Crap articles

Unread post by **Peter Damian** » Sun Sep 09, 2012 7:58 am

Tarc wrote:
The Devil's Advocate wrote:
AndyTheGrump wrote:Or possibly just enjoying the chance to contribute to an article where the blindingly obvious coincides with what the sources say, and to annoy the narrow-minded in the process. Come to think of it, the latter probably qualifies as 'politics'...
Undoubtedly, there are some who actually think there is some sort of encyclopedic justification for an entire article on homosexuality and perceived homosexuality in the Batman franchise. Most are probably exactly as I described, however.
Reminds me of Sexuality in Star Trek (T-H-L). An article so atrocious that even DGG, one of the primary inclusionists though not an ARS dogmatic, has tried to get it deleted in the past.

I nearly hit the link, but the idea of an article so atrocious that even DGG had tried to get it deleted was too much of a horror. I would rather watch a beheading video. (Though, to avoid any possibility of confusion, I wouldn't watch a beheading video either).

Retrospect · Unread post by **Retrospect** » Sun Sep 09, 2012 5:40 pm

Kelly Martin wrote:The use of polysyllabic words as a means to demonstrate erudition is a standard trope in American cinema. Rest assured that this is not universal across the United States; that's mainly Southern California culture (which tends to get reflected in American cinema because the American film industry is centered there). Midwesterners and especially Southerners are much less likely to do that.

Americans are not all of a piece, any more than Brits are.

No doubt so. But any idea what proportion of the immature motherfucking basement dwellers who throng the place are from Kentucky? I've always assumed 90% are from New York and California.

EricBarbour · Unread post by **EricBarbour** » Sun Sep 09, 2012 11:24 pm

Retrospect wrote:No doubt so. But any idea what proportion of the immature motherfucking basement dwellers who throng the place are from Kentucky? I've always assumed 90% are from New York and California.

Not 90%, but they do tend to come from the east and west coasts. Oh, just BTW:

Vigilant · Unread post by **Vigilant** » Mon Sep 10, 2012 6:07 am

You need to keep color/demographic slice constant between instances of different graphs for the effect to be easily felt.

thekohser · Unread post by **thekohser** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 3:02 pm

Wikipedia's article about Metro Ethernet (T-H-L) was a pretty difficult slog through unsourced "inside baseball" tips and guidance. Then along came Danhash (T-C-L), who basically ran through the article with a machete.

It is very unlikely any of that old content will be restored with reliable sources, so my question is... would a Wikipediot like Randy from Boise say that Danhash is helping to keep Wikipedia on its "always improving" trajectory, or is Danhash hindering that effort with such wild cuts?

Retrospect · Unread post by **Retrospect** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 4:38 pm

thekohser wrote:would a Wikipediot like Randy from Boise say that Danhash is helping to keep Wikipedia on its "always improving" trajectory, or is Danhash hindering that effort with such wild cuts?

Don't know what a Wikipediot would say, but I'd say that slashing and burning large parts of the bloody place would be a great improvement.

Volunteer Marek · Unread post by **Volunteer Marek** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 5:52 pm

This one's sort of funny. Er.... pathetic:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... =515749095

Sweet Revenge · Unread post by **Sweet Revenge** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 6:01 pm

Volunteer Marek wrote:This one's sort of funny. Er.... pathetic:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... =515749095

Someone took the time to put a "page needed" tag on it but didn't see any problem with the source. I'm still laughing!

lilburne · Unread post by **lilburne** » Sun Oct 07, 2012 10:45 am

Definitely a keeper that one.

thekohser · Unread post by **thekohser** » Mon Oct 08, 2012 2:50 pm

lilburne wrote:Definitely a keeper that one.

From September 7, 2008 through October 6, 2012. Over four years. At least half-a-million page views.

Always improving. Quickly.

thekohser · Unread post by **thekohser** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 4:34 am

If Wikipedia is always improving, and quickly, why did the Wikipedia article about Sagittarius (astrology) look this good in early 2011, but looks like this crap today in December 2012?

EricBarbour · Unread post by **EricBarbour** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 9:12 am

You should see what the Aries article looked like. Dominus Vobisdu (T-C-L) was hacking massive blocks out of all the astrology articles, as "cruft". (He was usually right, too.) The result was one revert war after another.

Most of the idiots have given up, so now Starcartographer (T-C-L) is working on all of them. Wish him luck--he'll need it.

Unread post by **Peter Damian** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 12:53 pm

Easily explained by a series of edits beginning with Bob Rayner here http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... =462306070 .

