PatPat41, Lady_Black, Wrongturn89, Goons_lake_girl, Heal_Yourself_86, and Token_Blain86 have been banned and Dr_Sinder has had their membership revoked after activity surrounding "The Viewer," an article posted Jan. 3rd, with the activity noted occurring today.
One user posted negative critique of the article on Jan. 4th, after which came a large amount of completely new accounts whose first activity was upvoting and sometimes posting a comment in defense of Dr_Sinder. PatPat41 specifically posted a very toxic response to the critique, along with Lady_Black and Heal_Yourself_86 adding comments in support of Dr_Sinder or PatPat41. The other accounts only upvoted. All of this activity took place over around two hours.
These individuals are suspected of either manipulating the votes of this article to benefit Dr_Sinder or are all owned by one individual.
PM sent to Dr_Sinder:
Hello,
I'm ROUNDERHOUSE, an administrator on the Wanderer's Library. Administrators have taken note of suspicious behavior associated with your most recent article on the Library. A sudden influx of accounts, all made and applied at the same time, mass-upvoted your article and began to argue with legitimate critics in the discussion. These accounts have now been banned due to the agreement of staff that it appeared to be an unfair manipulation of votes at best and possible sockpuppeting at worst. In either case, we feel uncomfortable without an adequate explanation of the events. Until you can provide such an explanation, your membership to the Library has been revoked. You are not banned - you will still be able to browser the site, but unable to vote, post, or comment. If you wish to offer an explanation, you can contact
Rounderhouse or
rumetzen.
Thank you,
ROUNDERHOUSE
PM sent to all other users involved:
Hello,
I'm ROUNDERHOUSE, an administrator on the Wanderer's Library. Due to a number of factors — specifically, your recent voting/commenting activity surrounding a certain article/user, the content and timing of your application and joining of the site, unfair and inappropriate behavior towards legitimate criticism, and other such related factors, you have been banned under suspicion of unfair vote manipulation against the site rules and possible sockpuppeting. If you wish, you can contact [*user Rounderhouse] or [*user rumetzen] to plead your case.
Thank you,
ROUNDERHOUSE