Roman888 edit
Hey! Have you heard anything recently from the old sockpuppeteer Roman888? We have a new problem on Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (UK) and Kitchen Nightmares (US) that's beginning to smell vaguely like it might be Roman back and IP hopping in Australia. I know he's done some hopping there in the past, and thought it might be worthwhile to touch base with you. There's not a lot yet, but there's something in his arguments and the structure of the grammar that has a familiar whiff to it. Drmargi (talk) 18:35, 18 March 2011 (UTC)
- Sorry, did a bit more homework. The IP's for the new person and old Roman are all for the same ISP (bear with me if jargon is wrong): Telestra. Roman used to hop on Telstra in Victoria and a couple other locations back in the day; now he's hopping between Sydney and Brisbane. I'm not sure I hear ducks quacking just yet, but I do think I see some off in the distance. Drmargi (talk) 19:15, 18 March 2011 (UTC)
- It's interesting, in Roman's first SPI he was traced to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. But we've since had some troublesome IPs in Melbourne that have largely pushed the same POV in Malaysian articles. If you've had troubles from Melbourne as well, perhaps he has moved (and perhaps he also moves between Australian cities). Check out this guy: POV pushing from Sydney. I'll keep an eye out for the IPs and make a note of where they come from. I had thought Roman had dropped completely off WP. --Mkativerata (talk) 20:36, 18 March 2011 (UTC)
- ETA, it's all the same ISP, Telestra. Note the IP's on this: User_talk:Garion96#Kitchen_Nightmares as well. These are consistent with the last IPs that were blocked before Roman went quiet. I seem to recall we established Roman has relocated to Australia, but I can't recall for certain, and the old sockpuppet case is no help aside from the list of IP's from Australia that were blocked. I'm not terribly familiar with the Malaysian articles; how comparable to Roman's style are these new edits? Drmargi (talk) 20:50, 18 March 2011 (UTC)
- They are quite familiar, and the articles he's choosing are right up his alley. I'm worried though that there's probably not much we can do. If he's IP hopping it'll be impossible to prevent him from continuing. The only thing I can think of is to try to ramp up his indef block to a site ban which would allow for his edits to be reverted on sight. --Mkativerata (talk) 20:53, 18 March 2011 (UTC)
- ETA, it's all the same ISP, Telestra. Note the IP's on this: User_talk:Garion96#Kitchen_Nightmares as well. These are consistent with the last IPs that were blocked before Roman went quiet. I seem to recall we established Roman has relocated to Australia, but I can't recall for certain, and the old sockpuppet case is no help aside from the list of IP's from Australia that were blocked. I'm not terribly familiar with the Malaysian articles; how comparable to Roman's style are these new edits? Drmargi (talk) 20:50, 18 March 2011 (UTC)
- That's a thought. I also spotted two more on the Kitchen Nightmares talk page from back in January, both Telstra Melbourne. The pattern is too similar to ignore, but the dead giveaway to me was his referring to me as a 'serial contributor' -- he used to call me a serial reverter, a fairly odd coincidence. We'll have to keep talking and watch what he's up to. I've also dropped a note on Moonriddengirl's talk page, so she may weigh in at some point. But there's to much similar: the argument that nothing is resolved, that there was no consensus "made" [sic], that there is no consensus to remove the updates, etc. Semi-protection should slow him down for the time being, but I think you've got the long-term solution. Drmargi (talk) 21:08, 18 March 2011 (UTC)
- Sounds good. If I get the chance over the next 48 hours or so I'll go back over the last two-three months of some key Malaysian articles and collate information about all Australian IPs. --Mkativerata (talk) 21:11, 18 March 2011 (UTC)
- That's a thought. I also spotted two more on the Kitchen Nightmares talk page from back in January, both Telstra Melbourne. The pattern is too similar to ignore, but the dead giveaway to me was his referring to me as a 'serial contributor' -- he used to call me a serial reverter, a fairly odd coincidence. We'll have to keep talking and watch what he's up to. I've also dropped a note on Moonriddengirl's talk page, so she may weigh in at some point. But there's to much similar: the argument that nothing is resolved, that there was no consensus "made" [sic], that there is no consensus to remove the updates, etc. Semi-protection should slow him down for the time being, but I think you've got the long-term solution. Drmargi (talk) 21:08, 18 March 2011 (UTC)
- I'll do the same on KN and RKN. If we can catch an overlap or two, we've got a much stronger case. I'm watching for one more editorial "tell" as well. If I see it as well, we've got him. Drmargi (talk) 21:20, 18 March 2011 (UTC)
- I've started gathering evidence at User:Mkativerata/Roman888. Please feel free to edit that page with your notes and we can see if there are correlations. Next I'll go through all of these and note where they geolocate to and the dates of the edits. I agree if we can correlate edits to Malaysian articles and Gordon Ramsey articles to similar times at the same locations, it's very strong evidence that it's him. --Mkativerata (talk) 21:39, 18 March 2011 (UTC)
- I'll do the same on KN and RKN. If we can catch an overlap or two, we've got a much stronger case. I'm watching for one more editorial "tell" as well. If I see it as well, we've got him. Drmargi (talk) 21:20, 18 March 2011 (UTC)
He's moved on to a new IP. Give me strength. Do you suppose he has one of those dynamic IP accounts? I've seen one editor IP hop all over Europe with one, evading a block. Drmargi (talk) 02:08, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
He tipped his hand. Check the evidence page. We may have him now. Drmargi (talk) 06:33, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
- Bingo, well done. The gap in time is ideal, but it's good enough to strongly suspect he's still editing and thus should be site-banned. I'll have a bit of a think overnight about how to go about it. --Mkativerata (talk) 07:02, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
- I've left a few notes on the evidence page, along with my detective work. I've also made a link between the two domains. Take a peek a this: [1]. He doesn't even try to hide that he's IP hopping. Moonriddengirl is aware of it, and should have more time to take a look at it all tomorrow. Ducks are quacking loudly. Drmargi (talk) 07:07, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
- Having thought about it a bit more, that IP really is the silver bullet. Among other things, one of the edits is a clear copyright violation (why he got blocked in the first place). I have drawn up a site ban proposal to take to WP:AN: see User:Mkativerata/Siteban. I've tried to keep it as succinct as possible. Any thoughts? --Mkativerata (talk) 14:01, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
