When wiki’s go wrong…

2 years ago, we at the World Wide Creative studio tried to enter a word into Wikipedia. I think it was something like ‘omnetymolgy‘ or ‘the study of words that continuously change their meaning‘. We were then going to encourage a friend to go and change the definition at will and pass the baton to the next guy - sort of like a social media chain mail. I think the post lasted around 5 minutes before it was gazumped by some Wikipedia nerd, alerted to the non-suitable content on his beloved forum.

Anyhow, I read this article a while back, and it was amazing what gets missed sometimes (check out the article here). Some highlights:

Jens Stoltenberg
Though sometimes defamatory - the article on Norway’s Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg, once sported a line accusing him of paedophilia - Wikipedia vandalism is often light-hearted.

Bill Gates
A profile picture of Microsoft founder Bill Gates had horns drawn on to Gates’s head along with a moustache. And for 10 months, a Wikipedia entry informed readers of a Mediterranean island called Porchesia, population 354 897 — which never existed.

John McCain
His profile began with a brief overview of his biography, ranging from his graduation from the US Naval Academy in 1958 and his time as a naval aviator to the years spent as a prisoner-of-war during the Vietnam War.

“His war wounds would leave him with lifelong physical limitations,” the synopsis originally ended — but then the following sentence was added: “McCain’s slightly ‘puffed up’ swollen cheeks are the result of his special rodent-like ability to store nuts in his mouth for the cold winter.”

Minutes later, however, the unwelcome addition had been removed.

… and then of course, there’s this one (Metallica)

By Fred | October 13, 2008
Posted in There's a Fly in My Soup
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