Wikipedia suffers from a plague of those who have come here to promote their own careers and/or their company. Furthermore, for some unaccountable reason people think it's a good idea to come here in order to write up the latest clever hoax that they thought up in school one day.
Quite often these spammers will make grandiose claims of notability for the advertising/hoax that they are writing about. It is necessary to be able to see through the lies and promotion and expose them for the complete bollocks that they are. In reality, the topic or person in question is usually about as notable as my left sock. The following is a good example.
Moreschi's left sock
editBought in 1991 from Company X, Moreschi's left sock lost its right sock in 1996 and as a consequence spent many years moldering in Moreschi's sock drawer, alongside all those opera tickets and bits of cheese. Despite many years in this ignoble obscurity, Moreschi's left sock was hurtled into worldwide prominence after the following incident.
On his first date with the girl of his dreams, after so many years spent searching for Ideal Girl, due to his haste and nervousness, Moreschi bizarrely wore this very left sock. When, unsurprisingly, he was summarily dismissed by the girl in question on the grounds that not only did the socks not match, but that this left sock stank to high heaven - not surprising after years in company with the cheese - Moreschi was emotionally crushed.
However, he was able to turn this event to his advantage when he lyrically described his dejection in his best-selling album Vandals like cheese, girls don't.[1] The album in question, dedicated to the left sock, was an enormous hit and propelled Moreschi to worldwide fame.[2] Recently, the sock in question was sold to a well-known Russian oligarch on eBay for $200,000 in an auction that received great popular interest.[3][4]
Points of interest
edit- ^ Again, no details provided as to how "best-selling" is best-selling. This sort of thing is quite common in promotional articles.
- ^ Just how "worldwide" is worldwide?
- ^ Quite apart from unnamed dubious Russian oligarchs, don't be fooled by big numbers: see WP:AADD#This number is big.
- ^ The big problem is simply this: even assuming that the subject of the above, charming fairytale is notable and has his Wikipedia biography, even assuming that the album Vandals like cheese, girls don't is notable and has its own article, still there is no reason as to why the left sock should be notable. Notability by association is highly dubious at best.