The problem is that there are interesting things to write about astrology, just as there are interesting things to write about Aristotle's (mistaken) view of the universe. It's just that Wikipedia cannot manage this.

Unread post by **HRIP7** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 1:28 pm

Peter Damian wrote:Easily explained by a series of edits beginning with Bob Rayner here http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... =462306070 .

The problem is that there are interesting things to write about astrology, just as there are interesting things to write about Aristotle's (mistaken) view of the universe. It's just that Wikipedia cannot manage this.

If people only bothered to research and reflect the academic literature ... instead you get ignoramuses looking up astrology websites, or other ignoramuses deleting all the cruft and quoting debunkers.

Unread post by **Peter Damian** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 4:47 pm

HRIP7 wrote:
Peter Damian wrote:Easily explained by a series of edits beginning with Bob Rayner here http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... =462306070 .

The problem is that there are interesting things to write about astrology, just as there are interesting things to write about Aristotle's (mistaken) view of the universe. It's just that Wikipedia cannot manage this.
If people only bothered to research and reflect the academic literature ... instead you get ignoramuses looking up astrology websites, or other ignoramuses deleting all the cruft and quoting debunkers.

What you reckon to be a fringe may be wider than what you reckon it to be.
In U.S., 46% Hold Creationist View of Human Origins (June 1, 2012)
Some Real Scientists Reject Evolution
In six days: why 50 scientists choose to believe in creation - John F. Ashton - Google Books
Reviews of Books with Scientific Evidence that God Exists | X-Evolutionist.com: "In Six Days: Why Fifty Scientists Choose to Believe in Creation"
—Wavelength (talk) 06:10, 9 December 2012 (UTC)

Please take your soapbox/pulpit somewhere else - creationist 'science' is pseudoscientific bullshit, by the overwhelming consensus of the scientific community. That a god-botherers-bullshit lobby promoting a particularly warped version of 'Christianity' has managed to fool so many rational US citizens is unfortunate, but of no relevance to its validity as 'science'. Anyway, Wikipedia is an international project, and cannot be driven by the misperceptions of a single nationality. If you wish to promote creationism, there is an alternative 'encyclopaedia' available, as I'm sure you are aware. AndyTheGrump (talk) 06:22, 9 December 2012 (UTC)

lilburne · Unread post by **lilburne** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 6:22 pm

Peter Damian wrote:If you wish to promote creationism, there is an alternative 'encyclopaedia' available, as I'm sure you are aware. AndyTheGrump (talk) 06:22, 9 December 2012 (UTC)

http://creationwiki.org/Damselflies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damselfly

EricBarbour · Unread post by **EricBarbour** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 10:34 pm

lilburne wrote:http://creationwiki.org/Damselflies

That's pretty typical of the "writing" on Creationwiki. They seem to be much worse at editing than WP, or even Conservapedia.

Bielle · Unread post by **Bielle** » Mon Dec 10, 2012 4:58 am

I was blissfully unaware that "worse than Conservapedia" was possible. Sigh.

DanMurphy · Unread post by **DanMurphy** » Sun Dec 23, 2012 2:55 pm

List of herbivorous animals (T-H-L)

The lede...

This is a list of herbivorous animals. Herbivores are animals that are adapted to eat plants. Herbivory is a form of predation in which an organism consumes principally autotrophs[1][page needed] such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria. More generally, organisms that feed on autotrophs in general are known as primary consumers.

... is accompanied by the below picture with the caption "A male and female human."

The first entry in the list:

Human (T-H-L)
: Main article: Bovinae (T-H-L)

Unread post by **Peter Damian** » Sun Dec 23, 2012 5:31 pm

You missed the best part, about (left) and (right).

Volunteer Marek · Unread post by **Volunteer Marek** » Thu Dec 27, 2012 5:15 pm

DanMurphy wrote:List of herbivorous animals (T-H-L)
The lede is accompanied by the below picture with the caption "A male and female human."

Finally corrected http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... =528110127, after two weeks and... immediately restored http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... =530001439, sans the image. I can't tell if this is someone just messing around or if it's some wacky vegetarian person or something

DanMurphy · Unread post by **DanMurphy** » Thu Dec 27, 2012 7:22 pm

I believe it's a political point being made about vegetarianism being "natural," yes.

The claim and picture persisted for well over 2 months during which that "article" was read about 20,000 times.

The article as it stands retains many errors (as well as terrible and confused writing). A true list of herbivores would probably extend to well over 100,000 entries (and probably far, far more than that. Given the fact that the list currently includes long extinct creatures, we're talking millions of entries).

