Wikipedia talk:List of hoaxes on Wikipedia

This page was nominated for deletion on 9 May 2015. The result of the discussion was Withdrawn.

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Skepticism

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This page has been mentioned by multiple media organizations:

Adam Coomer (2013-05-13). "Should university students use Wikipedia?". The Guardian. Retrieved 2013-05-15.
Omer Benjakob (2019-10-04). "The Fake Nazi Death Camp: Wikipedia's Longest Hoax, Exposed". Haaretz. Retrieved 2019-10-04.

Archives

Archive 1

Archive 2

Archive 3

This page has archives. Sections older than 60 days may be automatically archived by when more than 8 sections are present.

Alan MacMasters

Seems very likely that Alan MacMasters, supposed inventor of the electric toaster and extant on Wikipedia for over 9 years is a hoax. Hemiauchenia (talk) 18:10, 21 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Hemiauchenia: Sure, but we will need an admin to determine the exact date it was created. –LaundryPizza03 (d c̄) 03:29, 28 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The article was created 08:30, 17 February 2013 by Gustave.iii. – wbm1058 (talk) 14:24, 1 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

And a couple minutes later Gustave.iii linked to it from the toaster article, which cited the Daily Mirror. – wbm1058 (talk) 14:30, 1 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The Daily Mirror article was written ten years ago today, 1 September 2012, and still claims MacMasters invented the toaster – no correction has been posted to the story yet. – wbm1058 (talk) 14:39, 1 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

SPA blocking request (resolved - wrong place)

Archiving in a collapsible. It's just for cleaner browsing, open if you want. --WannurSyafiqah74 (talk) 12:31, 18 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Archived thread (collapsible does not work on mobile)

: Disclaimer: I could NOT find any pages to see if I can request users to be blocked, only if you're blocked, which was definitely helpful and not at all just me getting irritated with Google! I posted it here because it relates to "fanon" hoaxes. --WannurSyafiqah74 (talk) 05:05, 3 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I think the page you're looking for is WP:ANI. Qwaiiplayer (talk) 12:14, 5 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! I'll move my second thread there. WannurSyafiqah74 (talk) 10:22, 6 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

This IP user has had edits reverted, but they are adding fanon to articles. While it removed one detail in Luxo Jr, they added a fake voice cast to Oggy and the Cockroaches: The Movie and completely modified Lilybuds to write it off as a comedic show produced by Xilam and with an American English cast, for whatever reason. (Maybe they don't like Lilybuds??)

Definitely a SPA. @ReaderofthePack Might need to block them. WannurSyafiqah74 (talk) 07:34, 2 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Notifying someone because I've read some hoax deletion discussions since I first discovered and read the page some week ago, and I do know they've investigated this kind of stuff before. WannurSyafiqah74 (talk) 07:35, 2 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I've blocked them for a week, but not sure if it will be effective or not since a lot of vandals tend to IP hop if they repeat. Hopefully we'll get lucky and this is more or less the IP they regularly access for the internet, so they'll at least see the warning. Since Oggy is repeatedly vandalized I'll go add some protections to the page. ReaderofthePack(formerly Tokyogirl79) (｡◕‿◕｡) 18:07, 2 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Offhand is this enough of an issue on the other pages? It was fairly obvious to see on the Oggy page. ReaderofthePack(formerly Tokyogirl79) (｡◕‿◕｡) 18:10, 2 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@ReaderofthePack Not really, they started adding fanon to two pages. Only the series' article is protected, just not the movie. I think if any more "fanon edits" happen, it'll need protection. WannurSyafiqah74 (talk) 04:59, 3 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Wait, I misread. Still, they did the bare minimum, I guess a sort of nature with certain "fanon" SPAs. WannurSyafiqah74 (talk) 05:06, 3 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Looks like they're already semi'd. ReaderofthePack(formerly Tokyogirl79) (｡◕‿◕｡) 18:11, 2 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Well, at least that's one issue taken care of. Not sure about other obscure cartoons here and if it's as bad as Simple English. I do know randos like to assume Simple English Wikipedia is a Fanon Wiki. WannurSyafiqah74 (talk) 05:01, 3 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Why isn't every single hoax article archived?

