Wikipedia:Long-term abuse/Catcreekcitycouncil

Catcreekcitycouncil
Original name(s)Catcreekcitycouncil
WikilifespanMarch 2012 – present
Sockpuppet investigationsSPI case page
InstructionsSuspected socks should be immediately reported to WP:AIV, referencing this LTA case.
StatusActive

Basic information

Catcreekcitycouncil (talk · contribs · block log · arb · SPI confirmed suspected)
Comprehensive edits analysis

A prolific sockpuppeter and vandal with over 500 sockpuppets, most of which were created to vandalize Cat Creek, Montana. This has resulted in the article fluctuating in various levels of protection.

This user has the dubious distinction of being banned twice: once in 2012 (where he was added to LOBU, but apparently never tagged with the ban template), and later after LOBU was deleted, in 2018.

They are sometimes impersonated by another LTA, ByteOr.

Targeted areas, pages, themes

Although most of this vandal's edits seem to focus on Cat Creek, Montana, they also edit articles such as:

Habitual behavior

  1. Adding a hoax about lions existing in Montana
  2. Claiming an 1800s book as a source for said claim. (The book does appear to exist and refer to "lions", but does so as an archaic reference to Puma concolor, not the claimed Panthera leo.)
  3. Reverting edits as "vandalism" made by editors who have reverted their edits
  4. Vandalizing userpages
  5. Making lots of trivial edits to userpages, talk pages, and various help desks and noticeboards in order to achieve extended confirmed status
  6. Making frivolous unblock requests
  7. Treating their trolling as a "game" being played with reverting admins
  8. More recent (mid–2018 onward) socks from impersonators have been focusing on adding hoaxes about outbreaks of "zombie birds" to the pages of various Michigan cities (specifically by User:Jeffman12345, under the name "Glapz").

Cases

Other notes

In most cases, the socks can be easily identified and reported to WP:AIV to be blocked as WP:DUCKS. In some cases, however, it may be worth it to file a WP:SPI to check for sleepers (the user has been known to edit behind proxies, however, and recent SPIs have rarely turned up any associated accounts). This user has also been known to take large breaks before becoming active again (e.g. May 2016 – February 2017).

Most recently, this user made an account which they made enough edits on to become an extended-confirmed user in order to additionally vandalize multiple protected pages with racist, antisemitic, and homophobic slurs and sayings.