Category talk:Suspected Wikipedia sockpuppets of GMTV Chart Show

About this puppeteer

GMTV Chart Show (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) first joined us in July 2007. Their edits are mostly to British TV channel related articles and include adding false information to otherwise correct articles as well as inventing complete hoaxes: Sky 4, BoxTelevision.co.uk, TVARK Channel, Disney One, Channel 289 etc. etc.

Also targeted are articles related to the group U2, usually to add that they are covering Lisa Stansfield songs in their next album (One Day I'll Fly Away) or are working with random strange producers. They also have an obsession with Tina Moore.

The same sock names are also created on various internet forums - chiefly digitalspy and TVForum - where users have identified "Paul Akinbola" as the first sockpuppet name used.

April 2011

Vandalism matching this pattern continues to occur. Most edits are from anonymous IP addresses from the *.b-ras2.dbn.dublin.eircom.net pool. When addresses in this range are blocked, similar vandalism has been seen from seen from an IP address corresponding to a Dublin school.

Most of this editor's contributions today are focused on including misleading information in articles relating to British television channels and children's television shows. A common theme is inserting unsourced information, often dated in the future (e.g. [[1]] and [[2]]) claiming that foreign channels are launching in the UK, or that long-closed channels are returning. While the editor's current strong obsession is Kidsco and JimJam, along with edits or mentions of The Children's Channel often giving fictitious future dates for a return - example [[3]]. These are hallmark examples of the long-running vandalism and disruptive editing committed by User:GMTV Chart Show - e.g. [[4]] The editor's obsession with KidsCo can be seen to date back for a number of years also - [[5]].

Dealing with the disruptive editing is difficult since the user just edits until they are blocked, then presumably they evade the block by turning their modem off and on again and returning with another IP address from the ISP's dynamic pool. It seems now that this user changes IP addresses when their IP is first warned, before there is even chance for them to be blocked. It is the tight focus on certain articles - e.g. KidsCo, Template:Children's channels in UK & Ireland, 2011 in British television, Children's television series and others, the same material inserted in the edits, and the same underlying IP address range, which suggests that it is the same underlying editor user is using raw IP editing solely to evade a long series of blocked user IDs and sockpuppetting. Bonusballs (talk) 15:49, 29 April 2011 (UTC)

I've found another one - what should I do? It's User:86.44.197.230, as evidenced by the logs at the TCC page. It's Malpass ⁹₃! (_drop me a ^___) 19:08, 5 June 2011 (UTC)

February 2012

Identical vandalism continues to occur despite all warnings and blocks. Edits continue to occur from anonymous IP addresses from the *.b-ras2.dbn.dublin.eircom.net pool. Perhaps in response to semi-protection on articles like The Children's Channel and Template:Children's channels in UK & Ireland, the user account User:Dylan fagan has also begun making similar edits over the last few months. Bonusballs (talk) 22:02, 14 February 2012 (UTC)