Zagalejo · Unread post by **Zagalejo** » Thu Dec 27, 2012 10:24 pm

I don't want to get pegged as a Wiki apologist, but since nobody else pointed it out: "Bovinae" was probably meant as a header for the articles that followed it (buffalos and yaks and such). Above the "Human" entry, there used to be text that read, "Main article: Hominidae".

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... =528110127

Not that there aren't lots of other issues with the article. (And I agree that using humans in the main picture is problematic.)

Unread post by **Zoloft** » Fri Dec 28, 2012 10:31 pm

I was looking for Forty Deuce (nightclub) (T-H-L) (which still doesn't exist - boooooo!) and encountered a click or two away this shoggoth: Male prostitution in the arts (T-H-L) - all original research, uncited in the lede and body, tagged since August 2009.

Popular culture tables all up to date and cited.

Wikipedia: improving quickly as always. Except for the important 'text' bits of articles.

Article creator Fireplace (T-C-L) hasn't edited since January 2012.

NYArtsnWords (T-C-L) slapped a lot of that content in without citing it and I guess hasn't been back to finish the job since... November 2008.

Unread post by **tarantino** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 4:21 am

I just stumbled across Daivadnya Brahmin (T-H-L). I doubt if any one has read all of the 15,000 words that were poorly cobbled together from the 210 listed sources.

EricBarbour · Unread post by **EricBarbour** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 4:46 am

tarantino wrote:I just stumbled across Daivadnya Brahmin (T-H-L). I doubt if any one has read all of the 15,000 words that were poorly cobbled together from the 210 listed sources.

That's quite far from the worst Indian article I've ever seen. (Not speaking to the accuracy of the information, of course.
Most of the references are books you could not find in America or Europe anyway.)

Unread post by **Zoloft** » Tue Jan 08, 2013 7:40 pm

*sigh*
Tossing a few posts in the trashcan as off-topic and useless.

greybeard · Unread post by **greybeard** » Wed Jan 09, 2013 9:19 am

Gimje (T-H-L) made me laugh. I won't say how I got there. Mostly it's the obvious, written by a non-native speaker bit, but there are some really funny turns of phrase.

EricBarbour · Unread post by **EricBarbour** » Wed Jan 09, 2013 9:32 am

greybeard wrote:Gimje (T-H-L) made me laugh. I won't say how I got there. Mostly it's the obvious, written by a non-native speaker bit, but there are some really funny turns of phrase.

Looks like an auto-translation bot. You can thank Pju0353 (T-C-L).

The first version is even funnier.

thekohser · Unread post by **thekohser** » Wed Jan 09, 2013 2:53 pm

greybeard wrote:Gimje (T-H-L) made me laugh.

The article has basically looked this way for nearly 5 years now, and it's been viewed over 25,000 times, but nobody's bothered to fix things like "Gimje is the only one region where Koreans can see horizon in landlocked area."

Wikipedia: always improving, and quickly!

lilburne · Unread post by **lilburne** » Wed Jan 09, 2013 3:02 pm

Paging the Energizer Bunny.

Randy from Boise · Unread post by **Randy from Boise** » Wed Jan 09, 2013 5:27 pm

thekohser wrote:Wikipedia's article about Metro Ethernet (T-H-L) was a pretty difficult slog through unsourced "inside baseball" tips and guidance. Then along came Danhash (T-C-L), who basically ran through the article with a machete.

It is very unlikely any of that old content will be restored with reliable sources, so my question is... would a Wikipediot like Randy from Boise say that Danhash is helping to keep Wikipedia on its "always improving" trajectory, or is Danhash hindering that effort with such wild cuts?

I've actually recently opined on this on-wiki, probably on Jimmy Wales' user page, but I'm too lazy to look it up to copy-and-paste...

Basically, I think that "running through an article with a machete" for the sole reason of sourcing is a form of vandalism unless the material sliced is inaccurate, probably inaccurate, or very possibly inaccurate...

Anybody wanting to impose 2013 levels of footnoting on an earlier piece need to make a determination as to accuracy (fuck the discredited and obsolete doctrine of Verifiability Not Truth)... Material that is accurate should be either left alone or flagged for sources; material is possibly inaccurate should be either flagged for sources or snipped and the matter taken to the talk page; material that is probably or very possibly inaccurate should be wiped out without the slightest qualm.

Obviously, Greg, not every article is "always improving" — I speak of the broad trend of the encyclopedia's core content, as a whole.

