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Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Tdv123/Archive

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Tdv123

21 August 2018

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Suspected sockpuppets

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Originally I thought that Offey123 was a sockpuppet of Apollo The Logician, however after a bit of research I believe that they are a sockpuppet of the also indef. blocked Tdv123. Both editors share similar topic areas such as the Irish socialist terrorism, i.e. INLA and looking at the editor interaction tool both have quite a fondness of editing Template:Campaignbox Northern Ireland Troubles as well as adding attack articles to others as well as sharing quite obscure articles in the Troubles topic area several of which were created by Tdv123. Indeed their very names are similar with the "123" suffix, which kind of makes it pretty obvious in my view.

Tdv123 also was blocked from editing on 1 April, and ignoring two deleted edits to their talk page their last flurry of talk page activity was on 20 April. No surprise that Offey123 starts editing on 20 April [1]. Mabuska (talk) 23:46, 21 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Any further action or enquiry? Editor is still editing as normal and unlike most new editors, hasn't responded to this SPI to make a case of innocence. Mabuska (talk) 10:10, 24 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Hi. Sorry for not having elaborated with diffs was very busy and short on time. Give me a few days and I'll provide diffs to go with the above circumstantial. Mabuska (talk) 21:06, 29 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
I don't have the time at present to spend compiling diffs and they have gone inactive for the past week, so you may as well and close this SPI. I can always file one at a later date if they return and continue in the same vein as before. Mabuska (talk) 15:43, 3 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

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The suspected master is   Stale. CU declined.--Bbb23 (talk) 11:20, 22 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

18 August 2020

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Suspected sockpuppets

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Balcombe Street Gang is the top edited article for both accounts, 57 edits for TommySocialist and 80 for Tdv123. TommySocialist said here Look at what he did to the Balcombe Street Gang page I created, when it was actually created by Tdv123. When Tdv123 last edited the article it looked like this, at the time of TommySocialist's last edit it looked like this. Obviously there's been some additions and changes from one version to the other, but you couldn't reasonably consider the changes so significant to possibly merit using the word "created".

Both accounts have a highly unusual tendency to add events out of chronological order. For example

CAIN have two distinct databases on their website. The first is the chronology, for example the 1976 chronology of events. There is also the 1976 index of deaths, which can be searched to find deaths for a specific day, for example 31 January 1976. Both accounts use these databases to create "Background" or "Aftermath" (or similar) sections by selecting entries about random events and deaths they feel are part of the background.

At Provisional IRA Derry Brigade Tdv123 adds the claim that the Derry Brigade was also known as the South Derry Brigade. They also add various events to the infobox, 1973 Coleraine bombings, 1978 Lisnamuck shoot-out and Kesh ambush. In typical use of the term "South Derry" does not refer to the southern part of the city of Derry, it refers to the southern part of County Londonderry (also called County Derry). See Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2020 June 15#South Derry Brigade regarding this also. After I removed the "South Derry Brigade" claims from the article, six months later TommySocialist restored several incidents to the infobox, including the three originally added by Tdv123, and argued they were Derry Brigade attacks. This claim has previously been disputed by another editor at Talk:Provisional IRA Derry Brigade#Confusion of South Derry Brigade, and I have never seen a single reference that says the Derry Brigade and South Derry Brigade were the same entity, the only people that believe this to be the case are Tdv123 and TommySocialist.

Both accounts tend to do book references the exact same way, author name, a hyphen, then page number after "p.". Never any publisher details, publication year, ISBN, no italics for book title. They also use constructions like "p.260, 261" and "p.158,159" instead of using "pp.".

Tdv123

  • [2] Peter Taylor - Behind The Mask : The IRA and Sinn Fein p.181
  • [3] Peter Taylor - Behind The Mask: The IRA & Sinn Fein p.106
  • [4] Henry McDonald & Jack Holland INLA: Deadly Divisions p.260, 261
  • [5] Aaron Edwards - UVF: Behind The Mask p.203
  • [6] Ed Moloney - A Secret History of the IRA: The Big Lad p.125
  • [7] Peter Taylor - Behind The Mask: The IRA & Sinn Fein p.160,161
  • [8] Jack Holland & Henry McDonald - INLA: Deadly Divisions p.320,368

TommySocialist

  • [9] Peter Taylor - Behind The Mask: The IRA & Sinn Fein pp.265
  • [10] Steven P. Moysey - The Road To Balcombe Street: The IRA Reign of Terror in London: Second Edition p.158,159
  • [11] Steven P. Moysey - The Road To Balcombe Street: The IRA Reign of Terror in London: Second Edition p.133,134
  • [12] Jim Cusack & Henry McDonald - UVF: The Endgame (Fully Revised & Updated) p.278

I believe these traits are sufficiently unusual that it is highly unlikely two different editors who happen to exclusively edit articles relating to the Troubles would both exhibit all of them. FDW777 (talk) 21:44, 18 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

FDW777, Thanks for the detailed summary. One thing that was kind of confusing was the diff you cited for "Look at what he did to the Balcombe Street Gang page I created" was from Canterbury Tail. I think the diff you meant was this one -- RoySmith (talk) 01:13, 21 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

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26 February 2021

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Suspected sockpuppets

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Quite straightforward case of block evading sockpuppetry. In response to edits such as this TommySocialist (previous sockpuppet) was asked if that Youtube channel (the channel is called Shane Gallagher, I won't be linking to it for WP:LINKVIO reasons but it's in the diff) belonged to them, they responded by saying "Yes, thank you, that is my Youtube channel". Even though the IP gets the uploader wrong (instead thanking a bot operator), they say "It came from a video I uploaded, I have other videos that you can put images screenshots into" while linking to another video on the Shane Gallagher channel. FDW777 (talk) 21:53, 26 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

