Howdy all,
One thing I've noticed in my short time as an active part of our community is that the more welcoming and likable aspects of our individual personalities aren't reflect in our most public conversations. For example, if a new editor went by this forum alone, we might come off as taking ourselves too seriously to leave room for the fun and satisfaction that usually comes along with volunteering. Moreover, we might be missing out on some of that fun and satisfaction ourselves. ;)
I'm wondering if there is place where the lighter side of individual Wikimedians and our movement can be shown front and center. What I'm talking about would leave the controversial issues for wikimedia-l and other fora, instead presenting stuff like funny stats about our wikiprojects surfaced through clever metrics, the weirdest of the weird factoids that we uncover in the process of documenting our universe, interviews of Wikipedians on stuff they do beyond editing wikis, and humorous essays that might venture in to good natured lampooning of the movement. I'm already writing an article about the next software feature to be enabled: Project Fish Bicycle. It will add such features as full vertical reflections pioneered by Apple 10 years ago under all articles, taking up only half the final rendered page while compromising on a few minor existing article features, like vowels. Think The Onion or your alma mater's humor publication: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_humor_magazines. With a lot of poor attempts at humor, and the occasional viral grand slam.
So. . . is there something like this already? If so, could someone please point me in the direction of the nearest editor, so I can start contributing myself? If not, would anyone be interested in helping me line up a first issue?
Feel free to contact me directly or reply to the list. Whatever floats boats.
Toodles. ,Wil
The place that you are searching for exists. It is called Uncyclopedia: http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
I'm sure your contributions would be most welcome over there.
On 17 September 2014 07:17, Wil Sinclair wllm@wllm.com wrote:
Howdy all,
One thing I've noticed in my short time as an active part of our community is that the more welcoming and likable aspects of our individual personalities aren't reflect in our most public conversations. For example, if a new editor went by this forum alone, we might come off as taking ourselves too seriously to leave room for the fun and satisfaction that usually comes along with volunteering. Moreover, we might be missing out on some of that fun and satisfaction ourselves. ;)
I'm wondering if there is place where the lighter side of individual Wikimedians and our movement can be shown front and center. What I'm talking about would leave the controversial issues for wikimedia-l and other fora, instead presenting stuff like funny stats about our wikiprojects surfaced through clever metrics, the weirdest of the weird factoids that we uncover in the process of documenting our universe, interviews of Wikipedians on stuff they do beyond editing wikis, and humorous essays that might venture in to good natured lampooning of the movement. I'm already writing an article about the next software feature to be enabled: Project Fish Bicycle. It will add such features as full vertical reflections pioneered by Apple 10 years ago under all articles, taking up only half the final rendered page while compromising on a few minor existing article features, like vowels. Think The Onion or your alma mater's humor publication: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_humor_magazines. With a lot of poor attempts at humor, and the occasional viral grand slam.
So. . . is there something like this already? If so, could someone please point me in the direction of the nearest editor, so I can start contributing myself? If not, would anyone be interested in helping me line up a first issue?
Feel free to contact me directly or reply to the list. Whatever floats boats.
Toodles. ,Wil
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Il 17/Set/2014 09:50 "Liam Wyatt" liamwyatt@gmail.com ha scritto:
The place that you are searching for exists. It is called Uncyclopedia: http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
But please note that Unencyclopedia is not a project of the Wikimedia Foundation.
C
Yeah, uncyclopedia is a good suggestion for one possible form of content, but what I'm talking about is really much more about having a good time onwiki by poking fun at ourselves and putting things in to perspective.
Someone sent me a link to this project privately: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:WikiProject_Department_of_Fun. That basically includes all the ideas I had thought up + some. In fact, what I'm describing is what might result from an regular publication or section of a publication produced by this project. There are some ~280 members listed on that page, though many are inactive. It's hard to tell which might still be relevant and/or appropriate, but the hundreds of articles categorized as Wikipedia humor that can be reached from that page would provide an great pool of content to keep a newsletter running with a consistent size and format when there isn't enough new content produced for an entire issue.
