David Benbennick wrote:
On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 20:51:13 -0800 (PST), Daniel Mayer
<maveric149(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
How
does this help us create the encyclopedia? How can you justify *encouraging*
people to create bogus entries?
To answer your rhetorical question: Sometimes allowing a small amount
of playfulness can help motivate people to remain dedicated to the
project. To put it another way, requiring 100% seriousness 100% of
the time might push away editors and do more harm than good.
A sense of humour is always helps to take the air out of pomped-up balloons.
April Fool pranks have their place as long as they do no harm, and the
subject of the joke is such that believing it will not affect people's
lives or cause panic. (News of impending Martian invasions need to be
kept secret even if they are true for this reason.)
Articles that have been used for this should perhaps retain, at the top
of the article, a notice like, "This article was the featured article
for April 1, 2005," withe "April 1" highlighted. Such articles remind
people of the need to be critical.
Ec