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I don't think it's the internet's fault. In 1941 a couple of friends made a few phone calls to newspaper sports desks and concocted a college football team: h

by JackFr 10y ago

I don't think it's the internet's fault. In 1941 a couple of friends made a few phone calls to newspaper sports desks and concocted a college football team: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/16/sports/ncaafootball/the-41-season-at-plainfield-teachers-college-when-every-play-was-a-fake.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/16/sports/ncaafootball/the-41...

ZenoArrow 10y ago
Yes, was certainly possible to dupe people in this way before the Internet. This Wikipedia page contains some relevant examples: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_entry https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_entry As a side note, it'd be funny if one of the stories on that page turned out to be made up.
CapitalistCartr 10y ago
In Tampa we have an annual celebration each year, in the style of New Orlean's Mardi Gras, of the notorious pirate José Gaspar capturing the city more than a century ago. Of course its all made-up nonsense. None of it ever happened. We still have a great party for it.
- nommm-nommm 10y ago
  The National Baseball Hall of Fame is located in Cooperstown, NY, a tiny village in the middle of nowhere. Cooperstown was chosen because a man named Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown in 1839. A baseball field, Doubleday Field, stands on the exact location where baseball was invented. Of course, that is a totally made up story. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doubleday_myth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doubleday_myth
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
rz2k 10y ago
In 1910, a delegation of Abyssinian royals was given an official tour of the HMS Dreadnought[1]. The delegation was comprised of Virginia Woolf with a glued on beard, Horace de Vere Cole, and other members of the Bloomsbury Group. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreadnought_hoax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreadnought_hoax
lazzlazzlazz 10y ago
The point isn't that this is uniquely a product of the internet; it's that the internet (and the other features of the Information Age in general) magnify our ability to propagate inaccuracies, fruth-y myths, and blatant falsehoods faster, more widely, and more convincingly than ever before.

by JackFr 10y ago

ZenoArrow 10y ago

Yes, was certainly possible to dupe people in this way before the Internet. This Wikipedia page contains some relevant examples: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_entry https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_entry As a side note, it'd be funny if one of the stories on that page turned out to be made up.

CapitalistCartr 10y ago

In Tampa we have an annual celebration each year, in the style of New Orlean's Mardi Gras, of the notorious pirate José Gaspar capturing the city more than a century ago. Of course its all made-up nonsense. None of it ever happened. We still have a great party for it.

nommm-nommm 10y ago
The National Baseball Hall of Fame is located in Cooperstown, NY, a tiny village in the middle of nowhere. Cooperstown was chosen because a man named Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown in 1839. A baseball field, Doubleday Field, stands on the exact location where baseball was invented. Of course, that is a totally made up story. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doubleday_myth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doubleday_myth

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

rz2k 10y ago

In 1910, a delegation of Abyssinian royals was given an official tour of the HMS Dreadnought[1]. The delegation was comprised of Virginia Woolf with a glued on beard, Horace de Vere Cole, and other members of the Bloomsbury Group. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreadnought_hoax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreadnought_hoax

lazzlazzlazz 10y ago

The point isn't that this is uniquely a product of the internet; it's that the internet (and the other features of the Information Age in general) magnify our ability to propagate inaccuracies, fruth-y myths, and blatant falsehoods faster, more widely, and more convincingly than ever before.