Not that the answer is likely of any consequence, but does anybody have any insights as to what was going on here?

I'd say it was just a sound-alike troll, a la "Jewjg," but given Jayjg must have seen the other account listed near his in edit histories and on talk threads where both contributed, and sensing that...ahem...Jayjg Mojo that you get reading diffs like this and this, I'm fairly convinced that this was Jay's account, as well.

I suppose he could plead ignorance, being that he was just 75 days into his career as an editor. Of course, in that time, he had already accumulated 1,793 edits, so I'm inclined to believe he had another reason, likely entirely innocent.

Any ideas?

Perhaps he forgot the logon for Jayjg, or alternatively had some reason he didn't want to use the main account (e.g. work, checkuser?)

Although all of those options sound a bit odd to me.

You are allowed to have 2 accounts on Wikipedia. He doesn't seem to have abused this sock puppet account, and he even named it "Jayjg1" so that people knew it was him. So what's the big deal?

I used a second account, and also didn't abuse it. So I think it's the same kind of situation.

Watchlists can become so huge & unmanageable that creating a second account name - with a clear association to first - seems like a good idea. I imagine Jayjg's watchlist had become monsterous within days of editing, so a split on that basis seems plausible. Jayjg probably discovered - like everyone else who had the same idea - that it doesn't really work, and abandoned it.


You can have as many as you like. As long they don't conflict or lead to abuse.

I've always found that annoying, that some people have accused me of having sock puppets, when I've never breached WP:SOCK rules, and the annoying thing is that there are false accusations there that become an official accusation. It is quite simply not true.

Yes, I have used an ISP that had a dynamic IP address.

Yes, I have used different computers to edit.

Yes, I have, with permission, used 2 different usernames.

I have never vandalised, trolled, or broken any of Wikipedia's rules.

Yet they make up all of these stories!

Anyway, I know, I'm staring at my own navel, but in all fairness, I don't think that we can criticise Jayjg over this. If we do, then we'd have to criticise me! And not to mention all of the other people who think that they were unfairly banned.

Or you're in the Cabal.

There is no deal, big or small. It's just unusual and I couldn't come up with a good explanation. As I've thought about it, I've come to hypothesize that there might have been a database or other issue at the time that kept him from logging in normally, so he created that account to use until it was resolved.

I've always wondered at what time Jay really started editing as he messed with his contributions and there were a few that were a lot earlier around 2003 and then it jumps to 2004. I think if you look at those 2003 edits they turned out to have been made at completely different times so he must have done something seriously wrong with the database to cover up who knows what.

Look, this is Yet Another Familiar Hypocrisy Of Wikipedium (YAFHOW). If you are in the Cabal or one of their Pets, you can have all the accounts you want. If you are not, you will get screamed at, to say the least, and most likely eventually banned. I know this from personal experience. So do many others.

Jonny

That's it? A couple of edits in 2004. Account's not blocked so it's likely him.