THC Science

"The Voice Cast Vandal"
Shortcut: WP:LTA/VCV
Wikilifespan	2010–present
ISP	Verizon Wireless, some AT&T Mobility, Ulster County BOCES[1]
Known IPs	see below for list
Physical location	Southern New York State (Ulster or Dutchess county)
Instructions	IPs suspected of being used by the Voice Cast Vandal should be reported to AIV. When reporting, please link to this long-term abuse report. When the active abuse has been taken care of, please update this report with the latest information.
Status	Active

Please report all ongoing incidents of abuse to AIV. When reporting please link this page in the report using WP:LTA/VCV.

Basic information[edit]

The name "Voice Cast Vandal" (VCV) is a descriptive nickname, as this vandal had never to our knowledge created a named user account in the past. An extremely persistent and prolific vandal based in southern New York (some IPs are Verizon throwaways, such as 75.203.31.4 and 75.203.195.48, and geolocate elsewhere) that delights in creating fake film and television credits (usually for voice-over roles) for actors both living and dead, this IP-hopper would have been banned long ago if they operated under one identity.

Targeted areas, pages, themes[edit]

The vandalism is generally centered around hoax credits for primarily American actors and actresses and their associated films, usually involving voice-over roles, with a preference towards youth-oriented productions and animated features. The vandal shows a particularly irresistible affinity for certain actors (e.g. Alec Baldwin[2], Jim Varney[3]) and franchises (e.g. Thomas & Friends, 3 Ninjas) that are "tells", but shifts targets and IPs enough to be generally unrecognized to the layman. He often targets some of the most prolific voice-over actors in history (Frank Welker, Jim Cummings, eg.), making some of the entries harder to detect as 100% false. The vandal is apparently active on Wikia as well.[4][5][6]

Habitual behavior[edit]

A common behavior of the VCV is to create a partial (and sometimes an extensive) fake cast list for a film[7] and then "cross-reference" those credits to the articles of the actors, damaging multiple articles with every imagined character. He does not limit himself to animated films: in fact, in this bizarre fantasy world, actors known primarily for voice-over work even have live-action roles in films.[8][9] There is blatant hoaxing and serious BLP concerns (some fake credits for many of his favorite living actor targets get sneaked in[10][11] and remain for weeks[12] or months[13])[14]. The VCV enjoys engaging in the following behaviors:

He might create a fake credit[15] and then change the fake character's name (sometimes more than once[16][17]); or change the actor in the fake role to another favorite target.[18]
After bogus credits are inserted, he has been known to unskillfully fabricate plot sections of film articles in order to make the fantasy cast seem legitimate in the story line.[19][20][21]
Sometimes assigns "antagonists"[22] and "protagonists" to the credits,[23][24] differentiating between "main"[25] and "secondary" ones.[26]
Fabricates "dual roles" for actors, like "Fake credit/Narrator",[27][28] as well as roles with multiple character credits.[29]
A sequel to a franchise might be sloppily created[30] and then cast.[31] Other "castings" can be quite sloppy as well.[32]
The VCV is not shy about altering templates of franchises with hoax information.[33][34][35]
The VCV is also known to alter birth[36] and death dates of actors[37][38] - and to bring deceased actors back from the dead.[39][40][41]
When the VCV bothers to create sentences the grammar is generally poor and/or nonsensical.[42][43][44]
Attempts to edit columns in filmographies are typically clumsy,[45][46] and the "content" can be absurdly implausible.[47] While the mess is left for others to revert, they tend to pay the most careful attention to linking actors and programs correctly (to false information),[48][49]; most markup skills indicate a low level of competence. The use of references appears to be absent.
The VCV usually makes many edits with an IP within a matter of minutes (always with cross-referencing) before abandoning it. Sometimes he will return to the same IP after a lull in the action.[50]
Fond of numbering the fake credits (Cheerleader #1,[51] Gnome #2,[52] Sorority Girl #3, Dragon #4[53]). The vandal often labels the fake roles as "(uncredited)" in an apparent effort to thwart legitimate sources that do not support lies.[54][55]
Never any patent nonsense ("dfhjksdf") or extensive content removal. The vandal never uses foul language in any edit, and seldom reverts others removing their edits anymore. They would rather cowardly wait until after their trash is reverted and reinsert it again later, quietly.[56]

So quietly, in fact, that there is a 99.9% failure rate for communication on this person's part. The VCV seems to have used an edit summary only one time,[57] and he has never addressed another editor in any way. Naturally, many opportunities have been given for them to speak up concerning their edits over the years. This individual's contributions are to be reverted as those of a banned editor.

Cases[edit]

The vandal has undoubtedly been the subject of previous AIV cases, and was last known reported there in May, 2014. They began to be identified and tracked in earnest after egregious edit in March 2011, when it was soon discovered that extensive vandalism had occurred across many articles using many IPs. The earliest known IP is from July 2010.

Other notes[edit]

Due to the nature of the IP-hopping not every contribution from all the IPs listed are the VCV: for instance with this IP, only edits beginning on August 12, 2011 are relevant.

Although the vandal IP hops, he may return to an old IP once a block has expired. This behaviour has been seen here and vandalism nine days apart on this IP in the same range.

IMDB is a useful resource when checking edits from an IP used by this vandal; the sloppy, frenetic and dubious casting never appears on that site.