Does anyone know what this project is currently doing to raise the visibility of its content and activities? Has a regular publication been considered or tried, then decided against for some reason? It seems like a pretty natural fit. The original creator seems to have gone inactive. Does anyone know who is leading this effort today? I'll ask these questions on the project's talk page, too, but if you're currently involved or are also interested in contributing to a completely unencyclopedic effort like this, please contact me so we can coordinate efforts.
Coincidentally, when I eye up the participation levels on this project and other WP humor projects (there are several more listed near the bottom of that page) with some rough metrics, activity seems to have peaked around the same time as the number of active WP editors. Correlation doesn't imply causation one way or the other, but it is definitely a coincidence worth noting.
Ta's. ,Wil (aka wllm)
On Wed, Sep 17, 2014 at 1:40 AM, Cristian Consonni kikkocristian@gmail.com wrote:
Il 17/Set/2014 09:50 "Liam Wyatt" liamwyatt@gmail.com ha scritto:
The place that you are searching for exists. It is called Uncyclopedia: http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
But please note that Unencyclopedia is not a project of the Wikimedia Foundation.
C _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
On 17 September 2014 11:14, Wil Sinclair wllm@wllm.com wrote:
Yeah, uncyclopedia is a good suggestion for one possible form of content, but what I'm talking about is really much more about having a good time onwiki by poking fun at ourselves and putting things in to perspective.
You appear to be confusing people not wanting to have fun with you with people not having fun.
On Wed, Sep 17, 2014 at 6:14 AM, Wil Sinclair wllm@wllm.com wrote:
Coincidentally, when I eye up the participation levels on this project and other WP humor projects (there are several more listed near the bottom of that page) with some rough metrics, activity seems to have peaked around the same time as the number of active WP editors. Correlation doesn't imply causation one way or the other, but it is definitely a coincidence worth noting.
Ta's. ,Wil (aka wllm)
Snipped this bit because... activity declining as activity declines is not unexpected behavior :P
Perhaps you should found a humor column for the Signpost? I'm sure if you are willing to contribute fairly regularly (or able to find others), they would consider making it a standard bit.
Wil Sinclair wrote:
I'm wondering if there is place where the lighter side of individual Wikimedians and our movement can be shown front and center. What I'm talking about would leave the controversial issues for wikimedia-l and other fora, instead presenting stuff like funny stats about our wikiprojects surfaced through clever metrics, the weirdest of the weird factoids that we uncover in the process of documenting our universe, interviews of Wikipedians on stuff they do beyond editing wikis, and humorous essays that might venture in to good natured lampooning of the movement. I'm already writing an article about the next software feature to be enabled: Project Fish Bicycle. It will add such features as full vertical reflections pioneered by Apple 10 years ago under all articles, taking up only half the final rendered page while compromising on a few minor existing article features, like vowels. Think The Onion or your alma mater's humor publication: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_humor_magazines. With a lot of poor attempts at humor, and the occasional viral grand slam.
So. . . is there something like this already? If so, could someone please point me in the direction of the nearest editor, so I can start contributing myself? If not, would anyone be interested in helping me line up a first issue?
Well, there's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Llama. I feel like The Signpost used to include more humor(ous) content as well. There was a recurring cartoon called WikiWorld for a while, anyway.
Newsletters are typically delivered via MassMessage (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MassMessage) these days. Anyone can start one!
MZMcBride
Why are we talking (once again) about enwp as if it was the only project ?
Isn't there a better place to discuss this, like the village pump ? Le 17 sept. 2014 15:19, "MZMcBride" z@mzmcbride.com a écrit :
Wil Sinclair wrote:
I'm wondering if there is place where the lighter side of individual Wikimedians and our movement can be shown front and center. What I'm talking about would leave the controversial issues for wikimedia-l and other fora, instead presenting stuff like funny stats about our wikiprojects surfaced through clever metrics, the weirdest of the weird factoids that we uncover in the process of documenting our universe, interviews of Wikipedians on stuff they do beyond editing wikis, and humorous essays that might venture in to good natured lampooning of the movement. I'm already writing an article about the next software feature to be enabled: Project Fish Bicycle. It will add such features as full vertical reflections pioneered by Apple 10 years ago under all articles, taking up only half the final rendered page while compromising on a few minor existing article features, like vowels. Think The Onion or your alma mater's humor publication: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_humor_magazines. With a lot of poor attempts at humor, and the occasional viral grand slam.
