Commissario
I have and not only that, it's now accepted as true!
Over ten years ago, I edited a page for a popular TV show and gave one of the main characters a middle name. The character never had a middle name mentioned in the series and there was just one brief shot of a document showing a middle initial. I made up a middle name that under no circumstances could be correct, it was a totally ridiculous name, in fact, not even something that would normally be considered a name.
I edited the Wikipedia page, just a small edit to add this middle name and then I basically forgot that I'd done it.
A few weeks ago, I looked back at the Wikipedia page for the TV show to see that the middle name I invented is still there. Needless to say, I was a bit surprised about it. The next thing I did was to google the characters name, including the invented middle name.
That name now appears all throughout the internet, including major news sites who, whenever they mention the actor name and some of his well known roles, use the middle name as well. Not only that, on the actors own web page where he lists characters he's played throughout his career, he includes my invented middle name. He must have taken it from Wikipedia.
The show generates some fan fiction and the middle name has been used as a major plot point in one series of stories.
When I look at the Wikipedia history, there is a comment about the middle name, one specifically says it was never mentioned in the show but another person has added a citation of the actor's own web site
It's something utterly harmless but that little made up addition is now effectively taken as accurate.
Have you vandalised Wikipedia? How long did it last?
Over ten years ago, I edited a page for a popular TV show and gave one of the main characters a middle name. The character never had a middle name mentioned in the series and there was just one brief shot of a document showing a middle initial. I made up a middle name that under no circumstances could be correct, it was a totally ridiculous name, in fact, not even something that would normally be considered a name.
I edited the Wikipedia page, just a small edit to add this middle name and then I basically forgot that I'd done it.
A few weeks ago, I looked back at the Wikipedia page for the TV show to see that the middle name I invented is still there. Needless to say, I was a bit surprised about it. The next thing I did was to google the characters name, including the invented middle name.
That name now appears all throughout the internet, including major news sites who, whenever they mention the actor name and some of his well known roles, use the middle name as well. Not only that, on the actors own web page where he lists characters he's played throughout his career, he includes my invented middle name. He must have taken it from Wikipedia.
The show generates some fan fiction and the middle name has been used as a major plot point in one series of stories.
When I look at the Wikipedia history, there is a comment about the middle name, one specifically says it was never mentioned in the show but another person has added a citation of the actor's own web site
It's something utterly harmless but that little made up addition is now effectively taken as accurate.
Have you vandalised Wikipedia? How long did it last?
