Incorrect details for Tommy Nevin and Clarrie Tupper

[Max Turner]

→ Tommy Nevin's DOB should be 3 September 1916 in Annandale, NSW (his birth record is #32750/1916)

Does anyone have any guess as to what the original source for the incorrect DOB (19 Jan 1916) might be? I note that this date was added to Tommy Nevin's Wikipedia page on 18 October 2018, which is prior to when it first appeared on RLP. No source was added with this edit, but Alan Whiticker's "Encyclopedia of Rugby League Players" is loosely referenced in the article. Do Alan's publications typically include these sorts of details for players? I'm oblivious to what they contain.

It sort of appears as though the Wikipedia editor was adding their own genealogy research (which is not permitted on Wikipedia for this exact reason), but I can't find any reasonable explanation for this error (e.g., someone with a similar name).

→ Clarrie Tupper's DOB should be 5 March 1908 in Coonamble, NSW (#13444/1908). Likewise, the incorrect date was added to Wikipedia by the same user on 18 October 2018.

When I posted a data dump for 1930s St George players, I was noticing a lot of incorrect information on these players' Wikipedia pages as well, including several people who had been completely misidentified. Thankfully, in this case very few of these errors had made their way onto RLP. The Wikipedia pages for these St George players were largely edited by a different account, though I suspect it was the same person for various reasons. (Many of their accounts have since been banned for other types of disruptive editing)

I guess the short point is, there might be a lot of misinformation floating around for players of this era due to a Wikipedia editor's ... errors? Or trolling? I'm not sure exactly why they would do this.

[Paul Carter]

Im pretty sure I let them know about those ones.
-Which I got from Wikipedia. Which personally now I am starting to not trust Wikipedia.
-If I was going to off anything from Wikipedia from now on. It would only be if it is a very good source.

[Max Turner]

Yes, I agree Wikipedia can be a bit hit and miss for these details. The downside is that if RLP has incorrect information on it, Wikipedia will trust the site as a dependable source (which of course it should be) - even if the information has come from Wikipedia originally.

There are positives, though, like a few times I have found someone persistently changing a date of birth without a source, which made me look for a reliable source and I realised there was an error on RLP. With these older players, they generally don't have as many eyes on their pages to promptly remove misinformation unfortunately.

[GregRLP]

I can confirm Paul did supply these dates Tommy Nevin in a post 4/8/2019 & Clarrie Tupper on 27/5/2020 so certainly after the Wikipedia edit.

I have now updated RLP with the correct details.

Alan Whiticker's "Encyclopedia of Rugby League Players" does include short bio's for a lot of players especially the 6th & final edition in 2007 and this is the Biography provided for players in RLP where a bio was in the encyclopedia you'll notice Alan's name at the bottom of the bio.

The Wikipedia bio for Tommy Nevin only picks some of the detail from the encyclopedia with additional details curiously Clarrie Tupper doesn't have a bio in the encyclopedia yet it's referenced in Wikipedia bio so that's odd as well.

Also both Wikipedia pages are wrong as Tommy Nevin's states he played 135 games with 28 tries when he played 142 premiership games with 30 tries which is also what the encyclopedia states it looks like the Wikipedia editor missed the 1937 season. Clarrie Tupper's bio says he played to 1935 but he did play in 1936 one 1st grade game in Rd 15 he spent most of the season in reserve grade.

Max are you able to updated the Wikipedia pages for both so they align now with RLP?

One again your work is fantastic in finding these discrepancies.

[Max Turner]

Yes, I'll try to stay on top of Wikipedia to quash the misinformation. But I'll keep posting here too because it's been so satisfying watching the suggestions get added to the site so quickly recently 😁

The Wikipedia bio for Tommy Nevin only picks some of the detail from the encyclopedia with additional details curiously Clarrie Tupper doesn't have a bio in the encyclopedia yet it's referenced in Wikipedia bio so that's odd as well.

Thanks for pointing this out. It does raise a few questions!

[GregRLP]

I'm now trying to keep on top of posts to the forum and clearing the backlog my focus is anything pre 1981 as that is the period I have provided info to the database and/or verified against my records also it was the last season of the pre-season comp and the last season before the comp expanded out of Sydney so a good breakpoint for me.

At the moment I'm working my way through the Pre-Season comps I've completed 1962 to 1972 so I hope to have the remaining seasons done in the next couple of months I'll then moved onto the mid-week comp.

So please keep the updates & corrections coming and I'll jump on them.