QUOTE(Kelly Martin @ Tue 8th September 2009, 5:40pm)
QUOTE(Kato @ Tue 8th September 2009, 11:10am)
It seems that you, Hersfold and Thatcher are underestimating the influence of 172 on Wikipedia over the years, and the magnitude of your charge.
Indeed, 172 was one of the major early architects of Wikipedia's community and culture. He fell out of favor as the community moved in directions inconsistent with his vision.
The 172 who returned this year is certainly the same as the 172 of old. He immediately starts catching up with old friends like Slrubenstein, for example.
And the Cognition who resurfaced this year is very, very likely to be the Cognition of old.
What with the St Petersburg meet appearance, the consistent IPs of Cognition over 4 years, the genuine looking spelling mistakes on Cognition's old user page (which 172 just wouldn't even think to do), plus the whole demeanour of 172 on WP over years (sockpuppetry just wasn't his style), and it all points to the fact that they are not and never were connected.
All checkusers have is the matching IPs. Given that we can be pretty sure both 172 and Cognition are based around the same University in Sarasota, and given that Hersfold almost certainly made false positives in misidentifying other "Cognition" socks in the same round-up, the most rational conclusion is that checkusers have screwed up badly with 172.
QUOTE(Random832 @ Tue 8th September 2009, 5:46pm)
QUOTE(Kato @ Tue 8th September 2009, 4:10pm)
I still don't understand this "IPs were not Universities" gambit. Do all IPs go around with huge labels on them?
Those owned by US universities, yes. You've already made your point multiple times that the situation is very different in the UK and it's a lot harder to tell who owns an IP address / where it is located.
I just made that UK point in passing, rather than repeatedly. Other people more knowledgeable than me debunked the IP labelling in the US thing. Yet it was trotted out again.
And just because I mention universities, it doesn't mean the IP
has to be an Official University Labelled Address. It could be any of the subareas that surround University life.