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HackerKnownAs

HackerKnownAs (talk+ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser(log) · investigate · cuwiki)

Populated account categories: confirmed

For archived investigations, see Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/HackerKnownAs/Archive.


03 December 2024

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– A checkuser has completed a check on relevant users in this case, and it is now awaiting administration and close.

Suspected sockpuppets

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When I previously expressed suspicion, I was told it was unlikely but couldn't be confirmed[1]. With the revelation that AristotleOfCyrene is another sock, I wish to bring this concern forward again. GregariousMadness and AristotleOfCyrene were involved in supporting each other in a dispute that involved content HKA added to the article initially [2][3][4]. When it seemed like the content was going to be removed by consensus, AristotleOfCyrene and the suspected IP Editors arrived. [5] to argue for its retention, followed by GregariousMadness making a revert and diving into the discussion in conjunction of AristotleOfCyrene, even agreeing with AristotleOfCyrene's suggestion [6] and stating they were going to implement it, not to mention the apparent tag-teaming [7]. Likewise, in the recent AfD GregariousMadness has repeated the same arguments of HKA/AristotleofCyrene [8][9]. Likewise, TacoTron2 has reappeared after being dormant for over a year. Looking at the interaction timeline [10] there seems to be significant overlap with HKA. If not outright socking, I have concerns about WP:MEAT considering there is purportedly a Discord of individuals who met up in person per HKA's own block appeal.[11]. Notably, suddenly re-appearing dormant accounts is the exact same case as another known sock of HKA [12] Brocade River Poems (She/They) 01:44, 3 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

For the record, no, I do not have a vendetta against anyone trying to improve 15.ai, nor am I just "accusing anyone who votes "keep"". I raised this complaint again because the last time it was inconclusive, and with the revelation that AristotleOfCyrene was another sock of HKA after GregariousMadness and AristotleOfCyrene supported one another in the talk page makes me believe it warrants a second look. A user that has not been active on Wikipedia in nearly a year re-appearing to defend 15.ai after the situation with SirGallantThe4th and HKA's statements and previous WP:MEAT and WP:SOCK activity makes me reasonably suspicious. It appears to be some manner of WP:MEAT stealth-canvassing occurring when a user who hasn't participated at all on Wikipedia since January of 2023 came back to Wikipedia and navigated themselves immediately to a dispute about 15.ai again, especially when it has already been disclosed as part of HKA's block appeal that they are involved in some manner of online community/Discord that led to the prior sock investigation. Brocade River Poems (She/They) 08:09, 3 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Comments by other users

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Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.
@_@ Honestly, I feel scared to even defend myself here in case somehow I say something wrong or get banned for some reason. This is the second time I've been accused of being a sock by Brocade River Poems. It feels like she has a vendetta against anyone trying to earnestly help improve the 15.ai article, now that she's accusing anyone who votes "keep" in the AfD of sockpuppetry.
If an admin does a CheckUser on me again, I've been posting on the same old laptop that I received as a gift when I got into grad school and nowhere else, from what I remember. I don't know where I was when I posted in 2020, probably at home if I'm being honest. Maybe I'm overthinking it because in my mind I shouldn't have anything to worry about but this whole interaction with having to defend myself here again is making me very nervous. GregariousMadness (talk to me!) 05:24, 3 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
It's been almost 24 hours, so I re-read through the editing history of the person I'm accused of sockpuppeting with to get the full story. None of their interests coincide with my own other than 15.ai. My edits have been on the mathematical theory of ML, not at all close to whatever Internet culture stuff they were writing about. I know that there was an IRL meetup a few weeks ago that got a bunch of socks blocked (that's how I got back into Wikipedia in the first place, I said that I was told of the edit war "in person" [13] at my alma mater), but I haven't changed my editing patterns ever since I was initially deemed "Unlikely" to be them. I always use the same laptop I had for years and I always edited the same way as I ever did. Yes, I agreed with the sock on a contentious topic, but that was because I was eager to help the article out and wanted to add more things to it, and I ended up getting baited. I even disagreed with HKA's insistence that the article be written in the present tense and reverted it to the past tense, so unless I'm pulling some 200 IQ fake-out move to try and trick people, I have no idea what to do to prove I'm not socking. This is giving me anxiety for no reason... GregariousMadness (talk to me!) 00:13, 4 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
My Wikipedia name is based off the algorithm that inspired the 15.ai TTS. Is it really a surprise that I'm going to argue against its deletion? And I didn't appear out of nowhere, there's a giant red box at the top of the 15.ai article that says that the article's being deleted. It's kind of hard to not notice that and say something about it. Tacotron2 (talk) 22:49, 4 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Also check Iliketrains125 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), thank you. 180.129.92.142 (talk) 05:39, 5 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Also 2backslashes (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) 180.129.92.142 (talk) 12:44, 5 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Copy-pasting my comment in the AfD, it may be worth considering @User:Ivanvector.
User:180.129.92.142, a user who has been accusing editors — who voted Keep in this AfD, like me — of sockpuppetry, has been found to be part of a sock ring with User:Ltbdl, a now-blocked user who had previously vandalized the 15.ai article. they are now blocked due to persistent vandalism. This edit from the now-blocked sockpuppet [14] is concerning, where the blocked editor expresses full support of User:BrocadeRiverPoems's edits no matter how contentious. The sockpuppet accusations toward me and others were opened by User:BrocadeRiverPoems, who is the creator of this AfD and has been arguing against every dissenting comment. She has also tagged me as an SPA even though I should have never done so per WP:SPATG.
Something smells fishy about this and suggests that her edits of the 15.ai article and her raising it to RFC and AfD weren't in good faith. Tacotron2 (talk) 00:58, 7 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
As I said at ANI it wouldn't surprise me if there is ongoing socking at the afd. Lavalizard101 (talk) 18:12, 9 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
And it is suspicious how both found the SPI seeing as they weren't pinged or told on their talk pages and given the number of SPIs I've filed I agree that parties tend not to happen across them. Lavalizard101 (talk) 18:14, 9 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
No... I found this page because I had multiple previous interactions with Brocade River Poems and I checked out their contributions to see if they had responded to my other edits. Please don't make me relive the anxiety that I felt last week when I saw this investigation go up again. GregariousMadness (talk to me!) 00:16, 10 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I do note that you (but not the other account) were subject to an investigation on 19 November, and that was deemed unlikely at the time by Ivanvector. I am not sure what could have changed. But it would be better all round if this case could be concluded and closed. Unfortunately Ivanvector has not edited since 6 December. I hope everything is okay with them. Sirfurboy🏄 (talk) 08:18, 10 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the below, Ivanvector. Glad all is well with you. Sirfurboy🏄 (talk) 20:43, 10 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  • My explanation for the technical details is that I use the most generic college student setup possible... I use a MacBook Pro, a generic 14 inch one with no additional specs, to be exact. I know that hundreds of students at my school use the same laptop. The VPN I use is NordVPN, which is the most popular VPN in the world... I do use self-hosted proxies sometimes. It might seem suspicious because the circumstances surrounding how I returned to Wikipedia were probably weird to begin with, if I'm being honest. I found out about the 15.ai Wikipedia edit warring fiasco in person (at my university) by someone who I think attended a meetup (I'm not sure), which is how I got back into Wikipedia. GregariousMadness (talk to me!) 03:29, 11 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    You shouldn't be able to edit Wikipedia when connected to NordVPN. Sirfurboy🏄 (talk) 08:06, 11 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

