Sometimes, several new user accounts will vandalise a wiki, after which the
local sysops will apply infinite blocks. In these cases it is very probable
that the accounts are sockpuppets of one user and form an "array of vandal
sockpuppets" (AOVS). A wiki with local CheckUser users can use CheckUser to
check if the vandalism is from an AOVS, and then block the IP address of the
AOVS. (see footnote [1]) One such situation occured today at en.wikibooks,
which has no local CheckUser users. Thus I decided to try to request some
CheckUser information from the stewards. So I went to:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Request_for_CheckUser_information
However, I discovered that there are unhandled requests on that page. At 1
April 2006, there was a request concerning a previous AOVS on en.wikibooks. At
30 March 2006, there was a request concerning an AOVS ("array of vandal
sockpuppets") on simple.wikipedia. Neither request is marked has handled or
rejected. It is now 14 April 2006, and we are at risk of losing the opportunity
for CheckUser, because the databases sometimes forget IPs after one week. [2]
Why has no steward responded to these and many other requests for information
made in February, March, and April 2006?
-- [[Wikibooks:en:User:Kernigh]]
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/User:Kernigh
Footnote [1]:
I have not found good documentation, but I will describe how I believe the
blocking to work; please correct me if I am wrong.
* A block against a user account blocks only when that user is logged in.
* A block against an IP address blocks all user accounts, but only when the
accounts edit from that IP.
* When a blocked user accesses the wiki, an autoblocker also blocks this IP
address. This block expires when the user block expires, or after 24 hours,
whichever is earlier.
* If a sysop acts quickly and blocks an AOVS user account while the vandal is
still active, the autoblocker will block the AOVS ("array of vandal
sockpuppets") IP address, but only for 24 hours.
Footnote [2]:
I have not yet made my request for CheckUser information. I want to know the
answer to this question:
Why has no steward responded to these and many other requests for information
made in February, March, and April 2006?