Mantanmoreland and Bassettcat

* Bassettcat (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log) - for editing history.
* Mantanmoreland (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · block user · block log)


Technical and behavioral information indicate a very great possibility that User:Bassettcat is an abusive sock-puppet or otherwise editing in breach of both puppetry policy and most of the remedies of the case Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Mantanmoreland. Specifically:

* Remedy 1 - "Any current or future editor who, after this decision is announced, makes substantial edits to Naked short selling, Overstock.com, Patrick M. Byrne, Gary Weiss, or closely related pages or discussions on any page is directed: (A) To edit on these from only a single user account, which shall be the user's sole or main account; ... © To edit in accordance with all Wikipedia policies ... (D) To disclose on the relevant talk pages any circumstances ... that constitute or may reasonably be perceived as constituting a conflict of interest with respect to that page."

* Remedy 4 - "Mantanmoreland, under any current or future account, is banned from editing articles related to Gary Weiss, Patrick Byrne, Overstock.com, Naked Short Selling, and other mainspace articles in the area of dispute, broadly construed."

* Remedy 5 - "Mantanmoreland is directed to edit Wikipedia from only a single user account"


On May 14 2008, Bassettcat edited from his normal IP range at both 00:12 and 00:15, followed by an edit made on a second IP located over a thousand miles away at 00:18, and then an edit at his normal dialup IP at 00:21. The IP, located an estimated 500 - 1000 miles away, was a dsl connection, and almost beyond doubt, Mantanmoreland's (the same /25 block for those who understand IPs: ww.xx.yy.19 for Mantanmoreland, vs. ww.xx.yy.88 for Bassetcat). This is likely to show two things - when Bassetcat has access to a dsl connection in one city, he prefers to avoid using it and to instead edit via dialup using a connection that locates to around 500 - 1000 miles away, and that the dsl connection Bassetcat avoids editing through is almost certainly the connection of a user with past likely sock-puppetry, and an Arbcom ban on editing the articles that Bassettcat almost exclusively seeks to edit.

This is in addition to strong prior behavioral evidence that had alerted a number of users to the connection as well. Bassettcat's contributions were already suspect (see results of UserCompare, and Wikipedia:Requests for checkuser/Case/Mantanmoreland). The question of "framing" was considered but technical evidence suggests it is both unlikely, and would have required a significant degree of telepathy. Other potential explanations such as "visiting on business" or "not my dsl" were considered but evaluated as being rather less likely, given the case evidence and its back-history.

Based on these findings I have blocked Bassettcat as a sockpuppet, and blocked Mantanmoreland for 2 weeks for breach of sock-puppetry policy and of the remedies of this case. Due to the gross egregious nature of this activity, I was tempted to block for considerably longer (some will surely feel a site ban is to be expected and wonder why not given) but feel that in fact this plus the sock being blocked, is sufficient, this time at least. Do not repeat after the block ends, and final warning on all egregious abuse or evasion issues of these kinds.

FT2 (Talk | email) 21:51, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

Logged: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Req...blocks_and_bans

It's not his fault! Can't you see he's being subject to off-site trolling and harassment?

Where's JzG to step in and defend him again?

Gee, I'm so shocked. Not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:ANI..._and_Bassettcat

On the admins noticeboard, where this business is being discussed, there is a complete absense of the usual idiotic mob. No Sidaways. No Sandifers. No Gerards. No JzGs. No SlimVirgins. No Jayjgs.

Where have they all gone? Where are all the people who have been attacking the mere idea that Gary Weiss was using socks to corrupt a series of articles? Where are all the people who attacked Wordbomb, Cla68, this site, even Cade Metz, over the last year or so?

Where are the admissions of responsibility? Where are the arenas where this corrupt crew can be held accountable for their actions over this?

The whole Weiss thing was classic Wikipedia. It was so damn obvious what was going on after any kind of mature analysis of the facts back in the early days. And yet those lunatics were allowed to get away with it in the face of any form of common sense for sooo long. And not only that, they aggressively rubbed people's noses in their nonsense. Just ridiculous.

so this "FT" has blocked MM and banned Bassetcat.

Whither art thou, Thatcher?

You folks remember Thatcher. Gave Bassett a clean bill of health a few weeks ago. Imagine that.

Thatcher's behaviour on this matter over the years has been....interesting.

From what FT2 said, looks like MM screwed up once and made an edit from a MM IP with the Bassetcat account instead of the dial in and that was enough to trip him up

Weeel ... Bassetcat had been on the radar for quite some time, too. I remember this checkuser case from some weeks back, although MM wasn't explicitly mentioned. Given that the account was only five days old, there would not have been a whole lot to go on, and Thatcher pretty-much said that, well, things seemed okay.

On May 14 2008, Bassettcat edited from his normal IP range at both 00:12 and 00:15, followed by an edit made on a second IP located over a thousand miles away at 00:18, and then an edit at his normal dialup IP at 00:21.

I LOL'd.

At this point, it's an embarrassment of riches: either the guy is site-banned or he's not. Site-banning this shyster journalist will be a huge story. But, given FT2's findings, not site-banning might make for an even bigger story.

I'm a little torn...

Non-voting comment - Whilst a ban is usually a popular thing to vote for, I propose a block of a fixed time period (and not a ridiculous period, like 3,481 years). This allows the user to reflect. Banning only helps websites like Wikipedia Review. I give only philosophical comments and am not casting a vote. Comployeah (talk) 23:56, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

How many socks could a sockpuppeteer sock if a sockpuppeteer could sock socks?