RfB

Hex · Unread post by **Hex** » Wed Jan 09, 2013 7:19 pm

Randy from Boise wrote:
thekohser wrote:Wikipedia's article about Metro Ethernet (T-H-L) was a pretty difficult slog through unsourced "inside baseball" tips and guidance. Then along came Danhash (T-C-L), who basically ran through the article with a machete.
[...]

Material that is accurate should be either left alone or flagged for sources; material is possibly inaccurate should be either flagged for sources or snipped and the matter taken to the talk page; material that is probably or very possibly inaccurate should be wiped out without the slightest qualm.

Right. In the case given above, the stuff that Danhash chopped out read like someone's opinions. It's not an area I know anything about, but I can see exactly why he did it.

thekohser · Unread post by **thekohser** » Wed Jan 09, 2013 11:24 pm

Hex wrote:...the stuff that Danhash chopped out read...

The link you provided doesn't really show Danhash "chopping out" anything. Earlier, you were bickering about another user's supposedly "random" links that didn't demonstrate what they were supposed to.

:irony:

greybeard · Unread post by **greybeard** » Thu Jan 10, 2013 2:14 am

thekohser wrote:
greybeard wrote:Gimje (T-H-L) made me laugh.
The article has basically looked this way for nearly 5 years now, and it's been viewed over 25,000 times, but nobody's bothered to fix things like "Gimje is the only one region where Koreans can see horizon in landlocked area."

Wikipedia: always improving, and quickly!

Darnit! I knew I shouldn't have posted here. Somehow changed the reference to the "Horizontal Festival". I often feel that I would be right at home at a Horizontal Festival, and I regret its demise.

Volunteer Marek · Unread post by **Volunteer Marek** » Thu Jan 10, 2013 2:44 am

DanMurphy wrote:I believe it's a political point being made about vegetarianism being "natural," yes.

The claim and picture persisted for well over 2 months during which that "article" was read about 20,000 times.

The article as it stands retains many errors (as well as terrible and confused writing). A true list of herbivores would probably extend to well over 100,000 entries (and probably far, far more than that. Given the fact that the list currently includes long extinct creatures, we're talking millions of entries).

well, first I waited to see if it was "organically" fixed. It wasn't for a couple weeks.

So then, bored, I fixed it myself to see how quickly it would pop back up. Two days.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... on=history

So what have we learned? An idiotic edit stays in the article a minimum of 14 days. Removal of this idiotic edit persists for two days. If, by some chance, this is representative of Wikipedia as a whole then idiotic edits make their way into Wikipedia articles at the rate x7 than the rate at which they're removed.

Left as an exercise: given these values, compute the rate at which idiocy overtakes Wikipedia, allowing for a constant growth rate of Wikipedia articles and magnanimously assuming that newly created content does not consist of idiocy.

EricBarbour · Unread post by **EricBarbour** » Thu Jan 10, 2013 5:05 am

Volunteer Marek wrote:So then, bored, I fixed it myself to see how quickly it would pop back up. Two days.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... on=history

So what have we learned? An idiotic edit stays in the article a minimum of 14 days. Removal of this idiotic edit persists for two days. If, by some chance, this is representative of Wikipedia as a whole then idiotic edits make their way into Wikipedia articles at the rate x7 than the rate at which they're removed.

Left as an exercise: given these values, compute the rate at which idiocy overtakes Wikipedia, allowing for a constant growth rate of Wikipedia articles and magnanimously assuming that newly created content does not consist of idiocy.

Do it on 100 idiotic edits, develop statistics, then come back and talk to us. Problem you will find is, the insertion and repair of crap information is so
randomized, it's difficult to quantify with any accuracy. Trust me--I already tried this.

Poetlister · Unread post by **Poetlister** » Thu Jan 10, 2013 10:54 pm

Volunteer Marek wrote:So then, bored, I fixed it myself to see how quickly it would pop back up. Two days.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... on=history

Reinserted by an IP who has only made one edit before, in 2007.

The IP is at California State University, so no doubt it's an established editor using an IP as disguise.

Hex · Unread post by **Hex** » Fri Jan 11, 2013 5:19 pm

thekohser wrote:The link you provided doesn't really show Danhash "chopping out" anything.

A stray quote mark in the link broke the diff. Try this.

EricBarbour · Unread post by **EricBarbour** » Sat Jan 12, 2013 3:30 am

Just (another) trivial toss-off BLP full of COI.

Chanel West Coast (T-H-L). World famous.

