On Apr 2, 2005 4:50 AM, Alphax alphasigmax@gmail.com wrote:
Now that it's over (mostly), a brief synopsis of what happened:
* A "joke" article was created in the User namespace * Article was nominated as a FAC for April 1st 2005 * Mailing list, IRC and Cabal members shouted at each other * Raul, Supreme Overlord of Features, grumpily declared "no" * More shouting results in Main Page becoming full of silliness * Many "joke" articles created * Much concern about cleaning up the aftermath
And now for something completley different:
April 1st, 2006. April Fools Day *next year* (assuming Wikipædia still exists).
Many people liked the idea of an April Fools Day Wikipedia. Many did not. Answer: Compromise!
Here is my plan for Supreme Domination and pwnership next year:
* The Main Page and Article namespace as a whole will remain
"sensible". Links to April Fools version /might/ be possible. * The Help namespace (which AFAIK is protected anyway) will remain untouched. We need to keep the serious things serious. * The Wikipedia namespace (except for policy and information pages) is fair game. However, spurious VFDs (eg. Wikipedia:Votes for Deletion/Main Page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Votes_for_deletion/Main_Page) should *not* be tolerated. * Templates should be pranked with caution. Examples: VFD Template - Terminator Edition http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Vfd&oldid=11749823, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Vfd&oldid=11749823Wikistress http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/archive/1/19/20050401120959%21Wikistress3D_1_v3.jpg * Things in Mediawiki namespace should be pranked with /extreme caution/. Only those things visible to Sysops (or at the very worst, logged-in users) should be touchable. Example: Changing "block" to "crush by elephant" (but remember, the same joke is only funny once). * Various other suggestions welcome.
DISCLAIMER: I am a deletionist inclusionist sockpuppet troll. I founded the Cabal. Jimbo, /I/ am your Father!. Wikipedia is not sane. ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US!
-- Alphax http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Alphax There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.' - C. S. Lewis
I say the simplest answer to next April Fools is to write an article on a genuine subject, which *truly* seems incredible (in the proper sense of the word) and bring it through FAC.
Really, to do so shouldn't be too hard. If we did a really good job of this, with it written completely professionally and deadpan, and kept *everything* else on Wikipedia as normal (as far as possible), then it would be truly a public bepuzzlement to be proud of.
I'm not suggesting a hoax, or a lame-o-rama. I'm saying we have a year, lets find a really unbelievable true subject to create an FA about.
Oh, and don't give in to impatience and use it before 1 April.
If we don't manage it, I say the suggestion of filling Did You Know with really unbelievable facts would achieve the same.
----
I was one of the advocates for ETPH on the main page. I was however sorry to see such really lame "jokes" as the tab renaming, the VfD template change, etc. Such things were disruptive *and* not in the spirit of April fools. They were *really* *really* lame. The whole point is to have one or two convincing subtle hoaxes and keep everything else normal. The EB takeover thing was a nice idea, but in reality was far too farcically done.
So although I was happy to see Wikipedians did have a sense of humour and didn't be too stiff-lipped, I did feel it was a very crude and unrefined humour.
I'm sure some others were none too surprised to see somewhat of a parallel between /. and Wikipedia yesterday.
In summary, I'm in favour of us letting our hair down and having April Fools' content. But we should strive to do it well, and be the best at it if we're going to bother.
Zoney