Undetected vandalism

[Poetlister]

I could have corrected it myself, but that would have been risky.

[Johnny Au]

Genocide (T-H-L)

From the Etymology section:

Lemkin defined genocide as follows:

New conceptions require new terms. By ‘‘genocide” we mean the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group. This new word, coined by the author to denote an old practice in its modern development, is made from the ancient Greek word genos (race, tribe) and the Latin tide (killing), thus corresponding in its formation to such words as tyrannicide, homicide, infanticide, etc. Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups. Genocide is directed against the national group as an entity, and the actions involved are directed against individuals, not in their individual capacity, but as members of the national group.

"Tide" does not mean "killing" in Latin. "-cide" is a Latinate suffix for "killing":

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-cide

[Poetlister]

Is that vandalism or just a mistake, either by the author of the passage or the editor who inserted it? The whole passage was inserted here.

[Johnny Au]

Thanks for taking another look. It's very likely a genuine mistake (given that the article is sem-protected), though it did look like vandalism if there's no context.

[Poetlister]

And it has now been corrected by a friend of ours.

[Smiley]

Howay, Peter man! Ah divvn't knaa if that's reet, like.

[Poetlister]

Fixed by our good friend Mangoe (T-C-L).

[Smiley]

UNC Wilmington Seahawks (since April 2018)

Sammy C. Hawk

"Sammy" is the official name of UNCW's costumed Seahawk mascot. The name "Sammy" was selected for its gender neutral connotation.

Sammy is a Hebrew name meaning sun child. UNCW's Seahawk is a mythical creature, born from the sun, who lives in the Atlantic Ocean as a fish. During the sports season the Seahawk is able to shapeshift into the form of a bird of prey to feast on the opponents. In order to transmutate Sammy needs the mystical basketball that was left in Wilmington during the Blizzard that hit the city in the early part of the 21st century bringing with it 3 championships. What follows is the story behind the legend.

This same Blizzard also attracted a visitor from the Midwestern Lowlands who always enjoyed taking the dick of death,[4] a bag of cash, an old car, a euphemism, a bowl of bar snacks, a lifetime student with an affinity for Polish food, a digit known for escorting themselves from the coliseum, a future reality TV producer, a drunk from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, a magician, and a narcoleptic.[5] While the loyalty of these individuals was never questioned, their trustworthiness was cemented after fending off a pirate attack in their home port, proving to Sammy that they would be formidable asset in any situation that posed a threat to his ambitions.[6] In a further display of prowess and power, the band of warriors demonstrated their skill with arrow and flame in advance of a monumental clash with the men of Troy. A historic battle followed, but the Trojan forces folded, when an assault reminiscent of the Boston tea party destroyed their chances of claiming victory.[7]

Sammy's ability to move from sea to land was built out of necessity. A white bearded man, known only as 'Professor Sandbag,' stepped down from his position high atop Trask & Sammy was called upon to fill the void. Similar to Championship rings from Midwestern schools the bags gathered in the professors twisted games just don't count. During the early years Sammy struggled from drug addiction, having lived in the opioid capital of the country. Sammy enjoyed the Buzz it received for a few years, before being saved by another avian friend. Like a rolling stone that can gather no Moss, Sammy must always stay on the move. The University has gone through some stagnant periods, however the mythical Seahawk has always emerged stronger. This comes from the creatures love of Rocky Mountain water & cinnamon.

Sammy has an affinity for country music & has recently taken to gospel covers performed by Chris Stapleton. Despite being we all we got, we all we need, Sammy knows it can always count on the kindness of the club & a good pair of teal pants to bring the creature out of a slump. Sammy's partner in crime is a moray eel, who with the help of a magical baseball can transform into an eloquent equine. While gilping down on handfuls of oats this mustached filly may appear at first glance to need braces, but then again does the mythical horse even have a face?

The legend of Sammy was written by a group of wise thinkers, who were able to eloquently capture the history over an extended weekend trip. The story was inspired by the history of the Skyhawk from UT Martin. They were able to whittle down the story to a simple 4-part thesis.

1. UNCW has lovingly been referring to as UNC by the Sea. Having a mascot that lives in the ocean and can transmutate into a bird of prey was the most logical choice.

