Disciplinary - Orbalorb, samfig22, Alyx Willow, Dan G Alang, Visirion

Summary:

Vote manipulation, likely sockpuppeting

Disciplinary - Orbalorb, samfig22, Alyx Willow, Dan G Alang, Visirion

Zyn 06 Apr 2025 22:44

Noting that it was brought to staff attention that the following accounts are likely engaged in vote manipulation/sockpuppeting:

Orbalorb

• account created: 29 Dec 2019, 18:47 (1924 days ago)
• joined mainsite: 26 Nov 2024, 23:55 (130 days ago)
• scpper: https://scpper.com/user/5987490
  • has two pages, created on 17 Jan 2025 and 26 Feb 2025

samfig22

• account created: 14 Jan 2025, 20:52 (81 days ago)
• joined mainsite: 19 Jan 2025, 11:45 (77 days ago)
• scpper: https://scpper.com/user/9536623 (only voted on pages by Orbalorb)

Alyx Willow

• account created: 25 Nov 2022, 07:47 (863 days ago)
• joined mainsite: 19 Jan 2025, 23:45 (76 days ago)
• scpper: https://scpper.com/user/8365165 (only voted on pages by Orbalorb)

Dan G Alang

• account created: 4 Mar 2025, 10:22 (33 days ago)
• joined mainsite: 26 Mar 2025, 00:24 (11 days ago)
• scpper: https://scpper.com/user/9596513 (only voted on one page, by Orbalorb)

Visirion

• account created: 1 Feb 2025, 09:18 (64 days ago)
• joined mainsite: 3 Feb 2025, 23:02 (61 days ago)
• scpper: https://scpper.com/user/9557507 (only voted on a page by Orbalorb, SCP-173, and SCP-2950)

Staff have voted to permanently ban all but the last account (revoked) from the site. Bans enacted, PMs sent. Esperion and Kufat supporting.

Last edited on 06 Apr 2025 22:45 by Zyn Show more

Re: Disciplinary - Orbalorb, samfig22, Alyx Willow, Dan G Alang, Visirion

Zyn 11 Apr 2025 07:09

Received the following responses to the ban PM, from the Orbalorb account:

I would like to know the details of what I am being accused of. What was my attempt of voting manipulation or brigading and sockpuppeting?

42 minutes later:

I would like to know the details on your end but I can speculate here on what this is about.

I made a Reddit post asking why my article was receiving such mixed ratings. In the article's discussion only one person provided feedback about their negative rating, that was helpful and I was asking about getting more feedback like that.

I also wrote about how I got several downvotes quickly coinciding with my ask for author role in the Discord. However I insisted this post was not about that issue but just to show that Im getting lots of downvotes with almost nothing in feedback.

I did not beliger anyone. I didn't involve any usernames and targeted no one. I even avoided asking about it in the main SCP communities, being this site and the Discord. I went to Reddit to ask people of a community uninvolved in this for advice.

I don't know how asking others why I am not receiving much feedback is voting manipulation.

I dont know what sockpuppetting means in this context. My guess is it means making proxy accounts for votes. I could see how one of the accounts that voted for my articles might be suspicious of that given their lack of activity elsewhere on the site. I told my friends about my article asking them to check it out and one of them made an account and voted for it. If that is against the rules, then I was unaware. I could ask her to rescind her vote if needed.

Sent back:

I will forward your message to staff for consideration. Please be advised that there were three accounts with voting history consisting solely of your articles and nothing else, as well as another account that only voted on three pages, one of which was written by you, the others from several years ago.

+ show block

I only knew of one of my friends who made an account after I asked them to check out my article. They had previously had the email with numbers issue but were into SCP stuff long before they made their account. The others were likely some other friends. I will ask them about it to find which accounts they are. I see how this is suspicious. My intention was simply to introduce my friends to the SCP site. Please let me know what I can do about all this.

If you can ask your friends with wikidot accounts and prior site membership to respond to the ban message their account received confirming why they joined the SCP wiki and solely upvoted your pages, that will help staff investigate the matter.

I have asked them now.

Thanks! Staff is currently discussing the matter for your account and the Alyx Willow user. We will process appeals submitted by other accounts involved in this case as we receive them.

Last edited on 13 Apr 2025 17:23 by Zyn Show more

Re: Disciplinary - Orbalorb, samfig22, Alyx Willow, Dan G Alang, Visirion

Zyn 12 Apr 2025 06:59

Noting that I received the following message from the Alyx Willow account:

Good afternoon, SCP staff,

I got a message from my friend, stating that his account was being banned for "voter manipulation," and he told me I should check on my account as well. Turns out, I am indeed having my site membership revoked. Are we both really being banned because I liked his posts? That seems a bit silly to me.

