Aug 18, 2025 12:00:00

The article, which was written in 335 languages, is likely the largest self-promotional piece in Wikipedia's history.

As of August 2025, the online encyclopedia Wikipedia has 343 active language versions, including English and Japanese. Articles written in many languages are primarily about nations, with articles on '

Japan ' in 324 languages, 'United States' in 327 languages, and 'Turkey' in 332 languages. There was once an article written in 335 languages, surpassing these numbers, but it has been pointed out that this may have been 'the largest self-promotional campaign in Wikipedia's history.'

The article in the most languages – The Signpost
https://signpost.news/2025-08-09/Disinformation_report

Dedicated volunteer exposes “single largest self-promotion operation in Wikipedia's history” - Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/culture/2025/08/why-was-the-most-translated-wikipedia-article-in-the-world-about-a-lover-of-aryan-culture/

The article in question is about a relatively unknown artist named David Woodard. At the time of writing, the article was available in 19 languages, including English, Japanese, and Chinese.

David Woodard - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Woodard

However, as of June 26, 2025, there were articles in 335 languages, more than Wikipedia itself, making it the Wikipedia article with the most language versions.

Wikipedia:Wikipedia articles written in the greatest number of languages - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Wikipedia_articles_written_in_the_greatest_number_of_languages&direction=next&oldid=1297456451

Intrigued by this mysterious article, Wikipedia user Grnrchst investigated it and reported his findings in Wikipedia's online newspaper, The Signpost.

The article about Woodard first appeared in German, and then in English on March 6, 2014. On March 14, a photo was added by a user named BarunH, who claimed to have taken the photo in Seattle in October 2013. BarunH's account was later blocked after some users pointed out that the photo looked too strange for someone else to have taken it.

File:David Woodard (Seattle, 2013).jpg - Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:David_Woodard_(Seattle,_2013).jpg

In 2015, the account Swmmng posted articles about Woodard and Czech artists, including Woodard's parents-in-law. Grnrchst said the account 'did a good job' with the Czech art article.

As the number of articles about Woodard increased, Swmmng began to offer multiple languages. Between 2017 and 2019, Swmmng published articles about Woodard in at least 92 languages. Initially, articles were published in European languages, but articles in artificial languages were also published.

The article is essentially a near-verbatim translation of the original longer article, and Grnrchst says, 'Either the author is implying that he is the most advanced multilingual person in human history, or he was spamming machine translation,' and 'the latter is more likely.'

Swmmng ceased operations in March 2019, and article-writing activity related to Woodard generally quieted down. However, in 2021, activity resurfaced, creating articles about Woodard from IP addresses around the world. According to Grnrchst, 183 articles were created from separate accounts between December 2021 and June 2025. Each account used fairly generic names and made dozens of small edits to articles unrelated to Woodard, then created an article about Woodard, made more small edits, and then disappeared.

Grnrchst described these efforts as an attempt to 'create as many articles about Woodard as possible, disseminate his articles and photos while concealing his history,' and concluded, 'This appears to be the largest self-promotional campaign in Wikipedia's history, carried out over a period of more than 10 years using 200 accounts and proxy IP addresses around the world.'

Following Grnrchst's report, Wikipedia stewards removed 235 articles about Woodard from Wikipedia's language versions with few users or administrators, and 80 articles were removed and numerous accounts were blocked by community decision in Wikipedia's language versions with a significant number of users.

According to the news site Ars Technica, Woodard has an official website, but it is password-protected and invitation-only, so it was not possible to contact him.

By the way, Wikipedia warns about 'articles about yourself,' stating that 'it is preferable to leave writing about yourself to other users' and 'creating new articles about yourself is generally not recommended.'

Wikipedia:My own article - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:My own article

Furthermore, the article 'What Wikipedia is not' clearly states that it is 'not an advertising tool.'

Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not #Wikipedia is not a platform or advertising tool