Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/MiamiDolphins3/Archive

• {{checkuser|1=Orthodox2014}}
• {{checkuser|1=Cypresscross}}

• [http://tools.wmflabs.org/betacommand-dev/cgi-bin/uc?uc=Orthodox2014 User compare report] Auto-generated every hour.
• [http://tools.wmflabs.org/sigma/editorinteract.py Editor interaction utility]

Orthodox2014 was mostly focused on editing Emmanuel Lemelson, an Orthodox priest and hedge fund manager. These edits were aggressively promotional. Orthodox2014 was blocked in January 2016 for disruptive editing (edit warring and personal attacks). Obvious COI concerns were raised by many editors, but repeatedly denied by Orthodox2014.

Orthodox2014 eventually agreed to a topic ban on Emmanuel Lemelson and was unblocked in September 2016, but the unblock requests included the strangely bureaucratic comment "I will request removal of this topic ban in August 2017" ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Orthodox2014#Lemelson entire section was collapsed by user]). This implied a poor understanding of the process and impatience to resume editing the topic.

After that Orthodox2014 made a handful of edits to The Heritage Foundation and nothing else.

Cypresscross was created December 2016, and made several relatively neutral edits regarding hedge fund managers before editing Lemelson and Lemelson Capital Management, which is a good chunk of their total activity. These edits have been promotional and similar to past problems ([https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Emmanuel_Lemelson&diff=771465248&oldid=771462767 removal of unflattering material] which was also removed by Orthodox2014[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Emmanuel_Lemelson&diff=696396730&oldid=696329378], [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Emmanuel_Lemelson&diff=770840262&oldid=770839840 adding a routine media appearance], [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Emmanuel_Lemelson&diff=760853193&oldid=756384918 adding "activist" to lead] which was a specific point for Orthodox2014,[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Emmanuel_Lemelson&diff=700478871&oldid=700451218][https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Emmanuel_Lemelson&diff=699005130&oldid=698859738] etc.)

The only other article talk post made by Cypresscross was also related to Lemelson, specifically his blessing of Donald Trump.[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Donald_Trump&diff=prev&oldid=756331384]

In addition to promotional edits, both usernames indicate an interest in Orthodox Christianity (cypress wood is often used in Orthodox art), both edit regarding hedge funds and similar finance topics, both use wikiproject userboxes, and both have similar self descriptions on their userpage.[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Cypresscross&oldid=774904882][https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Orthodox2014&oldid=738370797] Grayfell (talk) 00:35, 12 April 2017 (UTC)

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

• {{Requestandendorse}} - Please, compare the two. Vanjagenije (talk) 13:19, 12 April 2017 (UTC)
• The following accounts are {{confirmed}}:
• {{checkuser|Orthodox2014}}
• {{checkuser|Politico16}}
• {{checkuser|LambdaChi}}
• {{checkuser|PAWiki}}
• {{checkuser|MiamiDolphins3}}
• {{checkuser|ObjectivityAlways}}
• Blocked and tagged. This may likely cause some pushback from some of the accounts. The technical evidence is very strong. A few comments about the behavioral evidence. Orthodox2014 and Politico16 are obvious. The other accounts have areas of interest that are seemingly divergent. For example, PAWiki is interested in Lehigh, Pennsylvania, whereas MiamiDolphin3 is interested in Miami, and LambdaChi is interested in the LamdaChi article. However, there are overlaps when one of the socks intrudes on the other's area of interest. It doesn't seem likely at all that MiamiDolphin3 would edit a Lehigh-related article and I believe vice-versa, but it does (they do). The main topic that ties them all together is political articles, particularly conservative politics. The Heritage Foundation is an article most or all of the accounts are interested in. Finally, LambdaChi, PAWiki, MiamiDolphins3, and ObjectivityAlways were all created within a few months of each other in 2006.
• Surprisingly, Cypresscross is technically {{unrelated}}.--Bbb23 (talk) 20:21, 12 April 2017 (UTC)
• Case closed. Vanjagenije (talk) 20:24, 12 April 2017 (UTC)

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{{sock list|1=BekkerNumbering|2=TheGables|tools_link=yes}}

Here's the summary of evidence:

• The sockfarm stopped activity on 2017-04-11, after the blocks. Until 2017-12-13 when ObjectivityAlways (confirmed sock) was active, visible by the automated signup at dewiki. TheGables signed up that month, on 2017-12-29. BekkerNumbering signed up at 2022-05-18 23:48:25, shortly after last TheGables action that day at 21:27:29.
• Both frequent topics edited by the sockfarm before: The Heritage Foundation, Policy Review, Jack Abramoff, and many others.
• Good timecard match, although it's not an unusual one.
• Very similar edit summary style, with several unusual matches: {{tq|italix}} (TG: {{diff2|836562760}}){{diff2|1041287753}}, others: {{diff2|50946572}}{{diff2|50954649}}{{diff2|50742071}}{{diff2|605352128}}{{diff2|752316532}}), {{tq|delink 2nd reference}} (TG: {{diff2|1073169593}}{{diff2|1073187934}}, BN: {{diff2|1167651914}}{{diff2|1212481012}}, others: {{diff2|318841101}}{{diff2|358330449}}), {{tq|delink second reference}} (TG: {{diff2|1041288380}}{{diff2|1065852211}}), others: {{diff2|614806175}}{{diff2|748865387}}{{diff2|74732750}}{{diff2|50085878}}{{diff2|63664000}}), {{tq|+ and reference}} (TG: {{diff2|1088069290}}{{diff2|1089503760}}, BN: {{diff2|1210503179}}{{diff2|1212065132}}, others: {{diff2|690656544}}{{diff2|687652956}}{{diff2|760693221}}), {{tq|+ category and category order}} (TG: {{diff2|1176055313}}{{diff2|1176055819}}, BN: {{diff2|1172415874}}{{diff2|1172993495}}, others: {{diff2|253968382}}{{diff2|98937111}}), {{tq|slight photo expansion}} (TG: {{diff2|1089681239}}, others: {{diff2|400447802}}{{diff2|616375727}}{{diff2|59113235}}), {{tq|separate lengthy paragraph}} (TG: {{diff2|1060669009}}{{diff2|1060669290}}, BN: {{diff2|1166804085}}{{diff2|1167659450}}), {{tq|remove in-line external link}} (TG: {{diff2|1109944953}}, BN: {{diff2|1111460561}})...
• Similar editing habits, such as copyediting with many small edits in a row in the same article. MarioGom (talk) 20:12, 8 April 2025 (UTC)

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

• Gables looks like a shoein for the blocked master. [https://sigma.toolforge.org/editorinteract.py?users=MiamiDolphins3&users=BekkerNumbering&users=TheGables] I haven't seen the numbers do such a wave in sequence in a long time. Izno (talk) 21:03, 8 April 2025 (UTC)
• {{confirmed}} to each other {{sock list|TheGables|Keystone18|BekkerNumbering}} And with the overlaps, especially TheGables but including the two other accounts, I can only conclude these are socks of the original account. I will block. Izno (talk) 21:18, 8 April 2025 (UTC)

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