Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Pigsonthewing

Pigsonthewing

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

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

21 August 2015

– A user has requested CheckUser, but more information is required before deciding whether to check.

Suspected sockpuppets

BethNaught (talk⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser(log) · investigate · cuwiki)
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Editor interaction utility

http://tools.wmflabs.org/sigma/editorinteract.py?users=BethNaught+&users=Pigsonthewing&users=&startdate=&enddate=&ns=&allusers=on for one _{the template won't permit me to leave this as a link} Second BethNaught showed up in this discussion , posted right after Andy, and is defending him. Further, both have the same style of speaking / spelling. Andy's from the UK, where the word "Naught" is used be mean "none" or "0", BethNaught doesn't say where she's from, and in fact, indicates that she doesn't declare her gender despite the feminine sounding name, and has a declared secondary account of BethZero which shows an understanding of the meaning of the word "naught". Also note the overlaping edits run the gamut from normal ANI stuff that you'd expect to see, but it also includes obscure stuff like templates (like office Talk), even Arb pages and other templates. In particular one makes a nom, one closes the nom. Feel free to check for yourself! KoshVorlon We are all Kosh 10:37 am, Today (UTC−4) KoshVorlon We are all Kosh 14:37, 21 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Comments by other users

Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.

I will respond to each of KoshVorlon's statements in turn.

In this discussion at AN: well, I watch AN and, as you have pointed out, was involved in some TfDs where I observed Andy's behaviour. I did not defend Andy in the thread above from which Andy had been banned; I disapprove of him closing requests where he was involved but I felt I had no comment worth making. The timing of my post was coincidental. I happened to be at leisure today and so frequently checked my watchlist.
I use British English because I am from the UK. This would naturally lead to similar spelling. If we have similar patterns of speech: well, I can be grumpy, but so can many others.
I do not declare my gender (and I resent your presumption, even though I have explicitly declared why my username makes no such implication and have stated my gender non-revealment on my userpage). If you actually read my userpage you would see "beth naught" is a number. Moreover you would have noticed that my alternate account is User:BethOne, not BethZero. Incidentally this has not been used since December 2014.
As you say, there are some pages on which we overlap on routine discussions. The reason we have got a bit closer recently, I shall say frankly: I noticed that Template:WikibreakSwitch had been sent to TfD. I commented. I then saw Andy's style and got somewhat ruffled by it. I therefore closed a few discussions where there was a consensus to keep a template Andy nominated for TfD. I believe these were correct assesments of consensus and were not out of process. This entanglement made me take an interest in the AN discussion.

If there is any proper evidence against me please say and I will explain. I am emphatically not a sock of Andy Mabbett. Though I disapprove of some of his actions I am astonished that a few potentially ill-advised closures are leading to unfounded accusations of him socking. BethNaught (talk) 18:52, 21 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Without using any special tools (since I don't have any) I can say that BethNaught is very unlikely to be a sock of PigsOnTheWing. Simply looking at user contributions from the past 24 hours, I see both of them posting and editing separate items/pages the exact same minute several times during the past 24 hours. While not absolute proof, Andy's history shows he is way too busy to be messing around with a sock, especially one as active as BethNaught. Some overlap is natural on Wikipedia. I've seen both of these editors (and others) on more than one page I watch and/or edit. Both of these editors are from the same country, and it is obvious that both are educated, so it's also natural that they may prefer to use some of the same terms, spelling, etc. (And really, they can defend themselves better than I can, but seeing this even pop up was pretty annoying.) Etamni | ✉ | ✓ 19:06, 21 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

@KoshVorlon: While the editor interaction tool is helpful for spotting similar areas of focus, it is not by itself evidence. You'll need to use the tool to look at the diffs it provides and determine if there are similarities. (After all, look at the number of overlaps that you and I have together.) I'll need a number of diffs that strongly support a connection between these two users before I can consider performing a check. Otherwise, I won't feel comfortable taking any action against these accounts. Mike V • Talk 16:34, 21 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Oh for crying out loud. --Floquenbeam (talk) 18:28, 21 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]
The thoughts in my head went for more potty language, but what Floq said. Ritchie333 ^(talk) ^(cont) 18:42, 21 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]