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Wikipedia Is Not Amused By Entry For xkcd-Coined Word

Posted by timothy on from the didn't-confuse-me-for-one-frobnitzjibber dept.

ObsessiveMathsFreak writes "Today's xkcd comic introduced an unusual word — malamanteau — by giving its supposed definition on Wikipedia. The only trouble is that the word (as well as its supposed wiki page) did not in fact exist. Naturally, much ado ensued at the supposed wiki page, which was swiftly created in response to the comic. This article has more on how the comic and the confusion it caused have put the Net in a tizzy. It turns out that a malamanteau is a portmanteau of portmanteau and malapropism, but also a malapropism of portmanteau. All this puts Wikipedia in the confusing position of not allowing a page for an undefined word whose meaning is defined via the Wikipedia page for that word — and now I have to lie down for a moment."

5 of 553 comments (clear)

  1. NOT BBC NEWS! by molo · · Score: 5, Informative

    The link in TFA: http://www.bbcnewsamerica.com/malamanteau-wikipedia.html

    This site does not appear to be related to BBC News, it is actually registered to a guy in Pakistan:


    Domain Name: BBCNEWSAMERICA.COM

    Registrant:
            Digghost.net
            Shahbaz Ali (info@digghost.net)
            DHA Lahore
            Lahore
            Punjab,54000
            PK
            Tel. +092.3218830642

    Creation Date: 16-Feb-2010

    For reference, BBC World News America has this website:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/world_news_america/default.stm

    -molo

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    Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.
    1. Re:NOT BBC NEWS! by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 5, Informative

      Unfortunately, I only realised this mistake after I posted the submission. This particular story has in fact been copied around an endless list of such spam sites, but I was totally unable to find the original source, so I couldn't make a proper submission update in time. It'd probably be best if the link was taken out of the story altogether as the site linked to is essentially plagarising whoever initially wrote it.

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      May the Maths Be with you!
  2. Re:It exhibits no creativity. by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 5, Informative

    xkcd exhibits no creativity.

    http://xkcd.com/195/
    http://xkcd.com/249/
    http://xkcd.com/426/
    http://xkcd.com/681/

    These seem reasonably original.

    --
    May the Maths Be with you!
  3. Re:Best. Joke. Ever. by Tetsujin · · Score: 5, Informative

    Posted AC because xkcd has 10^3 kg of fanboys.

    So that's like what, eight or nine Slashdotters.

    Or your mom.

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    Bow-ties are cool.
  4. Re:Simple Solution by Thinboy00 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The problem I have with Wikipedia is that it refuses to create strict rules and follow them. It has stupid 'Notability' nonsense instead where it's just totally arbitrary.

    Do you know how many pages of rules (and whatnot) there are on notability?

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    $ make available