[WikiEN-l] Re: Final April Fools wrap up

Sun Apr 3 04:47:54 UTC 2005

Erik Moeller wrote:

> As such, I propose two simple rules for next year:
>
> 1) There will be one well-coordinated joke for the *outside* world, 
> Whether it's a featured article, a press release, or anything else can 
> be decided by the cabal on the to-be-created fools-l at wikimedia.org 
> mailing list ;-).

With the understanding that one joke may well consist of putting 
multiple joke pieces together, just as the Main Page is put together out 
of several different pieces. I don't think the one-joke rule should be 
used to limit the creativity of those who want to have fun, just channel 
it. In this year's scenario, we could have said that all contributions 
to the joke effort have to relate to toilet paper; the Monty Python 
stuff is off-topic and not allowed.

> 2) Jokes *within* the community are limited to the Wikipedia:, User: 
> and *Talk: namespaces. MediaWiki:, Template:, Image: and articles are 
> off limits. Jokes should not be overly disruptive.

I think these are reasonable guidelines. However, it should be clarified 
that *Talk: only refers to Wikipedia talk: and User talk: areas, and not 
the *Talk: namespaces for those that are otherwise off-limits. If 
article editing is to be open for business with no silliness, the 
attendant discussion must be the same.

--Michael Snow