Draft:Bicholim conflict hoax
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Comment: Draft article title renamed to be consistent with Jar'Edo Wens hoax, Henryk Batuta hoax, Alan MacMasters hoax, and Zhemao hoaxes. Eyesnore talk💬 23:49, 8 August 2026 (UTC)
- Comment: The PCWorld reference looks pretty alright to contributing to notability, but the other source is a wordpress site, and the owner of the site doesn't appear to be a subject-matter expert. Two extra reliable, independent sources with significant coverage would likely establish this draft as being notable. 45dogs (they/them) (talk page) (contributions) 01:47, 23 April 2026 (UTC)
Bicholim conflict was an elaborate hoax article on Wikipedia created in July 2007 that was deleted after being proven to be a hoax in December 2012. It described a fictitious war between Portuguese authorities and the Maratha Empire, and achieved Good Article status before it was deleted off the main page for Wikipedia.
Information
[edit]Creation
[edit]On July 4, 2007, a Wikipedia editor with the username A-b-a-a-a-a-a-a-b-a created the Wikipedia article: "Bicholim conflict".
The article was 4,500 words long, and it described a supposed battle between the imperial Portuguese authorities and the Maratha Empire between 1640 and 1641, although the Maratha Empire itself did not come into existence until 1674.[1][2]
Author
[edit]The author of the hoax article was active for 18 days, having made their last edit on July 22, 2007. They have also made an edit to the History of Goa article to include information that mentions the same fictitious war.
Good Article nomination
[edit]The Bicholim conflict article achieved Good Article status on September 21, 2007, due to favorable reviews from editors and it meeting the Good Article criteria.
A month later, it was proposed that the Bicholim conflict article should be nominated as a Featured Article, but was declined because of a minority of unreliable sources.[1]
Deletion
[edit]In December 2012, a Wikipedia editor known as ShelfSkewed discovered that the books being used as references to the article did not exist, and conculded that the Bicholim conflict article was a hoax.[1]
"After careful consideration, I have come to the conclusion that the article is a hoax - a clever and elaborate hoax, but a hoax nonetheless," ShelfSkewed stated.[1]
On December 29, 2012, the Bicholim conflict article was deleted from the main section of Wikipedia, and two days later, A-b-a-a-a-a-a-b-a was blocked from editing.
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 Newman, Jared (January 3, 2013). "Fake Wikipedia entry on Bicholim Conflict finally deleted after five years". PC World. Retrieved December 20, 2025.
- ↑ "Hoax article on India-Portugal clash in Goa history fools Wikipedia for 5 years". The Times of India. January 7, 2013. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved August 8, 2026.
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