Wikipedia talk:List of hoaxes on Wikipedia/Trembulo

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RFC

The purpose of an RfC is to resolve disputes over content. What is the dispute here? Martin Hogbin (talk) 12:35, 15 December 2012 (UTC)

I left a note on the author's talk page—this looks accidental. There is no apparent/active dispute in the article. Emma, are you looking for feedback on the article itself? czar · · 01:18, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

Sorry if I misunderstood the purpose of RFD's. I only wanted some input from other authors on this article. Emma dusepo (talk) 09:02, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

Unfortunately there is no official way to request editors to come to a page to improve an article. You either have to do it yourself, ask people individually, or just wait and see who turns up. I suggest that you remove the RfC (not RfD). I will have a look through the article ans see if I can help in any way but it looks like a fairly specialist subject. Martin Hogbin (talk) 10:00, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

The best venue for feedback at this stage is Peer Review. You might want to make a listing there when you're ready. If you continue to work on the article, consider nominating it for Good Article status when it meets the criteria. I'll remove the RFC. czar · · 18:00, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

General comments on the article

Emma, you seem to have done an good job so far. One thought I have is to ask individual editors from other musical instrument pages that you have edited to help out here. There is no guarantee that it will work but it is worth a try. Martin Hogbin (talk) 10:04, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

This topic is a bit odd; I'm finding next to nothing about such an instrument even existing at most other sources. I would almost be concerned about a hoax, but this seems a rather odd topic to hoax on. Maybe there's some nomenclature issue where trembulo is a very uncommon name for this instrument? Checking the footnotes, several are to Books LLC, which is just a Wikipedia mirror ripoff, so I'll go remove those now. So then we're down to Wordpress, and some fingering chart at Amazon that happens to mention the word. This just isn't passing the sniff test so far. MatthewVanitas (talk) 19:45, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

Removal of deletion template

If this is a hoax it is a very elaborate and extensive one, the suggestion would be that the hoaxer has spent a lot of time on blogs and wikis promoting a non-existent stringed instrument, including the creation of numerous bogus images. The fingering chart shown here mentions the instrument. No doubt this chart exists and therefore so does the instrument. It may be a very uncommon instrument but that is where WP scores.

Whilst I do agree that further investigation is required the article should not be deleted unless it is proven to be a hoax. Martin Hogbin (talk) 10:00, 20 December 2012 (UTC)

Some (not wiki or blog) sites which seem to show the existence of the trembulo and are not based on Wikipedia are:[1], [2],Remove the brackets in the URL of the next one to avoid the WP spam filter (mysterious) [3].

• Number 1 is not a reliable source — it looks to be user submitted. Number two is a book that publishes Wikipedia articles. Number three is also user submitted. Ten Pound Hammer • ^{(What did I screw up now?)} 22:34, 20 December 2012 (UTC)

Fair enough. I did put -wikipedia amongst other things in my Google search. I still think the article should not be deleted without further investigation. As I say above, if it is a hoax it is a very elaborate and extensive one, in fact maybe still worth a WP article as a hoax. The problem is that the internet is not the world and Google is not the internet. If I have time I might try looking in some libraries for some real books on the subject to see if I can find anything on this mythical instrument.

Have you had a look through the editing history of the main authors? Maybe it is someone trying to prove a point or discredit WP. Fascinating. Martin Hogbin (talk) 22:45, 20 December 2012 (UTC)

The page has had only two significant editors: Claireislovely, who spammed the "Stringed instrument database" onto various articles in 2010, and Emma Dusepo, who generally seems to be editing in good faith but has also made some dubious looking instrument articles (e.g. Quintola, which Google autocorrects to "quinto" whenever I try to search). Ten Pound Hammer • ^{(What did I screw up now?)} 22:51, 20 December 2012 (UTC)

I have asked Emma if she can suggest any good sources for the article. We will see what she suggests I agree it does look like an exercise in the propagation of bogus information. I would support restoration ofthe hoax tag while we investigate further.

You seem experienced in hoaxes. Have you seen one like this before? Martin Hogbin (talk) 23:09, 20 December 2012 (UTC)

The picture looks highly suspicious too. Martin Hogbin (talk) 23:12, 20 December 2012 (UTC)

I'm generally, vaguely familiar with the two usernames in question, and my vague impression was some mixture of AGF attemepts to wiki-ise SID and also general "throw it out and see what sticks" for somewhat dubious nomenclature. Barring "trembulo" being some odd alternate term/spelling for a recognised Portuguese instrument (of which I am unaware), I'm inclined to say WP:NEOLOGISM or WP:HOAX. Aside from the utter lack of substantive Google hits (and I've found extensive GoogleBooks hits for weird instruments played by one single tribe in the jungles of the Philippines), I'd also note that Stringed Instruments Database, though not formal and peer reviewed is run by some pretty serious/dedicated hobbyists, and has zero mention of this supposed instrument either. I have no real pro-evidence, and if I had to guess my best estimate would be that someone dreamed up a given instrument configuration X, assigned it the term "trembulo", and went on a few forums/blogs to talk up the concept, leading to a feedback loop that resulted in this article. I've posted as much at AfD, and I've seen full-on zero evidence for retaining this article. MatthewVanitas (talk) 06:33, 21 December 2012 (UTC)

Firstly we do not need a reason to retain this article, we need a reason to delete it. The instrument is mentioned in SID, see [4] Remove the brackets in the URL to avoid the WP spam filter. I may try to find a good music library over the Christmas break and do some research. Martin Hogbin (talk) 17:43, 21 December 2012 (UTC)