Template:Did you know nominations/Alan MacMasters hoax

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by SL93 talk 02:20, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Alan MacMasters hoax

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... that a British student once created a Wikipedia article falsely claiming his friend had invented the toaster?

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/the-reporters-63622746

Reviewed:

Improved to Good Article status by B33net (talk). Number of QPQs required: 0. Nominator has 5 past nominations.

🐝 B33 net 🐝 22:08, 16 March 2025 (UTC).

I'll review this. It's hilarious that my local museum (Hagley) once wrote about this joke as fact. BeanieFan11 (talk) 23:47, 16 March 2025 (UTC)

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy: Article is sourced, neutral, and free of copyright problems
Adequate sourcing: Neutral: Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:

Hook: Hook has been verified by provided inline citation
Cited: Interesting:

QPQ: - pending
Overall: @B33net: QPQ pending. I'm a little unsure of Wikipediocracy as a source, but since the GA reviewer allowed it I guess it might be okay. While the current hook is fine, I think better hooks could be written about the fake inventor of the toaster, no? E.g. ALT1 ... that Alan MacMasters was not the inventor of the toaster? / ALT2 ... that the fictitious subject of a hoax Wikipedia article was a nominee to be on an English £50 note? / ALT3 ... that Scottish Government-funded organizations cited a hoax Wikipedia article as evidence of how an independent Scotland could succeed? / ALT4 ... that newspapers, encyclopedias, government agencies and a U.S. museum perpetuated the fictitious subject of a hoax Wikipedia article as the inventor of the toaster? Thoughts? BeanieFan11 (talk) 01:20, 17 March 2025 (UTC)

I think we should change it to that the fictitious subject of a hoax Wikipedia article was a nominee to be on an English £50 note?. It’s more interesting than the current hook. I will also get a QPQ done soon. 🐝 B33 net 🐝 1:24, 16 March 2025 (UTC)
I did a QPQ at Template:Did you know nominations/Wampanoag-class frigate 🐝 B33 net 🐝 10:33, 17 March 2025 (UTC)

@BeanieFan11: please follow this up, thanks. Yeshivish613 (talk) 15:37, 21 March 2025 (UTC)

With the QPQ done. It should be good to go. However, as I proposed the one hook (ALT2), I believe that someone else is needed to review that.

BeanieFan11 (talk) 16:59, 21 March 2025 (UTC)

ALT2 checks out. Not a DYK issue, but the BBC source mentions that Scott Smith cooked a dish for him on Great British Menu and I think this should be mentioned.--Laun chba ller 12:28, 23 March 2025 (UTC)

Sourcing needs to be improved. GA status of article and notability are being questioned, so article is not stable enough yet for DYK. Cielquiparle (talk) 04:18, 29 March 2025 (UTC)

I'm satisfied that the article has improved significantly. Cielquiparle (talk) 06:40, 29 March 2025 (UTC)

While this is open for discussion again anyway, I think a funnier hook could be chosen, especially if this is to be an April Fool's Day hook. The fact about Scott Smith seems like it would be a more entertaining hook. Something like ...that the hoaxed inventor of the toaster had a dish cooked in his honor by a chef on the cooking show Great British Menu? silviaASH (inquire within) 06:58, 29 March 2025 (UTC)