So. . . is there something like this already? If so, could someone please point me in the direction of the nearest editor, so I can start contributing myself? If not, would anyone be interested in helping me line up a first issue?
Well, there's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Llama. I feel like The Signpost used to include more humor(ous) content as well. There was a recurring cartoon called WikiWorld for a while, anyway.
Newsletters are typically delivered via MassMessage (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MassMessage) these days. Anyone can start one!
MZMcBride
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Surprising though it may be, many wikimedians enjoy... working on Wikimedia projects. They sometimes go out to the pub with each other and have fun in real life. But let us not confuse "enjoyment" with "fun". Writing WP articles, uploading photos to Commons, transcribing wikisource articles, working with newbies anywhere... these are not "fun" and are not supposed to be "fun". Because we all believe in the greater mission of free-knowledge these activities are "enjoyable".
If you want to see *funny* things on [English] Wikipedia, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project:Bad_Jokes_and_Other_Deleted_Nonsense or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Unusual_articles
For everything else - there's always http://zombo.com/ Anyone can have fun there for as long as they wish.
And here I was, wondering aloud if anyone had thought of something like this before. :D As it turns out, Wikipedia has a rich history of not taking itself too seriously.
Adding your link to some others efforts linked to by the Department of Fun I've got:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Llama https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Department_of_Fun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiFun_Police, which inspired https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Grey_Knight/Wikipedia_Fun_Police, not to be confused with the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Kausill/Anti-Fun_Police (splitters!) https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Apathetic_Wikipedians https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Wikipedians_Who_Dislike_Makin..., or AWWDMBJAWGCAWAIFDAYBCADSPBATDMTAD for short https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Motto_of_the_day
Unfortunately, most of them are either completely inactive or significantly less active than they have been in years past.
I think this is a tradition worth bringing back in a big way. To kick things off, I'll reach out on the defunct projects' talk pages to see if there are stragglers who might be interested in helping out with a new or renewed attempt at humor; if appropriate, I'll help clean up behind myself by archiving inactive pages. I'd prefer to kickstart things by becoming part of a larger effort like Signpost, so I'll approach the editors of the Signpost to see if they'd have any interest in what would be the Wikipedian equivalent of a funnies page.
Lastly, this is getting down to specifics that are better taken elsewhere. If you'd like to follow along or take part mail me offlist at wllm@wllm.com, and I'll let you know once the effort has found an onwiki home. As always, suggestions and ridicule welcome, but please help me to continue the discussion offlist by mailing me directly about matters that aren't of general interest to this audience.
Thanks. ,Wil
On Wed, Sep 17, 2014 at 6:19 AM, MZMcBride z@mzmcbride.com wrote:
Wil Sinclair wrote:
I'm wondering if there is place where the lighter side of individual Wikimedians and our movement can be shown front and center. What I'm talking about would leave the controversial issues for wikimedia-l and other fora, instead presenting stuff like funny stats about our wikiprojects surfaced through clever metrics, the weirdest of the weird factoids that we uncover in the process of documenting our universe, interviews of Wikipedians on stuff they do beyond editing wikis, and humorous essays that might venture in to good natured lampooning of the movement. I'm already writing an article about the next software feature to be enabled: Project Fish Bicycle. It will add such features as full vertical reflections pioneered by Apple 10 years ago under all articles, taking up only half the final rendered page while compromising on a few minor existing article features, like vowels. Think The Onion or your alma mater's humor publication: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_humor_magazines. With a lot of poor attempts at humor, and the occasional viral grand slam.
So. . . is there something like this already? If so, could someone please point me in the direction of the nearest editor, so I can start contributing myself? If not, would anyone be interested in helping me line up a first issue?
