[HN Gopher] The Wikipedia War over Barbenheimer
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       The Wikipedia War over Barbenheimer
        
       Author : ericzawo
       Score  : 8 points
       Date   : 2023-07-21 20:51 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (kotaku.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (kotaku.com)
        
       | lolsal wrote:
       | Is this really a war? Does this really affect tech or society in
       | any meaningful way?
        
         | gary_0 wrote:
         | It's silly nerd shenanigans, and I'm fine with a little of that
         | showing up on HN. Although once sites like Kotaku start writing
         | articles about it, the wacky fun has usually run its course.
        
         | NoZebra120vClip wrote:
         | For the real wars (Wikipedia-based ones), see:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Lamest_edit_wars
         | 
         | For comic relief, start with:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Unusual_articles
        
       | bjourne wrote:
       | It feels like there is some ongoing sophisticated guerrilla
       | marketing campaign to promote these movies. YouTube mysteriously
       | promotes some video about how Oppenheimer was a great physicist,
       | Columns are written about what the Barbie movie has to do with
       | Feminism, and even on Hacker News there are multiple links per
       | day about these two movies. Something is going on here.
        
         | aschearer wrote:
         | Maybe there's a guerrilla component to it, but it's been all
         | over the NYT recently... Definitely a full press marketing
         | campaign. And we're falling for it with multiple posts about
         | the films hitting the front page recently.
        
         | rm445 wrote:
         | I've wondered the same thing. It's really hard to distinguish
         | real grass roots from astroturf.
         | 
         | It doesn't bother me. It's fine if the contrast between these
         | films has just sparked off people's imaginations. But if there
         | is some clever operation 'seeding' the memes and articles, I
         | hope we get to hear about it some day.
        
         | V__ wrote:
         | Does anyone know of any tools or maybe analysis made by
         | researches gauging guerrilla marketing vs. actual interest
         | (which drives the algo)? Because both seem like very plausible
         | possibilities to me. Or even a combination of both, which
         | reinforce each other.
        
         | Inityx wrote:
         | The movies seem refreshingly original and good, and the
         | subjects are things people care about. All those things you
         | said are also symptoms of legitimate interest. Attributing them
         | to a conspiracy with no other evidence is kind of a reach.
        
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       (page generated 2023-07-21 23:01 UTC)