A few weeks ago, the DWG banned a user who had vandalised school buildings in south‑west England.
Shortly afterwards, a new account appeared. The user operates in the same area and shows an unusually high number of similarities: identical mapping interests, identical spelling, and even edits to the same objects, with subtle references in a changeset title to the previous vandalism case. However, this time the user appears willing to edit the map normally and in good faith.
Should this be considered a sockpuppet and an attempt to evade a block?
When it comes to petty schoolyard vandalism like here, I’m generally willing to look the other way if they are making an honest effort and are mapping truthfully. But if they start repeating their past bad behaviour with their new account, I am not going to give them that benefit of the doubt anymore.
Sometimes people first do a few ‘good’ edits as a way to appear more legitimate before resuming old bad behaviour. or maybe they simply got bored, who knows. A closer eye should definitely be kept on that account to make sure they don’t start crossing any lines
The person you’re talking about has already had quite a few sock puppet accounts and has been harassing DWG members in various ways. A person like that has burned through most of the goodwill I’m willing to give them. See for example i hate trigpoint blocked by Taya_S | OpenStreetMap