[WikiEN-l] April Fool's Day proposal

[geni]

On 3/7/06, The Cunctator <cunctator at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 3/7/06, Jimmy Wales <jwales at wikia.com> wrote:
> > Steve Bennett wrote:
> > >>Not any slur against you, but I consider this basically lame. Being
> > >>willing to post News of the Weird is not the same thing as Not Taking
> > >>Ourselves Too Seriously.
> > >>
> > >>Being willing to act like Uncyclopedia for 24 out of 8765 hours of the year is.
> > >
> > >
> > > Kind of have to agree there. If major newspapers allow themselves to
> > > print non-factual stories on that day, I think we can forgive
> > > ourselves as well. Can we fudge up a hoax, new information on the flat
> > > earth theory, etc etc?
> >
> > Well, I've been proposing this idea since last year, and I have to say
> > that I think both of you will come around to my perspective on this once
> > you reflect on it a bit.
> >
> > There is *nothing* clever about having fake articles on the homepage for
> > the day.  This isn't about "Not Taking Ourselves Too Seriously" it's
> > about being deliciously clever.  Fake stories on April Fool's day?  *yawn*
> >
> > But *real* stories, carefully sourced, which people *think* are fake...
> > now *that's* clever.  It's a second-order trick, a meta-trick.  Surely
> > I'm not the only one around here geeky enough to consider that kind of
> > hack to be infinitely more amusing than doing what everyone else does.
> >
> Some might consider the above argument to be a solipsistic defense of
> being stuffy and taking oneself too seriously.
>
> Especially considering the source.
>
> It's much like a parent telling their rebellious teenager:
>
> "You think drugs and rock and roll are punk? What would be REALLY punk
> would be to eat vegetables and do your homework and go to Sunday
> School! That's how to REALLY break expectations!"

[[Straight edge]]

--
geni