•The Times Score Own Goal Thanks To Wikipedia Journalism
Bad Idea, UK -54 minutes ago
It’s emerged that The Times have made themselves look a little bit silly, by ranking a footballer that doesn’t even exist in their ‘50 Best Young ...

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A few years ago, a bunch of members of the Epinions consumer-review site got together and started flooding the site with reviews for a nonexistent album by a nonexistent band. This led to a storm of controversy on that site, but as far as I know no mainstream media mistakenly picked up that hoax. "Citizen-participation" Web 2.0 sites have always been ripe for hoaxes, which can work if they're done cleverly enough.

Hoaxes have worked in old mediums for a long time. The Captain Pugwash characters hoax* was an article in a newspaper by a known hoaxer yet it still has legs today - and mostly it is spread verbally as it has a ring of truth. Arguably, Web 2.0 could be the solution to the problem if the available information was edited by a reliable and verifiable process. Tinternet makes these hoaxes quicker, but there is nothing inherent in Tinternet that creates gullibility.

*aka Master Bates, Seaman Stains and Roger the Cabin Boy. However, any fan would instantly recognise that the sign off by the cabin boy (who always sorted out the hapless Captain) every week was "...and Tom said nothing."