Creative Vandalism

[Poetlister]

Not real creative but this addition to No Kyung-tae (T-H-L) has lasted three years and four months.

But no more. Another triumph for this site!

[Alison]

Here's one I found earlier today, in the bollocks (T-H-L) article, aptly enough. Completely bogus, of course. It stayed there almost four years ...

[Hex]

Here's one I found earlier today, in the bollocks (T-H-L) article, aptly enough. Completely bogus, of course. It stayed there almost four years ...

Surely "complete bollocks" rather than "completely bogus"? Great find.

[The Joy]

Wakefield (band) (T-H-L)

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =664070940

It is believed the band have split up, because they're a bunch of lazy assholes, yet their Facebook page is still active.

I don't know if I'm more aghast at the BLP violation, the use of "have" instead of "has," or the fact that assholes cannot literally be lazy.

[Peryglus]

Wakefield (band) (T-H-L)

It is believed the band have split up, because they're a bunch of lazy assholes, yet their Facebook page is still active.

the use of "have" instead of "has,"

I think that would depend on whether you're talking about "the band" as an object (has), or as a collective of people; its members (have). So it could be correct.

[Poetlister]

Wakefield (band) (T-H-L)

It is believed the band have split up, because they're a bunch of lazy assholes, yet their Facebook page is still active.

the use of "have" instead of "has,"

I think that would depend on whether you're talking about "the band" as an object (has), or as a collective of people; its members (have). So it could be correct.

If you say "the band has", you'd then have to say "because it consisted of a bunch" or similar wording.

[Zironic]

I'm not sure what I find more amusing, this edit that attempted to correct the sentence while leaving in the BLP violation or this edit that removed the BLP violation while noting it couldn't find a reliable source for the split up.

[The Joy]

I'm not sure what I find more amusing, this edit that attempted to correct the sentence while leaving in the BLP violation or this edit that removed the BLP violation while noting it couldn't find a reliable source for the split up.

It amazes me what editors miss. It took awhile for me to notice the "lazy assholes" sentence. Things like that get buried in edits and I don't have a reason why that happens. I guess we focus on the forest rather than the trees, so to speak?

[thekohser]

Another delicacy Sabans enjoy is known as cabeza de frijoles, a traditional bean dish served mixed with the boiled brain of monkeys indigenous to the island.

From Saba (T-H-L)

Added by an IP at the University of Virginia, just before User:Seesaw17 added "The people of Saba have a great disdain for the American rock band known as the Grateful Dead." If the bit about monkey brain is true and documented, I'll donate a buck to the Wikimedia Foundation.

[lonza leggiera]

Another delicacy Sabans enjoy is known as cabeza de frijoles, a traditional bean dish served mixed with the boiled brain of monkeys indigenous to the island.

From Saba (T-H-L)

Added by an IP at the University of Virginia, just before User:Seesaw17 added "The people of Saba have a great disdain for the American rock band known as the Grateful Dead." If the bit about monkey brain is true and documented, I'll donate a buck to the Wikimedia Foundation.

In this inventory of Saban wildlife, bats are the only mammals listed as indigenous, and no monkeys at all are mentioned, either as indigenous or introduced, so the Wikimedia Foundation would appear to be in some danger of failing to benefit from your largesse.

[Moral Hazard]

Another delicacy Sabans enjoy is known as cabeza de frijoles, a traditional bean dish served mixed with the boiled brain of monkeys indigenous to the island.

From Saba (T-H-L)
Added by an IP at the University of Virginia, just before User:Seesaw17 added "The people of Saba have a great disdain for the American rock band known as the Grateful Dead." If the bit about monkey brain is true and documented, I'll donate a buck to the Wikimedia Foundation.

At the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, the IP 137.54.11.16 (T-C-L) contributed the monkey-brain factoid diff:

Cuisine
Sabans enjoy a variety of traditional dishes, many of which having Dutch and Spanish roots. A traditional spin on a pea soup, known as jerwtensoep, is a fussion[sic.] of traditional dutch[sic.] Pea_soup#Netherlands (T-H-L) (erwtensoep) with the addition of local Caribbean spices. Another delicacy Sabans enjoy is known as cabeza de frijoles, a traditional bean dish served mixed with the boiled brain of monkeys indigenous to the island.

My Google search failed to find any evidence of monkeys on Saba, which has Dutch and English as languages.

[Hex]

I just deleted a redirect titled "What's grosser than sweat on Olivia Newton John?" The target: Come on Eileen (T-H-L). Sigh....

It was created in 2007 by an editor called Ewlyahoocom (T-C-L), who evidently liked 1980s jokes and, by the state of their user talk page, creating prank redirects.

[Poetlister]

I just deleted a redirect titled "What's grosser than sweat on Olivia Newton John?" The target: Come on Eileen (T-H-L). Sigh....

It was created in 2007 by an editor called Ewlyahoocom (T-C-L), who evidently liked 1980s jokes and, by the state of their user talk page, creating prank redirects.

Good; Wikipedia continues to improve!

[tarantino]

''[cetacean needed]''.

That lasted for almost three years. Now the wikipediaweekly nerds are reverting to keep it in the article.

[Carcharoth]

It's not creative, but this vandalism was added to Capricorn (astrology) (T-H-L) on 3 September 2015 and is still there today (16 November 2015) in this version of the article..

[Poetlister]

It's not creative, but this vandalism was added to Capricorn (astrology) (T-H-L) on 3 September 2015 and is still there today (16 November 2015) in this version of the article..

By coincidence or otherwise, immediately after that vandalism a different IP did some different vandalism which has been reverted. That caused this vandalism to be overlooked.

[Carcharoth]

It's not creative, but this vandalism was added to Capricorn (astrology) (T-H-L) on 3 September 2015 and is still there today (16 November 2015) in this version of the article..

By coincidence or otherwise, immediately after that vandalism a different IP did some different vandalism which has been reverted. That caused this vandalism to be overlooked.

Yes, that is very common in those looking only at the last edit and not checking the edit history. BTW, the vandalism I pointed out has been fixed now.

[Poetlister]

By coincidence or otherwise, immediately after that vandalism a different IP did some different vandalism which has been reverted. That caused this vandalism to be overlooked.

Yes, that is very common in those looking only at the last edit and not checking the edit history. BTW, the vandalism I pointed out has been fixed now.

I wonder how often that technique has been used by vandals, and how often it has been successful.

[Hex]

Thank you Facebook's "on this day" feature for reminding me of this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =461577952

[MoldyHay]

I'm not sure why, but I can't stop laughing at this (courtesy of ANI):

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =691070920

Another good one from the same editor:

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =690793000

[thekohser]

I'm not sure why, but I can't stop laughing at this ...

Would be more funny if they lasted longer than 4 minutes.

[Poetlister]

I'm not sure why, but I can't stop laughing at this ...

Would be more funny if they lasted longer than 4 minutes.

The first one lasted 95 minutes. This chap is very imaginative.

[MoldyHay]

I'm not sure why, but I can't stop laughing at this ...

Would be more funny if they lasted longer than 4 minutes.

The first one lasted 95 minutes. This chap is very imaginative.

It probably would have lasted longer if the guy hadn't gotten his start by making homophobic comments. By the time he started being funny, he already had a lot of eyes on him.

[Ihatemyusername]

Not sure if it's that creative but some pedo IP successfully vandalised an article in a gross way, by pretending they were reverting vandalism.

So over the course of 3 days an article in which 13 year old Maddie Ziegler was described as "the prettiest girl in the world who got hit by pubes like a truck" was viewed almost 3000 times. This in one of Wikipedia's quality assured Good Articles.

[Poetlister]

Not sure if it's that creative but some pedo IP successfully vandalised an article in a gross way, by pretending they were reverting vandalism.

So over the course of 3 days an article in which 13 year old Maddie Ziegler was described as "the prettiest girl in the world who got hit by pubes like a truck" was viewed almost 3000 times. This in one of Wikipedia's quality assured Good Articles.

That's why, even if they won't allow pending revisions on every article, it should be applied at least to GAs if the GA label is supposed to be takenn seriously.

[Ming]

Trolling, and yet somehow....

[Poetlister]

Trolling, and yet somehow....

It's not a ridiculous point. Yet it only lasted two minutes and the editor was permablocked by Materialscientist.

[The Joy]

Alas! The Byzantine army (T-H-L) has no heart anymore.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =705452737

[tarantino]

These two paragraphs were inserted into American cheese (T-H-L) in 2009 and lasted for 6 years.

The 1942 U.S. restriction to American Cheese

During the summer months of 1942, U.S. officials imposed severe restrictions on cheese consumption as a wartime conservation measure[10]. These restrictions disallowed the sale or consumption of all types of cheese other than American Cheese. This was due to a combination of factors: paucity of availability of cheese from continental Europe, abundance of the American variety, and the need to encourage wartime patriotism among citizens. The ban took effect on May 4th, 1942.

The public response to the ban was immediate and noticeable. Importers of British cheese claimed that it damaged morale in both countries, and represented a lack of solidarity in the war effort on the part of the USA. For these reasons and others, the ban was rescinded without opposition on August 1st, 1942.[11]

They were removed by an IP after it was mentioned on twitter.

It had been removed once before by Cheesecorrector (T-C-L), but was restored by Pm1902 (T-C-L) several weeks later.

[thekohser]

These two paragraphs were inserted into American cheese (T-H-L) in 2009 and lasted for 6 years.

It's polluted the Internet now. Including Quora.

[Poetlister]

Alas! The Byzantine army (T-H-L) has no heart anymore.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =705452737

I can't see a heart in the previous version of the article. The IP in fact altered Byzantine" to "Byzaine" (indeed removing its heart) and put a false edit summary.

[The Joy]

Alas! The Byzantine army (T-H-L) has no heart anymore.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =705452737

I can't see a heart in the previous version of the article. The IP in fact altered Byzantine" to "Byzaine" (indeed removing its heart) and put a false edit summary.

At the very end on the previous edit, you see it at the end.

After the death of Manuel I Komnenos in 1180, the Angeloi had not lavished the same care on the military as the Komneni had done, and the result was that these structural weakness began to manifest themselves in military decline. From 1185 on, Byzantine emperors found it increasingly difficult to muster and pay for sufficient military forces, while their incompetence exposed the limitations of the entire Byzantine military system, dependent as it was on competent personal direction from the emperor. The culmination of the empire's military disintegration under the Angeloi was reached on 13 April 1204, when the armies of the [[Fourth Crusade]] sacked Constantinople.<3

Personally, I always thought "<3" looked like buttocks.

[Randy from Boise]

After the death of Manuel I Komnenos in 1180, the Angeloi had not lavished the same care on the military as the Komneni had done, and the result was that these structural weakness began to manifest themselves in military decline. From 1185 on, Byzantine emperors found it increasingly difficult to muster and pay for sufficient military forces, while their incompetence exposed the limitations of the entire Byzantine military system, dependent as it was on competent personal direction from the emperor. The culmination of the empire's military disintegration under the Angeloi was reached on 13 April 1204, when the armies of the [[Fourth Crusade]] sacked Constantinople.<3

Personally, I always thought "<3" looked like buttocks.

When I first saw it, I thought it was a dick and balls.

I <3 YOU had an entirely different meaning...

RfB

[Johnny Au]

Good thing emojis haven't invaded Wikipedia yet (especially articles that don't pertain to modern forms of visual communication).

[The Joy]

Good thing emojis haven't invaded Wikipedia yet (especially articles that don't pertain to modern forms of visual communication).

Emoji (T-H-L)

The English-language Wikipedia generally offers emoji article titles as redirects where the object of the emoji can be linked to one specific Wikipedia page. For example, the article titled (green apple) redirects to the Wikipedia article on apples.

Note: the green apple emoji caused the board's SQL to explode. May want to take a look at that, mods/staff.

[Zoloft]

Good thing emojis haven't invaded Wikipedia yet (especially articles that don't pertain to modern forms of visual communication).

Emoji (T-H-L)

The English-language Wikipedia generally offers emoji article titles as redirects where the object of the emoji can be linked to one specific Wikipedia page. For example, the article titled (green apple) redirects to the Wikipedia article on apples.

Note: the green apple emoji caused the board's SQL to explode. May want to take a look at that, mods/staff.

Those emoji characters are not in the allowable character set. They are their own thing: linkhttp://www.unicode.org/Public/UNIDATA/EmojiSources.txt[/link]

[thekohser]

I have a bit of creative vandalism tucked deep in a lengthy Wikipedia article. It's a rather silly claim that a major company teamed up with a couple of very minor companies to engage in a (fictional) trans-Atlantic yacht race with a quite foolish name. There's even a photo of a yacht sailing under the banner of the major corporation, and with the magic of photo editing, I added logos on the mainsail for the very minor companies, too.

