, both made their first edit on their userpage—a single sentence introduction.[1][2] This is a common trait among socks. Both subsequently developed their userpages in a similar style, including the thick green font "display title".[3][4]

Interaction Analyser tool shows a remarkable overlap on a diverse range of articles. For one thing, this might be because of the fact that they are both singularly focused on reverting "vandalism" using certain (semi-)automated tools. What's interesting about this is—they've both made reverts of same users' edits on the same pages and on the same day using rollback. I'll just cite two articles where this has happened: this and this. In both the cases, the intervening time between their reverts was about 6 hours. Now, looking at them, it seems likely that Abelmoschus keep tabs on RHcosm's edits, and the only possible explanation for this can be that RHcosm is his own account.

Even their editing timings are same, and this itself is a damning piece of evidence. They both generally start editing from 22 UTC and continue until 16 UTC, after which they don't make any edits. Another damning piece of evidence is their obsession with rollback in general and Huggle in particular. Abelmoschus Esculentus' obsession with Huggle is no secret. The vast majority of this user's total edits thus far has been made using this tool.[5] They had stated in their application for rollback that they want rollback specifically for getting access to Huggle as they have done enough anti-vandalism work with Twinkle.

"I have been fighting against vandalism for about a month and the rollback just makes it easier for me to revert vandalism in Huggle than twinkle. Thank you."[6]

RHcosm says the same thing in their application; to quote:

Greetings! I am patrolling recent changes with Twinkle. With Rollback permission, I want to use more advanced tools like Huggle for reverting vandalism. Thanks.[7]

Here it's worth noting that RHcosm requested rollback at WP:PERM barely a couple weeks after registering; and the same is the case with the master, who requested the right barely after over a month since registering. Taking all this into account, it is safe to say that this particular obsession is a dead giveaway. Since the creation of RHcosm, there has been a sharp decline in the editing rate of Abelmoschus Esculentus; and more so lately, which is another sign of sock puppetry. For example, Abelmoschus Esculentus made barely 4 edits on 27 September, while RHcosm was active all day, racking up 131 edits.

Moreover, I am reasonably certain that the master is switching between accounts. Here I provide an example to demonstrate this:

On 26 September 2018: RHcosm starts editing at 01:27 UTC and continues until 09:40 UTC. During this period of time, Abelmoschus Esculentus was nowhere to be seen. RHcosm then makes an edit at 12:11 UTC, and Abelmoschus Esculentus edits at 12:13 UTC and continues until 12:14 UTC. RHcosm edits at 12:18 UTC and continues until 12:20 UTC. Abelmoschus then makes one edit at 12:22 UTC, and RHcosm makes a couple edits at 12:46 UTC and stops. Abelmoschus then starts at 13:09 UTC and continues until 13:23 UTC. RHcosm makes an edit at 23:07 UTC (this been their only edit since 12:46 UTC). Abelmoschus also makes a few edits at 23:11 UTC.

There is other evidence too, which only strengthens my suspicion. Here they are:

  • Both added their user talk pages to Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Subscribe[8][9]
  • Both added plain support votes (#'''Support''' ~~~~) on Justlettersandnumbers' RfA[10][11]
  • Both made similar requests for "Pending changes reviewer" user right; here I will mention the specific lines.
Abelmoschus Esculentus: "I have been fighting vandalism for about a month...Some articles I am currently working on have pending changes protection, so sometimes I see some pending edits which are constructive but I cannot review them.[12][13]
RHcosm: "I am patrolling recent changes in Wikipedia...I want this flag to accept the constructive contributions made by new and IP users to pending changes protected pages. MBlaze Lightning 05:08, 28 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Comments by other users

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