Maybe Mantanmoreland knows!

You know those bad WR people? They lie and say evil things about WP, like how it's dysfunctional, vicious toward newbies and people who know the score, permits sockpuppeting from cronies of the cabal, and it addition, is filled to the max with pompous nerds who cannot find their rear ends with both hands? But who frequently want to?

Yep, that's us.

Here's today's Moment of Zen from that discussion:

Catching socks. Job satisfaction. Exhilarating, no doubt?

I've never caught a sock in my life. I LOL'd at arbcom being so spectacuarly wrong and then having it thrown in their face.

Getting back to topic, I wonder if Mantanmoreland is finally banned, maybe he would like to join Wikipedia Review?

He already has, at least twice. One is just a lurker account in case the other (occasionally active) one gets suspended, of course...

He already has, at least twice. One is just a lurker account in case the other (occasionally active) one gets suspended, of course...

I laughed too. At least FT2 was willing to admit what he found though, instead of just feeding it to the dog and acting like the evidence did not exist. So I guess I have to give him some respect for that. Certainly not all Arbcom members would have acted on this--that is evidenced by their previous comments, refusal to say Mantan was socking, and their ridiculous "Samiharris is Wordbomb" theory.

The new Arbs were the good guys in that ArbCom; I think FT2 was vindicating himself. Recall how UninvitedCompany claimed that the more "experienced" Arbs were the most reluctant to draw conclusions from the "ambiguous" evidence. Note how FT2 and FayssalF are ready to seriously entertain indefinite ban. I think those two plus NYB would have banned him to begin with.

Gone

Even when given a poke, his defenders were silent. However, this is a standard tactic - ignore an unwinnable argument and then come back later with a different tactic. So what will it be:

* ArbCom decision does not support,
* not long enough to discuss something as important as a community ban so overturning while regaining consensus,
* Krimpet is acting as a proxy for a banned site?

Place your bets.

If Gary/Mantan is reading this, I have an offer that is out of this world. How would you like to have a BIG advertisement positioned on the front page of the Internet's hottest wiki directory, for the entire month of June 2008?! No need to sock, cultivate powerful friends, purchase proxy services, or pretend that you are Catholic! Sound too good to be true? Then don't take my word for it, try it today!

I can't believe you'd have the nerve to pollute this site with a commercial, for-profit spam link!

Vindication feels good right now, I'll bet

All this time wasting, all the effort put in by so many people over months and months. And he gets away with it. It's obvious that he'd felt emboldened by the previous case and felt he could get away with anything.

Still, he slipped up and now he's busted Good riddance! A lot of people got hurt, got sucked into this whole mess (nods @ Piperdown), wasted valuable time in painstaking investigations only to have it largely ignored and a lot of otherwise good people were cowed by overbearing bullies.

Good riddance to that and hopefully, to the dark days of guilt by association. Well done, guys

No one will touch that.

Don't get me wrong. They would have argued to the ends of the earth if it could be dismissed as "circumstantial evidence," but CU kills it. They look foolish, and they won't want to draw attention to their idiocy. (I think this is why FT2 and FayssalF have commented and not, say, FloNight.)

Given that Gary thinks Wikipedia is a very important platform (which informs us more generally of why WR is right to be concerned about WP), then I doubt he will give in, as now he does not have to maintain a sock, he can just go for the vanilla new account, if he has not already been brewing up a couple more, just in case.

There are still lots of options. There is the "Gary is contrite and admits his sins, so we must show good faith so let's unblock this fine contributor to our site" routine, for a start. Then there is that dratted root kit doing the rounds, of course.

Given that Gary thinks Wikipedia is a very important platform (which informs us more generally of why WR is right to be concerned about WP), then I doubt he will give in, as now he does not have to maintain a sock, he can just go for the vanilla new account, if he has not already been brewing up a couple more, just in case.

This all reminds me of something. See if you can guess who said the following about whom: "He showed no remorse and no understanding of the gravity of what he did. ... He should not again be given another opportunity to violate the trust of the community." Because I think that sounds like the perfect attitude to adopt in dealing with the situation at hand.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:ANI..._and_Bassettcat

On the admins noticeboard, where this business is being discussed, there is a complete absense of the usual idiotic mob. No Sidaways. No Sandifers. No Gerards. No JzGs. No SlimVirgins. No Jayjgs.

Where have they all gone? Where are all the people who have been attacking the mere idea that Gary Weiss was using socks to corrupt a series of articles? Where are all the people who attacked Wordbomb, Cla68, this site, even Cade Metz, over the last year or so?

Where are the admissions of responsibility? Where are the arenas where this corrupt crew can be held accountable for their actions over this?

The whole Weiss thing was classic Wikipedia. It was so damn obvious what was going on after any kind of mature analysis of the facts back in the early days. And yet those lunatics were allowed to get away with it in the face of any form of common sense for sooo long. And not only that, they aggressively rubbed people's noses in their nonsense. Just ridiculous.

A wise response from the community would now be to show good faith and unban WordBomb. I would note that WordBomb has always behaved well on Wikipedia in spite of provocation. I'm sure that is a safe action, WordBomb has little interest in editing Wikipedia as far as I am aware.

Oh yeah...for the past few months I've also been contributing to the Spanish language Wikipedia...so far without incident. If that's a technical violation of my ban, then they might have to reset the clock (back to infinity).