[Wikimedia-l] Longest living hoax?

[Andrew Gray]

On 5 March 2013 16:42, Federico Leva (Nemo) <nemowiki at gmail.com<javascript:;>>
wrote:

> It's also telling that the longest hoax was about ancient history: it
> matches the popular belief that history is by far the biggest weakness of
> Wikipedia.

Our historical coverage is patchy, but I don't think it's our biggest
weakness - art and culture probably are. That said, history (especially
non-western history) is one of the bigger weaknesses of the internet as a
whole, which reinforces the problem; it's much easier for something made up
to "stick" if there's no easy online falsification of it. You can plausibly
demonstrate that a contemporary band or ongoing war does not exist without
too much trouble; if you draw a blank on a Renaissance painter, you're more
likely to assume the digital resources are lacking.

--
- Andrew Gray
  andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk <javascript:;>


-- 
- Andrew Gray
  andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk