Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 01:21, 5 September 2013

• WP:SPI/AI

To get involved in SPI patrolling, and how patrollers can help at SPI, see Helping at SPI.

See also: - Clerk and CheckUser SPI procedures here, opening or re-opening an SPI case here.

This page explains the most common procedures for administrators patrolling the sockpuppet investigations (SPI) pages. SPI is where users can bring concerns that an individual may be misusing accounts or IP editing in violation of sock puppetry policy, for example to breach sanctions, blocks, or agreements, to bias content and discussions, to attack other users, or to disrupt, deliberately mislead, or vandalize.

SPI is a delicate area, patrollers should keep in mind that there are legitimate uses of multiple accounts, and that improbable things can happen by chance. Unfairly blocking someone as a sockpuppet is a harm not easily undone.

Getting involved in patrolling, and how patrollers can help

For details on what patrollers can do to help at SPI, and how to get involved, and background on how SPI works, see the clerks page (WP:SPI/C), and more specifically the section of that page about patrolling and getting involved.

Decisions and case control at SPI are routinely managed by "any admin". While Checkusers add evidence, and Checkusers and Clerks may take action, any admin can make decisions on cases and their management (as with any dispute) within the norms of SPI. The more administrators patroling, the more eyeballs SPI cases will have, the faster they are updated, and the greater the certainty that they are reviewed independently. Admin patrollers are warmly welcomed!

Useful SPI scripts and tools

• The markblocked script, which indicates if an account has been blocked already, either for a set period of time or indefinitely.
• Wikistalk, which can be used for analyzing the editing history of two or more accounts.
• Editor Interaction Analyzer, like Wikistalk, while it can only analyze two accounts at once, it provides some additional information.

Opening or re-opening a case

To open an SPI case, please follow the instructions at Misplaced Pages:Sockpuppet investigations#Submitting an SPI case, making sure you have read and understood the SPI case guidelines. Similarly, to request CheckUser, please follow the instructions in that same section (in the collapsed box below the two input boxes), making sure you have read and understood when and when not to request CheckUser at Misplaced Pages:Sockpuppet investigations#CheckUser.

Taking administrative action on open cases

Any uninvolved administrator at any time may block any account that has violated the sock puppetry policy based on behavioral and/or technical evidence. Behavioral evidence consists of editing behaviors and patterns from suspected sock puppets as well as having similar usernames or IP addresses. Technical evidence consists of evidence provided by CheckUsers, in which the details are not shown to the public per the Wikimedia Foundation's privacy policy. Administrators are the primary people who hand out blocks in most SPI cases.

Non-CheckUser cases

If the patrolling administrator (or any user) feels CheckUser is appropriate and necessary they may request it; see below.

In usual SPI cases, where CheckUser is not requested, admins should look carefully and neutrally at the evidence and determine whether the behavioral and other evidence shown makes it very likely that sock puppetry is occurring. In many cases, sock puppetry can be determined just by behavioral evidence and without the need for technical evidence. Many admins normally apply what is colloquially called the duck test – if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck.

Patrolling administrators should be sure to:

1. Check that any CheckUser-confirmed accounts have been blocked and tagged – Those accounts that have been  confirmed by CheckUser are normally blocked, but they should be double-checked to make sure that they are. If they have not been blocked, then follow the blocking procedures found in the Blocking and tagging section.
2. Check evidence and block/tag any sock puppet accounts – For accounts that have not been confirmed by CheckUser nor already blocked, check the behavioral evidence along with the results of the technical evidence provided by CheckUser. Make a determination as to whether sock puppetry has occurred. If so, block those violating accounts, following the procedures under the Blocking and tagging section, and make a note of the blocks under the "Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments" section of the SPI case page. If evidence has not shown that sock puppetry has occurred, then likewise make a note of that in the same section. Preface all such notes using the {{Admin-note}} template. For example:

   {{Admin-note}} Foo has been indefinitely blocked, 192.168.0.1 blocked for three weeks. ~~~~

CheckUser cases

Warning: CheckUser is a technical tool. If behavioral evidence suggests a strong likelihood of sock-puppetry or abuse, then this may be the case even if CheckUser shows no technical connection.

Cases endorsed for CheckUser attention are identical in every way to non-CheckUser cases, except that a CheckUser will first add the results of their technical investigation to the case, and may have already taken some actions on the spot when abuse is found, before patrolling admins review the case.

CheckUsers will have posted their results under the "Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments" section. The possible templates they could use include but are not limited to in order of most likely the same editor to unlikely the same editor:

•  Confirmed
•  Likely
•  Possible
•  Unlikely
•  Unrelated
•  Inconclusive - in other words can't depend on the results
• The IP addresses used by sock-puppets may also be  IP blocked.

Once Checkuser results have been added, any admin may re-assess and decide the issue.

Requesting CheckUser

If CheckUser has not been requested, you can request CheckUser assistance by changing {{SPI case status}} on the top of the page to {{SPI case status|curequest}}.

This does not guarantee that a CheckUser will run a check, but it will alert the SPI clerks and CheckUsers that a request may be needed. Normally, an SPI clerk or CheckUser will either  endorse the case for CheckUser attention or  decline the case. Ultimately the decision is down to the responding CheckUser.

Any user can add this request to a case at any time, if appropriate. The most common reasons are:

• The behavioral evidence is not clear, and you cannot figure out all the socks
• There may be other hidden socks, or an unknown previous history of socking, and help is needed to find the sock-master or "sleepers"
• The underlying IP needs blocking, or more thorough investigation is required (eg in the case of an ongoing problem, confirming suspected block or ban evasion, suspected hidden problems, or serious repeated vandalism)

(Full list)

If the case is declined, then the patrolling administrator must make that determination as to whether sock puppetry is going on and subsequently block all violating accounts. If the case is endorsed, then a CheckUser will add technical evidence and notes to the case first; this may take a while.

Closing

If the case is complete, all accounts have been looked at and any issues dealt with, and the case has run its course with no further action needing to be taken, then the clerks can be asked to review and close the matter. To request that the case be closed, change the parameter of the {{SPI case status}} template on the top of the page to close along with adding a note in the "Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admins" section, confirming the final resolution and that all accounts have been addressed. For example,

======<span style="font-size:150%"> Clerk, patrolling admin and checkuser comments </span>======
{{Admin-note}} All accounts blocked and tagged. ~~~~
----

The tagging will alert the SPI clerks and CheckUsers, who will do a final review before archiving the case.

Blocking and tagging

Follow these instructions to block sockmasters and sockpuppets.

Sockmaster (if not already blocked)

If the sockmaster has not already been blocked and tagged, then do the following:

Sock puppets (registered accounts)

If a registered account has been shown in engaging in sock puppetry and is not the sockmaster, then perform the following tasks:

Sock puppets (IP addresses)

If an IP address has been shown in engaging in sock puppetry, then perform the following tasks:

• Misplaced Pages sock puppetry
• Administrator instructions