2. Having a 'Seahawk' mascot was only natural, especially with the number of osprey seen around the campus.

3. Having a bird as a mascot with such a wide wingspan is important, as it now feels the need to blow down the wolf's house that has been built just up the road. Although the FBI seems to be doing a good job of that.[8]

4. The Screaming Seahawks were clowns.

A biopic will soon be available for enjoyment.

[Poetlister]

For a start, Sammy is short for Samuel, Hebrew Shmuel, "God Has Heard".

[wizzito]

The first verified 16-year hoax has come. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia ... _Corrochio

"Fictitious 1890s New York tap dancer; tap dance as a style did not originate until 1928."

It's based on a joke in a Seinfeld episode.

[Poetlister]

The first verified 16-year hoax has come. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia ... _Corrochio

I note a line in the AfD

Comment - Note that Suez triangle (T-H-L) has now been deleted from Wikipedia:List of hoaxes on Wikipedia due to lack of consensus that it was a hoax. Gildir (talk) 03:54, 22 August 2021 (UTC)

This needs some research. If it's not a hoax, should the article be restored?

[wizzito]

Another 16-year hoax is up for deletion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_"Russer"_Russell

[Poetlister]

The article admits that he is "a little-known traveller" and there are no references. Even if it weren't a hoax, it would be deleted for non-notability.

[Smiley]

Detected today after twelve and a half years:

Hold up, there's a reliarbubble source for that...

He’s also a music manager, a DJ, and even has his own series of educational DVDs called Simon’s Web, which teaches children about the internet.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profil ... imon-webbe

[Poetlister]

This refers to Simon Webbe (T-H-L). The remover was Geni (T-C-L), a very experienced admin. I'm sure he'll restore the info if someone points this out.

[lonza leggiera]

I doubt it. Given that the earliest copy of that BBC page available on the Wayback Machine postdates the insertion of the factoid into Wikipedia by more than 5 years, there would appear to me to be more than a smidgin of likelihood that the BBC page is an instance of the second stage of citogenesis.

[Poetlister]

That would be very sloppy for the BBC, though not unprecedented alas.

[Lyallpuri]

At Epoxy (T-H-L), someone decided to add the following useful information:

Fun fact: A 25 Year old Indian man died by using epoxy instead of a condom.

And of course, in typical Wikipedia fashion, another IP, on seeing this totally plausible non-vandalism without a source, thought it would be helpful to add a [citation needed] tag instead of removing it outright.

[Lyallpuri]

And as usual, our resident superhero saves the day.

[Poetlister]

At Epoxy (T-H-L), someone decided to add the following useful information:

This story has been reported widely; see for example Times of India, WFLA , New York Post, The Sun and Newsweek. I'd say that's enough coverage to make the incident "worthy" by WP standards of an article, "Death of Salman Mirza".

[Lyallpuri]

Mea culpa. Still, I'd hope that whenever it's restored, it's worded in a way that doesn't make it seem like vandalism.

[Hemiauchenia]

Just managed to remove vandalism that was originally added in June 2008. In that month, an IP added the claim to the obscure fossil fish Hypsocormus (T-H-L) was "discovered by Suvajeet Duttagupta aka Pavlo for the first time as fossils. It was later worked upon by reknown paleontologist Ishani Pruthi and classified" (presumably either the name of the vandal and/or of people known to the person) diff The information was removed by another IP in February 2010 diff but then added back by another IP in March 2010 diff and then removed by Mikenorton (T-C-L) the same month diff, before being added back again by another IP in April 2010 diff , where it sat until today when I removed it.

[Zoloft]

Just managed to remove vandalism that was originally added in June 2008. In that month, an IP added the claim to the obscure fossil fish Hypsocormus (T-H-L) was "discovered by Suvajeet Duttagupta aka Pavlo for the first time as fossils.

Of course it will live on forever on scraper sites: e.g. link

[Hemiauchenia]

Ohh Fossil Wiki, that site. Apparently that wiki doesn't have functioning moderators. I remember a tweet from Zoologist and Paleontologist Darren Naish where he was talking about how an article on the wiki lifted huge parts of his own work without crediting him.

The Fossil Wiki article in question is entitled Birds Came First and the copyvio still hasn't been removed over a year later. The article itself hasn't been edited since 2009 when it was initially created.

