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)

Fred is the CEO of digital marketing agency World Wide Creative. Fred co-founded The Heavy Chef Project, as well as Ideate, a forum for African entrepreneurs. Fred focuses on online brand building, marketing strategy and loud Hawaiian shirts. Fred is famous for his sartorial excellence, long diatribes about music and fanatical attention to detail when making pizza. Follow Fred on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Fred_Roed