The cabal even the Admins fear
Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2025 11:51 am
Wikipedia admins turn a blind eye to obvious meatpuppetry and canvassing when those infractions come from a group that coordinates off-site and can influence Wikipedia by the sheer power of numbers.
I have noticed a lot of users from India (self-declared on their user page) will pile on the same RfCs, same ANs and ANIs, especially/only when it comes to topics about India.
I'm guessing Administrators turn a blind eye because they're afraid that if any one of the editors complains, they'll have a horde of editors (whose coordinated editing they've so far ignored) who'll demand the action be overturned and probably removal of the admin. Since there's lots of them, any thread will be supervoted by them.
The Admins seem to have agreed upon some sort agreement with Indian editors. Administrators don't touch India/India-Pakistan/Hindu-Muslim topics and the Indian editors don't involve themselves too much or cause too much of a stir on articles outside of the India topic area broadly construed.
I think they were also spooked by the government of India cracking down on Wikipedia so they give a wide berth to any editor from India.
For example: Pakistani editors get warnings of meatpuppetry [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... 1279382852] and get taken to ANI [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia ... ar_of_1965]. And there's requests to block them [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia ... n1_(Result:_)]
Notice how on other ANI threads you'll have half a dozen people on the first day screaming for blood or commenting, but on the ANI involving an Indian editor -- crickets.
I have noticed a lot of users from India (self-declared on their user page) will pile on the same RfCs, same ANs and ANIs, especially/only when it comes to topics about India.
I'm guessing Administrators turn a blind eye because they're afraid that if any one of the editors complains, they'll have a horde of editors (whose coordinated editing they've so far ignored) who'll demand the action be overturned and probably removal of the admin. Since there's lots of them, any thread will be supervoted by them.
The Admins seem to have agreed upon some sort agreement with Indian editors. Administrators don't touch India/India-Pakistan/Hindu-Muslim topics and the Indian editors don't involve themselves too much or cause too much of a stir on articles outside of the India topic area broadly construed.
I think they were also spooked by the government of India cracking down on Wikipedia so they give a wide berth to any editor from India.
For example: Pakistani editors get warnings of meatpuppetry [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... 1279382852] and get taken to ANI [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia ... ar_of_1965]. And there's requests to block them [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia ... n1_(Result:_)]
Notice how on other ANI threads you'll have half a dozen people on the first day screaming for blood or commenting, but on the ANI involving an Indian editor -- crickets.