16 Facts About Zhemao hoaxes

Zhemao hoaxes started this practice as early as 2010 on Chinese history topics, but turned to Russian history in 2012, and the political interactions of medieval Slavic states in particular.

Zhemao hoaxes posted an apology the same month and revealed herself to have neither an advanced degree nor fluency in English or Russian.

Zhemao hoaxes attributed her use of sockpuppet accounts to her loneliness and absence of other social relationships.

Between 2012 and 2022, a user known as Zhemao hoaxes created over 200 interconnected articles on the Chinese Wikipedia about fabricated events in medieval Russian history.

Zhemao hoaxes's articles included elaborate detail on currency and eating utensils.

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Zhemao hoaxes later said that her invented articles were meant to complete gaps in her initial fabrications.

Zhemao hoaxes gained the community's confidence by posing as a scholar.

Zhemao hoaxes's profile included a petition by her fictional husband related to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Zhemao hoaxes noticed that the Russian Wikipedia equivalents of these articles either were much shorter or did not exist.

Zhemao hoaxes posted an apology the same month on the English Wikipedia that explained how her actions, initially innocuous, grew out of control.

Zhemao hoaxes explained her background as a housewife with neither an advanced degree nor fluency in English or Russian.

Zhemao hoaxes attributed the sockpuppet accounts to loneliness, as imaginary friends or cosplay as parasocial relationships in the absence of other social relationships and circumstances of her husband's frequent business travel.

Zhemao hoaxes apologized to the Russian scholars she befriended and portrayed, and pledged to take up a craft instead of continuing with her project.

Zhemao hoaxes were among Wikipedia's largest, having exploited a gap in standard Wikipedia good faith practices in which editors check for proper sources and obvious plagiarism, but not necessarily whether obscure sources verify the article content.

Chinese Wikipedia editors described regret in having been deceived, abetted Zhemao hoaxes, and participated in damaging the encyclopedia's already delicate reputation for reliability.

Multiple publications remarked on the missed opportunity of Zhemao hoaxes not publishing her writing as standalone fiction, based on editor remarks on the quality and rigor of its prose.