[The Adversary]

Wikidata must be a heaven for any vandal
You can change a persons picture to that of a hamster, and it stays for months (link)

You can change a journalist, or engineer's name to Mia Khalifa (T-H-L); the same (link, link)

Or you can get your "official youtube-channel" renamed to the same lady (link)

It looks as if wikidata has no vandal-checking at all?

[wizzito]

The longest-lasting hoax may have just been found, yet again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia ... /Ruda_Real

Article as of now:

"Ruda Real" (June 5, 1977 - January 29, 2006) was the stage name of Kairuba Brown, an American hip-hop soul singer

Brown was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. He started singing very early in his life, and was performing professionally by his teens. In 1996, he attracted the attention of legendary R&B group, Boyz II Men, who wanted to sign him as the first act on their new label, Stonecreek Recordings. Brown turned down the deal, instead opting to try his hand at building his own record label, citing the low royalties a new artist receives as part of the reason. He eventually recorded and sold his material in the New Orleans underground (which also included artists such as Kane and Abel and 5th Ward Weebie, and started Master P), working with other underground artists such as Magic, building somewhat of a name for himself.

He is probably best known for the song Bounce Ya on My Pole, a sexually charged club song of late 1999. The low-budget video for the song featured a model named Nichole. Teaming up with his younger brother, who lived in Flint, Michigan, he attempted to expand his popularity by first reaching out to the demographic in Flint that was New Orleans-bred, and ultimately the Detroit hip-hop scene (which produced such acts as D12, Eminem, and Kid Rock). Although his label, Dynamite Records (now defunct), was initially profitable, disputes and unprofessional behavior caused Jive Records to pass.

His popularity was shaky, and after more touring, he still failed to reach mainstream attention. Ruda Real was working on a new album in 2005 after numerous problems, including run-ins with the law; his whereabouts were uncertain for a time after Hurricane Katrina, however, he turned up fine with his family in Texas.

On 29 January 2006, Brown was struck and killed by a car in Houston, Texas. He was about to embark on a tour to debut new songs.

Article when created in 2005:

Ruda Real is the stage name of Kairuba Brown, born June 2, 1977 in New Orleans, LA. He sang for early in his life, and was performing professionally by his teens. In 1996, he attracted the attention of legendary R&B group, Boyz II Men, who wanted to sign him as the first act on their then new label, Stonecreek Recordings. Brown refused the deal, instead opting to try his hand at building his own record label, citing the low royalties a new artist receives as part of the reason. He would eventually record and sell his material in the New Orleans underground, building somewhat of a name for himself. Teaming up with his younger brother, who lived in Flint, MI, he attempted to expand his popularity by first reaching out the demographic there that was New Orleans-bred, and ultimately the Detriot hip-hop scene (which produced such CURRENT hot acts as D12, Eminem, and Kid Rock). His popularity would not last, and after more touring, he still failed to reach mainstream attention. An eventual addiction to crack and criminal activity ended his promising career.

[wizzito]

Someone on Twitter admitted to creating a hoax ~16 years ago: https://twitter.com/aobate/status/1466101687773503493

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia ... nry_Farrow

[wizzito]

A user on the Wikipedia Discord found uh.... this hoax that languished for about 11 years in userspace.

https://archive.ph/rNEMO

A little NSFW, though.

[MadManz]

Togba (T-H-L)

[tarantino]

Doing a Cheldon

The village is thought to be the origin of the phrase "to do a Cheldon", meaning "to inadvertently cause a series of calamitous events", although alternative theories have been proposed. Longtime Cheldon resident Agnes P. Widdicombe attributes the phrase to an incident in 1918 in which a resident attempted to kill a marauding badger with a homemade flamethrower; the burning badger entered the village church and ignited a First World War munitions dump, causing an explosion that killed all 17 people inside at the time.[8]

Been there for a year and a half.

archive

[Smiley]

Boo! Hiss!

[Jim]

Doing a Cheldon

The village is thought to be the origin of the phrase "to do a Cheldon", meaning "to inadvertently cause a series of calamitous events", although alternative theories have been proposed. Longtime Cheldon resident Agnes P. Widdicombe attributes the phrase to an incident in 1918 in which a resident attempted to kill a marauding badger with a homemade flamethrower; the burning badger entered the village church and ignited a First World War munitions dump, causing an explosion that killed all 17 people inside at the time.[8]

Been there for a year and a half.

archive

Thanks for sharing that. It's now one of my all-time favourites.

