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Olimar The Wondercat[note 1] was a fictitious entry in the English edition of the Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia that survived on the site for nearly seven years before its deletion. It was created by a British user under the pseudonym "Dubbin" on 19 November 2006[1] and was deleted on 9 July 2013. The article's fictitious content was inspired by the original author's pet cat, as admitted on a Twitter post by this user.[2][3][4][5] Eventually, the article was edited further by other users, who added more fictitious information until the page was deleted.
Content
editThe article's content described Olimar the Wondercat as a children's television series created in the 1970s with a synopsis revolving around a cat named Olimar, shortened simply to Oli in most of the article, who has "magical powers."[4] The article also claimed that the series had run for 2 seasons,[5] each season containing 6 episodes. The antagonists of this supposed series were a dalmatian named Evil Derek and later a villainous cat named Cello the Mighty. In the end of the series, the article described "in a surprising twist" that Cello had defeated Oli, the protagonist, and "that he would go on to live forever and be proclaimed King of all Cats." In accordance to Wikipedia's layout guidelines, the article was very poorly written, structured, and sourced.
Deletion
editThe article was proposed for deletion by the user "RobinCarmody" on 8 July 2013, who, in his proposal, stated that the content was "completely bogus and fictional." The article had one reference to a fictitious website, "When We Were Kids TV Archive", that did not as much as mention a television series called Olimar the Wondercat. One day later, on 9 June, the article was speedy deleted as a blatant hoax article by the administrator "Postdlf".[6]
Notes
edit- ^ The title of this article is written exactly as the hoax's title was written. It uses improper capitalisation for titles; the correctly stylised title would be Olimar the Wondercat, which was the name used on the content of the article rather than on the title.
External links
editReferences
edit
- ^ "Wikipedia:List of hoaxes on Wikipedia/Olimar The Wondercat: Revision history". English Wikipedia. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
- ^ Robinson, Lyn (14 November 2014). "80 moments that shaped the world: Wikipedia". British Council. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
- ^ Fredouelle, Aude (3 April 2014). "Ten unusual hoax that escaped the vigilance of Wikipedia". Favor Angels. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
- ^ a b "THE 10 BEST & WEIRDEST WIKIPEDIA HOAXES". Chaostrophic. 1 July 2015. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
- ^ a b Remie, Mirjam (4 August 2014). "Hoe geloofwaardige bullshit jarenlang op Wikipedia blijft staan". NRC Handelsblad. Retrieved 2016-01-12.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Olimar The Wondercat". English Wikipedia. Retrieved 2016-01-12.
Category:Fictional cats Category:2006 hoaxes Category:Wikipedia Category:Internet hoaxes