Web April Fools are very rarely funny, and now everyone does them. With all respect to those who worked on ours, I'm not sure it is either (it seems more like an "in joke" for us).
If we post a fake story, we'll be just the same as Slashdot and the rest. But we can do better. We have a limitless supply of *real crap* to draw upon. We can be lighthearted and play with the reader's credulity just as well by using stuff from [[Wikipedia:Unusual articles]]. I think all the featured articles in there have all been on the main page fairly recently, so instead I propose a special variant of Did You Know to take the place of the featured article on the main page. For example:
==Things you'll wish you never knew== ''From wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Unusual articles|stupidest articles]]:''
* A 1919 '''[[Boston molasses disaster|molasses explosion]]''' killed 21 people. * [[Afrikaans language|Afrikaans]] pigs say '''''[[Oink|snork]]''''' and [[Korean language|Korean]] pigs say '''''[[Oink|kkool]]'''''. And we can prove it. * [[John F. Kennedy]] was almost certainly not a '''[[Ich bin ein Berliner|a jelly donut]]'''. * '''[[Belly button fluff]]''' is usually blue. Check yours. * '''[[History of perpetual motion machines|Perpetual motion]]''' is impossible. Probably. * [[El Salvador]] and [[Honduras]] fought a '''[[Football War|war]]''' over the result of a [[Football (soccer)|Football]] match. Don't ask who won the war. * The happy [[Ewok]]s won't be happy '''[[Endorian Holocaust|for long]]'''. Serves 'em right. * '''[[Le Pétomane|French culture]]''' blows the competition away.
And use [[Image:Shark big.jpg]] as the image.
John Fader (jfader@gmail.com) [050331 10:48]:
==Things you'll wish you never knew== ''From wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Unusual articles|stupidest articles]]:''
"All true and verified." Perfect :-)
- d.
So come over to [[Wikipedia talk:Did you know]]. I'm ready for suggestions on what to include tomorrow. :)
On Thu, 31 Mar 2005 19:31:34 +1000, David Gerard fun@thingy.apana.org.au wrote:
John Fader (jfader@gmail.com) [050331 10:48]:
==Things you'll wish you never knew== ''From wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Unusual articles|stupidest articles]]:''
"All true and verified." Perfect :-)
- d.
WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@Wikipedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Yes, there is a lot of this going on. The list of unusual articles is thoroughly delightful...
SJ
On Thu, 31 Mar 2005 11:57:30 +0200, MacGyverMagic/Mgm macgyvermagic@gmail.com wrote:
So come over to [[Wikipedia talk:Did you know]]. I'm ready for suggestions on what to include tomorrow. :)
On Thu, 31 Mar 2005 19:31:34 +1000, David Gerard fun@thingy.apana.org.au wrote:
John Fader (jfader@gmail.com) [050331 10:48]:
==Things you'll wish you never knew== ''From wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Unusual articles|stupidest articles]]:''
"All true and verified." Perfect :-)
- d.
WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@Wikipedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@Wikipedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
I don't agree with all the suggestions mentioned, but I'd be happy to feature unusual and extremely odd facts from unusual articles for one day under the heading "Things you wish you never knew".
(And yes, I know I'm not in charge of DYK)
-- GyverMagic
On Thu, 31 Mar 2005 01:48:15 +0100, John Fader jfader@gmail.com wrote:
Web April Fools are very rarely funny, and now everyone does them. With all respect to those who worked on ours, I'm not sure it is either (it seems more like an "in joke" for us).
If we post a fake story, we'll be just the same as Slashdot and the rest. But we can do better. We have a limitless supply of *real crap* to draw upon. We can be lighthearted and play with the reader's credulity just as well by using stuff from [[Wikipedia:Unusual articles]]. I think all the featured articles in there have all been on the main page fairly recently, so instead I propose a special variant of Did You Know to take the place of the featured article on the main page. For example:
==Things you'll wish you never knew== ''From wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Unusual articles|stupidest articles]]:''
- A 1919 '''[[Boston molasses disaster|molasses explosion]]''' killed 21 people.
- [[Afrikaans language|Afrikaans]] pigs say '''''[[Oink|snork]]'''''
and [[Korean language|Korean]] pigs say '''''[[Oink|kkool]]'''''. And we can prove it.
- [[John F. Kennedy]] was almost certainly not a '''[[Ich bin ein
Berliner|a jelly donut]]'''.
- '''[[Belly button fluff]]''' is usually blue. Check yours.
- '''[[History of perpetual motion machines|Perpetual motion]]''' is
impossible. Probably.
- [[El Salvador]] and [[Honduras]] fought a '''[[Football War|war]]'''
over the result of a [[Football (soccer)|Football]] match. Don't ask who won the war.
- The happy [[Ewok]]s won't be happy '''[[Endorian Holocaust|for
long]]'''. Serves 'em right.
- '''[[Le Pétomane|French culture]]''' blows the competition away.
And use [[Image:Shark big.jpg]] as the image.
-- John Fader _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@Wikipedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l