Notes

from contributions of the sock:

Rome Viharo & Abd Lomax filing fake sockpuppet investigations
A known troublemaker and banned Wikipedian and Wikiversity user Abd is filing fake sockuppet investigations; another today was done on MetaWiki, but his request was declined and he admits he is a;sp doing them via email. Some background to Abd's internet antics and stalking of Anglo_Pyramidologist can be found on RationalWiki: https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Abd_ul-Rahman_Lomax#Wikipedia

I noticed abd accusing Anglo as creating the tumbleman2018 accounts, that were Viharo’s. So these are fake filed sockpuppets. evidence for viharo and lomax working together is found on Lomax’s website who has a rome viharo section WayoftheSamurai4 (talk) 17:11, 2 February 2018 (UTC)

I wondered what he was talking about “admits he is [doing them] by email. Then I realized he was talking about the email sent to the stewards with confidential, private information about IP and editing. The request was public, only the additional evidence was by email.

Someone recently emailed me about this. None of the above accounts are AP. The person who filed the block did it externally, and there is zero technical evidence and the duck test is dubious. A known troublemaker and banned Wikipedian and Wikiversity user Abd is filing these fake sockuppet investigations; another today was done on MetaWiki, but his request was declined and he admits he is a;sp doing them via email. Some background to Abd’s internet antics and stalking of Anglo_Pyramidologist can be found on RationalWiki: https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Abd_ul-Rahman_Lomax#Wikiversity  WayoftheSamurai4 (talk) 17:05, 2 February 2018 (UTC)

Harassment on Krelnik talk.

(notice edits of 82.132.186.199 to the page)

The original history is here.  Edits of interest:

(cur | prev) 14:44, 4 February 2018‎ Defending Rhine (talk | contribs)‎ . . (73,246 bytes) (+1,298)‎ . . (→‎Nancy Appleton: http://coldfusioncommunity.net/w/index.php?title=WikiversityParapsychology/Sources/Steigmann/Parapsychology)

Check February access records for access to the misnamed page (starting with WikiversityParapsychology).

Rhine Defender was the last real Blastikus sock to edit. Defending Rhine was effectively blocked as Blastikus. The AP strategy works, because Wikipedia is utterly naive about impersonation socking. It has occasionally been noticed. Checkusers do not follow up. Why bother, since impersonation or block evasion, the result is the same: block? Hence AP normally gets away with massive impersonation socking, until there are cross-wiki consequences, Abd notices it, and asks for steward checkuser. All those impersonation socks, clearly identified as not Blastikus, are still listed on Wikipedia as Blastikus. In the last checkuser request, these socks were not noticed. Others were. And the stewards had become hostile, and the source of that is fairly clear. Private complaints.

See the Blastikus SPI archive for February 4. Blastikus has acknowledged Rhine Revival (edited 30 November 2017) and Areyoumoral  (a sock that edited none-disruptively in March 2017 and then  November 30 on the Blastikus SPI to apologize for prior views.  Rhine Revival self-reverted. JzG, clearly involved, used tools. That’s what got him sanctioned before, in the case I filed.

AP socks take content from their target and post it, in order to amplify impressions of disruptiveness and vandalism. Back to those edits. There is an additional possible motivation in the FTN filing: to get the cold fusion community blog and wiki blacklisted. I’ll check on that. More edits:

(AP has been doing quite the same thing on RationalWiki, creating impersonation socks, pretending to be me, and pointing to the CFC blog.)

(By the way, Blastikus had not edited the CFC wiki. Rather, that was material exported from Wikiversity, and imported to CFC, as a courtesy, pending restoration of sanity on Wikiversity. AP was here attacking it, using impersonations.) Roxy the dog welcomed the user…. then

naturally. Blocked for username violation.

You are the pseudoskeptic Roxy who has been harassing my friend Rome Viharo and removing paranormal research from Wikipedia articles. [[User:Roxy the dog pseudoskeptic|Roxy the dog pseudoskeptic]] ([[User talk:Roxy the dog pseudoskeptic|talk]]) 14:56, 4 February 2018 (UTC)

The goal is to increase conflict with Rome Viharo. I’m not sure that Blastikus even knows about Rome Viharo, but maybe. Anyone who has studied the AP/D editing would immediately recognize this as Darryl, who is an anti-fringe fanatic. Roxy the dog feeds the troll. The snark is so common that it isn’t even noticed. (Guidelines would suggest ignoring this obvious trolling.)

