Talk:List of hoaxes
The article Reddit serial killer hoax was nominated for deletion. The discussion was closed on 23 September 2013 with a consensus to merge the content into List of hoaxes. If you find that such action has not been taken promptly, please consider assisting in the merger instead of re-nominating the article for deletion. To discuss the merger, please use this talk page. Do not remove this template after completing the merger. A bot will replace it with {{afd-merged-from}}. |
This article is rated List-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||
|
This page has archives. Sections older than 90 days may be automatically archived by ClueBot III when more than 5 sections are present. |
Ysolo (Albanian eggplant festival)[edit]
Since 2012, our article on List of harvest festivals has included a mention of Ysolo, purportedly a “festival marking the first day of harvest of eggplants in Tirana, Albania”. I believe this is a hoax. I will shortly delete it from that article, but it might be deserving of mention here, because it seems that its appearance on that page has led to a mountain on Ceres being officially named Ysolo Mons after the spurious festival. (See [1][2][3].) The hoax would seem to have been remarkably successful. —Mark Dominus (talk) 18:15, 24 November 2016 (UTC)
- A higher level of evidence is needed to add a new fact to Wikipedia than to remove a dubious fact. Your search for evidence of the Ysolo festival probably justifies its removal from List of harvest festivals, but it does not justify its inclusion here as a hoax. We would need to cite a source to confirm that it is a hoax. Your USGS source [4] cites this blog. This would not be a good source for Wikipedia. Verbcatcher (talk) 18:56, 24 November 2016 (UTC)
- Of course, and I am not planning to introduce it here without a reliable source. I am only bringing it to your attention as an item of possible interest. —Mark Dominus (talk) 21:13, 24 November 2016 (UTC)
- Yes, it is interesting. It is a possible candidate for Wikipedia:List of citogenesis incidents. You could follow it up with whoever was responsible for naming the mountain (possibly NASA or USGS). Verbcatcher (talk) 00:34, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
- Thanks, I have mentioned it at Wikipedia_talk:List_of_citogenesis_incidents#Ysolo_Mons. —Mark Dominus (talk) 02:34, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
- Update: I just received email from USGS that they agree with my assessment and that they are changing the name of the mountain to Yamor Mons. —Mark Dominus (talk) 17:37, 7 December 2016 (UTC)
Ah, good. Dinero y amor is better than dinero y solo. Still, an eggplant is better than nothing. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Skylax30 (talk • contribs) 12:35, 26 May 2017 (UTC)
Johann Hari added[edit]
Corrected the remarkable state of affairs which resulted in the most significant case in modern times of journalistic fraud, fabrication and plagiarism (alongside Jayson Blair) was missing. 82.10.117.175 (talk) 10:36, 27 June 2017 (UTC)
- I've removed it as it's unsourced and qualifies under WP:BLP - although feel free to re-add once you've collected some sources to support the addition. Chaheel Riens (talk) 10:47, 27 June 2017 (UTC)
Definitions[edit]
I think we have to be more discerning here when defining a hoax. There's a fine line between hoax and outright fraud, and I think when placing an entry into this list, one has to be careful to distinguish between the two. The key, I think, harkens to the definitions below from Mirriam Webster, which includes the word "preposterous", and Cambridge and Collins, which includes "practical joke" and "trick". If a hoax is to be differentiated at all from a mere agenda-advancing fraud or career-advancing (among other) lies, I think that vein of understanding must be considered when deciding just what exactly a hoax is – and whether it should be included in this list.
- Definition of hoax:
- [Mirriam Webster]: transitive verb
- to trick into believing or accepting as genuine something false and often preposterous
- [Cambridge Dictionary]: noun
- a plan to deceive a large group of people; a trick:
- {Collins}: noun
- a trick, esp. one meant as a practical joke
Thoughts? GenQuest "Talk to Me" 11:31, 19 August 2017 (UTC)
- I agree. The Wikipedia way to approach this should be to follow what reliable secondary sources have labeled as "hoax", however, the definition can be somewhat nebulous and I assume that even reliable sources are not entirely consistent with what they mean by "hoax". -Location (talk) 15:30, 19 August 2017 (UTC)
- Practical jokes are typically small scale, played among friends. A hoax is a more elaborate ruse perpetrated on a large scale against the general public, often in an attempt to get wider publicity. Putting your sleeping friend's hand in water is a practical joke. Putting a dinosaur toy in a lake and sending photos to the newspaper (along with your story of the encounter) as evidence of the "Loch Ness Monster" is a hoax. - Kzirkel (talk) 14:55, 29 June 2019 (UTC)
Cranberries for UTI[edit]
Cranberries for UTI was/is a hoax perpetrated in 1960 following the Great Cranberry Scare of 1959. Everybody still falls for it. Definitly fits the definition(s) of hoax; except that it is perhaps an outright fraud AND it was done for money.Richard8081 (talk) 19:55, 2 November 2021 (UTC)
Can you add this please?[edit]
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/andrew-dawson-giant-on-mountain-sighting-tiktok-giant 2600:1700:D150:17F0:189:CD08:626C:BB7E (talk) 19:34, 1 May 2023 (UTC)