Well, there's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Llama. I feel like The Signpost used to include more humor(ous) content as well. There was a recurring cartoon called WikiWorld for a while, anyway.
Newsletters are typically delivered via MassMessage (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MassMessage) these days. Anyone can start one!
MZMcBride
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
As all these ideas seem to be specifically focused on the English Wikipedia... Can I suggest that wikien-l might be more appropriate: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Or... the village dump on Uncyclopedia would work too http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Forum:Village_Dump
wittylama.com Peace, love & metadata
On 17 September 2014 16:51, Wil Sinclair wllm@wllm.com wrote:
And here I was, wondering aloud if anyone had thought of something like this before. :D As it turns out, Wikipedia has a rich history of not taking itself too seriously.
Adding your link to some others efforts linked to by the Department of Fun I've got:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Llama https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Department_of_Fun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiFun_Police, which inspired https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Grey_Knight/Wikipedia_Fun_Police, not to be confused with the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Kausill/Anti-Fun_Police (splitters!) https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Apathetic_Wikipedians
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Wikipedians_Who_Dislike_Makin... , or AWWDMBJAWGCAWAIFDAYBCADSPBATDMTAD for short https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Motto_of_the_day
Unfortunately, most of them are either completely inactive or significantly less active than they have been in years past.
I think this is a tradition worth bringing back in a big way. To kick things off, I'll reach out on the defunct projects' talk pages to see if there are stragglers who might be interested in helping out with a new or renewed attempt at humor; if appropriate, I'll help clean up behind myself by archiving inactive pages. I'd prefer to kickstart things by becoming part of a larger effort like Signpost, so I'll approach the editors of the Signpost to see if they'd have any interest in what would be the Wikipedian equivalent of a funnies page.
Lastly, this is getting down to specifics that are better taken elsewhere. If you'd like to follow along or take part mail me offlist at wllm@wllm.com, and I'll let you know once the effort has found an onwiki home. As always, suggestions and ridicule welcome, but please help me to continue the discussion offlist by mailing me directly about matters that aren't of general interest to this audience.
Thanks. ,Wil
On Wed, Sep 17, 2014 at 6:19 AM, MZMcBride z@mzmcbride.com wrote:
Wil Sinclair wrote:
I'm wondering if there is place where the lighter side of individual Wikimedians and our movement can be shown front and center. What I'm talking about would leave the controversial issues for wikimedia-l and other fora, instead presenting stuff like funny stats about our wikiprojects surfaced through clever metrics, the weirdest of the weird factoids that we uncover in the process of documenting our universe, interviews of Wikipedians on stuff they do beyond editing wikis, and humorous essays that might venture in to good natured lampooning of the movement. I'm already writing an article about the next software feature to be enabled: Project Fish Bicycle. It will add such features as full vertical reflections pioneered by Apple 10 years ago under all articles, taking up only half the final rendered page while compromising on a few minor existing article features, like vowels. Think The Onion or your alma mater's humor publication: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_humor_magazines. With a lot of poor attempts at humor, and the occasional viral grand slam.
So. . . is there something like this already? If so, could someone please point me in the direction of the nearest editor, so I can start contributing myself? If not, would anyone be interested in helping me line up a first issue?
Well, there's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Llama. I feel
like
The Signpost used to include more humor(ous) content as well. There was a recurring cartoon called WikiWorld for a while, anyway.
Newsletters are typically delivered via MassMessage (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MassMessage) these days. Anyone can start one!
MZMcBride
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https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines
Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
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On 9/17/14, 8:15 AM, Liam Wyatt wrote:
As all these ideas seem to be specifically focused on the English Wikipedia... Can I suggest that wikien-l might be more appropriate: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Or... the village dump on Uncyclopedia would work too
Actually Uncyclopedia left Wikia a while back[1], the real Village Dump is at [2].
[1] http://davidgerard.co.uk/notes/2013/01/07/uncyclopedia-has-left-wikia/ [2] http://en.uncyclopedia.co/wiki/Forum:Village_Dump
-- Legoktm
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