I've been a follower of the SCP Wiki for years, but only fairly recently did I create an account. It was even more recently that I finally got my account approved for membership because my friend was submitting posts to the site. I wanted to support him, and so I upvoted his submissions.

Do I need to somehow verify my identity to unban our accounts? Let me know!

Have a good Friday, everyone.
Thanks,

— Alyx Willow (she/her)
Discord: [removed for privacy]

I sent back:

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+ show block

Thank you for the message; I will forward it to staff for discussion.

I've been a follower of the SCP Wiki for years, but only fairly recently did I create an account.

Per your wikidot profile, your account was created on 25 Nov 2022 (868 days ago).

Are we both really being banned because I liked his posts? That seems a bit silly to me.

It was even more recently that I finally got my account approved for membership because my friend was submitting posts to the site.

Your account came to staff attention because it and three others had voting patterns that disproportionately favored works by a single author, and the majority of said accounts had no other site history (no page edits, no forum comments).

I wanted to support him, and so I upvoted his submissions.

Please be advised that per site rules, voting for reasons other than the content of a page is not permitted. This includes upvoting works solely because one wishes to support the author, and downvoting works to harass or otherwise hurt the author.

Staff will discuss your ban appeal and notify you of the consensus within three days. If you have not received an update by that time, feel free to reach out to me or another Disciplinary team member.

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Re: Disciplinary - Orbalorb, samfig22, Alyx Willow, Dan G Alang, Visirion

Zyn 13 Apr 2025 19:39

Noting that I received the following message from the samfig22 account:

Hello I am a friend of Orbalorb's and made my account so I could read and like the articles they wrote for the site, I'm a new SCP fan and just wanted to support my friend. I only liked two posts, did not know that counted as voting manipulation sorry.

I sent back:

+ show block

---

Thank you for the message; I will forward it to staff for discussion.

I am a friend of Orbalorb's and made my account so I could read and like the articles they wrote for the site,

It's completely fine to initially join the site because of a certain user's work; the issue is if an account's presence and voting solely favors one author over all others, especially if there are multiple such accounts with the same upvote pattern, which is what occurred recently with Orbalorb's works.

I'm a new SCP fan and just wanted to support my friend. I only liked two posts, did not know that counted as voting manipulation sorry.

Please be advised that per site rules, voting for reasons other than the content of a page is not permitted. This includes upvoting works solely because one wishes to support the author, and downvoting works to harass or otherwise hurt the author. It does help that you posted comments on the author's works; however, the comments were overall fairly generic, and did not have enough identifying detail to clearly demonstrate that the specific pages were read.

Staff will discuss your ban appeal and notify you of the consensus within three days. If you have not received an update by that time, feel free to reach out to me or another Disciplinary team member.

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Last edited on 13 Apr 2025 19:39 by Zyn Show more

Re: Disciplinary - Orbalorb, samfig22, Alyx Willow, Dan G Alang, Visirion

Zyn 17 Apr 2025 05:47

Following staff discussion regarding the submitted appeals, consensus was reached to unban Orbalorb, Alyx Willow, and samfig22. Kufat, Esperion, and myself accepted, DrBleep signed off/agreed.

Bans have been lifted, PMs sent. Of note, I received the following PM from Alyx Willow:

Good afternoon,

I was wondering if anything had come from this just yet. You had asked for me to allow three days, but I have not received any follow-ups on this as of today. If I need to wait a little longer, just let me know and I can sit tight. If a decision was made, though, I'd love to hear it! :)

And in terms of the voting, I was confident in liking the article because I had read all of his drafts prior to publishing. I wasn't doing it solely to support him. If I didn't like it, I would've told him as much. Hopefully that makes sense.

Hope you've had a good week!
Thanks,

— Alyx Willow

I sent back:

+ show block

---

Thank you for reaching out; sorry about the delay. Staff have been slow to process cases lately.

Consensus has been reached to unban your account; as of now the ban has been lifted and you can re-apply for membership whenever you are inclined to do so. With regards to the voting, to distinguish your account from potential bots/sock accounts/brigades, it helps a lot to post personalized comments on the page(s) in question. Previous cases of vote manipulation all involved multiple accounts with no site activity beyond voting, so that tends to be the metric for reports staff receives/the threshold when site members start to think suspicious activity is happening.

If you have any questions about site policy, feel free to let me know.

Zyn

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Re: Disciplinary - Orbalorb, samfig22, Alyx Willow, Dan G Alang, Visirion

Zyn 18 Apr 2025 18:04

Noting that Orbalorb and Alyx Willow have rejoined the site.

Re: Disciplinary - Orbalorb, samfig22, Alyx Willow, Dan G Alang, Visirion

Zyn 14 May 2025 06:38

Noting that samfig22 has rejoined the site.