Fanboys hijack Nintendo Wikipedia entry

by Blake Snow { Nov 9th 2006 at 8:40PM }

This morning at 11:10 AM CST and presumably by either a friend of Sony or Microsoft, someone sabotaged Nintendo's Wikipedia entry replacing the full article with the following thoughtful and provocative statement: "Nintendo Sucks!!!!!1" In the short moments before Wikipedia admins could get the correct page back up, the assailant successfully misled several would-be Nintendo fans to assume the company had gone out of business, then deciding to "switch teams." This is all according to an unsubstantiated Digger and Flickr user.

All in good fun. But vandalism (or hoax) FTW!

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Eric Von Shpeel @ Nov 9th 2006 8:45PM

wikipedia has hundreds of thousands of pages that get vandalised thousands of times a day.. why does this one time warrant a joystiq article??

Intellectualdiot @ Nov 9th 2006 8:45PM

Stop the presses, a Wikipedia page was vandalized!

We've embarked upon the slippery slope people. Abandon all hope.

fredrik dunder @ Nov 9th 2006 8:48PM

@ Eric Von Idiot

because it's NINTENDOOOOOO = Games n stuff like that

Tim @ Nov 9th 2006 8:49PM

It was Jack Thompson.

Blink @ Nov 9th 2006 8:53PM

The MURDER SIMULATORS are killing these poor helpless Wikipedia pages!

Epsilon @ Nov 9th 2006 8:57PM

*Goes off to retaliate on the Sony page*

Epsilon @ Nov 9th 2006 8:59PM

Dang, they locked the page. :(

NanoGator @ Nov 9th 2006 9:01PM

"wikipedia has hundreds of thousands of pages that get vandalised thousands of times a day.. why does this one time warrant a joystiq article??"

a. It's video game related. Vandalizing Michael Jackson's page isn't.

b. Console zealots are a big part of gaming culture.

c. It's a perfect example of how idiotic this latest round of fanboyism is getting.

Yet Another Judoka @ Nov 9th 2006 9:06PM

the ps3's page was the same, i even got a screenshot of it. now if i could just take the time to upload it...... but i'm too lazy.

Eric Von Shpeel @ Nov 9th 2006 9:07PM

all 3 of the consoles pages get vandalised very often.. this just isnt news.. perhaps Blake Snow is new to the internet and Wikipedia but ANYONE CAN EDIT IT, this is really a pathetic article more worthy of Robert Summa. What next "Last night I had a dream i was playing Dreamcast" ?

Optimus Prime @ Nov 9th 2006 9:14PM

I hope noobs reading that dont actually believe that Nintendo sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

cameraman @ Nov 9th 2006 9:20PM

LMAO!!!!!

lets just put the gun down and we go get me those fries @ Nov 9th 2006 9:28PM

HAHAHAHAHA

Alex @ Nov 9th 2006 9:30PM

It was Robert Summa!

Kelsey Steinman @ Nov 9th 2006 9:30PM

well that just goes to show you how anti-Nintendo people are stupid(way to show Nintendo *note sarcasm*)

whatever they play surely sucks and they wish they played Nintendo

and for whatever they play, Microsoft or Sony,...it only looks bad for them

Daylon Schindler @ Nov 9th 2006 9:31PM

Oh the horror. I'm glad Nintendo didn't go bankrupt over that statement.

Mikey @ Nov 9th 2006 9:40PM

The population of African Elephants has tripled in the past decade.

Brian @ Nov 9th 2006 9:43PM

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/3398/picture3pt0.png
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/3398/picture3pt0.png
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/3398/picture3pt0.png
fight the good fight

Yet Another Judoka @ Nov 9th 2006 9:55PM

screenshot of the ps3's page earlier today

Yet Another Judoka @ Nov 9th 2006 9:57PM

http://xs.to/xs.php?f=ps3_wikipedia.png&h=xs208&d=06455

not a retaliation, it's from 11:22 am (arizona)

Luigi @ Nov 9th 2006 9:58PM

So?

Who cares? Just a bunch of losers who were trying to do exactly this: get on a blog or something for attention.

Just let it go, and it wont happen agian. We dont need a whole post on it :\

Hart704 @ Nov 9th 2006 10:06PM

I found it funny even though lots of current articles get these types of problems on a daily basis.

pirahna1 @ Nov 9th 2006 10:09PM

at approx 10:05pm EST the Nintendo wiki page was the following:

"Cheetor"

a minute later I refreshed the page and now it's what it should be.

When fanboys go to war, we all prosper. ^^b I'm havin a ball just seeing all this crazy vandalism

pirahna1 @ Nov 9th 2006 10:09PM

wait wait.

I checked the Sony and PS3 pages and theres a little box that says:

" Because of recent vandalism or other disruption, editing of this article by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled. Such users may discuss changes, request unprotection, or create an account."

But this box isnt on the Nintendo sight...

OMG WIKI IS BIASED!

