Edgar181 - admin with decade-old sockfarm

Editors, Admins and Bureaucrats blecch!
Post Reply
User avatar
JuiceBeetle
Sucks Warrior
Posts: 681
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2019 8:27 pm
Has thanked: 15 times
Been thanked: 45 times

Edgar181 - admin with decade-old sockfarm

Post by JuiceBeetle » Fri Dec 06, 2019 2:32 am

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... desysopped
Have not read the rules of ArbCom elections: scrutineers get checkuser tool.

Socks confirmed (more presumed):

Code: Select all

user_name  |  user_registration | user_editcount |
--------------------------------------------------
Edgar181            2005-10-14         196322
Deli nk             2005-11-07          78799
ChemNerd            2006-09-15          17568
Slideshow Bob       2006-10-02            566
PCock               2006-10-02          15586
TimBuck2            2006-10-03            724
Edgeweyes           2006-10-03           1860
Gnome de plume      2007-10-07           4748
MetrosMan           2009-02-03             15
Tcg2019             2019-10-02              2
Dwonderl            2019-10-03              0
Dwndlnd             2019-10-03              2
Mylucideyes         2019-10-17              1
Mwg24               2019-10-24              1
Questiontoask       2019-11-27              5

User avatar
Abd
Sucks Warrior
Posts: 749
Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2017 11:22 pm
Has thanked: 72 times
Been thanked: 48 times

Re: Edgar181 - admin with decade-old sockfarm

Post by Abd » Fri Dec 06, 2019 2:45 am

Fascinating. I might take a look at the edit timing patterns. Under some conditions, they can reveal socking. This is a very weird case. Socking in voting for arbcom? Dumb. If he cared.

The scrutineers are stewards, who already have global checkuser and they were authorized to consult with the local checkusers.

Appearance is that he really didn't care, but maybe we will see more. I think he might be kidding himself.

User avatar
CMAwatch
Sucks Critic
Posts: 329
Joined: Sun Oct 27, 2019 1:26 pm
Location: Community Moderation Abuse Watch
Has thanked: 109 times
Been thanked: 33 times

Re: Edgar181 - admin with decade-old sockfarm

Post by CMAwatch » Fri Dec 06, 2019 8:48 pm

2005?! And administrator since 2007, at the time when YouTube was merely 2 years old? Incredible. :o

Such a long-term administrator happens to be banned… incredible.

Hopefully, Bbb23 is next.
#BbbGate
Weaponizing WP:G5
Oops! Didn't think we'd see? It's right there on WikipediaSucks.co!
ericbarbour wrote:
Wed Sep 09, 2020 4:22 am
[Wikipedia is] a stupid video game, and the "encyclopedia" is an accidental byproduct.

User avatar
CMAwatch
Sucks Critic
Posts: 329
Joined: Sun Oct 27, 2019 1:26 pm
Location: Community Moderation Abuse Watch
Has thanked: 109 times
Been thanked: 33 times

Deli nk = Female?

Post by CMAwatch » Fri Dec 06, 2019 8:50 pm

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Deli_nk&oldid=814080668


Is it his wife, or himself claiming to be a woman?
#BbbGate
Weaponizing WP:G5
Oops! Didn't think we'd see? It's right there on WikipediaSucks.co!
ericbarbour wrote:
Wed Sep 09, 2020 4:22 am
[Wikipedia is] a stupid video game, and the "encyclopedia" is an accidental byproduct.

User avatar
Abd
Sucks Warrior
Posts: 749
Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2017 11:22 pm
Has thanked: 72 times
Been thanked: 48 times

Re: Deli nk = Female?

Post by Abd » Fri Dec 06, 2019 9:26 pm

CMAwatch wrote:https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Deli_nk&oldid=814080668Is it his wife, or himself claiming to be a woman?
It would take some detailed study. If there are two people who live together and thus use the same internet access, and if they either use the same computer or the same setup (software versions), checkuser will not be able to distinguish between them. I notice, however, that the blocks do not shut off talk page access, so a wrongfully blocked user could make the point. That Deli nk has not commented is evidence in favor of the sock idea.

They do advise that people in a situation like this disclose it in advance, otherwise checkusers will make the assumption that same access and same user agent string equals same person. The same thing can happen, of course, with library or internet cafe access. If they use the same computer, i.e., they are not editing at the same time, there will be a very similar pattern of editing to being a single person. If they use a different computer, there are still likely to be correlations. To study this, in the past, with other suspected socks, I have loaded the edit times into Excel and plotted them. Truly independent people will show very different patterns from a single person with multiple accounts. It is obvious. By the way, an occasional "edit coincidence" (same minute of edit) does not prove two different people. People may have more than one edit window open. To test it, one time I made a series of edits all in one minute. Not difficult at all. But doing this all the time without showing some odd pattern would be very difficult.

Does anyone really care?

User avatar
Masked User
Sucks Noob
Posts: 14
Joined: Fri Sep 20, 2019 7:32 pm
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 1 time

Edgar181 banned

Post by Masked User » Sun Dec 08, 2019 8:17 pm

TL;DR: Edgar181 is not what he seems. He has been using 13 different sockpuppet accounts for over 13 years, mainly to stack votes. And CU has finally caught him.

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ol ... r_Edgar181

User avatar
JuiceBeetle
Sucks Warrior
Posts: 681
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2019 8:27 pm
Has thanked: 15 times
Been thanked: 45 times

Re: Edgar181 - admin with decade-old sockfarm

Post by JuiceBeetle » Sun Dec 08, 2019 11:40 pm

Support because this was cross-wiki socking, you need evidence of community discussion like this before a global ban can be considered. He's either currently socking or will be back, probably on multiple projects, so documenting this for a few months down the line when the inevitable global ban discussion occurs helps tick the checkboxes for the meta rules. TonyBallioni (talk) 23:57, 7 December 2019 (UTC)

User avatar
CMAwatch
Sucks Critic
Posts: 329
Joined: Sun Oct 27, 2019 1:26 pm
Location: Community Moderation Abuse Watch
Has thanked: 109 times
Been thanked: 33 times

Endorsed by Doc James

Post by CMAwatch » Thu Jul 02, 2020 8:00 pm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk ... ntributors!

James Heilman, a member of the Board of Trustees, the second highest level of the power structure of WikiMedia Foundation (the highest level being that guy from Alabama) endorses Edgar181!

(Yes, Edgar181 has indeed done good work too. But how come the good work of many other unreasonably banned users (e.g. Aron Manning) is completely unappreciated by those administrators?)

And yes, Bbbum23 has also edited that page quite a few times.
#BbbGate
Weaponizing WP:G5
Oops! Didn't think we'd see? It's right there on WikipediaSucks.co!
ericbarbour wrote:
Wed Sep 09, 2020 4:22 am
[Wikipedia is] a stupid video game, and the "encyclopedia" is an accidental byproduct.

User avatar
ericbarbour
Sucks Admin
Posts: 4547
Joined: Sat Feb 25, 2017 1:56 am
Location: The ass-tral plane
Has thanked: 1099 times
Been thanked: 1797 times

Re: Edgar181 - admin with decade-old sockfarm

Post by ericbarbour » Thu Jul 02, 2020 8:49 pm

Didn't notice this thread before--Edgar181 was a low-profile admin and I had not looked into the history before.

Xtools is down again but Edgar looks like a typical patroller to me. He/she? clearly has professional expertise in drug chemistry. Created articles about very obscure experimental drugs like AMG 510.

Don't worry, he/she/it will be back. And next time Heilman will try to protect him/her. Debatable how effective this will be.

Post Reply