Authored entirely by C253liu.

rapper, singer, songwriter, actress, model and television personality,amazing personality

mac · Unread post by **mac** » Wed Jan 16, 2013 8:28 pm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia: ... n_the_news

mfw the birthdate doesn't even line up with the guy's article

EricBarbour · Unread post by **EricBarbour** » Sat Jan 19, 2013 7:53 pm

Ceco Manufacturing Company (T-H-L)

They were a major vacuum-tube manufacturer in the 1920s and 30s. But since Wikipedia doesn't care much about "ancient history" unless it
involves sex with boys, the Wikipedia article about Ceco is a garbage stub.

Plus, Lud Sibley of the TCA (which ALSO has no Wikipedia article) pointed out a major stupid error, in this garbage stub.

Ah, Wikipedia, I love it: ".By the mid-1980s, Ceco was also manufacturing semiconductors." Where did they ever get THAT? By the actual mid-1980s, CeCo had shrunk to a simple distributorship in Brooklyn - I bought some tubes from them at the time. By contrast, there is extensive and reliable coverage of CeCo in past issues of the "Old Timer's Bulletin," "Radio Age," and, most recently, "Tube Collector."

mac · Unread post by **mac** » Sat Jan 19, 2013 11:27 pm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_in_Numbers%3F

The lead paragraphs duplicate the next section for some reason.

cyofee · Unread post by **cyofee** » Sun Jan 20, 2013 1:19 pm

Narconon (T-H-L)

Contrast the unflattering photo of Tom Cruise with the ones used in the Tom Cruise (T-H-L) article.

Unread post by **HRIP7** » Sun Jan 20, 2013 8:10 pm

cyofee wrote:Narconon (T-H-L)

Contrast the unflattering photo of Tom Cruise with the ones used in the Tom Cruise (T-H-L) article.

Lots of edits by a new editor in the topic area, Mknjbhvgcf (T-C-L). Who was only active for a few weeks, before retiring.

Volunteer Marek · Unread post by **Volunteer Marek** » Wed Jan 23, 2013 3:22 am

Speaking of Shakira (my wife made me look it up), this one's almost funny: Milan (given name) (T-H-L)

"Among the Slovenes, the name is spread about the impact of Serbia and Croatia, and it is possible that in Croatia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia matured from Serbia. It is believed that in the distant past, this name derives from the old complex type name Miloslav, Milomir et al. The name Milan, and it is similar like Milica, Milke, Milos and Milutin, testified in many historical sources are written in prednemanjićko Age. The name in Latin and Italian is unisex and is named after the city of Milan . As the Italian male population indicates it as a name of the north . There is an explanation and that this name originally derived from the Latin name capt that was used in ancient Rome . Milan may be a nickname name Emiliano. Also, according to one interpretation of non-European name of Milan is derived from the Sanskrit and means "eager", "worthy" or "competitor". This is the name of the Hindu languages and means "together, the community, the union"."

Damn Czech Republic maturing out of Serbia! And those Italian populations better stop with that indicatin'

EricBarbour · Unread post by **EricBarbour** » Wed Jan 23, 2013 3:57 am

Volunteer Marek wrote:Speaking of Shakira (my wife made me look it up), this one's almost funny: Milan (given name) (T-H-L)

Ugh, that's pathetic. (Apparently you can thank Neomilan (T-C-L) for some of that drivel. He's almost certainly a sockpuppet of someone more notorious.)

cyofee · Unread post by **cyofee** » Wed Jan 23, 2013 11:11 am

I don't think that Neomilan could be an en.wp regular as his English is horrible. I don't know what to make of his contributions, though. Aside from his own name, he edited the article of an Indian guru, EastEnders, a Swedish geographer and someone who was in Britain's Got Talent, and he's obviously Serbian. He could be active on an other language Wikipedia, though.

Cedric · Unread post by **Cedric** » Wed Jan 23, 2013 12:21 pm

Volunteer Marek wrote:Speaking of Shakira (my wife made me look it up), this one's almost funny: Milan (given name) (T-H-L)

. . .

Damn Czech Republic maturing out of Serbia! And those Italian populations better stop with that indicatin'

Feh. Check out this bit of "history" lovingly preserved on Mywikibiz.

Hex · Unread post by **Hex** » Wed Jan 23, 2013 2:26 pm

Cedric wrote:Feh. Check out this bit of "history" lovingly preserved on Mywikibiz.

"Charlemagne... earned his epitat 'Great' by doing a lot of conquering."

Wow. You learn something new every day.