I’ll just leave this here. —Guy Macon (talk) 16:01, 4 February 2018 (UTC)

My, my, linking to an attack article on Rome Viharo on RationalWiki.  Perhaps Guy thinks he is being helpful. Instead, it appears he is one more clueless Wikipedian. Unless he is in on it.

Slaterstephen makes an ordinary skeptical comment. “Extraordinary claims” do not need “extra ordinary sources,” because “extraordinary” is POV. Rather, reliable source is reliable source. Editorial consensus will decide whether or not to report as fact or attributed statement. What has been done, though, is cherry-pick sources according to editorial judgment of “fringe” or not, rather than using RS guidelines, and Guy Macon’s user page shows the problem. He may really believe what he’s saying. His view requires the Wikipedia community to be ontologically naive, to not distinguish between fact and interpretation.

I think Defending Rhine is identical with Rhine defender, Radin Revival and the Rhine Revival who has been blocked indefinitely for using multiple accounts. —Hob Gadling (talk) 16:50, 4 February 2018 (UTC)

He was almost right. Rhine Revival was not the others. The checkuser wasn’t explicit, but would have indicated that Rhine Revival and Areyoumoral was not likely to be the same as the others. Open proxies were being used. When Blastikus edited with disclosure of who he was, he would have had no reason to use an open proxy. But AP socks would. This is all so obvious. Hob Gadling is a bit suspicious…. some overlap with AP socks. Reading this discussion on Atlantis, referred back from a more recent Hob Gadling comment on Talk:Atlantis, I’m reminded of why I was so relieved to be banned from Wikipedia. What could be simple if there was a genuine seeking of consensus becomes tedious and repetitive. One of the signs that consensus has not been found is that argument continues endlessly. Solutions to all this were suggested years ago and ignored. “It is not how we do things,” so endless hours continue to be wasted.

Also Viharo revival. Probably more. Obviously trying unsuccessfully to walk through a wall again and again, like General Albert Stubblebine. —Hob Gadling (talk) 16:56, 4 February 2018 (UTC)

No, the sock master is doing exactly what he wants and getting exactly the response he wants. Until that is understood and effective response designed and created, disruption will continue, because what he wants is to blame the disruption on someone else, and so that blame, readily concluded in spite of many evidences to the contrary, creates more and more incentive for this troll. The checkuser evidence on Wikiepdia, plus the checkuser evidence on meta, shows the fact. Someone is using impersonation socking to defame and attract a desired response.

What is of more concern, though, is the appearance of signs that the sock master is being protected by a faction. He doesn’t care if his socks are blocked, after all, he has well over 200 blocked socks, that’s meaningless. What he cares about is that his targets and their topics of interest are banned not only from Wikipedia, but from the internet entirely, and he has been on this mission for at least six years or so. He claims that he’s being paid. By whom? By a major skeptical organization. Was he lying? Maybe. AP socks — and even the AP masters (there are at least two brothers — regularly lie or exaggerate.

But the existence of coordination behind the scenes has become obvious and almost open.

For years, I assumed that ignorant comments that supported the factional agenda were just that, ignorant. That may still be true for most who edit supporting the faction. But there is something more, and those who would know about it are tolerating, and to read what AP socks have written, encouraging it.

This is corruption, all for a “good cause,” i.e., lying for truth.

Slatersteven correctly pointed out that FT/N was not the place to discuss socking. But AP accomplishes his purposes by placing what may have some detested truth to it, in front of those who follow FT/N, which is the faction he abuses (or which uses him). He developed a strategy, a bit counter-intuitive for most Wikipedians. If you hate a point of view, create straw man accounts to abusively push it. This should be suspected whenever socks appear that wave red flags, “I’m a sock.” WP:RBI would be a correct response, but often much more than that is done: the socks are tagged with the intended target, making it far more difficult for such a target, if they want it, to take advantage of the Standard Offer, an increasing the perception that those who support that detested point of view are fanatics and lunatic believers. Or, even, sometimes, those who simply want to move articles toward a consensus neutrality, which is not that difficult if the goal is clear and there are users who support it. Too often, though, fringe or alleged fringe articles are “owned” by “majority POV users,” which means, in fact, a majority of those aware of or interested in the article, not a majority of all users.

I’ve blocked Viharo revival. A hearty quack to all. Bishonen pseudosceptic | talk 20:52, 4 February 2018 (UTC).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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