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11 March 2021

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Suspected sockpuppets

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Established at #26 February 2021 above that this editor openly admits to running the "Shane Gallagher" channel on Youtube. Shane Gallagher123 has only edited Irish National Liberation Army Belfast Brigade, an article created and frequently edited by previous sockpuppet TommySocialist. Similarly with ShaneGallagher12, edits to that article, Dublin Airport bombing (created by Tdv123) and Pub bombing (created by TommySocialist). FDW777 (talk) 21:07, 11 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

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25 March 2021

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Suspected sockpuppets

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Self-admitted sockpuppet, and the "forgotten password" claim is revisionist history at its finest. Tdv123 was blocked for copyright violations, then TommySocialist (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) and subsequent sockpuppets listed at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Tdv123/Archive were blocked for evading that block. FDW777 (talk) 13:41, 25 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

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06 August 2021

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Suspected sockpuppets

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I'll start this report with the admission that they've started formatting their references properly, since their unique reference formatting was one way to spot their sockpuppets. But that doesn't change the fact that everything else they do is like a duck quacking into a megaphone. The Troubles covers quite a lot of articles and incidents we have articles on, yet like a moth to the flame the latest sockpuppet just happens to return to articles created by Tdv123 or their TommySocialist sockpuppet.

Only Chronology of Provisional Irish Republican Army actions (1970–1979), List of guerrilla movements, Revolutions of 1917–1923 out of the articles they have edited weren't created by Tdv123/TommySocialist.

They have also created Dungiven Land mine attack (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views), which is significantly similar in numerous respects to the initial versions of similar articles created by TommySocialist.

Both the Forkhill and Dungiven articles contain sections titled "The Attack", and all three have sections titled "See Also" with incorrect capitalisation, note in the current versions of the TommySocialist articles the section headings use lower case for the second word.

Both the Dungaggon and Dungiven articles contain sections title "Background", and both extensively create those sections using the CAIN databases, both the chronology of deaths and the chronology of events. For example this reference from Dungiven and this reference from Dungaggon, where both simply select deaths apparently at random to construct their sections. Similarly this reference from Dungiven and this reference from Dungannon, where events from the chronology are selected equally at random. Similarly in the "Aftermath" section on all three articles the CAIN databases are picked from at random to select supposedly related events or deaths to include.

In all three articles the section called "The Attack" or simply "Attack" is written in exactly the same way. All of them use the incorrect date constructions by including "the" prior to the date, On the 16 December 1979 for Dungannon, of the 24 June 1972 for Dungiven and On the 17 July 1975 for Forkhill, as well as other similarities such as the common format of Edward Garside (34) for the mention of the soldiers that died.

The articles use different infoboxes, but both Dungiven and the initial version of 1994 Shankill Road killings uses a similar infobox, and the similarities between Successful IRA operation & getaway and Successful INLA ambush and getaway are obvious.

You could also compare Dungiven to the initial versions of Bessbrook landmine attack and Ballygawley land mine attack, the similarities between the article formatting and writing are obvious.

Footnote 9 of the Dungiven article includes a citation to Shane Gallagher's Youtube channel, which is covered at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Tdv123/Archive#26 February 2021. That they happen to cite a (copyright violating) video hosted on Tdv123's own Youtube channel is suspicious enoughh on its own. FDW777 (talk) 16:35, 6 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Now edting as BalearicSunrise after their account was blocked for a username violation. FDW777 (talk) 07:37, 13 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

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  • I'm not suggesting creating the BalearicSunrise account due to Irish RepublicanMedia being blocked for a username violaton was a sockpuppetry violation, other than the continued evasion of the block on the Tdv123 account. FDW777 (talk) 08:34, 15 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

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17 March 2022

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Suspected sockpuppets

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Same use of 123 in the username as master and User:Shane Gallagher123, while obviously not entirely unique that combined with the narrow emphasis on editing Troubles related articles is a good match. The initial chose of articles edited narrows it even further, despite the Troubles covering a lot of articles the ones edited were Strand Bar bombing (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) (created by Tdv123), Attack on RUC Birches barracks (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) (created by Tdv123), Mortar attack on Enniskillen barracks (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) (created by known sockpuppet TommySocialist), so three out of the four articles they edited in February were Tdv123 creations. Also compare the reference formatting at User:Davidbray123/sandbox with Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Tdv123/Archive#18 August 2020.

  • Jack Holland & Henry McDonald - INLA: Deadly Divisions p.320,368
  • Jack Holland & Henry McDonald - INLA: Deadly Divisions (1994) pg.80,121

Which not 100% identical they obviously have many similar traits, including the inability to use spacing. FDW777 (talk) 19:22, 17 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

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Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

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07 January 2025

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Suspected sockpuppets

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User has a variation of a usernames previously blocked for being socks (Shane The Provo, ShaneGallagher12, and Shane Gallagher123), and edits similar articles as those edited by other socks highlighted in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sockpuppet_investigations/Tdv123/Archive. R0paire 02:19, 7 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

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  • I believe this editor is a sockpuppet. They use the same name as some of the earlier socks, edits the same group of articles (and only those articles), uses the same sources, and has made new articles in the same style as the earlier socks. These new articles have the exact same issues as the older ones. – Asarlaí (talk) 16:15, 7 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

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