Wikipedia:Long-term abuse/Rubbaband Mang
| Wikilifespan | July 2024 – present |
|---|---|
| Physical location | The Canadian Maritimes, specifically Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia |
| Instructions | Suspected socks should be reported to sockpuppet investigations for confirmation. When reporting, please link to this long-term abuse report. When the active abuse has been taken care of, please update this report with the latest information. |
| Status | Pending Approval |
 | Please report all ongoing incidents of abuse to AIV or ANI |
Basic information
[edit]Rubbaband Mang (talk · contribs · block log · arb · SPI suspected)
47.54.219.33 (talk · contribs · block log · arb · SPI)
Comprehensive edits analysis
XTools Timecard
Rubbaband Mang is the first known name of a user from the Canadian Maritimes who gained a reputation for being disruptive on ice hockey-related topics, primarily Montreal Canadiens-related articles, but also sometimes editing other hockey topics. Originally editing through numerous IPs, they consistently refused to work collaboratively, demonstrated extreme ownership of targeted articles, and refused to accept any community consensus against them. Repeatedly insisted that they are correct, and claims to be a "victim" of "bullying" or "gatekeeping;" they then began to try citing WP:REVERTBAN as a defense of their block evasion.
The original complaint was filed against them in August 2024. The IP was blocked for two weeks on August 8, 2024, returned to their behavior shortly after the block expired, and subsequently was blocked again for three months on August 24. Since then, they've resorted to frequent sockpuppeting via new IPs, despite further blocks. By October 2024, the original IP had its block extended to a year and its talk page access revoked due to violations of WP:BLANKING regarding their declined unblock appeal.
In December, they registered their first known user account, and resumed editing their content area (after having to change its original name, an Eminem reference, due to profanity). Although their contributions were more constructive and collaborative, it still constituted block evasion, and their writing style quickly drew the attention of the hockey WikiProject because of noticeable similarity in writing style and edit pace to the IPs; the user was blocked as a sockpuppet by an administrator. Although good-faith attempts were made to convince the user to make an honest appeal, the user attempted to plead ignorance, and a CheckUser confirmed they were related to the IP hopping.
Targeted areas, pages, themes
[edit]Montreal Canadiens-related articles (specifically biographies), as well as other hockey topics. Consistent targets have included:
Asterisk indicates page placed under semi-protection one or more times due to disruption.
- Daniel Walcott*
- David Reinbacher*
- Brady Keeper*
- Cole Hutson
- Rutger McGroarty
- Patrik Laine*
- Jayden Struble
- Arber Xhekaj*
- Mattias Norlinder*
- Gabriel Dumont (ice hockey)
- Colin White (ice hockey, born 1997)*
- Cole Caufield
- 2024–25 Montreal Canadiens season*
...and many others.
Habitual behavior
[edit]The behavior that originally got them blocked was refusal to work collaboratively and/or accept community consensus, as shown here. Specific offenses included:
- Insistence upon including second and third-tier professional ice hockey teams in player infoboxes, despite consensus to only include top-level teams.
- Insistence upon capitalizing NHL entry draft to NHL Entry Draft, despite an RM concluding the contrary. This was their primary action in September and October 2024, but they appear to have dropped the issue.
- Considerable edit-warring across many of the above pages to enforce their view (effectively constituting attempted ownership). This edit-warring was (and has been) particularly bad on Norlinder and Struble; see the page histories of those linked above, as well as the EWN report linked below.
- They would revert many of the above pages back to their preferred version(s).
- The original complaint which brought this user to light also included a few passive-aggressive and sarcastic comments which could constitute personal attacks.
- After their three-month block for edit-warring/disruptive editing was instituted on August 24, they returned under a multitude of IPs (linked below), all of which geolocated to PEI or Nova Scotia.
Aside from that, they make a variety of standard if unnecessary edits (not necessarily even vandalism), and occasionally use some awkward grammar or word choices in their changes.
As an IP, they would frequently blank their talk pages, removing warnings and block notices, often doing so with an overly-aggressive edit summary. By contrast, the first registered account was much more collaborative and respectful, but would not own up to wrongdoing once confronted and opted to attempt gaming the system.
Cases
[edit]- August 7, 2024 – present: Original complaint on WP:NHL talk page, as well as subsequent sock discoveries.
- August 8, 2024: Original ANI report leading to two-week block.
- September 6, 2024: Second ANI report for block evasion.
- September 16, 2024: Third ANI report for further block evasion.
- September 17, 2024: Edit-warring report of sock, which was blocked.
- October 7, 2024: Fourth ANI report for more block evasion on previously-blocked 2605 range. User played dumb prior to this report, claiming they weren't the original IP and had no idea what we were talking about.
Other notes
[edit]As noted above, all IPs thus far have geolocated to the Maritime provinces of Canada. The vast majority have been located in Nova Scotia, but a handful have been Prince Edward Island-based as well.
Confirmed and suspected accounts
[edit]All accounts listed have been blocked for disruptive editing, edit-warring, block evasion, or some combo of all three.
- 47.54.219.33 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) – original banned IP address
- 2605:B100:B00:0:0:0:0:0/41 range (multiple times)
- 216.208.243.0/24 range
- 142.163.206.14
- 142.163.116.80
- 156.34.8.38
- Rubbaband Mang (talk · contribs)