User:OlYeller21/Case Studies/Dew Tours - Alliance of Action Sports

Summary

This is my own account. I've left out diffs to keep this short. The evidence can be found below. OlYeller^Talktome20:52, 17 July 2011 (UTC)

While patrolling new pages, I ran across Dew Tour 2010 which was tagged as a large unwikified new article. From my experience, I assumed it was a copyvio due to the layout and tone but wasn't able to prove that it was. The tone of the articles are on the line between unecyclopedic prose and an advert. The format was all set before the article was created and it was linked to several other articles. I went to the other articles to see that they are all identically formatted with similar or identical categories and template while all lack any claim of notability or references. I originally considered marking Dew Tour 2010 as a WP:G11 but noticed that Dew Tour 2009 had its G11 tag immediately removed by an WP:SPA anon account (which I assume is a sock). I dug a little deeper to find that there's a very large compilation of Dew Tour related article that are all similar. Upon further searching, I found that the creators of these articles all have usernames that are closely related to the companies involved with the events. I brought my concerns to Wikipedia:Conflict of interest/Noticeboard but have been waiting to write this report until I had a suitable amount of time to address the issue. Since then, at least one of the article was deleted under G11 then immediately recreated. My complete findings are below. OlYeller^Talktome20:52, 17 July 2011 (UTC)

Notes/Observations

The creators know what they're doing. When the articles are created, they're full formatted and include all categoies and content. They're not built in mainspace like new users tend to do. OlYeller^Talktome20:54, 17 July 2011 (UTC)
There seems to be one main company that organize these events and I believe that the company or an overzealous employee are creating these articles. OlYeller^Talktome20:54, 17 July 2011 (UTC)
For the most part, I have note attempted to assess the notability of any of the articles. I began searching and noticed that there are several news organizations that are involved in putting on the events and/or are associated via parent company sponsorship. It's a sticky enough situation that I'm currently choosing not to get involved in assessing notability. OlYeller^Talktome21:26, 17 July 2011 (UTC)
The accounts that are obviously associated with Alli Sports have never once edited their talk pages. OlYeller^Talktome21:44, 17 July 2011 (UTC)
There isn't substantial evidence that there's a person or group of people intentionally subverting Wikipedia policy to advertise for their company. The IP user is the only editor that edited around the same time as the other editors and once removed a speedy deletion tag from an article that one of the other accounts created. There's certainly a COI but subversive actions/socking hasn't been proven. OlYeller^Talktome22:24, 17 July 2011 (UTC)
It's concerning that so many article past patrol without a scratch. This should probably be looked into more closely. OlYeller^Talktome17:24, 18 July 2011 (UTC)

Involved articles/categories/templates/files

Articles

Alli, the Alliance of Action Sports
Dew Tour
- Dew Tour 2005
- Dew Tour 2006
- Dew Tour 2007
- Dew Tour 2008
- Dew Tour 2009
- Dew Tour 2010
- Dew Tour 2011 (has been deleted)
- Dew Tour Event 1
- Event 2 (I guess they forgot the Dew Tour part)
- Wendy's Invitational
- Toyota Challenge
- PlayStation Pro
- Gatorade Free Flow Tour
Winter Dew Tour
- Winter Dew Tour 2008-09
- Winter Dew Tour 2009-10
- Winter Dew Tour 2010-11 (red links already created)
Mountain Dew (makes a mention of the event but I don't feel that it's excessive or advertorial)

Templates

Files

*All files have been deleted but they may contain deleted evidence and even if not, I think they should be noted. OlYeller^Talktome22:55, 17 July 2011 (UTC)

Involved companies

AST LLC - Changed name to "Alliance of Actions Sports"
Alliance of Action Sports - The formal name for Alli Sports
Alli Sports - The informal name of the company responsible for Dew Tours.

*I'm leaving out the names of sponsors whose names are used in the articles. There's no evidence that they have anything to do with the creation of these articles and suggesting such with zero evidence may be considered libel. OlYeller^Talktome21:25, 17 July 2011 (UTC)

Involved editors/sockpuppets

Highly suspected editors

Alliance 2010 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

Named after the company responsible for organizing the events OlYeller^Talktome21:25, 17 July 2011 (UTC)
Exclusively edited Dew Tour related pages OlYeller^Talktome21:25, 17 July 2011 (UTC)
The only account currently editing articles. OlYeller^Talktome21:48, 17 July 2011 (UTC)

ASTLLC (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

Named after the company responsible for organizing the events OlYeller^Talktome21:25, 17 July 2011 (UTC)
Exclusively edited Dew Tour related pages OlYeller^Talktome21:25, 17 July 2011 (UTC)

69.7.203.226 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log)

Has exclusively edited Dew Tour pages OlYeller^Talktome21:25, 17 July 2011 (UTC)
Last edit in March 2011 OlYeller^Talktome21:25, 17 July 2011 (UTC)

Alliance of Action Sports (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

Named after the company responsible for organizing the events
Exclusively edited Dew Tour related pages OlYeller^Talktome21:25, 17 July 2011 (UTC)

Name removed

An employee of Alliance of Action Sports up to 2010. OlYeller^Talktome21:25, 17 July 2011 (UTC)
Has not edited since December 2008 so this user is a non-issue unless we decide we need more evidence for some large proposed action OlYeller^Talktome21:25, 17 July 2011 (UTC)
Exclusively edited Dew Tour related pages OlYeller^Talktome21:25, 17 July 2011 (UTC)

Possible COI

Tv145033 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

A now-retired editor who created a few of the articles OlYeller^Talktome21:25, 17 July 2011 (UTC)
May be coincidentally involved as they created/edited several annual sports related pages in succession as easily seen here. OlYeller^Talktome21:25, 17 July 2011 (UTC)

Dp462090 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

A now-retired editor who created the template OlYeller^Talktome21:43, 17 July 2011 (UTC)
Involvement is probably a coincidence OlYeller^Talktome21:43, 17 July 2011 (UTC)

Confirmed via CheckUser

As Confirmed by CheckUser as the same person:

Notable involved users' communications

Other

I initially reported this issue at Wikipedia:Conflict of interest/Noticeboard on July 5, 2011 which resulted in Atama (talk · contribs) requesting that I write a report - [1] OlYeller^Talktome21:43, 17 July 2011 (UTC)
Posted my report at WP:COIN - [2] OlYeller^Talktome17:20, 18 July 2011 (UTC)
Asked for help at the WP IRC channel, #wikipedia-en-help and +killiondude suggested I post it at AN or ANI. OlYeller^Talktome17:20, 18 July 2011 (UTC)
Asked for additional help at WP:ANI on 13:31 July 18th, 2011. For some reason, this report is not found in the ANI archives. [3] OlYeller^Talktome 13:11, 25 August 2011 (UTC)

Conclusion

After my discussions at both WP:COIN and at WP:ANI, I decided to mark all of the pages for speedy deletion under at least one of the following A7, G11, or G12. All pages were subsequently deleted. I left messages on the talk pages of all associated accounts attempting to explain what happened and telling them where they could ask questions (my talk page or their talk page). So far, there has been no additional action from any accounts to oppose the deletions. OlYeller^Talktome20:47, 18 July 2011 (UTC)