[WikiEN-l] April 1st 2006, IRC, the mailing list, and the Cabal

Sat Apr 2 03:50:59 UTC 2005

Now that it's over (mostly), a brief synopsis of what happened:

    * A "joke" article was created in the User namespace
    * Article was nominated as a FAC for April 1st 2005
    * Mailing list, IRC and Cabal members shouted at each other
    * Raul, Supreme Overlord of Features, grumpily declared "no"
    * More shouting results in Main Page becoming full of silliness
    * Many "joke" articles created
    * Much concern about cleaning up the aftermath

And now for something completley different:

April 1st, 2006. April Fools Day *next year* (assuming Wikipædia still 
exists).

Many people liked the idea of an April Fools Day Wikipedia. Many did 
not. Answer: Compromise!

Here is my plan for Supreme Domination and pwnership next year:

    * The Main Page and Article namespace as a whole will remain 
"sensible". Links to April Fools version /might/ be possible.
    * The Help namespace (which AFAIK is protected anyway) will remain 
untouched. We need to keep the serious things serious.
    * The Wikipedia namespace (except for policy and information pages) 
is fair game. However, spurious VFDs (eg. Wikipedia:Votes for 
Deletion/Main Page 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Votes_for_deletion/Main_Page>) 
should *not* be tolerated.
    * Templates should be pranked with caution. Examples: VFD Template - 
Terminator Edition 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Vfd&oldid=11749823>, 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Vfd&oldid=11749823>Wikistress 
<http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/archive/1/19/20050401120959%21Wikistress3D_1_v3.jpg>
    * Things in Mediawiki namespace should be pranked with /extreme 
caution/. Only those things visible to Sysops (or at the very worst, 
logged-in users) should be touchable. Example: Changing "block" to 
"crush by elephant" (but remember, the same joke is only funny once).
    * Various other suggestions welcome.

DISCLAIMER: I am a deletionist inclusionist sockpuppet troll. I founded 
the Cabal. Jimbo, /I/ am your Father!. Wikipedia is not sane. ALL YOUR 
BASE ARE BELONG TO US!

-- 
Alphax
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Alphax
There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.' - C. S. Lewis