Jar'Edo Wens hoax

{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}File:Jar'Edo Wens contributor.png

Jar'Edo Wens was a deliberately fictitious Wikipedia article which existed for almost 10 years before being spotted in November 2014 and deleted in March 2015. At the time, it was the longest-lasting hoax article discovered in the history of Wikipedia.

Origin

The "Jar'Edo Wens" article was created on May 29, 2005. It was only two sentences in length and cited no sources. It claimed to be about an Australian Aboriginal god "of earthly knowledge and physical might, created by Altjira to ensure that people did not get too arrogant or self-conceited" that "is associated with victory and intelligence." It was likely simply the name "Jared Owens", with different spacing, punctuation, and casing.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/04/15/the-great-wikipedia-hoax/|title=The story behind Jar'Edo Wens, the longest-running hoax in Wikipedia history|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=September 1, 2017|archive-date=April 19, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150419001603/http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/04/15/the-great-wikipedia-hoax/|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://news.nationalpost.com/news/jaredo-wens-743023|title=The story of Jar'Edo Wens, the longest-running Wikipedia hoax, and why it's so hard to police the free encyclopedia - National Post|author=Caitlin Dewey, Washington Post|date=April 17, 2015|work=National Post|archive-url=https://archive.today/20150418202943/http://news.nationalpost.com/news/jaredo-wens-743023|archive-date=April 18, 2015|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://www.thespec.com/news-story/5562935-the-wikipedia-hoax-that-lasted-nearly-10-years/|title=The Wikipedia hoax that lasted nearly 10 years|work=The Hamilton Spectator|author=Caitlin Dewey|date=April 17, 2015|access-date=April 18, 2015|archive-date=October 14, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151014045724/http://www.thespec.com/news-story/5562935-the-wikipedia-hoax-that-lasted-nearly-10-years/|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/aussies-jaredo-wens-prank-sets-new-record-as-wikipedias-longestrunning-hoax-20150323-1m59c7.html|title=Aussie's Jar'Edo Wens prank sets new record as Wikipedia's longest-running hoax|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=March 23, 2015|access-date=April 18, 2015|archive-date=July 1, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150701152353/http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/aussies-jaredo-wens-prank-sets-new-record-as-wikipedias-longestrunning-hoax-20150323-1m59c7.html|url-status=live}}{{cite web |last=Hutcheon |first=Stephen |date=March 23, 2015 |title='Aboriginal god' Jar'Edo Wens hoax finally scrubbed from Wikipedia |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/67482873/aboriginal-god-jaredo-wens-hoax-finally-scrubbed-from-wikipedia |url-status= |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=November 18, 2024 |work=Stuff |publisher=}}

The author, an unregistered user at an Australian IP address, was active for eleven minutes in May 2005; their only other contribution was to add "Yohrmum" (likely being a re-spelling of "Your mum") to a list of Australian deities within an article about Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology. This was more quickly spotted and removed, but it was almost a decade before the "Jar'Edo Wens" article was detected and deleted.

Spread

During its nearly decade-long existence, the "Jar'Edo Wens" hoax article was translated into other language editions of Wikipedia, including French, Polish, Russian, and Turkish. Two language editions additionally included the shorter-lived "yohrmum" page. An entry was also created on Wikidata.

The hoax was unwittingly copied into a book on atheism in 2012, as part of a list of 500 "gods and religions in history that have fallen out of favour".{{cite book|last=McCormick|first=Matthew S.|title=Atheism and the Case Against Christ|date=2012|publisher=Prometheus Books|location=Amherst, NY|chapter=Five Hundred Dead Gods and the Problems of Other Religions|isbn=9781616145828|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WuOf7mUQDjoC&pg=PT146|access-date=May 10, 2021|archive-date=August 3, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803152414/https://books.google.com/books?id=WuOf7mUQDjoC&pg=PT146|url-status=live}}

Discovery

The hoax lasted nine years, nine months, and three days on Wikipedia.{{cite book|author=Debra L. Merskin|title=The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AbCcDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT4139|date=November 12, 2019|publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=978-1-4833-7554-0|page=1900|access-date=June 23, 2021|archive-date=June 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624205638/https://books.google.com/books?id=AbCcDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT4139|url-status=live}} New article creation was later restricted to registered users after the Seigenthaler incident in September 2005; although this made new fake articles more difficult to establish, existing hoax articles (especially low-trafficked ones) could more easily go unnoticed.{{cite web|url=http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/false-claim-has-wikipedia-revising-article-creation-rules/|title=False claim has Wikipedia revising article-creation rules|last1=Goodin|first1=Dan|website=Seattle Times|date=December 6, 2005|access-date=October 5, 2015|archive-date=March 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304081001/http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/false-claim-has-wikipedia-revising-article-creation-rules/|url-status=live}}

In 2009, the article was tagged with the classification "multiple issues", including a lack of sources.{{cite web|author=Peter Bodkin|url=https://uk.news.yahoo.com/wikipedia-longest-lived-hoax-finally-outed-104656216--finance.html#1AqmGMd|title=Wikipedia's longest-lived hoax has finally been outed|date=March 23, 2015|website=TheJournal.ie|publisher=Yahoo News UK & Ireland|lang=en|accessdate=May 10, 2021|archive-date=January 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127061358/https://uk.news.yahoo.com/wikipedia-longest-lived-hoax-finally-outed-104656216--finance.html#1AqmGMd|url-status=live}} However, it was only in November 2014 that the article was flagged as a possible hoax. It was finally proposed for deletion on March 1, 2015, and the deletion was confirmed two days later by the administrator Newyorkbrad. Wikipediocracy, a website for Wikipedia criticism, publicised the hoax on March 15, 2015,{{Cite web|url=http://wikipediocracy.com/2015/03/15/jared-owens-god-of-wikipedia/|title=Jared Owens, God of Wikipedia|date=March 16, 2015|website=Wikipediocracy|language=en-US|access-date=August 16, 2019|archive-date=August 16, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190816115806/http://wikipediocracy.com/2015/03/15/jared-owens-god-of-wikipedia/|url-status=live}} after which it was widely reported by more general news sites.