Ban-Evader Reversion Thread
Please read the outline below before proceeding any further.Important Note: This thread is devoted to reverting the edits of Tropers who have repeatedly chosen to evade their bans and suspensions, since serial ban-evasion is an act which is by its very nature a display of untrustworthiness, the fact that some ban-evaders outright engage in vandalism or add false information notwithstanding.
, due to the prolific nature of serial ban-evaders, there needs to be a team effort devoted to reverting any and all edits made by ban-evaders, especially serial ban-evaders, and investigating otherwise suspicious edits.
Depending on how much of the pages can be salvaged, they will either be noted in the B.E.R.T. Watch-List, locked if necessary, or cut if unsalvageable.
Any Frequently Vandalized Pages will also be monitored for suspicious activity.
If you notice a page is primarily edited by a certain ban-evader and/or their socks, please bring your findings to this thread so that cleanup can commence.
Potentially valid examples added by ban evaders should be transferred to Ban-Evader Example Rewrites so they can be salvaged. Make sure to mention transferring examples to the sandbox in your edit reason so others who may be willing to rewrite are aware.
Handling General Ban-Evader Edits:
To paraphrase what is stated here and here:
- Bad faith is not necessarily assumed with the contributions of first-time ban-evaders, and their contributions can simply be rephrased assuming they're accurate.
- Any serial (more than once) ban-evader cannot be taken at their word, so their contributions are subject to harsher scrutiny. Any verifiable examples can be reworded (especially if there are grammatical or formatting issues), but unverifiable, false, or otherwise prohibited edits are removed.
- Ban-evaders who deliberately contribute inaccurate or false information are able to have their contributions deleted with little hesitation.
- Rewording or reverting can be as simple as expanding on a ban-evader's existing edits, especially if it means adding sufficient context or trimming word cruft.
The subsequent portions of this section outline further how to handle different kinds of edits and contributions.
The following types of edits can be left alone to preserve wiki quality:
- Grammatical corrections.
- Spelling corrections.
- Formatting updates and corrections.note
- Crosswicked examples from other tropers.
- Indexing (if accurate).note
- Accurately written potholes.note
- Links to the correct Work/Recap/Instalment/Franchise page, including red-linked works.note
- Archive edits. (See here.)
- Launched Tropes.note
The following edits might need to be reworded in order to stay on the wiki, and depending on the examples, may need to be re-evaluated/verified in this thread or in the proper cleanup threads.
- Zero-Context Example expansion.
- Otherwise correctly formatted and valid edits.
The following edits should remain hidden until they can be verified, and deleted if proven inaccurate:
The following items must be sent to the cut-list/otherwise removed on principle (and if applicable, re-created by a trustworthy editor from scratch using a Sandbox):
- Pages created by ban-evaders using their socks.note
- Videos uploaded by ban evaders using their socks.note
- Please refrain from "popcorn posting". This means refraining making comments such as "man, they don't know when to quit", or otherwise unproductive posts.
- Please maintain an atmosphere of civility.
- Please do not withhold information about potential sock-puppetry or other ban-evasion related misconduct, as withholding such information makes one an accessory to ban-evasion.
- When reverting edits, please make notes in the sandboxes, and transfer any potentially valid edits to the appropriate sandbox.
- When reverting ban-evader edits, please use an appropriate (and civil) edit reason.
- Should you suspect a ban-evader has shown up in this thread, please do not make open accusations, trash-talk them, or engage in other uncivil behaviour. Quietly holler the post and wait for mod input; if necessary (especially if suspicious edits or issues unrelated to the forum are involved), make a query at "Ask The Tropers".
- Please respect the thread consensus once it has been established. If an item is resolved, it is usually resolved for a reason.
- If you have any suggestions for new policies, or wish to contest an old one, do it in the General Policy Discussion, not here.
Edited by SkyCat32 on Apr 13th 2024 at 10:23:58 AM
There's another report of a possible ban evader over at ATT:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/query.php?parent_id=105024&type=att
Lost in Space
Yep. Distraction is another sock. Did I mention that I hate dynamic IP addresses?
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
CG for short
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
What are dynamic IP addresses?
Lost in Space
An Internet Service Provider (ISP) may assign IP addresses in two basic ways: static and dynamic. A static IP is more-or-less permanently assigned to your specific device. A dynamic IP is assigned from a pool and changes over time.
Most commercial websites use static IP assignments because it makes it a lot easier for Domain Name Services (DNS) to route traffic to them. It's not free, of course. These days, many sites are now using Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) to distribute traffic and reduce bandwidth costs, but that's way outside the scope of this conversation.
