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Re:Xzbot: Notes, honeypot, and exploit demo for the xz backd... by yread on Monday April 01, 2024 @05:13PM (#39899418)
Maybe they weren't all sockpuppets. Here Jigar Kumar was nitpicking Jia Tan's changes:

https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg00556.h...

That was not necessary to gain trust. Writing style is different, too. Later when Jia gained commit access he reminds him to merge it.

Re:Xzbot: Notes, honeypot, and exploit demo for the xz backd... by asveikau on Monday April 01, 2024 @06:47PM (#39900302)
This looks like a very phony "debate".

I think the most convincing case made about the sock puppets is around account creation dates, and also people disappearing after they get what they need. Like Jigar disappearing after Jia becomes maintainer. Or the guy "misoeater19" who creates his debian bug tracker account to say that his work is totally blocked on needing xz 5.6.1 to be in debian unstable.

Re:Xzbot: Notes, honeypot, and exploit demo for the xz backd... by pyinstallwoes on Tuesday April 02, 2024 @03:35AM (#39903227)
Ah, the good ol’ lever of urgency. Urgency frequency smells of deception.
Re:Xzbot: Notes, honeypot, and exploit demo for the xz backd... by barkingcat on Monday April 01, 2024 @05:48PM (#39899787)
that's precisely what sock puppetry does ... talk/write in a different writing style to make others believe it's different people.
Re:Xzbot: Notes, honeypot, and exploit demo for the xz backd... by bdowling on Tuesday April 02, 2024 @01:05AM (#39902569)
For all we know there is a whole cyber-squadron (or whatever their military units are called) behind Jia Tan and other accounts.