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Welcome to Techsurvivors => Community => Topic started by: kbeartx on May 12, 2009, 03:28:40 PM

Title: Student posts fake quote on Wikipedia, other media are hoaxed
Post by: kbeartx on May 12, 2009, 03:28:40 PM
An Irish college student created a false Maurice Jarre quote in response to his recent death, posted it on Wikipedia without attribution, and many worldwide news organizations used the quote in their obituaries of Jarre.  

After a month, he publicly admitted he conceived this affair as a test, and the Media failed.

Article here.


Kb cool.gif
Title: Student posts fake quote on Wikipedia, other media are hoaxed
Post by: kimmer on May 12, 2009, 04:27:06 PM
QUOTE
the Media failed


Heh! Now I have proof of what I've thought for a long time. wink.gif
Title: Student posts fake quote on Wikipedia, other media are hoaxed
Post by: Xairbusdriver on May 12, 2009, 05:36:31 PM
Story I read quoted Jay Walsh as saying that they always tell people to never quote anything from Wikipedia without at least one other attribution source. Sure. And he also said, "Our network of volunteer editors do thankless work trying to provide the highest-quality information. They will be rightly perturbed and irritated about this." Yeah, really. Don't like the feeling of egg on the face? As I've said before, this dependance on 'single-source' "news" is a major problem for the spread of factual information all over the world. Two reasons, people are too lazy to do any research and the interweb. "Reader Beware!"

BTW, the picture I saw showed the student behind a black MBP. smile.gif
Title: Student posts fake quote on Wikipedia, other media are hoaxed
Post by: kbeartx on May 12, 2009, 07:15:04 PM
QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ May 12 2009, 05:36 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
... they always tell people to never quote anything from Wikipedia without at least one other attribution source.


IIRC, the article mentioned that Wikipedia editors removed the quote b/c it had no verified attribution, twice, and the 'author' replaced it, at least long enough to have it picked up and spread by the other media organizations.

Kb cool.gif
Title: Student posts fake quote on Wikipedia, other media are hoaxed
Post by: Xairbusdriver on May 13, 2009, 05:23:38 PM
QUOTE
removed the quote b/c it had no verified attribution, twice, and the 'author' replaced it
Just another reason that I don't trust "wiki's" in general. I use them mainly to get familiar with a subject. But for the real info, I just use the source(s) of listed at the bottom of the page. wink.gif
Title: Student posts fake quote on Wikipedia, other media are hoaxed
Post by: kbeartx on May 13, 2009, 11:44:51 PM
QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ May 13 2009, 05:23 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
...I use them mainly to get familiar with a subject. But for the real info, I just use the source(s) ...


IMO, that's the main purpose of a Wiki, provide a summary or an overview and point you to the details...

Kb cool.gif
Title: Student posts fake quote on Wikipedia, other media are hoaxed
Post by: Xairbusdriver on May 14, 2009, 08:06:37 PM
You might want to delete that post, kBear, many people get ostracized (at a minimum!) when they agree with me about anything! laughhard.gif