I suspect the confusion has come about from the fact that most people come across factoids in lists of 10 Amazing Things You Didn't Know About Lists, in which the trivial, the only true with lots of qualifications, and the downright false are all intermingled.

Perhaps in some places the ratios vary, and hence the confusion about what factoid means. I agree with Father Steve and the Southrons that factoid should and maybe does mean not quite true alleged fact.

Bingley

Bingley