Talk:List of impostors

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This page has been mentioned by a media organization:

Mike Vago (2020-05-03). "These Wikipedia subjects are not who they claim to be". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2020-05-03. We explore some of Wikipedia's oddities in our 6,070,641-week series, Wiki Wormhole. This week's entry: List of Impostors

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Difference between an imposter and an exaggerator?

I'm not sure the loathsome Joe McCarthy fits here. He indeed was a tail gunner, but exaggerated his record. --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇} 19:10, 18 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Joe McCarthy certainly fits here as a military impostor (he actually has a more detailed section on that article).

If someone embellishes their military career, especially to the degree that McCarthy did, it's still stolen valor, and they're still pretending to be someone they're not. It's just that in these cases, the person they're impersonating never really existed. Kodiak Blackjack (talk) • (contribs) 00:29, 28 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move 13 February 2024

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

It was proposed in this section that List of impostors be renamed and moved to List of imposters.

result:
Speedy not moved. Per survey below and dictionaries, this is not gonna happen. Thanks and kudos to editors for your input; everyone stay healthy! P.I. Ellsworth , ed. ^{put'er there} 15:23, 16 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Move logs: source title · target title

This is template {{subst:Requested move/end}}

List of impostors → List of imposters – "Imposter" is the most common spelling. I never seen anyone use the word with the 'or' spelling. 2600:1700:1960:F100:F968:F898:A743:BA75 (talk) 23:10, 13 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Note: see also Talk:Impostor (disambiguation)#Requested move 13 February 2024. P.I. Ellsworth , ed. ^{put'er there} 04:18, 14 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose. From en.wiktionary: "Impostor is the traditional spelling; imposter was relatively rare, but has become almost as common as impostor since 2000." I'm inclined to stick with the traditional spelling and not this new-fangled stuff. And get off my lawn. --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇} 00:00, 14 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose. Both spellings are common (ngrams) so I would say there's no good reason to change from one to the other. Adumbrativus (talk) 05:09, 14 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose and speedy close per WP:RETAIN. 'Impostor' is the British English spelling. YorkshireExpat (talk) 08:48, 14 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Excessive examples

I think this para in the lead is going overboard in listing things a person might lie about:

They may lie about their name, rank or title, profession, education, identity of family member(s) or friends, social class, notoriety or influence, life experiences, abilities or achievements, their health history or disability (or that of their family members), citizenship or club membership, racial or ethnic background, religious or political affiliation, wealth or property ownership, tenancy or residency, past or current employment, charitable contributions, criminal or civil court history.

Can we condense that down to perhaps the things most commonly lied about by people in the list, or some other measure? Schazjmd (talk) 19:39, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]