Wikipedia:Long-term abuse/Zhmailik
Wikilifespan | 2020–present |
---|---|
ISP | Beeline |
Known IPs | Listed below |
Physical location | Saint Petersburg, Russia |
Sockpuppet investigations | Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Zhmailik |
Instructions | Suspected socks (accounts) should be tagged and reported to sockpuppet investigations for confirmation. Suspected IP accounts should be warned and reported to AIV. In either case, 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 | Pending Approval |
Basic information
Zhmailik (talk · contribs · block log · arb · SPI confirmed suspected)
Comprehensive edits analysis
Zhmailik is a user from Saint Petersburg, Russia. Mainly, Zhmailik uses different IPs to publish misinformation through deliberate hoaxes on music-related articles. Examples of these disruptions include:
- Saying that unreleased songs will be released as singles in specific formats in random countries without a source confirming it (sometimes, the user includes a "citation needed" tag [1]).
- Whenever the alleged date arrives, the user modifies it to a newer upcoming date (examples below).
- Saying that an artist will release a cover album, remix album, new album, or that will re-release the album to include more songs ([2]).
- Saying that an artist will release a cover version or remix ([3]).
- Saying that an existing remix of a song will be released as an independent single ([4]).
- Creating drafts based on the points mentioned above. (Draft:After Hours (Ariana Grande album) "cover album" of After Hours (The Weeknd album); Draft:Colección de Casas a "new" Spanish-language EP by Selena Gomez; Draft:33; a "new" album by Adele).
When the user is detected and reverted, the user proceeds to edit-war and to remove the warns left on their talk page. Do not edit war on their talk page. Instead, report to the appropriate noticeboards (preferably AIV, as it is a faster option than SPI; further, SPI can't connect the IPs with Zhmailik's account). Zhmailik commonly stops when they get blocked, but usually leaves blank unblock requests once or twice.
Targeted areas, pages, themes
Music-related pages on recently released songs. No specific artist, but the most common ones have included: Kesha, Gwen Stefani, Ariana Grande, Kylie Minogue, Dua Lipa and Becky G.
Habitual behavior
- For the accounts, at Category:Wikipedia sockpuppets of Zhmailik and Category:Suspected Wikipedia sockpuppets of Zhmailik you will see a pattern.
- Zhmailik's English level is basic. Most of the comments they leave have an inappropriate syntax and contradict what they are trying to say ([5][6][7]).
- Sometimes Zhmailik cites guidelines and policies unrelated to what they are doing ([8]).
- Persistent edit-warring. The user tends to blank their talk page.
Examples
- The most constant example is Physical (Dua Lipa song). Their very first edit alleged that "Physical (Mark Ronson Remix)" would be released on 6 November 2020. Since then, the release date was changed to 19 January 2021, 19 February 2021, 12 March 2021, 19 April 2021, 14 May 2021, and 19 November 2021. Further dates were alleged at Draft:Physical (Mark Ronson Remix) and Draft:Physical (Remix).
- At Isaac (Madonna song), the user alleged that Gwen Stefani was releasing a cover version of the song[9]. If you read the content, you will find inconsistencies, repetitiveness, and false information. Like in "Physical", Zhmailik constantly replaced the date when reverting. The edits to that page, however, stopped because Stefani did release a song around the date "Isaac" was supposed to be released (Let Me Reintroduce Myself). Disruption moved to that page instead.
Confirmed and suspected accounts
- Sockpuppet category (if any): Category:Wikipedia sockpuppets of Zhmailik
- Suspected sockpuppet category (if any): Category:Suspected Wikipedia sockpuppets of Zhmailik
Known ranges
- 37.145.190.0/22 (block range · block log (global) · WHOIS (partial))
- 78.107.204.0/23 (block range · block log (global) · WHOIS (partial))
- 79.143.111.128/25 (block range · block log (global) · WHOIS (partial)) (a range from Montenegro, but the same pattern [10])
- 83.102.128.0/17 (block range · block log (global) · WHOIS (partial))
- 89.113.98.73/32 (block range · block log (global) · WHOIS (partial))
- 95.24.224.0/19 (block range · block log (global) · WHOIS (partial))
- 95.27.192.0/23 (block range · block log (global) · WHOIS (partial))
- 95.29.45.0/24 (block range · block log (global) · WHOIS (partial))
- 188.65.244.0/22 (block range · block log (global) · WHOIS (partial))