If it's true, what's the problem?
this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2025
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Okay, I can give a bit of insight into why this isn't just a shitpost on behalf of Wikipedia's editors. For various important reasons, we have guidelines on article size, and while it's not hard-and-fast, 10,000 words is generally the point where most editors will start wanting to trim material from the article or branch it off into more specific subarticles. An article with more than 15,000 words should "almost certainly be divided or trimmed". For context, the article on "World War II" has 13,000 words, and that's because there are literally tens of thousands of other articles about that war containing offloaded details within details within details.
The article "False or misleading statements by Donald Trump" currently has 21,000 words. It's utterly giga-fucked compared to any other article I've ever seen on the English Wikipedia. And when e.g. the "COVID-19 pandemic" section already has the listed "further information" articles of: "COVID-19 pandemic in the United States", "COVID-19 misinformation by the United States § Trump administration", and "Communication of the Trump administration during the COVID-19 pandemic", what are you even supposed to do? It's fucking impossible.
what are you even supposed to do?
Easy. Break it up into separate articles.
False or misleading statements by Donald Trump on January 1, 2025
False or misleading statements by Donald Trump on January 2, 2025
False or misleading statements by Donald Trump On January 3, 2025
...
Nah, by category could be funnier. "Statements contradicted by science", "Statements contradicted by basic economics", "Statements later directly contradicted by Trump"
The only problem with this approach is duplication. Many statements would appear in multiple lists
Then how about a single chronological article of every bogus statement he ever made. Then have other articles that cluster them topically and provide context?
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This is usually what they do for long list-type articles. For examples, see such fascinating articles such as:
I know you didn’t ask, but I will tell you that when I saw this post I didn’t interpret it as a criticism of Wikipedia, but of the article subject. I read “Wikipedia at it again” as a positive endorsement about telling the truth.
I agree with that, and I think that one comment below has it wrong. My comment wasn't a defense as much as it was a neutral clarification for readers at home(TM). I try to offer additional context when Wikipedia stuff gets brought up on Lemmy, because 1) selfishly, I think demystifying it makes it more likely that new people try editing, and 2) with Wikipedia being a major anchor of the modern information ecosystem, it's healthier for said ecosystem if people better understand what goes into it.
Thats what I thought it was. Was it not intended as such?
When he inevitably dies of an aneurysm I hope you like have a script ready to change "is" into "was" because otherwise it's going to take forever.
Wikipedia's VisualEditor has a find-and-replace feature. But blindly using find-and-replace causes problems when you have sentences like this:
Donald Trump, who is the current president of the United States, draws a presidential salary of $400,000.
...which turns into this nonsensical sentence:
Donald Trump, who was the current present of the United States, draws a presidential salary of $400,000.
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Another major problem I see in fixing this: who the fuck wants to spend all that time sorting through literal fucking nonsense?
Makes sense to have article guidelines, but I'd argue it's more of a list, documenting for history. I don't think most people would read it like a book, beginning to end, no matter the length. So it should be all-encompassing, not split up.
This article may be too long to read and navigate comfortably
Yeah it's definitely too long. But whose fault is that?
Donald Trump announces 140% tariff on Wikipedia starting next Monday
Link for the lazy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_or_misleading_statements_by_Donald_Trump
Yesterday wat
![Wiki: On predicting 9/11 to Pete Hegseth: History will never forget that it was the SEALs who stormed the compound at [sic] Osama bin Laden and put a bullet in his head. Remember that. And please remember I wrote about Osama bin Laden exactly one year ago, one year before he blew up the World Trade Center. And I said, ‘You got to watch Osama bin Laden.’ I said one year before to Pete Hegseth. I said one year before. Where’s Pete? In the book I wrote—whatever the hell the title, I can’t tell you. But I can tell you there’s a page in there devoted to the fact that I saw somebody named Osama bin Laden, and I didn’t like it, and you got to take care of him. They[who?] didn’t do it. A year later, he blew up the World Trade Center. - Trump at Naval Station Norfolk Pier 14, Norfolk, Virginia, October 5, 2025](https://lemmings.world/pictrs/image/9b9581fd-3a4d-4d16-b97b-05822fe2b9c9.png)
They ^[who?]^
This is amazing technology
I honestly love Wikipedia... Can you imagine just how much worse everything would be if it never existed? Things are bad enough as it is, but holy shit...
It really freaks me out how if you read a transcript of one of Donald Trump's speeches it literally doesn't make any sense at all. This is a consistent pattern through and through all of his extended stream of consciousness dialogue. And yet somehow we just let him coast on by.
its called the WEAVE, its 9 incomprehensible things woven into a string of thought, only his conservative can percieve.
That's one hell of a cover story dementia Donnie.
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He literally celebrated the destruction of them Twin Towers because it meant Trump Tower was now the biggest substitute penis in New York.
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This article may be TOO LONG to READ and NAVIGATE COMFORTABLY
🤣
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.
The references alone are longer than my whole phd thesis
A better list would be statements he said that are accurate. It definitely wouldn't be too long to comfortably read.
I don't think comfort was ever a consideration.
in case you're wondering.. no. it's not the longest article on the english wikipedia.. but it's getting close.
What’s the longest
Currently, it's Japanese conjugation, followed closely by 2025 in women's road cycling and then a bunch of lists. The third longest non-list article is 2024 United States House of Representatives elections in California
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Trump lies as often as he poops.
I bet his ass is jealous of all the shit that comes out of his mouth.
This idiom is so good that I want to give you Lemmy Gold and a new hydrating volvic revive!
That's a damn good one
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Well obviously this is the reason Rafael Cruz has come out against Wikipedia recently. He just wants tighter articles and more conciseness in describing the dishonesty of his God-King. Over-verbosity is the devils work, after all.
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