Investigate Hoaxes At Online Museum

By: Charles Bowen Did you ever notice that the best practical jokes are always played on somebody else? No wonder our readers love to hear about hoaxes, especially when some devilishly clever prankster has fooled any of us oh-so-worldly media types.

Take, for example, last year's 15th annual New York City April Fool's Day Parade. There wasn't one, of course, but press releases in advance certainly looked official. Well, until you read them closely. The phony publicity statement reported the celebration would begin at noon on 59th Street and proceed down Fifth Avenue. Floats in the parade, said the release, would include a "Beat 'em, Bust 'em, Book 'em" float created by combined efforts of the New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle police departments. And, you guessed it, someone -- in this case, a CNN affiliate -- had to bite and send a television news crews to cover the do that didn't happen.

Fortunately, there's a new Web site for reporters who hate the sound of "Gotcha!" It might not be able to protect you from falling for new hoaxes, but, used properly, it can at least give you a heads-up about hoaxes that have already hooked somebody else.

The Museum of Hoaxes, operated by Webmaster Alex Boese, also is a fun site that reports on hoaxes throughout history as well as those being pulled off today. Best of all, it has news of Web sites that also are actually hoaxes.

To get started, visit the site at www.museumofhoaxes.com where the introductory screen provides connections to articles about hoaxes in various ages, with links to pre-1700, 1700-1799, 1800-1849, 1850-1899, 1900-1998, and 1999-2001. Scroll the page for other ways into Boese's material. For instance, links below the black and white introductory graphic include:

* "What is a hoax?" a detailed article on what defines a scheme that plays on the credulity of others.

* Hoaxes Arranged by Categories, with links covering topics such as anthropology, archaeology, astronomy, business, exploration, geology, ghosts, history, imposters, inventions, law, literature, medicine, newspapers, photography, politics, religion, sports, TV and radio, and zoology.

* April Fool's Day Gallery, with notable April Fool's Day pranks by year, and the Top 10 April Fool's Day gags of all times.

Scroll further on the page to see Boese's regularly updated collection of hoax Web sites. Click the link to see a table that provides names, descriptions, and links to each suspect site. Recent additions include Psycho Ex-Girlfriend, National Blonde Day, and The Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Center. (Uh, that's water, guys...)

Of particular interest to journalists will be the site's "My In-Box" section and its message board, both of which are linked from the collection of commands beneath the introductory screen's graphic. Here you can see what suspected hoaxes that other visitors currently are reporting. Also note that you can communicate with Boese directly through the text entry box at the bottom of the introductory screen. Write your message and press the "Submit" button to send him e-mail.

Other considerations for using The Museum of Hoaxes in your writing and editing:

1. Webmaster Boese is not just casually interested in the world of hoaxing. A graduate student at the University of California in San Diego, he is completing a doctoral dissertation called, "The Mermaid, The Moon and The Hollow Earth," about the relationship of science and popular culture. He launched his Web site in 1997, growing out of the dissertation's research.

2. If you write about his online museum in your Internet column or a feature story, you might want to direct your readers to the site's "Gullibility Test," which invites online visitors to gauge how open they are to scams and cons.

3. Boese also operates the "Unusual Museums of the Internet" ring of Web sites. Scroll to the bottom of the hoax museum's introductory page to find a link.

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