Damn! I also looked at the IP's block log. More opportunity to waste time, I should learn to stay away. Having done it, the IP was blocked as the result of attempting to make the user page correction.
The discussion on
User talk:81.164.209.246 is a great example of the Kafkaesque Wikipedia community. Face-palm material.
Note that the users involved failed to notice the distinction between a supported accusation of sock puppetry and a statement that the user was blocked. Copyedeye is not blocked, and therefore is not banned. The IP may or may not have understood the issue thoroughly. If this is actually Mantanmoreland, i.e., Weiss, I have little personal sympathy, but what was demonstrated was community, i.e., collective, incompetence.
There is an undocmented exception to
WP:CIVIL. If an editor is Bad, you can freely insult them, as Baseball Bugs did on that Talk page. This was brilliant:
QUOTE
You've been proven to be a sock of Editor XXV, and I've reported you to ANI again. â†Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 16:15, 26 April 2011 (UTC)
And I see that they already took action. â†Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 16:17, 26 April 2011 (UTC)
So, I get banned for removing mistakes. Ha! -81.
You're the mistake, Mr. XXV, and you've now been removed. (IMG:
smilys0b23ax56/default/smile.gif) â†Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 16:24, 26 April 2011 (UTC)
Now, is the IP "Editor XXV"?
Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Editor XXV/Archive (The archive of sock investigations). The IP isn't mentioned there. I did a search for all pages with that IP mentioned. I found
a discussion on User talk:Alison. No sock confirmation there, rather skepticism on Alison's part.
It appears that the IP may have started an account, BlackDalek, who notified Baseball Bugs of the account creation. See
User talk:Baseball Bugs/Archive012, the archive for User talk:Baseball Bugs, search for "81.164," the section name is duplicated so a normal section link doesn't work.
BlackDalek promptly blocked by MuZemike. No Talk page notification, MuZemike claimed BlackDalek as sock of Editor XXV. Searching for BlackDalek, I see that this account is listed on the Editor XXV SSP page. Confirmed as a sock of several other editors by TNXMan. I don't see anything in the report that actually confirms that the editor is a sock of Editor XXV. Rather, there was a claim of editing similar projects. BlackDalek was not in the report, but was picked up by the checkuser.
The strength of these identifications is unknown to non-checkusers, often.
Note that the identification of BlackDalek as the IP is apparently based only on an edit by BlackDalek. The IP was not included in the checkuser report. That could have been a straw puppet. Basically, it's unclear, and the problem I see is statements made with certainty, with incivility and indef blocks, without clear and unmistakeable evidence. In this case, the IP had civilly demonstrated Baseball Bugs' incompetence. He got back.