Wikipedia talk:Requests for checkuser/Case/AWilliamson

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[edit] Restoration of deleted IP addresses

While it may be difficult for Wikipedia to take action against an AOL user, AOL could take action based upon the results of a Wikipedia investigation. Please investigate thoroughly: stalking behavior of any sort isn't something I like to tolerate. Durova 15:27, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

The problem is, checkuser does not investigate and report complex vandalism. The checkuser tool allows a registered user name to be associated with the IP addresses it has used recently. (Recently has never been precisely defined, but it's in between days and months.) Since you already know the Joan of Arc vandal has used some AOL IP addresses, there's nothing to investigate. The only thing that checkuser can do is identify the IP addresses behind the recent edits by IdlP (talk · contribs), Rm104 (talk · contribs) and Wallie (talk · contribs). If they are all from the same IP, or a narrow range, then it will be proven that they are the same user. However, they can be blocked for vandalism even without checkuser evidence. If there is another user with a good public face behind this, checkuser could possibly identify him/her. That's probably the only practical value of checkuser in this situation. Otherwise, you just need to watch and revert the article and report vandals to AIV. Thatcher131 (talk) 05:49, 28 August 2006 (UTC)