Wikipedia talk:April Fool's Main Page
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April Fool's Main Page |
|---|
| Current Discussion Home * Featured Article * Featured Picture On This Day * In The News * Did You Know |
| 2008 Main Page (start) * Main Page (end) Featured Article * Featured Picture Did You Know |
| 2007 Main Page Featured Article * Featured Picture Did You Know |
| 2006 Main Page layout |
| 2005 Main Page layout |
Use this page for general discussions about April Fool's day 2009 - but please use the sub-pages (below) for discussions and suggestions relating to the specific parts of the page.
Areas of work needed to complete the front page are:
- Wikipedia:April Fool's Main Page/Featured Article
- Wikipedia:April Fool's Main Page/Today's Featured Picture
- Wikipedia:April Fool's Main Page/On This Day
- Wikipedia:April Fool's Main Page/In The News
- Wikipedia:April Fool's Main Page/Did You Know
Ground rules for this activity along with a list or participants may be found on this talk page.
Contents |
[edit] The Ground Rules
April Fool's Main Page 2009 (which may be referred to as AFMP 2009) provides idea development space for the proposed presentation of the Main Page on April Fool's Day 2009. The proposed components of the Main Page may be presented on 1 April 2009, and if deemed a success, may be a guideline for presenting the Main Page on future April Fool's Days.
The Main Page was altered by numerous adminstrators on April Fool's Day in 2005 with various pranks. See Wikipedia:April Fool's Main Page/2005 to see an approximation of it at the end of the day. Contributors decided to make a coordinated effort for April Fool's Day starting in 2006. For these previous year's results, see the discussions at the navigation box on the right. Static results can been viewed at Wikipedia:April Fool's Main Page/2006, Wikipedia:April Fool's Main Page/2007 and Wikipedia:April Fool's Main Page/2008 (1), Wikipedia:April Fool's Main Page/2008 (2), but realize that the main page was changed numerous times each year. These results and discussions are now considered a guideline for presenting the Main Page on April Fool's Day 2009. Although less important to the direction of AFMP 2009 than the results of previous AFMP results, April Fools' Day may help provide some direction as well.
Changes limited to truthful changes: The Main Page should be kept to the same high standard as for other days, but with a special caveat: that the Main Page be composed of facts and articles that are true, but either unusual or manipulated in a way as to sound unbelievable. While readers may sometimes come to Wikipedia expecting some joke article for April Fool's, the proposal is to make the Main Page so unusual or unbelievable that the reader will conclude that the Main Page is presenting jokes as fact, but the joke is actually on the reader: everything on the Main Page is as close to 100% factual as we may make it.
Truthful whimsy is OK: Traditionally, April Fool's Day (1 April) is a day of fun and practical jokes in some cultures. While it is fine to follow in the spirit of good fun when editing Wikipedia, we must not forget that Wikipedia is above all an encyclopedia that people will read for information. At the same time, Wikipedia should not be so formal and humorless that it cannot show some whimsy in how it presents itself to its readers.
Scope of project: Wikipedia is divided into hundreds of departments, six of which are classified as Main Page departments. The Main Page departments include (i) Did you know (dept.), (ii) In the news (dept.), (iii) Picture of the day (dept.), (iv) Selected anniversaries (dept.), (v) Today's featured article (dept.), and (vi) Main Page design discussions/Main Page Redesign Project (closed). The first five departments control the changeable sections on the main page (e.g., "content") and the sixth department controls the fixed design surrounding the changeable sections (e.g., "design"). April Fool's Main Page 2009 is limited to working with the first five departments to coordinate the content appearing on the main page from 00:00 to 23:59 on 1 April 2008 (UTC).
[edit] Coordinators and Members
Main page administrator coordinators: April Fool's Main Page 2008 project affects all five changeable sections on the main page. To have an April Fool's content appear on the main page on April 1st, some of the department rules for these changeable main page sections may need to be bent. Thus, the project may need the approval and agreed upon cooperation from the appropriate main page department. Mostly, this may involve deciding which main page rules could be bent in their respective section and in fact bending those rules, reviewing proposed main page content to ensure it meets that sections main page requirements, and ensuring that this content made its way to the main page on April 1st. The following is a list of administrators who have agreed to serve as AFMP 2009 main page department coordinators:
- Did you know (dept.) -
- In the news (dept.)/In the news -
- Selected anniversaries (dept.)/On this day... -
- Today's featured article (dept.) -
- Picture of the day (dept.)/Today's featured picture - Howcheng (talk ยท contribs)
"We" is us: In this proposal "we" may refer to any group of Wikipedians interested in editing articles for April Fool's Day. If you have more than a passing interest in this effort, please post your user id below (and if you participated in AFMP 2006, AFMP 2007 or AFMP 2008, please note that as well):
- Royalbroil 16:20, 2 April 2008 (UTC), AFMP 2007 participant, AFMP 2008 admin (strong presence with DYK, active in FP and FA)
- weburiedoursecretsinthegarden 12:43, 3 April 2008 (UTC) : I resolved confusion on the talk page for AFMP 2008, and I hope to become active in FA writing soon.
- User:Spikebrennan. I participated in AFMP 2008.
- 293.xx.xxx.xx Authored/Expanded the 24 Hours of LeMons article for AFMP 2008 DYK and also helped on occasion in DYK to identify possible problems with nominations.