I'm just disappointed that seems to be the only edit that IP ever made. I was hoping for more.

[FelinaLavandula]

Nontheism has been applied and plays significant roles in Progressivism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.

diff
May 4, 2021.
Although… well, it didn’t go undetected, actually. Joefromrandb (T-C-L) showed up August 20 to save the day!
Er, wait.
diff

I (logged out) have since removed it.
I know there are better ways to format this post but I’m on mobile and copy-pasting diffs is easier than anything else on here.

[FelinaLavandula]

Not vandalism and not especially egregious but I am mad about it.
Water wheel (T-H-L), with 167 watchers, over 10k pageviews since this edit, and several editors who have edited this page since, had a citation template at the head of the article for over a month due to a pasting error.
diff
And I have just noticed that site favourite BrownHairedGirl moved the template like it was supposed to be there!!! I know it’s an AWB edit, but perhaps one could consider reading the page before making an automated edit? Gah!
diff

[BrendanMoody]

What amuses me is when vandalism doesn’t just go undetected but is repeatedly reinstated by would-be vandal fighters who apparently think that because anonymous editors are removing it it must be quality content. Over the past two weeks a non-existent children’s video has repeatedly been added back to Wee Sing (T-H-L), with at least one of the anons who kept removing it (without edit summaries, admittedly) eventually getting blocked.

Then there’s Vincent Marzello (T-H-L), where a bogus birthplace, birthdate, and cause of death lasted four months instead of a few days because vandal fighters couldn’t take thirty seconds to compare the article content to the cited source, or even five seconds to notice that the age at death in the headline of the source didn’t match the content they were restoring.

[Midsize Jake]

What amuses me is when vandalism doesn’t just go undetected but is repeatedly reinstated by would-be vandal fighters who apparently think that because anonymous editors are removing it it must be quality content. Over the past two weeks a non-existent children’s video has repeatedly been added back to Wee Sing (T-H-L), with at least one of the anons who kept removing it (without edit summaries, admittedly) eventually getting blocked.

And yeah, Wee Sing video mashup bootleggers are the worst. They get kicked off of IMDb and Discogs because they freak out when they can't get past the pre-publication review, so they show up at Wikipedia because there's nowhere else to go for free promotion of nonexistent product with no pre-publication review, but then they freak out because of the post-publication review, and they just won't stop — they actually can't, because they're all based in Tajikistan or Zimbabwe or New York City or Hollywood or someplace like that, and it's just the only work they can get in those places. Next stop is out on the street, except for the ones that get picked up by the Trump 2024 campaign.

[Beeblebrox]

That Wee Sing article is pretty terrible.

[The Blue Newt]

Big ‘ol Joe is, of course, still there: link

We can also learn from this article that Poor Lo can not tell the difference between a canyon and a mountain…

[Hemiauchenia]

Not sure what's going on with Simon Lelic (T-H-L), appears that an IP has pasted many tens of kilobytes of some page patrol log into the article several weeks ago.

[FelinaLavandula]

diff
Over two weeks of the page for Niels (name) stating “niels is good name for gaes”, edited in by some 13-year-old IP user. Luckily, since then it’s only seen just over 200 pageviews.

[Catfish Jim & spd]

I've had some fun cleaning up the article "The Inklings" recently. This is a fairly important and famous literary group centred around CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien. There were a few IP-added hoax members that had been sitting there unchallenged for a few years. It took a little more trouble to remove Dorothy L Sayers who has been sitting on that page as a member for 19 years...

[Ritchie333]

For two weeks, Talk:Marjorie Taylor Greene/FAQ (T-H-L) (whose parent article I would estimate gets an average of about 4,000 views a day) has said:

"Why does the article call Greene "far-right"?"

"Answer: Because Wikipedia is a joke. They take stories from publications THEY SAY are credible and parrot the left-wing talking points. See list below. Then they claim it's sourced when in fact it is subjective at best and Pravda (See communist propaganda) at worst."

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... 1059166397

[The Blue Newt]

Sam Hughes (T-H-L). Note the nasal habit mentioned.

[No Ledge]

For two weeks, Talk:Marjorie Taylor Greene/FAQ (T-H-L) (whose parent article I would estimate gets an average of about 4,000 views a day) has said:

"Why does the article call Greene "far-right"?"

