[ NNSquad ] Hoax article detailing fake war stayed up on Wikipedia for five years

[Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>]

Hoax article detailing fake war stayed up on Wikipedia for five years

http://j.mp/VJDVnK  (The Daily Caller)

     For the last five years, those who spend their time procrastinating on
     Wikipedia could read up on a 17th century war between colonial
     Portugal and India's Maratham Empire known as the "Bicholim Conflict."
     The problem is that Bicholim Conflict never happened, and that the
     entire 4,500-word article on the war was nothing more than an
     elaborate joke ... It was voted a "good article" by Wikipedia's
     readers, and at one point was even nominated to be a "featured
     article" that would be prominently displayed on the site's homepage.

 - - -

Actually, in addition to totally faked stories that likely are
scattered throughout the totality of the Wikipedia corpus, what's of
even more concern is the errors and purposeful misstatements seeded in
otherwise factual articles that don't receive enormous day to day
attention.  But hell, who would ever have expected such problems with
a reference source edited by anonymous persons of unknown credentials
or expertise, sporting screen names like blowboy17?

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren 
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Founder:
 - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org 
 - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
 - Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org
 - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren 
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
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