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UTRS appeal #91703

I wonder how you feel about my comments for this appeal since you are the blocking admin. 0xDeadbeef→∞ (talk to me) 07:49, 29 August 2024 (UTC)

@0xDeadbeef: I have commented at UTRS, though the privilege rightfully belongs to 331dot, as I merely removed the applicant's talk page access. Favonian (talk) 18:29, 29 August 2024 (UTC)

Blocked user is evading again

Hello, I noticed that you reverted some edits by this user. They are back on a new IP account and are reverting edits again with no explanation. BottleOfChocolateMilk (talk) 18:47, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

Sockpuppetry and BLP violations

Hello Favonian,

I have witnessed disruptive editing by User:Παλαβός in the article of Karel Komárek. It ticks too many boxes and I'm not quite sure how to deal with it, as it is sockpuppetry, and a violation of BLP, and possibly also undisclosed paid editing. Frankly, I wouldn't know which noticeboard to use which is why I'm contacting you on your talk page instead. I'm also pinging User:Ymblanter and user User:Daniel Case in this matter because they are already familiar with one aspect of the case. User:Edwardx, who is one of the article's main authors, has also been contacted, but this was of no avail (cf. User talk:Edwardx#FYI).

Since 27 August, Παλαβός has been trying to add a "Ties with Russia" section to the article of Karel Komárek. This section is a violation of Misplaced Pages's WP:BLP policy, cf. Special:Diff/1240235073/1242518602; the edits have also been automatically tagged as possible BLP issue or vandalism, and this becomes especially obvious if the revisions are filtered for edits tagged as that, cf. .

Why do I believe that the addition is a violation of WP:BLP?

• The text is negative in tone, makes ridiculous claims, and is largely based on questionable, unreliable, biased Ukrainian-language and Russian-language sources. Furthermore, it contains multiple duplicate references, and even if we pretend the sources were citable, the text addition has added heavy WP:UNDUE weight to a single point of view, considering that the article was increased from 18,000 bytes to 30,000 bytes.

• If it wasn't so severe, I would be amused by the fact that the only reliable English-language sources (The Telegraph and The Guardian), added in that set of edits, are contrary to the section's claims; The Telegraph's headline reads Billionaire "cuts ties with Kremlin-backed Gazprom", and The Guardian writes "Komárek publicly condemned Vladimir Putin after the invasion of Ukraine". Παλαβός's "Ties with Russia" text reads that "Russian special services" agents currently hold positions in Komárek's Moravia Gas Storage firm, or that Komárek owns the Russian Samara terminal which provides the Donetsk People's Republic with oil.

• The grammar errors Παλαβός has made are atypical of native English speakers, and per WP:SPADE, I say that most of the text was written by Chat GPT or DeepL. I doubt that Παλαβός is able to compose a text compelling enough for (English) Misplaced Pages.

That said, Παλαβός passes the WP:DUCK test, i.e., his account is undoubtedly a WP:SPA account, and the sockpuppetry is so obvious that a WP:SPI is not required, cf. Special:Contribs/Παλαβός:

• on 8 January, the account was created and immediately started editing random Greek articles to obtain the autoconfirmed user right. Note that someone spent about one and a half hours of uninterrupted editing, i.e., the account was just used once in a single account levelling event.
• From 8 January until 27 August, the account went dormant;
• on 27 August, the account was reactivated to perform these edits (Special:Diff/1240235073/1242518602) in the article of Karel Komárek.
• After Παλαβός's edit was reverted on 28 August, an edit war took place (), in which Παλαβός logged out of that account and used the Hungarian IPs 78.131.76.168, 80.98.145.168, and 195.38.102.149 to perform disruptive edits. The edit summary he has used is so unusual — "ties with Russia returned", especially the verb "return" in that context — that I argue this is proof for sockpuppetry per the WP:DUCK test.
• Interesting to note is also that immediately after the edit warring started on 28 August, Παλαβός used the 80.98.145.168 IP address to request page protection for the article (). When User:Daniel Case asked Παλαβός whether he would be okay with the fact that he wouldn't be able to edit the page using the Hungarian IPs, Παλαβός used the 195.38.102.149 IP to write "no problem at all. I'm OK with that" knowing that he would be able use the autoconfirmed Παλαβός account to circumvent the silverlock.
• Another interesting note: the text that Παλαβός has written on WP:RfPP using the 80.98.145.168 IP address suits the text in the Komárek article very nicely in terms of grammatical errors.
• The last detail is the editing of the user page and user talk: Παλαβός quickly created a user page and a talk page prior to resuming the edit war on 30 August, presumably to avoid having a red-link user page and talk, cf. (, , Special:Diff/1243102062)

The editing pattern that Παλαβός has shown is too sophisticated for someone who is just trying to edit a page. I doubt that a newcomer would make use of WP:RfPP, and, in addition to that, deliberately blue his user (talk) page prior to entering into an edit war. It's highly likely that Παλαβός is an undisclosed paid editor whose job is the opposite of "enhancing" an article on Misplaced Pages.

On 2 September, an increase in protection level to bluelocking was requested at RfPP (Misplaced Pages:Requests for page protection/Archive/2024/09#Karel Komárek), but eventually, the protection level wasn't increased. I believe this may be a misunderstanding; User:Daniel Case wrote "The edits reverted were made before " but it's actually that the disruptive edits to be reverted were made after User:Ymblanter had silverlocked the article.

What do you think and how can this be remedied? I certainly can't edit the page because it's silverlocked, entering talk page discussions has proven fruitless, and I also think that Παλαβός would simply create — or already has created — new accounts to continue the disruptive editing. Thank you. 63.67.4.175 (talk) 11:37, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

I apologize ... you are correct. I had confused the editor you were complaining about with the one making the complaint.

But at the same time this isn't a cut-and-dried case of disruption. Facially, the edits are sourced reliably; I will have to actually look at the articles cited. Daniel Case (talk) 17:55, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

Uh, thanks...

... but also, what the hell hahaha. So random. I'm barely active these days. Ben · Salvidrim! ✉ 17:34, 4 September 2024 (UTC)

Our enemies have long memories. Favonian (talk) 17:40, 4 September 2024 (UTC)

I'm truly baffled, this behaviour is frankly eerie. The fake selfnom text is almost spooky in how credible it is. I think I'd much rather have insults hurled at me. 😅 Ben · Salvidrim! ✉ 17:50, 4 September 2024 (UTC)

Maybe it was done with the help of ChatGPT or one of its ilk. Steeling a line from Leonard Cohen: "I've seen the future, brother // It is murder." Favonian (talk) 17:55, 4 September 2024 (UTC)

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