There’s one very strange story in recent Wikipedia editing history — someone has been editing the Chinese version of the site, adding huge paragraphs of totally fictional Russian history. Not only that but they were doing it for over a decade before being caught!

Wikipedia’s Accuracy

Even though many like to joke about the accuracy of Wikipedia because this popular online encyclopedia can be edited by anyone, research has shown that what’s on there is accurate about 99.5% of the time. In case you don’t trust some information there, you can do your own research by following the citations.

Who Found Out the Issue

But, what happened exactly in this particular Wikipedia story? The fantasy novelist, Zhihu user Yifan, was using the website for inspiration when he was writing a novel. He stumbled upon an entry about the Kashen Silver Mine, which operated with 40,000 workers and he thought this was a great thing to use for his novel. He showed this to some of his friends and soon found out that Kashen Silver Mine doesn’t exist.

What Happened Next

The novelist and his friends did some research and found out that the Chinese versions of all of the Russian history entries were a lot longer and more detailed than the Russian counterparts. They found names and events that were not present in the English-Russian version of Wikipedia. Eventually, all clues pointed to a user called Zhemao. Some of the oldest edits found under the account were dating back to 2010. She, however, started to add fake information to the history of the Russian empire in 2015.

Once she was caught, she explained that she was a housewife who was translating Russian history books into Chinese and she was filling up some gaps “blindly” when she couldn’t understand. She was citing other non-existent books or existing ones with pages that did not correspond to the truth. Later, she was banned from Wikipedia and she promised not to use VPNs to access the website again.

Everyone loves and appreciates a winner, right? However, when it comes to a dynasty, the love and appreciation aren’t quite there. That goes to say for Tom Brady and his previous NFL team, the Patriots; the multiple eras of the New York Yankees who were despised; and even the UConn women’s basketball team that people had enough of due to their consistent wins. When it comes to Alabama college football, there’s the Alabama Dynasty.

A Long Streak for the Alabama Dynasty

The Crimson Tide has had an unprecedented run of success over the years, but how much is too much exactly? They’ve won 6 of the 18 total national titles over the past 12 seasons. Aside from that, they’ve had 3 Heisman Trophy winners, quite a few NFL first-round picks, and a top-ranked recruiting class for multiple consecutive years which all add up to form the Alabama Dynasty that people are getting tired of.

Some people are looking for more diverse college football. For the past 10 years, there has been a lack of parity, and it’s not good for the sport as a whole. Alabama earned spots in 6 of the 7 College Football Playoffs. They’ve also played in 5 title games and won 3 of them. Before this, in only 4 years, Alabama won 3 BCS championships.

The other side to the Alabama Dynasty is the supporters claiming a dominant team is necessary since everyone will be chasing that team. It’s the one team in every sport that everyone tries to knock off.

Dominating College Football

The Alabama Dynasty is what forced the rest of the league to work together to knock them out. In 2019, LSU won the title, Georgie faced off Alabama back in 2017 for the title game, and Auburn got a chance to play for a national title 2 times in the past 11 years.

Alabama has had quite a few blowout games over the past few years under Nick Saban. Since their 2009 season, the Crimson Tide has won 101 games by at least 20 points or more and 61 games by at least 30 points or more. Their overall record has been 153-15.