User:Scorpion0422/Hidden Message Vandal

These are known socks of a vandal that I call the "Hidden Message vandal" and also the "Just leave it vandal" because his edits are often accompanied by a hidden message that begins with "Just leave it!" He will often change cited info or add nonsense, he has also been messing around with infoboxes. He does occasionally make legitimately useful edits [1], but for the most part, he adds junk.

2008

I believe the user is back, the IP 86.173.33.66 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) is registered to British Telecom, starts with 86, and added a non-existant age field to a character infobox, [2] one the HMV's old traits. At first, I was going to leave him alone, then another IP registered to BT showed up and added some nonsense to The Simpsons shorts [3]. If this is him, and I guess it is possible that it isn't, he has been doing mostly good faith edits with the odd bit of vandalism thrown in, but it would be best to keep an eye out.

Suspected IPs

86.145.82.180 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log)
86.173.33.66 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log)

2007

Traits

This particular vandal has many different traits and in the space of one hour, he has been known to use many of these traits and occasionally makes legit edits.

He adds junk to boxes, ie. Frank Grimes: Added this to the info box: "Just Leave It!!! He must of had a wife or a girlfriend-How else could he of got Frank Grimes Jr?" [4] (81.159.184.216)
He changed the entire plot section of an FA (Homer's Enemy) and added the message "Don't edit this! See the episode, this is ture!!!" and "Please make it so it shows every single thing! I spent ages doing this!!!" [5] (81.159.184.216)
He'll add nonsense, ie. Maggie Simpson: [6] (81.159.185.153)
He likes adding false information about voicing credits, ie. "Nick Riviera, M.D. (voiced by Hank Azaria or Dan Castellaneta)" [7] (86.136.128.56)
He has vandalised the page of User:Gran2 several times. [8] (86.143.152.201)
He occasionally ventures outside Simpsons articles, ie. adding "!--DO NOT EDIT McCARTNEY!!! You will be out numbered by all his change-back editors!!!--" to Paul McCartney [9] (86.136.128.56) and adding a "Fictional couches" section to the Couch page [10] (86.142.25.15)
He occasionally blanks pages. [11] (86.141.62.217)
He will add fake plots to future episodes, his favourite target is Treehouse of Horror XVIII, he has added various false plots to that page. (86.151.46.224: [12]) (86.137.5.176: [13]) (86.151.47.11: [14])
He recently started adding protection templates to articles that were not protected. [15] (86.151.45.242)
He is obsessed with the Ms. Botz section of List of one-time characters from The Simpsons, constantly changing it [16] and claiming that he owns the section. [17]
He loves adding messages to his current and previous IP talk pages. [18] [19] (86.142.25.15) (86.137.3.45) (86.129.188.87) (86.136.133.15)
He recently started changing the season option of Simpsons episode infoboxes [20] (86.142.25.15)

How you can tell it's him

He usually appears around 5-6 PM GMT and stays around for a couple of hours.
He usually appears once a day, each time with a different IP.
He has yet to return with an IP that he used on a previous day.
None of the IP accounts that he has used have made any previous edits.
His IP addresses usually begin with 86, sometimes 81.
Usually adds a hidden message to at least one of his edits.
Favourite targets: Homer's Enemy, Frank Grimes, List of one-time characters from The Simpsons (especially the Ms. Botz section), Treehouse of Horror XVIII, Springfield Elementary School students, Some Enchanted Evening (The Simpsons episode), Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part One), Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two), Lionel Hutz, Maggie Simpson and others
Most of his IPs are registered to British Telecom.

British Telecom abuse report

July 13th, I mailed abuse@btbroadband.com with a description of our vandal, including links to this page and the abuse report. I received a response saying they need server logs in order to identify the user and take action to stop the repeated vandalism. However, I'm not sure how to acquire Wikipedia's server logs. Will look into it. -FeralDruid 22:09, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

Lacking server logs, I responded to BT with the IP address and times of today's set of vandalism. Today, July 14th, our vandal was active from 14:04 to 15:44 UTC, and from 18:00 to 18:32 UTC, from 86.129.188.87. BT may be able to backtrace the IP address to the end user based upon the time periods the IP address was active. -FeralDruid 22:18, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

Suspected IPs

Suspicious users

special:contributions/86.141.53.192 - The user made edits to Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part One) at the exact same time as 86.142.26.205 (who is definitely a sock) [21] however, he had made edits during several previous days to articles that have nothing to do with The Simpsons, and his edits followed none of the previous HMV trademarks, apart from starting with 86 and editing one of HMV's favourite targets. -- Scorpion⁰⁴²² 18:38, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Recentchangeslinked/Wikipedia:WikiProject_The_Simpsons/All_articles WP SIMPSONS recent changes page, makes looking for him easier]

The user has been reported here.