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This site is not regularly monitored for defamatory content. If you see anything which is untrue / defamatory / libellous concerning a living person, you can notify the site administrators by e-mailing complaints@wikifiascos.com

A spur to competence?

Fiascos are not, unlike disasters and scandals, a category on Wikipedia. To categorise certain events in Wikipedia as fiascos may be regarded as a departure from the principle of neutrality[1], for the word is pejorative.

This web site has been constructed to

• provide a well-sourced list of projects in any field of human activity, e.g. government, business/commerce, academia, education, law, religion, or sport, which have been publicly identified as spectacular, ludicrous, humiliating or complete failures .

• show why,

• discuss the lessons to be learned, and

• rate them according to the extent of the failure and their overall significance

This site may be a resource for teachers, academics, politicians, and people in business. Above all, it is hoped that it will act as a spur to competence.

There is an opportunity for those who participate to contribute more than just the facts of the matter: there is scope for the recording of published and personal opinions under Lessons to be learned.

Identifying a "fiasco"

Fiascos

- must have an optimistic, creative beginning, such as an intention, project, design or scheme

- will feature incompetence, misjudgment, lack of realism and/or political or corporate self-delusion.

- will include at least two of the following distinguishing characteristics:

• vast overspending compared to the original budget
• abandonment, closure or total restructuring of the project
• an official enquiry afterwards into what went wrong
• resignations or departures of one or more key players

It helps if it has been cited as a "fiasco" by a reliable source

Editing and voting for articles on this site

You have the option of registering as a named or anonymous user only, or going one stage further and becoming a member of wikifiascos.com.

Only registered users can edit the articles on this site.

Each page in this site is there because it is considered by the registered users to merit inclusion. Every registered user of this site has the chance to vote for or against the inclusion of a fiasco in this web site. Rules will be published in due course about the voting criteria for removal of a page from the list of fiascos. Pages which prove unpopular will be removed and listed under Rejected Entries.

Wikifiascos.com Rules

The conduct of this site is to follow that of Wikipedia and for guidance on contributions, editing, points of view etc. reference is made to the guidance in Wikpedia. It also includes the following:

- Try editing existing articles to get a feel for writing and for using the mark-up language in use at Wikipedia.

- Search first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject, perhaps under a different title.

- If the article already exists, feel free to make any constructive edits you feel are necessary.

- Consider creating the article on user sub-page To create an article, you must first be a registered user. Once you sign up, you'll find that you have your own user page. You can make your own area there to start working on a new article; you can get it in shape there, take your time, and only move it into the "live" Wikipedia once it is ready for prime time.

- Remember the article you create will be deleted quickly if it is not acceptable.

- Gather references both to use as source(s) of your information and also to demonstrate notability of your article's subject matter. Articles that do not meet notability by citing reliable published sources are likely to be deleted.

- Be careful about the following: copying things, controversial material, extremely short articles, and local-interest articles.

- Gather references to reliable published sources.

- List references to your sources

Tragedies and disasters

If the matter is remembered more as a tragedy than as a fiasco, it does not qualify. This is not a site for events remembered more for the loss of life than for human errors. Examples are a bridge collapse or an aircraft crash. Disasters is a Wikipedia[2] category.

Corporate failures due to bad management or dishonesty

This site is not a general dumping ground for management, political or governmental failures. A failure of a company or corporation is not a fiasco unless it was preceded by the intention to carry out a specific policy which went wrong, such as:

- to change its nature or culture

- participation in a joint venture

- merger with another entity

- sale of part of the business

- acquisition of another business

- a major investment

Mismanagement of the day-to-day running of the business or of a government department will not qualify.

Unfounded opinions

As with Wikipedia, all Wikifiasco articles must be written from a neutral point of view (NPOV), representing without bias all significant views that have been published by reliable sources. The difference between Wikifiascos and Wikipedia is that an opinion will be aceptable when, though not quoting an external source, it is based on a reasoned analysis of the proven facts.

If you think that there is a particular point of view which is justified by the facts - typically under the heading of Lessons learned - but cannot quote from a reliable source, feel free to explore its acceptability in the Discussion page first.

Scandals

Scandals is a Wikipedia category. A matter will be remembered more as a scandal than as a fiasco because it lacks elements such as a publicly declared intention. Alternatively, a scandal will have elements which are not principally associated with a fiasco, such as dishonesty, unethical activity or sexual misbehaviour.

Information about living persons

No User may use this web site to make defamatory statements. Blame can be apportioned, but you must cite a reliable source.

References to living persons who have been involved in any fiasco shall not be entered unless the name and context are already in the public domain.

If you find unsourced or poorly sourced negative material about a living person — whether in an article or on a talk page — remove it immediately! Do not leave it in the article and ask for a source. Do not move it to the talk page. Do not wait for another editor to request a source.

You can also, if you are not logged in, email complaints@wikifiascos.com to ask for its removal, as changes to this site are not systematically monitored.

Copyright

Permission should have been obtained for all of the materials which we publish, but if you are a copyright owner and are concerned please email feedback.

Quotations

When you quote someone, always add a citation when quoting published material, and the citation should be placed directly after the quotation, which should be enclosed within double quotation marks — "like this" — or single quotation marks if it's a quote-within-a-quote — "and here is such a 'quotation' as an example."

Before adding a citation, give consideration to the quality and accessibility of a citation - does the source have sufficient authority to convince the reader that the material is sound?

Images

Images must include source details and a copyright tag on the image description page. It is important that you list the author of the image if known (especially if different from the source), which is important both for copyright and for informational purposes. Some copyright licences require that the original author receive credit for their work. If you download an image from the web, you should give the URL: Source: Downloaded from [3] If you got the image from an offline source, you should specify: Source: Scanned from

Articles

Articles can be supported with references in two ways: the provision of general references - books or other sources that support a significant amount of the material in the article - and inline citations, which provide source information for specific statements. Model articles provide general references that support all the content while giving inline citations for statements that are challenged or likely to be challenged.

Lay-out of articles

The preferred lay-out of articles about a fiasco is to group the information under headings such as

'The intention'

'What went wrong'

'The outcome'

'Lessons learned'

'Other comments'

Promotion of commercial interests

Do not use the name of your company or web address in the subject line. Your message will be removed as it is deemed to be commercial promotion.

Do not use the site for marketing or promotional activity of any kind.

Do not link to commercial websites, except when it clearly relates to a question or answer you have posted.

Style

Do not use multiple question marks or exclamation points.

Do not type the subject line or body of your message entirely in caps.

Please do not post messages thanking someone for their answer. Thank them by email.

Use of this site is subject to terms and conditions.