A few people have hoped that I would weigh in with an opinion.
I'm torn. I think it's really fun, but we're also a very serious project. So I gave it some thought and I have this idea...
Just for fun, why don't we have a game on Friday to create an alternative main page, linked from the main page? "Click here to see our April Fool's Page."
And on that page, we have fun with ourselves... nothing mean spirited against each other, but gently having some fun with our quirks. So yes, the feature article can be the european toilet paper page. But we also could have an article about Gdansk ^h^h^h^hDanzig ^h^h^h^hGdansk! Danzig, dammit!
In this way, we get to have a little fun with the holiday, but we also don't abandon our seriousness for the day. And at the end of the day, everything can be locked and archived and deleted, and we can do it once a year.
Maybe if a developer can be persuaded, we could set the whole thing up at AprilFools.wikipedia.org or something like that.
--Jimbo
Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales wrote:
A few people have hoped that I would weigh in with an opinion.
I'm torn. I think it's really fun, but we're also a very serious project. So I gave it some thought and I have this idea...
Just for fun, why don't we have a game on Friday to create an alternative main page, linked from the main page? "Click here to see our April Fool's Page."
And on that page, we have fun with ourselves... nothing mean spirited against each other, but gently having some fun with our quirks. So yes, the feature article can be the european toilet paper page. But we also could have an article about Gdansk ^h^h^h^hDanzig ^h^h^h^hGdansk! Danzig, dammit!
A little timid, but not bad. It would require some policing so that the disgruntled didn't use it to air grievances ("Gdank vs Danzig? - that's not funny").
There could be a section "Articles We'd Like to See" - I was thinking of a Tree of Life type article on the [[god-king]], complete with taxobox showing dual nature, automotive habits ("known to drive Hyundais"), comparing with the closely related god-emperor, and of course illustrated with a picture of you-know-who.
Not the true April 1 hoax, but it's well-known that even Swiftian wit on the net still needs the appended emoticon.
Stan
On Wed, Mar 30, 2005 at 11:53:00AM -0800, Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales wrote:
A few people have hoped that I would weigh in with an opinion.
I'm torn. I think it's really fun, but we're also a very serious project. So I gave it some thought and I have this idea...
Just for fun, why don't we have a game on Friday to create an alternative main page, linked from the main page? "Click here to see our April Fool's Page."
And on that page, we have fun with ourselves... nothing mean spirited against each other, but gently having some fun with our quirks. So yes, the feature article can be the european toilet paper page. But we also could have an article about Gdansk ^h^h^h^hDanzig ^h^h^h^hGdansk! Danzig, dammit!
In this way, we get to have a little fun with the holiday, but we also don't abandon our seriousness for the day. And at the end of the day, everything can be locked and archived and deleted, and we can do it once a year.
Maybe if a developer can be persuaded, we could set the whole thing up at AprilFools.wikipedia.org or something like that.
I know this is probably a bit too late to bother, at this point, but I have what I think would be a better idea, and would satisfy to some degree both the spirit of an April Fool's hoax and the integrity of the Wikipedia project:
Yes, make a separate page. Don't make it a link. Have the hoax page convey the joke visually in a mere few seconds so that one needn't sit around and read it to get the joke. When the site first loads, the hoax page comes up. After about five seconds, it reloads with the "real" front page of the site.
I can see how this might not be an ideal solution: there are a number of potential problems with it, not least of which is the fact that it would be a pain in the arse to implement (especially when so much of the day is already gone), but it's an idea anyway.
-- Chad Perrin [ CCD CopyWrite | http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
Chad Perrin said:
On Wed, Mar 30, 2005 at 11:53:00AM -0800, Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales wrote:
A few people have hoped that I would weigh in with an opinion.
I'm torn. I think it's really fun, but we're also a very serious project. So I gave it some thought and I have this idea...
Just for fun, why don't we have a game on Friday to create an alternative main page, linked from the main page? "Click here to see our April Fool's Page."
I missed Jimbo's comment first time around.
Just thought I'd say (because somebody has to) that that's the dumbest idea I've seen in ages. The whole point about April Fools is that it's supposed to take in the reader. Messing around like you suggest would be like going trick or treating with a baptist minister.