It has been nearly six months now, with over 130,000 page views. Nobody has challenged this zany yacht race -- not even any PR or communications staff from the major company (which has about $30 billion in annual revenues).

My question is... do I just let it fester, or should I let the cat out of the bag? Alternatively, I could keep dropping clues here until someone finds the evil deed. What do Wikipediocracians think?

[SneakySasha]

I have a bit of creative vandalism tucked deep in a lengthy Wikipedia article. It's a rather silly claim that a major company teamed up with a couple of very minor companies to engage in a (fictional) trans-Atlantic yacht race with a quite foolish name. There's even a photo of a yacht sailing under the banner of the major corporation, and with the magic of photo editing, I added logos on the mainsail for the very minor companies, too.

It has been nearly six months now, with over 130,000 page views. Nobody has challenged this zany yacht race -- not even any PR or communications staff from the major company (which has about $30 billion in annual revenues).

My question is... do I just let it fester, or should I let the cat out of the bag? Alternatively, I could keep dropping clues here until someone finds the evil deed. What do Wikipediocracians think?

I always appreciate clever vandalism on Wikipedia so I say leave it.

[Johnny Au]

Perhaps you can keep it and try to break the record for longest-lasting hoax.

[Poetlister]

Perhaps you can keep it and try to break the record for longest-lasting hoax.

We'll never know what the longest-lasting hoax is. For all we know, there's a very clever one that's been lying undetected sonce 2005 or even before.

[The Joy]

Poor Ceoil (T-C-L) was briefly the current U.S. Presidential election.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =708545557

[Poetlister]

Poor Ceoil (T-C-L) was briefly the current U.S. Presidential election.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =708545557

There are several bits of vandalism within that article, such as captioning the picture of Hillary as "Bill Clinton II" (possibly justifiable of course) and Sanders as "Communist".

[Johnny Au]

It is a user page and it is rarely kept in check. One could put a userbox saying "This user is the ruler of the universe. Bow down before him/her!" and no one would care much.

[Poetlister]

It is a user page and it is rarely kept in check. One could put a userbox saying "This user is the ruler of the universe. Bow down before him/her!" and no one would care much.

I follow a few talk pages, so am automatically following the user pages too. If any of those were vandalised, I should certainly revert the vandalism.

[Johnny Au]

It is a user page and it is rarely kept in check. One could put a userbox saying "This user is the ruler of the universe. Bow down before him/her!" and no one would care much.

I follow a few talk pages, so am automatically following the user pages too. If any of those were vandalised, I should certainly revert the vandalism.

That is an exception. User pages should be reverted if it is obviously vandalized (such as page blanking or misrepresenting the user's personal views).

[Poetlister]

It is a user page and it is rarely kept in check. One could put a userbox saying "This user is the ruler of the universe. Bow down before him/her!" and no one would care much.

I follow a few talk pages, so am automatically following the user pages too. If any of those were vandalised, I should certainly revert the vandalism.

That is an exception. User pages should be reverted if it is obviously vandalized (such as page blanking or misrepresenting the user's personal views).

Yes, that vandalism was pretty obvious. I'm not sure it was creative, so it might be off topic.

[The Joy]

It is a user page and it is rarely kept in check. One could put a userbox saying "This user is the ruler of the universe. Bow down before him/her!" and no one would care much.

I follow a few talk pages, so am automatically following the user pages too. If any of those were vandalised, I should certainly revert the vandalism.

That is an exception. User pages should be reverted if it is obviously vandalized (such as page blanking or misrepresenting the user's personal views).

Yes, that vandalism was pretty obvious. I'm not sure it was creative, so it might be off topic.

More "weird" than "creative," I'll admit. Mea culpa.

[tarantino]

This edit to Michael Doleac's bio lasted almost three days.

[MysteriousStranger]

If I may toot my own horn: this here looks pretty good. It's probably not the most original concept, but, hey, it stayed up for...well, three minutes, but over a half an hour after my first edit. (I tweaked it a bit.) As you can tell, Bongwarrior doesn't like it one bit!

[trout]

Shuaybster (T-C-L) claimed to have invented a World War One plane in this edit:

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =464816941

This misinformation has been there for four years.