"Answer: Because Wikipedia is a joke. They take stories from publications THEY SAY are credible and parrot the left-wing talking points. See list below. Then they claim it's sourced when in fact it is subjective at best and Pravda (See communist propaganda) at worst."

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... 1059166397

I disagree that the edit was "vandalism". "far-right" is not a characteristic that can be proven or disproven as a fact. "far-right" is an opinion, and the fact that "reliable sources" state that opinion in their own voice doesn't magically transform that opinion into a fact. Wikipedia should avoid stating opinions in Wiki-voice. A fact would be that so-and-so said that Greene was "far-right", attributing the opinion to a person or organization who stated that opinion.

Greene recently had some positive words about Julian Assange, as did Ilhan Omar. What does that make these two politicians, "far-lefrite"?

[AndyTheGrump]

For two weeks, Talk:Marjorie Taylor Greene/FAQ (T-H-L) (whose parent article I would estimate gets an average of about 4,000 views a day) has said:

"Why does the article call Greene "far-right"?"

"Answer: Because Wikipedia is a joke. They take stories from publications THEY SAY are credible and parrot the left-wing talking points. See list below. Then they claim it's sourced when in fact it is subjective at best and Pravda (See communist propaganda) at worst."

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... 1059166397

I disagree that the edit was "vandalism". "far-right" is not a characteristic that can be proven or disproven as a fact. "far-right" is an opinion, and the fact that "reliable sources" state that opinion in their own voice doesn't magically transform that opinion into a fact. Wikipedia should avoid stating opinions in Wiki-voice. A fact would be that so-and-so said that Greene was "far-right", attributing the opinion to a person or organization who stated that opinion.

Greene recently had some positive words about Julian Assange, as did Ilhan Omar. What does that make these two politicians, "far-lefrite"?

Wikipedia routinely asserts 'opinions' as 'facts' - as indeed do many other more reputable publications. Take for example the claim that 'Europe' is a 'continent'. That isn't verifiable either, beyond demonstrating that people say so...

[No Ledge]

Wikipedia routinely asserts 'opinions' as 'facts' - as indeed do many other more reputable publications. Take for example the claim that 'Europe' is a 'continent'. That isn't verifiable either, beyond demonstrating that people say so...

Oh come on now. There is broad consensus on what the location and boundaries of the entity defined as "Europe" are. There are no claims I'm aware of that Africa is part of Europe. Maybe there is limited debate about the precise boundary between Europe and Asia, or maybe Europe is just a sub-continent of "Eurasia". This is just nitpicking over minor details.

On the the other hand Josh Hawley partnered with Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont on a proposal to provide $2000 stimulus checks to Americans. Is that an extreme right-wing position? I thought it was supposed to be a radical socialist position.

It's the political equivalent of a South American claiming they live in Europe.

[AndyTheGrump]

Whatever. 'Broad consensus' is still opinion, and cannot be 'proven or disproven.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is far right. Or if you prefer a more exact term, how about 'kleptofascist scum'?

[Zoloft]

Wikipedia routinely asserts 'opinions' as 'facts' - as indeed do many other more reputable publications. Take for example the claim that 'Europe' is a 'continent'. That isn't verifiable either, beyond demonstrating that people say so...

Oh come on now. There is broad consensus on what the location and boundaries of the entity defined as "Europe" are. There are no claims I'm aware of that Africa is part of Europe. Maybe there is limited debate about the precise boundary between Europe and Asia, or maybe Europe is just a sub-continent of "Eurasia". This is just nitpicking over minor details.

On the the other hand Josh Hawley partnered with Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont on a proposal to provide $2000 stimulus checks to Americans. Is that an extreme right-wing position? I thought it was supposed to be a radical socialist position.

It's the political equivalent of a South American claiming they live in Europe.

I know an Argentinian who would argue that with you.

[FelinaLavandula]

Sorry to drag this out longer but why can there be “broad consensus” on the borders of continents (or individual countries, for that matter) but not on what constitutes far-right politics or a far-right politician?

[No Ledge]

Sorry to drag this out longer but why can there be “broad consensus” on the borders of continents (or individual countries, for that matter) but not on what constitutes far-right politics or a far-right politician?

Is requiring all members to vote either “yes” or “no” on every question before the House a far-right position? Since MTG is defined as a "far right" politician, then, by definition, demanding accountability must be "far-right" politics.