(for reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=McRib&oldid=393647524 )
Everyone is excited about the McRib. I went to wikipedia, curious if the sandwich actually has any rib in it. Spoiler: it does not.
Wikipedia goes on to mention that the sandwich was invented by Derek Plowman, but did not actually mention the year he invented it (actually, it did, I just didn't see it because of the misformed sentences). There was a reference though, so I went to look at it.
There are two references for Derek Plowman:
1 is for the text "The sandwich was originally created by McDonalds employee Derek Plowman" and points to the facebook page for Derek Plowman: https://www.facebook.com/derek.plowman
2 is for the text "The only thing that hasn't changed from the original sandwich is Derek's BBQ sauce" and points to the twitter page for Derek Plowman: https://twitter.com/DerekPlowman
Neither of these seems to have anything to do with the McRib. Well, maybe this is just a prank, and there's another Derek Plowman?
Googling Derek Plowman McRib only yields the Robert Sietsema article in the Village Voice, where Sietsema "According to Wikipedia, the product was invented by Derek Plowman and added to the regular menu of the chain in 1981." http://blogs.villagevoice.com/forkintheroad/2010/10/here_comes_the.php
So, what's going on here? Wikiblame traced the addition to wikipedia as a mere two days ago: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=McRib&diff=393268031&oldid=393150562 RobotMike only added a few sentences about Plowman, with these bogus citations.
RobotMike's other contributions were an attempt to add an image to this page, and some vandalizing of the Max Plowman page to change his name to Derek: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/RobotMike
From what I can see, this prank has succeeded in getting Plowman immortalized in the Village Voice. Is it time to create a circular reference - changing the facebook ref on the wiki page to point to the now in-print evidence that, indeed, Plowman created the McRib?
This appears to be unrelated to the Derek Plowman who died in Iraq: http://www.iraqwarheroes.com/plowman.htm
-- Alex Lozupone, creator of the McDLT, al UNDERSCORE ex AT dogandpanda.com