Wikipedia talk:CheckUser

CheckUser VRT Role Account

Hi,

I’m not sure what would need to happen to set this up — or if it would be technically prohibitive — but I was wondering if it would be possible to set up a CheckUser role account, similar to User:Oversight, for the purpose of sending emails through Wikipedia to the CheckUser VRT queue.

My reason for asking this is because the email linked to my WP account is an anonymous one, which I can reply to emails sent to, but can’t initiate emails from that specific address directly (or at least, I don’t think I can). Therefore, if I sent an email from my email client to the CheckUser email address, it wouldn’t be able to be verified to my account; whereas one sent through the Wikipedia interface would be.

Best, A smart kitten (talk) 11:52, 1 September 2023 (UTC)

This is certainly possible from a technical standpoint. The Arbitration Committee is the entity that owns the User:Oversight role account, and they could pretty easily spin up a similar one for the CheckUser VRT queue—if you would like to see this happen, the best approach might be to reach out to an arbitrator directly to ask if they could raise it with their colleagues. The only thing I would call out is that the CheckUser VRT queue is not very actively monitored, and not all checkusers have access to it. On the other hand, I do think having a role account for Special:EmailUser access could be useful for things like WP:IPBE requests (probably the most common use of the queue), as it would definitively link the IPBE request with the requesting account. Mz7 (talk) 03:35, 5 November 2023 (UTC)

Notification of discussion at WT:AC/N regarding CU blocks

 You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia talk:Arbitration Committee/Noticeboard § Clarification/update request: Statement on checkuser blocks. Best, ‍—‍a smart kitten_[meow] 18:54, 18 December 2023 (UTC)

Cabal Search

Are there any policies arround a cabal of individual users acting together to influece the bias of a wiki article? If they are coordinating their efforts, what differentiates this from a single user's sockpuppetry? Thank you for your time. 2600:8804:6600:4:BD84:27CE:9D3F:EBC5 (talk) 20:53, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

We call that meatpuppetry and if it's done abusively we can treat it the same as sockpuppetry but checkuser won't be much use in detecting it. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 20:57, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

17 January email

Dear CU team,

This is to notify you that on 17 January, h18:28, I sent a request for investigation to checkuser-en-wpATwikipedia.org, given that in a comment from November 2023 hereabove I read that the latter is not actively monitored.

Best regards, Æo (talk) 12:31, 19 January 2024 (UTC)

Potential Checkuser involvement in admin recall

In the 2024 RFA review, one of the subproposals in the Phase 2 of Admin recall involves Checkuser confirmation. Feedback from active CU would be appreciated on how feasible this would be. Soni (talk) 17:13, 11 May 2024 (UTC)

Transparency in the Checkuser Process

The checkuser process is not open to auditing. From a technical perspective, there is no page to confirm that the checkuser process was performed because it likely involves not only the internal technical aspect handled by the MediaWiki tool but also a human element in analyzing user behavior patterns. I believe there should be a task list available that can at least ensure the technical checkuser was conducted and found no connection. It is not clear to me that it was done just because the administrator said so. I think this step is necessary to prevent human errors. Wilfredor (talk) 23:12, 31 May 2024 (UTC)

@Wilfredor that's not entirely true. The CU process can (and is) audited by other checkusers, both internal to enwiki and across projects via the Ombuds Commission (which I happen to be serving on at the moment). You are certainly correct, however, that non-checkusers have no direct visibility into the process; this is an area where preserving user privacy trumps transparency. RoySmith (talk) 23:40, 31 May 2024 (UTC)

I understand that other checkusers can authenticate themselves but I was talking about a more transparent automatic tool that will simply show that the technical evaluation was actually done, but available to everyone without giving details of how the tool or the automated technical evaluation works internally. Wilfredor (talk) 23:51, 31 May 2024 (UTC)

I get the desire to know this, but even divulging that a check has been done (other than a checkuser talking about a check they did themselves) is considered a violation of the privacy policies. RoySmith (talk) 23:56, 31 May 2024 (UTC)

I believe it's technically OK to say that 'a checkuser' has checked something, that is, saying that a check was done without disclosing in any way which other party ran the check. The governing policy concerns 'non-public personal data'; if an account being checked is considered personal data then there's a whole load of people in trouble. There are numerous other potential problems with this proposal however, some of which would easily potentially violate privacy, others would potentially compromise effectiveness in combating disruption. -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 00:17, 1 June 2024 (UTC)