This is a workspace to organize cleanup related to Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/EChewning. It's also being used as an experiment on UPE review organization. If you want to participate, please, follow these instructions:
- Read the #Behaviour section to understand the kind of spam we are looking for.
- Go to the #Batches section and pick a batch (you can sign it to signal that you're working on it).
- Go through every linked diff (one diff may comprise multiple edits) and check whether they are ok or not. If they are ok, mark the line as {{ok}} not spam. If they are spam, clean up the latest version and mark the line with {{removed}}. If the text is not present in the latest version, note it. If you are not sure about it, or it requires a second opinion, mark it with {{notsure}}.
- We'll review second opinions at the #Edits needing 2O section.
- Articles requiring further attention should be listed at #Closely connected articles that need special attention.
- Leave your feedback about the process at #Feedback. Thank you!
You can also check a finished review at User:Blablubbs/Wolfram.
Behaviour[edit]
We are looking at a sockfarm closely associated with Michael Patrick Mulroy and his think tank, Lobo Institute. The problematic edits usually do one or more of the following:
- Spamming links (in external links or references) pointing to articles written by Mulroy or other Lobo Institute members like Eric Oehlerich. The links are rarely hosted at loboinstitute.org, but at other sites that publish them, including, but not limited to the Middle East Institute (mei.edu), abcnewsradioonline.com or defenseone.com. You can find the usual outlets and coauthors here: https://www.loboinstitute.org/publications/editorials-and-policy-papers/
- Also watch for external links spam for their podcasts.
- Whether refspam is used or not, the introduced text usually includes declarations made by Michael Patrick Mulroy or undue references to him.
- Some edits promote people related to CIA paramilitary activities. Some of these edits may be due, but watch out for unsourced claims.
- Add linkspam to dieliving.com.
- There are also many edits related to Children in the military. Usually promoting My Star in the Sky documentary, the Grassroots Reconciliation Group, or other groups and publications.
- Be careful with small edits: this sockfarm often edited articles only adding typos (apparently on purpose).
- It should not be ruled out that some edits are meant to skew the point of view of an article towards a position defended by Lobo Institute, but most edits that were already reviewed are primarily about direct promotion of Mulroy, his associates or people and organizations connected to him.
Batches[edit]
Batch 1[edit]
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Batch 2[edit]
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Batch 3[edit]
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Batch 4[edit]
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Batch 5[edit]
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Batch 6[edit]
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Batch 7[edit]
Done. Nearlyevil665 (talk) 18:39, 23 March 2021 (UTC)
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Batch 8[edit]
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Batch 9[edit]
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Batch 10[edit]
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Batch 11[edit]
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Batch 12[edit]
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Batch 13[edit]
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Batch 14[edit]
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Batch 15[edit]
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Batch 16[edit]
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Batch 17[edit]
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Batch 18[edit]
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Batch 19[edit]
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Batch 20[edit]
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Batch 21[edit]
Done. Nearlyevil665 (talk) 18:48, 23 March 2021 (UTC)
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Batch 22[edit]
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Batch 23[edit]
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Batch 24[edit]
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Batch 25[edit]
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Batch 26[edit]
Done. Nearlyevil665 (talk) 19:01, 23 March 2021 (UTC)
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Batch 27[edit]
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Batch 28[edit]
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Batch 29[edit]
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Batch 30[edit]
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Batch 31[edit]
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Batch 32[edit]
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Batch 33[edit]
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Batch 34[edit]
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Batch 35[edit]
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Batch 36[edit]
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Batch 37[edit]
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Batch 38[edit]
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Batch 39[edit]
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Batch 40[edit]
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Batch 41[edit]
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Batch 42[edit]
Done. Multiple users.