Dynamic assignments, along with Network Address Translation (NAT), allow greater flexibility in managing a limited supply of addresses, which is a serious issue with IPv4. However, they also make detecting sockpuppetry hard since there's no guarantee that a user on the same computer and Internet connection will be assigned the same IP address from day to day, and any given IP address may be used by many different devices.
Mobile networks are inherently dynamic, which presents its own challenges. We cannot rely on them for sockpuppet detection.
In principle, IPv6 should eliminate any need for dynamic assignments, but many ISPs continue to use them, likely due to inertia.
Edited by Fighteer on Oct 15th 2021 at 12:03:12 PM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
IIRC, IPv4 ran out of addresses to allocate in either 2011 or 2013. On a sidenote...
My IP address is permanently banned from a site because of something that apparently happened in 2007 (and I owned my first computer in 2010, mind you), and in fourteen years, none of the site's staff thought about lifting it. That's why static IPs are such a pain to deal with - some joker with the same IP as yours can easily mess with a site and get the entire address banned.
Anyway, this has nothing to do with ban evaders, so I've said my point and will graciously exit the premises of this thread.
Edited by SilverCrown on Oct 16th 2021 at 2:22:52 PM
Lost in Space
Vyn is FemaleJoJo ban evading. There's only a little cleanup needed.
Edited by Fighteer on Oct 22nd 2021 at 9:24:55 AM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Ah shit, can you post that on the Magnificent Bastard clean up thread. They did some work over there.
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Reminds me of a question I wanted to ask. Since the policy is to revert ban evader edits, but there's also a policy of not undoing edits on archived pages, what happens if a ban evader, idk... manages to edit the Trope Report newsletter and they aren't caught until it's published? Does the archive-rule take precedent?
This isn't a question spurred by anything that happened, I just want to know what we'd do if it did, since it's entirely possible.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
I'd leave the archives alone, really.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
The Draftsman of Doom
Header has been updated.
~Tropers/ACW has verified a correction made by Vyn in the CM cleanup.
Feels good, don't it?
Unofficial Wiki Curator for Complete Monster
There's also one for C Ms By Actor M To Z, but it's accurate, so it can stay (just adding Orson Welles's Dracula).
CM Dates; CM Pending; CM Drafts
A question has come up on an ATT thread about a possible ban evader. See the last post on the thread:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/query.php?parent_id=105373&type=att
There may not be ban evading going on, but thought it should come to someone's attention just in case.
Lost in Space
Looks like it. I've taken action.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Industrious Incisors
I took care of their Paper Mario: The Origami King mess.
SoundCloud
Another possible ban evader has been reported on ATT. Link:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/query.php?parent_id=105448&type=att
The Moron
Hey ~Fighteer, as someone who follows the edit/banned thread, I saw this... thing go down earlier this morning. I know they accidentally confessed to being a ban evader, but were you able to pinpoint the sock account?
Got another report of a possible ban evader at ATT:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/query.php?parent_id=105462&type=att
Lost in Space
The account they attempted to create was blocked. I just wasn't sure which account it was a sock of given the IP.
Confirmed.
Edited by Fighteer on Oct 29th 2021 at 8:42:22 AM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
This page was created by a ban evader and has been edited using many of their different accounts. Other people have edited since, but since the original evader seems to have edited it a lot, it might be better to cut the page and then start over.
Edited by costanton11 on Nov 1st 2021 at 7:21:44 AM
Lost in Space
They deleted their account, so the question is moot.
Very well then. I wasn't aware what had happened.
Sorry for the double post but I’m requesting assistance regarding this ATT. Here’s the summary:
The page Fanfic.Reacting To The Loud House was created and substantially edited by the ban evader mentioned in this thread using the handles Diana Glow 71, Sky Blue Eleven, and Black Hole 429. From my look at the page history, they added the vast majority of the tropes, as well as the description. Since ban evader’s edits are reverted on principle and they created the page to begin with, I cutlisted the page with the caveat that it can be recreated afterwards. After it was cut, someone else (not the ban evader) recreated the page for the fic. The issue is that they seemed to do so by copying an version of the page saved, meaning that the ban evader’s contributions were inadvertently restored. So basically, we’re back to square one regarding the page having edits from ban evaders. Requesting input in the ATT thread.
Edited by costanton11 on Nov 2nd 2021 at 4:29:36 AM
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Fighteer just confirmed that spiralvampire is another sock of healinfine / lemonhoney.
A few of us are discussing their deletions at the complaining thread, but this also gives us clearance to go through their other edits.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
There are a couple of edits that haven't been undone, both involve deleting examples without providing an edit reason (here
and here
). Whether they were deleted because the troper thought they didn't have enough context, I'm not sure.