How to be a sockpuppeteer

Editors, Admins and Bureaucrats blecch!
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

Shady

Post by CMAwatch » Sun Oct 27, 2019 4:23 pm

JuiceBeetle wrote:3. CheckUser data is retained for 90 days (ca. 3 months) to comply with EU regulations: "This information is only stored for a short period (currently 90 days)"
3a. CheckUsers save this data of users who are on their radar to the private checkuser wiki, that violates this regulation.


This is shady. But users have no voice anyway.

Bbb23 is a cyber bully in disguise.

He mass-erased a clean user's articles, which shocked me.

Administrators are supposed to be trusted upon.
#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
JuiceBeetle
Sucks Warrior
Posts: 681
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2019 8:27 pm
Has thanked: 15 times
Been thanked: 45 times

Re: How to be a sockpuppeteer

Post by JuiceBeetle » Wed Oct 30, 2019 2:01 am

Related: sock-farms on facebook (2014), Veritasium:

User avatar
NadirAli
Sucks Fan
Posts: 103
Joined: Wed Aug 29, 2018 6:55 pm
Has thanked: 24 times
Been thanked: 12 times

Re: How to be a sockpuppeteer

Post by NadirAli » Wed Nov 13, 2019 4:48 am

CrowsNest wrote:Just to clarify I didn't make that comment, but what is true is IP is only the first step if the investigation is inconclusive. There's a number of aspects besides IP and behavioral evidence they use to identify a potential sock. Serial sock-puppeteers I know and from my own experience with this practice also know more secrets to this than IP and behavioral evidence.
You're talking about user agent etc. None of this stuff is a secret, it's all out there, largely because the code is public. You just need to find a well run forum with people who know what they're talking about and want to help the victims of Wikipedia. This place 'ain't that, not any more.[/quote]

It's other stuff as well. Stuff that's not already posted on geolocate, which isn't much helpful anyways besides the location of the IP address and connection provider.

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

Anti-innovative

Post by CMAwatch » Fri Nov 15, 2019 1:19 am

If a user started making legitimatepy good contributions, where is the point in keeping him blocked?
#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
NadirAli
Sucks Fan
Posts: 103
Joined: Wed Aug 29, 2018 6:55 pm
Has thanked: 24 times
Been thanked: 12 times

Re: Anti-innovative

Post by NadirAli » Fri Nov 15, 2019 11:31 pm

CMAwatch wrote:If a user started making legitimatepy good contributions, where is the point in keeping him blocked?


Because it's content that some other bum doesn't like, even if it's 100% reliably sourced. From then on, the user can subjugate content to the democratic system and distort it by distorting the policy that was supposedly introduced to prevent it in the first place.

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: Anti-innovative

Post by CMAwatch » Thu Nov 28, 2019 12:33 am

NadirAli wrote:
CMAwatch wrote:If a user started making legitimatepy good contributions, where is the point in keeping him blocked?


Because it's content that some other bum doesn't like, even if it's 100% reliably sourced. From then on, the user can subjugate content to the democratic system and distort it by distorting the policy that was supposedly introduced to prevent it in the first place.


That does not sound so logical to me.
#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: How to be a sockpuppeteer

Post by Abd » Tue Jan 07, 2020 12:06 am

Good at what? All it would take to trigger all those investigations is creating a relatively small number of accounts with a few disruptive edits. There are LTAs with over a thousand socks. There are LTAs with hundreds and many more that were never detected.

What makes a "good" sock puppeteer? Having nothing better to do with your time? Living in an area with multiple forms of internet access? What?

User avatar
Panoramatic
Sucks Noob
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Jan 18, 2020 3:44 pm
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: How to be a sockpuppeteer

Post by Panoramatic » Sun Jan 19, 2020 3:04 am

Abd wrote:
Tue Jan 07, 2020 12:06 am
What makes a "good" sock puppeteer? Having nothing better to do with your time? Living in an area with multiple forms of internet access? What?
Don't forget able to emulate diff personalitys and writing styles. Not obvious writing-bad-cause-i-wanna-be-different...

But incorporating certain patterns characteristic of a certain demographic, then being able to switch between multiple sets of writing styles. This might be easy to pull off with education in linguistics and/or social studies.

...studying internet culture is also a plus bcause each have their different common vocabulary sets.

The complexity of one's sentences also matters. Switch 'em up on different accounts. Use simple sentences on one sock, complex sentences on another. Write more coherently with one sock, be casual with another. Etc.

User avatar
Dysklyver
Sucks Critic
Posts: 391
Joined: Thu Jun 21, 2018 10:14 am
Has thanked: 8 times
Been thanked: 24 times

Re: How to be a sockpuppeteer

Post by Dysklyver » Fri Jan 31, 2020 2:02 pm

Trying to be something you are not will normally cause the integrity of your sockpuppet to unravel over time, most people assume they need to lie when actually most of the time you can just be yourself and nobody will notice.

The only real danger if is you edit the same articles again, or post on a messageboard. Since some random SPI enthusiast will 9 times out of 10 check it out and banhammer your account.

Pretty much the same with the IP/UserAgent stuff, it's irrelevant if nobody checks it. I have in the past gone months using the same narrow IP range with the same computer that has all the same metadata stuff, on the premise that if nobody checks then nobody will notice.

In short, don't overthink it.

Post Reply