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Batch 43[edit]
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Batch 44[edit]
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Batch 45[edit]
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Batch 46[edit]
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Batch 47[edit]
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Batch 48[edit]
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Batch 49[edit]
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Batch 50[edit]
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Batch 51[edit]
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Batch 52[edit]
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Batch 53[edit]
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Batch 54[edit]
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Batch 56[edit]
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Batch 68[edit]
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Batch 72[edit]
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Batch 73[edit]
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Batch 74[edit]
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Batch 78[edit]
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Batch 79[edit]
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Batch 80[edit]
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Edits needing 2O[edit]
Add below articles that require a second opinion.
- Abu Musab al-Zarqawi: 1
Not sure.
- Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: 1, 2, 3, 4 Not sure.
- Death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: 1, 2, 3 Not sure.
- Started discussion at Talk:Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi#Undisclosed paid edits. MarioGom (talk) 12:45, 26 March 2021 (UTC)
- Death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: 1, 2, 3
- 2021 storming of the United States Capitol: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Not sure.
- Opened a thread in the talk page. This article has many editors, so it'll be easier to take care of it there. MarioGom (talk) 13:07, 26 March 2021 (UTC)
Done Reviewed by others at Talk:2021 storming of the United States Capitol#Undisclosed paid edits. MarioGom (talk) 23:02, 2 April 2021 (UTC)
- Houthi insurgency in Yemen: 2 Not sure.
- Joint Special Operations Command: 2 Not sure.
- Tahrir al-Sham: 2, 3 Not sure.
- Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs: 1, 2, 3, 4 Not sure.
- Foreign policy of Donald Trump (2015–2016): 1 Not sure. Giraffer (talk·contribs) 15:30, 31 March 2021 (UTC)
- Intelligence Star: 1, 2 Not sure.
- Donald Trump photo op at St. John's Church: 1, 2 Not sure.
- Mark Milley: 1 Not sure.
- Christopher C. Miller: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Not sure.
- Idlib: 1
already reverted, 2 already reverted, 3 
, 4 already reverted, 5 later moved to Idlib Governorate
- This text was later moved to Idlib Governorate, which still needs a review. MarioGom (talk) 16:20, 2 April 2021 (UTC)
Closely connected articles that need special attention[edit]
Add below articles that require special attention.
- Michael Patrick Mulroy: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53
- Special Activities Center: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24
- Whitefish, Montana: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
- Thomas Goffus: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
- Eric Chewning (not directly edited by this sockfarm)
- This article looks closely connected and may require a review (diff). MarioGom (talk) 17:13, 23 March 2021 (UTC)
- comment I won't be editing this myself other than a typo or word choice I've already fixed, but it's apparent that a lot of the material is primary sources, e.g. a mention of a column in Military Review with a citation consisting of the very same column – with little commentary on why this individual is notable from anyone else. At the very least the POV wording about how someone "played a critical role" by holding an appointed office should be toned down or removed entirely. At the outside, I think someone could challenge the notability of this person. ☆ Bri (talk) 03:48, 8 April 2021 (UTC)
Feedback[edit]
Please, add your feedback about the review process itself here. Thank you!
- @Xeno: I have read your edit summary:
KB changed would be quite useful for at a glance checks.
(diff). Thank you for the feedback. In this case, I have automatically excluded from this list some diffs that are irrelevant based on tags (some redirects, some already reverted). I considered to filter based on edit size, but I noticed a few bad edits with a very small diff size, so I left them in-place just in case. Also, the distribution of articles in batches is stratified, so every batch is supposed to contain some relevant and some irrelevant articles, avoiding extremely hard batches. I'm thinking a different strategy could be having different batch types. We would have some larger batches at the end made only of edits that are likely minor grammar or formatting changes, and these batches could be reviewed faster. What do you think? MarioGom (talk) 09:39, 24 March 2021 (UTC)- It looks pretty good, and the batch I looked at did have one substantive edit (that needs review still). My thought was having the KB change would allow casual helpers to check big edits without having to go one-by-one. (Another exclusion factor might be edits that only added square brackets.) –xenotalk 11:22, 24 March 2021 (UTC)