The Mangoe wrote:
These theories of what newbies would or would not do are worthless. Looking back at my first efforts, I see that I split an article, merged an article, and put something up for AfD in my first 50 edits. I suppose that shows that I am a sockpuppet. Feh.
I don't think they are definitive, but neither are they worthless. RC patrol has given me a lot of familiarity with what they typical newbie looks like. Not all atypical newbies are sock puppets, but it's not unreasonable to ask disruptive and unusually skilled new editors if they might have some previous experience.
Not that I've looked at Denny Colt's pattern here, so I'm not trying to imply anything about that.
William