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User:IamNotU/History cleanup

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This page is for notes to assist with cleanup related to Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/IncidentArchive1010#Countless empty "History" sections, plus copyright violations, etc.. A user has been making thousands of disruptive edits of various types, from hundreds of different IP numbers that geolocate to the Brisbane, Queensland area of Australia. They seem to be aware that they've been blocked, though somewhat unclear on the concept, and have made some attempts to get unblocked ([1]/[2], User talk:2001:8003:E405:F700:487E:DFEA:9E3A:D5DC, User talk:2001:8003:E405:F700:BC68:53B2:B0FD:64B9, User talk:203.217.13.205, User talk:BWilliams89), but continue to edit anyway.

Feel free to edit this page. If you do some work, it can be helpful to make a short note about the current status, with your signature, so other people know when and by whom it was done. Please try to note whether you cleaned up only edits from one IP, or whether you checked each article's history for previous edits. On the other hand, this is not a talk page, so your notes may be changed or removed by other editors as appropriate. Please try to keep discussion, questions, etc., to the actual talk page.

"History" vs. "Adventure"

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As noted in the above report, there are several problematic editing patterns. The main concern is unsourced "History" sections and entries, which are invariably copypasted from some online source. It is sometimes copied from freely-licensed sources such as other Wikis, but never attributed, and never with reliable sources to support it. In many or most cases, it is a copyright infringement of non-free sources. Secondly is the addition of many hundreds of blank "History" sections, or renaming or moving existing sections, particularly "Heritage listings", in a way that contradicts MOS:BODY. Topics are often related to Australian places, food-related articles, and country-country relations. Another behavior is adding details about child murders to various articles in a way that is not appropriate and/or undue weight for the subject. The person behind these behaviors is now indefinitely blocked, as of May 2019. I believe that they are also considered WP:BANNED by the community, per the WP:3STRIKES policy, though this has not been formally acknowledged by admins. The main purpose of this page is to clean up the related damage.

Another pattern includes adding categories to and editing lists of adventure and childrens' films or adding debut information about them to "year" articles; adventure travel and {{Wikivoyage}} templates, editing "visa requirements" articles, etc. The person behind this pattern has been indefinitely blocked since at least June 2018.

Several edit histories, ranging from 2013 (Special:Contributions/60.228.88.169) to 2019 (Special:Contributions/193.116.197.55), suggest that these are the same person. The strongest "smoking gun" is probably here: Special:Contributions/220.101.5.165, where both behaviors occur within minutes of each other, on a network and location that is outside their usual one of Brisbane, on a holiday weekend. They exhibit a similar lack of communication and English skills, narrow special interests, as well as edit warring, relentless block evasion, etc.

There is sometimes the impression that they are two distinct sets of behavior, and often, related IP edit histories will exhibit only one or the other, or switch between them on different days. Since late 2019 or so though, and particularly through a number of named accounts, it has become clear that they are indeed the same person. Older IP edit histories that exhibit only the second behavior are mostly not listed below, as they generally don't require checking and removal of unsourced or copyrighted material. However, all IPs after May 2019 can be listed to help track down other IPs, and the presumption is that all their edits should be reverted if possible, per WP:BLOCKEVASION.

Cleanup needed

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Any edits reverted should be done with an edit summary giving policy-based reasons. It's not entirely clear at which point the edits start to fall under the provisions of WP:BLOCKEVASION; it seems to be sometime in mid-2018 at the latest. Also, the edits from listed IP numbers are not all necessarily from the same person, many are from legitimate users. Remember to assume good faith. This user, who although terribly misguided, seems to honestly believe they have been improving Wikipedia, so their edits are not vandalism per se, though knowingly evading a block is inherently bad-faith editing.

Blank "History" sections

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A search for:

for example, will find many of the blank or very short sections. You can also go through the IPs' edit histories below. In general the blank sections are not helpful and should be removed, according to MOS:BODY. In rare cases they may be appropriate, so use your judgement. For example, in the Caribbean article, it really does seem like there should be a "History" section, and the link to the main History of the Caribbean article is helpful and provides material that could be readily used to expand it.

Adding the word "history" to section headings

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Typical edits include adding "and history" to exising "Background" or "Origins" section names, changing "Evolution" to "Evolutionary history", etc. In most cases it's redundant and not an improvement. Especially where it's clearly block evasion, it can be undone.

Moving subheadings and "Heritage listings"

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A large portion of the edits involve adding a "History" section header, and/or moving existing top-level sections below it. Often these have already been undone at the time. In nearly all cases, the edit doesn't improve the article, though this should be assessed for each article, even if reverting on the basis of block evasion. Though they're very common, not every article requires a "History" section! Articles should have a useful number of top-level content sections in the table of contents. Note that on mobile phone versions of Wikipedia, second-level subheaders are hidden, so for example, placing all existing sections under a new "History" section doesn't help to organize the material, and results in a useless table of contents. On the other hand, where there are numerous sections, some of which are clearly "history" and others not, it may be appropriate to organize them that way. If reverting an edit clearly leads to a reduction in the article's quality, it should likely not be done.

A related pattern found in articles about Australian places is moving the "Heritage listings" section underneath the "History" section. For consistency with other articles, this should be undone.