Persistent hoaxes are an interesting topic ever since I discovered the page a month ago, but I wonder why every single article wasn't archived. Lack of time, maybe? Just curious. WannurSyafiqah74 (talk) 07:00, 16 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, for a while I was listing every single newly-tagged hoax article that was more than a year old and confirmed to be a hoax, but at one point I got tired of doing that. Also, sometimes people won't bother with the hoax tag, and just mark the article for deletion, making it much harder to find. Ionmars10 (talk) 00:09, 17 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you (sorry for late reply). I was wondering since some hoax articles weren't archived on the Wayback Machine. WannurSyafiqah74 (talk) 07:30, 18 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

There is no accepted policy for "saving" hoaxes. Perhaps an ovvereaction to WP:BJADON days. A while ago I tried some cleanup here, but I run out of steam. There's a ton of problems here, accidental mistakes that are called hoaxes, etc. _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 11:07, 18 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I see. Well, I guess we should only archive articles if we really want to (Wayback Machine or not). WannurSyafiqah74 (talk) 12:27, 18 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

P.S. it's okay. You don't need to clean it up if it means you'll run out of steam. WannurSyafiqah74 (talk) 12:33, 18 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Need help adding a hoax in "false statements" correctly

I got hasty and added something that irritated me for a while, as it's implausible (voice actor hoax for a silent slapstick cartoon, Oggy and the Cockroaches), but how do you do it? You can see my addition in the edit history. I need to figure stuff out because it got bad when that rumor spread.

I removed my old thread regarding this too, just to put my addition in (aside from lack of activity), not knowing how rows worked. WannurSyafiqah74 (talk) 06:06, 20 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I know, I keep talking about this show. But trust me, I'm just glad Zig & Sharko is SOMEHOW lucky from all this voice cast nonsense. WannurSyafiqah74 (talk) 06:07, 20 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Also, this is just because I realize things like a hoax I archived needing to be moved to the miscellaneous list of hoaxes that lasted less than one year. History looked messy cause of it, but I just need to know how things work. WannurSyafiqah74 (talk) 05:16, 21 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Admitting I made a little mistake

So I added a draft article that was moved under 1 month in Wikipedia:List of hoaxes on Wikipedia/Less than one year, I'll probably add that back once 1 month has passed. P.S. it's okay to delete some of the things I archive. At least the IP who made all those weird WP:MADEUP drafts got blocked now. WannurSyafiqah74 (talk) 06:46, 22 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Ruda Real archive copy deletion request

I request that Wikipedia:List_of_hoaxes_on_Wikipedia/Ruda_Real be deleted due to not being a hoax. 100.7.36.213 (talk) 18:31, 31 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

You can vote for a deletion request at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion? It's not in the mainspace, so... I may be wrong. WannurSyafiqah74 (talk) 05:29, 1 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

It's fully protected, and I prefer to remain anonymous at the moment, so that's a no-go. 100.7.36.213 (talk) 13:07, 1 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Whoops, I was looking at the wrong section of the page. My bad. 100.7.36.213 (talk) 13:08, 1 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, I have no idea what I'm looking at. I can't create a template because the page is fully protected, but I also can't add the page to the Current discussions section without doing so, so what gives? 100.7.36.213 (talk) 13:10, 1 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I filed the nomination for deletion on your behalf. – wbm1058 (talk) 15:41, 1 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! 100.7.36.213 (talk) 15:59, 1 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Jemal Thompson

Could someone add Jemal Thompson, a made-up football player for the Toronto Argonauts (deleted at AFD here), to the list? Thanks. BeanieFan11 (talk) 17:46, 2 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@BeanieFan11 Feel free to, but since the article was made in 2011, you may use a duration calculator to put the article in the correct category. You may ask for editors of the article to help make the addition be organized correctly... just tech-y Wikipedia stuff. WannurSyafiqah74 (talk) 09:55, 8 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Mount Malaueg

See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Mount Malaueg appears to have existed for at least 10 years. Crouch, Swale (talk) 08:26, 4 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The Rock Gang

I know The Rock Gang was a G3 blatant hoax, but do you know if it’s archived anywhere? I need a good laugh. 00sClassicGamerFan (talk) 21:11, 2 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]