- Looks good to me. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 14:05, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
- Thanks MRG :) Would you believe I actually drafted it a few months ago but never took it live as I didn't believe he was still active... Another editor had been saying all along he thought the Australian IPs were Roman888... --Mkativerata (talk) 14:12, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
- He's not the only serial copyright violator still kicking around Wikipedia after an indef. :/ I was consider semi-ing the articles in question, but I think that your idea for the ban proposal is a better one. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 14:43, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
- Thanks MRG :) Would you believe I actually drafted it a few months ago but never took it live as I didn't believe he was still active... Another editor had been saying all along he thought the Australian IPs were Roman888... --Mkativerata (talk) 14:12, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
- Looks good to me. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 14:05, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
- Having thought about it a bit more, that IP really is the silver bullet. Among other things, one of the edits is a clear copyright violation (why he got blocked in the first place). I have drawn up a site ban proposal to take to WP:AN: see User:Mkativerata/Siteban. I've tried to keep it as succinct as possible. Any thoughts? --Mkativerata (talk) 14:01, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
- Looks good to me, too. Moreover, I think there's a lot of wisdom in Mkativerata originating the proposal, given she's followed his sockfarm the longest and can speak to his patterns with the most authority. Interestingly, I've referred to him as Roman in my last two talk page posts, and referred back to his history, and he's made no effort to pretend he's someone else, just fussed about how it's uncivil to try to link his IPs and to talk about his activity on others' talk pages. That's pretty good confirmation he is Roman888. We've got a welter of behavior evidence as well from KN and RKN that I'm happy to add as appropriate. I've never done one of these before, so I'll take my lead from the two of you. I do think a semi for RKN wouldn't hurt; KN is already semi-protected, and the editor who did it is on a break, it appears. Drmargi (talk) 18:35, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
- I just read the other editor's noticeboard discussion and an IP popped up that I think was active on KN about the same time. That might provide another link, or at least is in the same range. Drmargi (talk) 19:00, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
- Excellent, thanks. I've just posted the proposal to WP:AN. Thanks for all the help with this. --Mkativerata (talk) 19:20, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
- Well done! I've weighed in, and added some basic behavioral evidence to help connect the behavior on the two sets of articles. Should we let the other editor know about the case? Drmargi (talk) 20:03, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
- Thanks very much. Are you talking about the other "harassed contributor"? I thought it better not to lest we be accused of canvassing for supporters (the other editor would certainly support it). As for Roman888, I haven't formally notified him either. I don't think blocked editors normally get notified of site ban proposals, probably because it'll cause more trouble than it's worth! --Mkativerata (talk) 20:07, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
- I was referring to the harassed contributor. I didn't consider the possibility of it being canvassing, but you're probably right. On the other hand, how on earth would you notify Roman888? His collection of IPs is in double-digits already; you'd never know which one, or even which ISP, to use. Drmargi (talk) 20:11, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
- Haha, I was thinking of notifying him on User talk:Roman888 in case he still watches it :) --Mkativerata (talk) 20:22, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
- Actually, now that the AN thread is up, I might archive this thread in a few hours per WP:DENY, especially as Roman probably watches this page. --Mkativerata (talk) 20:25, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
- Haha, I was thinking of notifying him on User talk:Roman888 in case he still watches it :) --Mkativerata (talk) 20:22, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
- I was referring to the harassed contributor. I didn't consider the possibility of it being canvassing, but you're probably right. On the other hand, how on earth would you notify Roman888? His collection of IPs is in double-digits already; you'd never know which one, or even which ISP, to use. Drmargi (talk) 20:11, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
- Thanks very much. Are you talking about the other "harassed contributor"? I thought it better not to lest we be accused of canvassing for supporters (the other editor would certainly support it). As for Roman888, I haven't formally notified him either. I don't think blocked editors normally get notified of site ban proposals, probably because it'll cause more trouble than it's worth! --Mkativerata (talk) 20:07, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
- Well done! I've weighed in, and added some basic behavioral evidence to help connect the behavior on the two sets of articles. Should we let the other editor know about the case? Drmargi (talk) 20:03, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
- Excellent, thanks. I've just posted the proposal to WP:AN. Thanks for all the help with this. --Mkativerata (talk) 19:20, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
- I just read the other editor's noticeboard discussion and an IP popped up that I think was active on KN about the same time. That might provide another link, or at least is in the same range. Drmargi (talk) 19:00, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
- Looks good to me, too. Moreover, I think there's a lot of wisdom in Mkativerata originating the proposal, given she's followed his sockfarm the longest and can speak to his patterns with the most authority. Interestingly, I've referred to him as Roman in my last two talk page posts, and referred back to his history, and he's made no effort to pretend he's someone else, just fussed about how it's uncivil to try to link his IPs and to talk about his activity on others' talk pages. That's pretty good confirmation he is Roman888. We've got a welter of behavior evidence as well from KN and RKN that I'm happy to add as appropriate. I've never done one of these before, so I'll take my lead from the two of you. I do think a semi for RKN wouldn't hurt; KN is already semi-protected, and the editor who did it is on a break, it appears. Drmargi (talk) 18:35, 19 March 2011 (UTC)