Short "History" sections

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In some cases a short sentence or two has been added. Since they're always unsourced, and given the history of the user, in most cases it's probably best just to delete them, but again use your judgement. If there is useful material, it can be moved to another section rather than have a very short section, also according to MOS:BODY.

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Anything longer than a sentence or two (and even then) has so far turned out to be copypasted from some other source. Sometimes they have made a few minor changes, enough to make Googling more difficult, but not enough to avoid copyright infringement. Some sources with free licenses have been used, often New World Encyclopedia, Wikivoyage, WikiTravel, and sometimes other Wikipedia mirrors. In many cases they have added bad Google translations of history sections from other-language Wikipedia sites. However, they are never given attribution, and never include citations. These sources are not in themselves reliable sources, so unless you're willing to spend the time to find citations, just remove the text.

Many of the contributions are blatant copyright violations from non-free sources. If you're removing unsourced material, please try to search for where it came from. In cases where it's a copyright violation, it's helpful to put the URL of where it was taken from into the edit summary when it's removed. It would also be helpful to add a {{copyvio-revdel}} template when a copyright violation is found. Copy the whole template from the "usage" section, then fill in the URL and the start and end revision IDs. You can find the IDs by copying the link location of the revision's date in the article's history page, it's the "oldid" number at the end.

Checked articles

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There is a List of checked articles that have been checked in detail, any copyright violations removed and rev-deletion requested, and other unhelpful changes like blank sections reverted. This can be helpful when looking at older edit histories, to know which edits you don't need to check. However, as the editor is still active, it's possible that new changes have been made after the checking date.

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Accounts

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  • Special:Contributions/JohnLickor372 (3 March to 18 May 2019) indefinitely blocked.
    • I've checked all edits, and the history of the edited articles for related IP edits, and made repairs. --IamNotU (talk) 22:06, 4 June 2019 (UTC)
  • Special:Contributions/BrendanJohnWilliams1989 (30 October - 30 November 2018)
    • Blocked as a sock, master isn't specified. Made "history" section edits in Hairbrush along with several other obvious Queensland IP socks. Also made children's animation and "adventure films" edits, and edits to "year" articles including the entry for "murder of James Bulger" in 1993. This establishes beyond any doubt that it's the same person, and that they have been evading a block since at least November 2018. See also the similarly named BWilliams89 (talk · contribs).
  • Category:Suspected Wikipedia sockpuppets of Sennick4858
    • About thirty accounts blocked as sockpuppets of JohnLickor372, and suspected of User:Sennick4858. All were created over a period of a couple of weeks in late June, 2019, except for JohnLickor372 (28 February), JamesGunder488 and JonathanHuckley488 (5 January), Jorrock4883 (24 May). Most made only one or two edits, some none. Edits include "adventure films", empty "History" sections, changing "Evolution" to "Evolutionary history", unsourced "History" contributions, etc.
  • Special:Contributions/AlbertGleit423 (21 September 2019)
  • Special:Contributions/BWilliams89 (10-16 July 2020)

IPV6 ranges by date

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IPV4 numbers in numerical order

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Subsections in date order, newest first. Network is Telstra Queensland unless otherwise specified.

1.* to 99.*

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100.* to 199.*

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      • I've made a start on this one, working from earliest forward (currently at Ceramic). Haven't searched full history of each article (too slow on tablet), but have checked the current versions and reverted changes where necessary. Laterthanyouthink (talk) 02:53, 9 October 2019 (UTC)
        • Laterthanyouthink, there's a lot of crossover with other IPs I've already done, so only about half the articles need to be checked. Here's a list of articles this IP edited that I haven't checked:
Extended content
Arab Americans
United Arab Emirates–United Kingdom relations
Mary River (Queensland)
Miva, Queensland
Booubyjan, Queensland
Monkland, Queensland
Bokarina, Queensland
Kanem–Bornu Empire
Dora Creek railway station
Everest (2015 film)
Béchamel sauce
Khomutovka, Kursk Oblast
Bucket
Brunswick River (New South Wales)
Uaxactun
Pampulha (Belo Horizonte)
Robertson, New South Wales
Taller
'Uruq Bani Ma'arid
Farasan Islands
Huangguoshu Waterfall
Wilnis
Sallen
United States–Yemen relations
Saint-Amand-les-Eaux
Wappa Dam
San Vito Lo Capo
Montague Island (Australia)
Parachuting
Iran and weapons of mass destruction
Firearms regulation in France
Akkadian Empire
Althen-des-Paluds
Aidone
Volegno
Seed
Waldhufen
Berra
Lemiers
Giza pyramid complex
High Atlas
Shanksville, Pennsylvania
Heinersreuth
Prebitz
Langlingen
Wienhausen
Omani Empire
Honduras–United States relations
Al-Faw Peninsula
Christianity in Japan
Chinese New Year
Hose
Moroeni
Al Noor Mosque, Christchurch
Bolgatanga
Heat wave
Bernalda
Mount Logan
Extended content
** No "history" edits found, edits not reverted, article histories not checked.
Extended content
* Special:Contributions/123.211.64.78 (June 2018)
Extended content
* Special:Contributions/124.186.193.152 (13-28 May 2018)

200.* +

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