I'd like you to meet Aubrey Sniegowski. She's a student at University of Illinois at Chicago, attending on a full-ride volleyball scholarship.

She is also, according to Wikipedia since November 30, 2009, the Hottest Woman of the Past 25 Years, replacing Halle Berry on the list showcasing the most beautiful African-American women in entertainment. Sniegowski is a traditional African-American surname, is it not?

Anyway, prior to Halle Berry, for nearly 2 months, the title was held by Razanne Riman, an 11th grade vice-captain of her class at Our Lady of Sacred Heart in Australia. Last year, for over a month, the top spot was held by Megan Strand. Some time earlier in 2008, for two weeks the hottest of the hot was Isabel Jalai.

For more than a month in 2007, the top honors were held by Liz Soutts, or perhaps Liz Soutter. And for five minutes in 2007, my friend Nikki Martin was plugged into the #3 spot!

Oh, Wikipedia. You are so reliable, and ever-improving!

As someone who's well acquainted with the weak-spots of Wikipedia's so-called "quality control" systems for material on living people, I've long contemplated running a breaching experiment designed to cause maximum embarrassment and bad publicity for Wikipedia - and to show up the fatal flaw (and perhaps help pressure for a change).

However, as the above show, you literally can't make the stuff up. If any journalist wanted a cheap story, there's just too much juicy material.

I'm still quite tempted to create a fictitious BLP of a non-existent individual complete with unfounded allegations of pederasty, witchcraft, sleeping with prositutes, and being pro-Bush, and watch it slip by every check the wiki has to offer.

Will you be fabricating your own sources too or just citing non-existent (or otherwise inaccessible) books?

Oh, there's any number of holes to exploit.

Most BLP patrols look for a source - so give everything a footnote.

However, unless people are given cause to, few make much effort to check the source. So make it difficult to check, but also difficult to dismiss as "unreliable".

The easiest lookholes here is that printed sources are the more reliable, but (unless on googlebooks) not easily accessible. If I cite page 153 of Jason Edward Lavery's "History of Finland", how do you know it doesn't tell about the Mayor who was convicted of pederasty? Unless you've got cause to suspect a hoax (and I'll give you none) and the ability and willingness to go to a firstclass library you are not in luck. Futher, that book is (I think) in print - naturally, I'd use one that isn't.

And there is the second loophole - foreign language sources are also reliable - so now I can quote a screed of quality Finish Newspapers and even link to the articles. Of course, a google translation might show up the problem, but again if I've given you no reason to suspect a hoax, no one will try.

Wikipedia follows the academic mainstream in valuing printed and foreign sources - ignoring the fact that it' only quality control mechanism is a bunch of lazy English mono-linguists who have access to little more than a pc and a dictionary. They really should insist on English online sourced for all BLPs.

The other technique is to pick a googleproof name. If I have a name which when googled with "mayor" render nothing - there's more chance of being caught. If I name him the equivalent of "John Smith" then google will disprove little.

Naturally, any hoax can be revealed - but a good hoaxer will probably not attract enough examination to be found out.

I'd invite anyone to try it - just keep it ethical by using a fictitious person, rather than libelling any real living person.

Didn't this already happen with one "Lee Dennison?"

Which newspapers finish?

Or do you really think you can quote a screed of quality Finnish Newspapers? That would be extremely difficult; it's not that easy to find any! There are of course Finnish reference books:

http://www.pokstaavi.fi/detail.php?id=33461

Except if you use too common a name you might accidentally "libel" someone who matches an uncomfortable portion of description given.

Thus works of fiction will contain some mesmo-rap about how "any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental", even if it isn't (shrug).

There are loads of Finnish Newspapers

And if I reference an article on 12th November 1979 as a reliable source for some allegations of financial corruption, will you be any the wiser?

Nah, my "actual name" could be improbable.

Let's say my BLP is of one "Lähinnä Artikkeli" - she's got 90 google hits, so probably notable.

Or there's the Finish celebrity "joki band" with over 200 hits.

Even if the name does exist, if the facts (DofB occupation etc) are unlike the holder of the name, no one gets libelled. I doubt every John Smith can sue me if I say "John Smith is a criminal"

For a case in point (although not a BLP) see this hoax

Of course there are. But you said you wanted to quote quality ones by whic I assume (do correct me if I'm wrong) you meant ones of a high standard, similar in calibre to say the New York Times or the Washinton Post. They just don't exist north of the Gulf of Finland.

All_Shades_of_Fine:_25_Hottest_Women_of_the_Past_25_Years

Good find, Greg. Not only is this article a crap magnet, I find the original TV show to have
a bizarre premise, for something on BET.

Most of the ladies on their list aren't very African looking. In fact, two of them that I can think of, Vanessa Williams and Stacey Dash, have blue eyes. So, more like "African American and Mixed-Race Beauties"....

isn't it odd, that some of the most beautiful women this white-people-rule country has ever produced are, to be a bit old-fashioned (and please excuse the usage of a marginally-offensive word), "mulatto".

PS: Pam Grier rules.........

And our own Dan Tobias does his duty and holds off Flagged Revisions an additional day.