Juan @ Nov 9th 2006 10:15PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox

Looks like they hit the Xbox too >.>

evilpenguin @ Nov 9th 2006 10:20PM

breaking news guys, wikipedia just got edited

Kyle Mistry @ Nov 9th 2006 10:27PM

They forgot the "LOLOLOLOLOLOL" at the end.

Smile @ Nov 9th 2006 10:36PM

How'd they find out what i did so fast

JIB @ Nov 9th 2006 10:51PM

they were all probably done by the same guy, considering it was all done around the same time
using stuff like SUXORZ!!1!!ROFL!!!11OMG@_@

Seraya @ Nov 9th 2006 10:55PM

Condoning wiki vandalism? Bad idea.

Eric T S @ Nov 9th 2006 11:24PM

This looks shopped to me. I want proof not a pic but then again i honestly dont care

AJ @ Nov 9th 2006 11:28PM

It got hacked again at around 8:20 pm PST. heres an image of it.

retro @ Nov 9th 2006 11:31PM

Worst vandalism ever.

HenryFatass @ Nov 9th 2006 11:39PM

K guys..I'm the dude that found this vandalism earlier today and also the one who posted it on digg. If you think it's been shopped, how about you put in a little effort and check the wiki history. If you do...you'll find this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nintendo&direction=next&oldid=86746569

mrdelayer @ Nov 9th 2006 11:39PM

Stop the presses, Nintendo sucks.

bogsnogger @ Nov 10th 2006 12:18AM

How come when I vandalise articles they never get displayed? I'm even discreet about it, only changing essential key words. It sucks!!!!!!!!1

Lone Starr @ Nov 10th 2006 12:59AM

"presumably by either a friend of Sony or Microsoft"

It's a Nintendo fanboy. It would be the perfect crime!

Sean @ Nov 10th 2006 1:58AM

This IP address, 141.150.185.226, is registered to Ocean City Board of Education

Stupid kids.

Pixelbox @ Nov 10th 2006 2:35AM

And to think that the people who do this stuff on a regular basis actually feel that it's a good use of their time.

CheekyLee @ Nov 10th 2006 2:41AM

Check the history page of PS3 Lair to see just how funny and creative vandalism of wikipedia can be!

Questworld @ Nov 10th 2006 3:45AM

Oh please don't let this fanboyism mumbo jumbo lead to network viruses wrecking any or all of the three companies' online systems. It's bad enough PC users already have to put up with hackers and virus makers.

Judd @ Nov 10th 2006 4:22AM

I'm currently taking a Public Speaking class, and in one of my first speeches, which I did on Pluto, I referenced Wikipedia. Tons of people wrote me back saying how to not mention that in my speech, as it is not a reputable source. So for my next speech in class I was going to talk about Wikipedia. I plan on talking about how is no such thing as objectivity, and anytime you read a real encyclopedia or hear a news story there is always bias. Also an encyclopedia published at best every year, is more often going to have false information from being outdated than Wikipedia. Yes, occasionally people will vandalize the site but I have learned more from that website than I ever did in high school. Throughout the history of society perhaps our greatest goal is to share everything we have learned with ease. A compendium like Wikipedia with millions of articles has the potential to reach this goal, better than any library can. Yes there is a sort of honor system. Too bad people who are just not funny at all have to fuck up something, with so much potential.

Paul @ Nov 10th 2006 6:45AM

From Sony's current page:

"Sony has reported[5] a loss of 94% of its profits for the fiscal second quarter of 2006, and has lost roughly 40% of its value from 2001 to 2006.

WIIIIIIIIIII!"

Some Nintendo Fanboy got in. Wiiii! And, surprisingly, it wasn't even me.

Famous Thomas @ Nov 10th 2006 9:09AM

Well, I've been sufficiantly burned...

The internet told me so!

DeShaun @ Nov 10th 2006 11:30AM

It's bound to happen. I don't use Wiki much, but I know that if you leave anything open to total public editing (not even as much as a signup/login is necessary), you're just asking for it. Maybe they need a membership/flagging system.

Maybe I should go and edit the Sega page to say SEGA LIVES!!!!11! COMEB4K FTW!!!

Mr. Khan @ Nov 10th 2006 3:51PM

@ DeShaun: They do; if an article is vandalized too often, they lock it to public access, and also the individuals who made the article (or added key info to it) will just edit out all the vandalism.

Hell; some kids in my school once changed the Ernest Hemingway page to say that one of my teachers had an affair with him

Another time i looked up "Nuclear Weapons" and all it said was "Matt has no balls"

Take it in stride, and appreciate it for the 15+ minutes before Wiki Admins catch it (unless its something discreet)

stinkfist @ Nov 10th 2006 4:35PM

well who cares? i understand that it shouldn't have been vandalized but really there are many other wii websites so one site getting vandalized isn't a big deal, and a lot of ppl above me are too obsessed with vid games no offense, i m not gunna say i don't like vid games but i mean some ppl think that video games are like a god in their own way. o and p.s never say noob,owned, fanboy, or any other gay geeky term cuz its so gay. o yea i almost forgot heres an example of the gayest thing that u can type on a forum or anywhere - * sitting up going to get a gun*. i hate when ppl do that so u can picture what they are doing