[WikiEN-l] Otto Middleton (a morality tale)

[geni]

On 10 May 2011 17:04, Scott MacDonald <doc.wikipedia at ntlworld.com> wrote:
> I've written a little essay which I think serves to illustrate the dangers
> of Wikipedia's tendency to create articles (and particularly BLPs) from a
> pastiche of newspaper articles.
>
> See
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Otto_Middleton_%28or_why_newspapers_a
> re_dubious_sources%29
>
> It may amuse (or it may not)
>

No it just provides further evidence you haven't really thought about
the issue.  Firstly lets not forget this is all in reaction to the
[[Pippa Middleton]] article which is based on a wider range of sources
over a longer period of time and who quite clearly exists. In any case
Britain has royal watchers in much the same way it has train spotters
so sourcing is not much of a concern.

Secondly if you think that this is limited to BLPs and newspapers you
are sadly mistaken.

Jasper Maskelyne was a stage magician who served as a perfectly
respectable and competent camouflage officer. After the war he had a
set of ghost written memoirs published which are a mix of wild
exaggerations and plain making stuff up. These stories have make it
into various sources beyond newspapers:

http://www.maskelynemagic.com/Resources/SEND%20IN%20THE%20CLOWNS.pdf

But hey it's not limited to people. There's [[Operation Tyr]]
originally a web hoax about a supposed plan by nazi germany to invade
Liechtenstein. It has since made it's way into Michael Sharpe's 5th
Gebirgsjäger Division: Hitler's mountain warfare specialists.

The story about an dummy airfield being bombed by dummy bombs has also
made it's way into an unreasonable number of sources.

Covered here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Geni/WW2_sourcing_issues

The difference is I'm able to document this without a WP:POINT violation.

-- 
geni