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  •  On hold - I was already investigating this yesterday but I'd like to gather more opinions from the private list, and my notes are on my other machine. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 16:27, 3 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  • @Sirfurboy: rumours of my demise are greatly exaggerated - I tend to be less active on weekends generally, and this is a complicated case that we've been discussing on our private mailing list. But I owe a response; here is the best I am able to do.
    • After much more extensive investigation, it's my opinion that HackerKnownAs is  Confirmed to SirGallantThe4th et. al. - while I can see in the data that they were in the same location and sharing a device as they said in about the third week of November, the place where they indicated they were meeting up is about 1,000km away from where they actually were when those bad-hand accounts were created and the edits were published. That could be a fluke on its own, but they were all also in the same place about a month prior, and that makes three different places on three different occasions where several of the accounts were active at the same time. There are too many coincidences, too many inconsistencies in their explanations, and too many new socks (i.e. AristotleOfCyrene) for anyone to continue believing they're not being disruptive deliberately (c.f. WP:PACT), and whether or not they're one person or several people is in fact entirely irrelevant.
    • AristotleOfCyrene is  Confirmed to HackerKnownAs/SirGallantThe4th.
    • GregariousMadness is at best technically  Possilikely (a mix between possible and likely) to the above group. They have been active in several of the same places, but never at the same time. What they say about their device is true - they only ever edit from that very generic device, and it's a different device from the other group except for a single edit by SirGallantThe4th (still a generic device and on a network that GregariousMadness has not used), and they have used the same corporate VPN as HackerKnownAs.
    • Tacotron2 is  Unlikely to all of the accounts above: they primarily connect through corporate VPNs but not the same one that GregariousMadness and HackerKnownAs appeared on, and they do appear to be physically located a long distance away from everyone else. However they have logged out to vandalize an article relevant to the first group, and they would be wise to stop doing that.
    • The two accounts that an IP added above, iliketrains125 (talk+ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser(log) · investigate · cuwiki) and 2backslashes (talk+ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser(log) · investigate · cuwiki), are  Likely to each other. They are using identical devices to each other and have only edited using proxies, and since they haven't done anything other than comment on this contentious AFD and were obviously canvassed, I'm blocking both as meatpuppets, although neither has a conclusive technical connection to any other account here.
      The IP itself is also blocked for block evasion, but the only comment I can make on that is that someone was using that IP to evade a block, which is to say that they were already blocked when I blocked the IP.
    • And since these have come up a number of times:
    •  Behavioural evidence needs evaluation for GregariousMadness and Tacotron2. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 20:04, 10 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
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