Talk:Ghost of Abraham Lincoln (photograph)

A fact from Ghost of Abraham Lincoln (photograph) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 13 March 2022 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that a hoax photograph (pictured) was created appearing to show Abraham Lincoln's ghost standing over his widow?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2022/March. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Ghost of Abraham Lincoln (photograph).

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Primary[edit]

Shouldn't (photograph) be added here and redirect 'Ghost of Abraham Lincoln' to Lincoln's ghost? Pinging Ravenpuff (who you gonna call? Ravenpuff). Randy Kryn (talk) 02:42, 8 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Moved back to original name. Randy Kryn (talk) 12:10, 8 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Proven hoax?[edit]

The lede of this article claims that the image has been "proven" to be a hoax, citing a Snopes article. I don't believe the article in question actually offers evidence for the claim. It doesn't give reasons that pertain to the photograph itself, only the (reasonable) assumption that a photograph purporting to depict a ghost must be a hoax. The strongest evidence it offers against the photograph itself is the word of a historical researcher who merely asserts that the photograph is "obviously" fake, presumably following the same reasoning.

It's one thing to infer, based on knowledge of how the world works, that "The photographer somehow perpetrated a hoax" is much more likely than "Lincoln's ghost actually appeared in this photograph." It's another thing, though, to claim that the photograph has been "proven" to be a hoax, which to me indicates that there is direct evidence regarding the photograph itself, such as analysis of the physical photograph, or a confession from the photographer (although even in this latter case, the word "proven" might not be as appropriate as something like "revealed").

In summary: I believe the word "proven" implies a strong claim for which we don't (and perhaps can't) have evidence. The only reason I didn't edit it myself is because it was a Did You Know article, and I didn't want to unilaterally change the article from the version that was approved and linked to from the Main Page. 2601:184:487F:4940:91E5:2856:5D8B:EDE4 (talk) 02:33, 13 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]