Wikipedia:WikiDragon
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This page contains material which is kept because it is considered humorous. It is not intended, nor should it be used, for any remotely serious purpose. |
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This page in a nutshell:
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| WikiDragon Fossil range: middle Nupedian - Recent |
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| Wikidraco wikidraco Hypergeometric2F1(a,b,c,x), 2007 |
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The WikiDragon (from Ancient Greek βικιδράκων — WikiDrakōn, "a Wikipedian of huge size, a WikiSerpent, a WikiPython, a WikiDragon") (Wikidraco wikidraco) is a mythical WikiCreature typically depicted as a gigantic and powerful WikiSerpent or other WikiReptile with magical or spiritual qualities.
The WikiDragon contributes through usually dramatic, bold, and often grandiose edits. These enhancements and improvements are often based on their vast knowledge or a long night of googling for references. A WikiDragon may tend to leave trivialities such as correcting grammar, adding wikilinks, and overall wordsmithing to WikiElves, WikiGnomes, and other WikiFey creatures. WikiDragons may focus on a single article intensely or may operate in a WikiDragonish way by taking a single strafing run, making a great number of smaller changes to a vast array and number of articles in short order.
Currently, three subspecies of WikiDragon have been documented. The easiest way to identify the subspecies of the WikiDragon is to observe the language it speaks most fluently.
- Wikidraco wikidraco anglica, User:Hypergeometric2F1(a,b,c,x), 2007, English WikiDragon
- Wikidraco wikidraco lusitanica, Econt, 2007, Portuguese WikiDragon
- Wikidraco wikidraco russica, Крайнов, 2008, Russian WikiDragon
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[edit] Theories on the origin of WikiDragons
At the beginning of WikiTime, WikiDragons were quite common, turning up on every corner of Wikipedia, and at one stage were the dominant species. Long-lived beings, WikiDragons are known to fly above the fray of the short-lived kingdoms of men (or roam the ground or waters when they are wingless), and put their time into making contributions. When confronted or attacked, though, a WikiDragon may respond with vehemence and fire to defend their personal honour or the honor of their closest WikiFriends. WikiDragons typically have a great level of courage (necessary to endure WikiKnights) and faith in their fellow Wikipedians (especially other WikiDragons). The more recent evolution of the WikiGnome and WikiFaeries/WikiZenMasters led to widespread persecution of WikiDragons. Current research, as it is available, suggests that through age and physical and psychological damage from unending attacks, abuses, and persecutions, WikiDragons ultimately lose their ability to fly and may degenerate, often after long spells of inactivity, into WikiOgres.
[edit] Evolution
Some Darwinists propose that WikiDragons were perhaps the first species to inhabit Wikipedia. Evidence of this is found by looking at fossil articles dating back as far as 2001 (middle Nupedian). Since no similar fossils have been found elsewhere, it is believed that WikiDragons are highly developed archosaurs which evolved from cave-dwelling dragons of Europe, possibly with the help of a genetic experiment involving a dragon carcass and the brain cells of an intellectual being comparable to the human.
Newer evidence suggests that they evolved from primitive Octapsids, like Palaeowikidraco or the living fossils WikiSerpentes, suggesting Wikian creatures dating back before the turn of the millennium, dubbed WikiDinosaurs and WikiSerpents. WikiDinosaurs may have been the actual founders and creators of Wikipedia, and some may have existed for one or two years after the evolution of Wikidraco. The topic of preWikian life, especially in an older region of cyberspace called Nupedia, sparks debates about whether there is life outside Wikipedia. In fact, a WikiSerpent, who says he's trying to evolve into a WikiDragon, claims to hail from a place called Canada.[2] It is also possible that WikiSerpents are actually WikiDragon larva, since evolution does not usually happen this quickly in reptiles, although Pokémon are rumored to do this.
[edit] Mythology
A more popular consensus is that WikiDragons are entirely fictitious. Most people doubt their existence[citation needed], and even more doubt they ever did exist[citation needed]. These opinions usually arise from people who do not believe in the existence of other types of dragons as well[citation needed].
[edit] Synonymy
Many scientists argue that the WikiDragon is simply a misidentification of the common Wikipedian. This hypothesis serves as a reason for the difficulties posed in locating them.
[edit] Dwindling numbers
WikiDragons are a critically endangered species with only a few remaining. At the beginning of 2008, only 33 WikiDragons were known to exist. At (March 21, 2008), the census counted 36. With 47 found specimens on May 21, 2008, it is believed that either the conservation efforts are proving fruitful or that the research method is improving[1].
[edit] Persecution of WikiDragons
WikiDragons most often make bold edits that may attract attention. These edits will at times lead to edit wars, are tagged for deletion by another user — perhaps because that user is attempting to "clean up" — or may be reverted on-sight as POV-pushing (even though the majority of WikiDragons keep their biases well-hidden or subdued). This and other vilification of WikiDragons by angry mobs (sometimes as small as even three or four users banded together — unless one of them finally gets permablocked) has led to a drastic reduction in WikiDragons willing to emerge from their cave homes. While some may consider this to be a problem, Wikipedia administrators, in large part, hesitate to stop the destruction of these noble WikiFey for reasons of wikipolitics, fear of repercussions, personal hatred of WikiDragons in general, or other motivations. Some administrators have even been known to actively hunt WikiDragons[citation needed].
WikiKnights, however, are perhaps the biggest threat to the survival of English WikiDragons. Sworn into the duty of slaying WikiDragons, WikiKnights inhabit all of Wikipedia. The motivation behind these attacks varies. As can be seen in the painting, one such reason is to win the heart of another Wikipedian.
As WikiKnightdom is an English concept, non-English WikiDragons have other predators. Russian WikiDragons are hunted by "evil conspirators", who work against all of the WikiFey[3], and Portuguese WikiDragons are hunted by WikiGnomes and WikiElves[4].
For the most part, WikiDragons are not able to become administrators on the English Wikipedia (possibly because they cannot fit inside a cubicle), though a few have managed to successfully integrate.
[edit] Dragons in Wiki mythology
Many WikiDragons can be recognized immediately by particular characteristics. Often, these characteristics are misconstrued negatively. They may include:
[edit] Values
- Honour — A WikiDragon's sense of honour is of utmost importance and value. Impugning the honour of a WikiDragon is very likely to elicit an aggressive response, possibly including the breathing of fire.
- Loyalty — The WikiDragon's unswerving resolve toward maintaining neutrality is matched only by their resolve toward defending other WikiDragons and sympathetic users (but only so much as they are in the right). Without loyalty, the WikiDragon is nothing.
- Courage — WikiDragons come to Wikipedia already possessing tremendous courage; without it they could not survive, endure, or thrive in this world. With the courage to edit, to challenge {{dubious}} claims, and to speak truth no matter how palatable or distasteful that truth may be, the WikiDragon is the champion of courage.
- Faith — A WikiDragon's faith in the system is absolute, regardless of how many times that same system may assist — intentionally or unintentionally — the WikiDragon's persecution. The WikiDragon keeps unbending faith in the solidarity of WikiDragons, the importance of the total project, and most important, faith that all editors are intending to better Wikipedia (unless and until proven otherwise).
[edit] Attributes
- Passion — Possibly the strongest aspect of a WikiDragon, this is very often confused with incivility, but is not meant to be so. Pointing out facts and calling a spade a spade are common WikiDragon behaviors. The WikiDragon's passion derives from the confluence of honour, loyalty, courage, and faith.
- Knowledge — Having vast stores of information on subjects of their interest, which may be eclectic and unrelated to pop-culture.
- Lucidity — Ability to state what they think in clear words, long words, and sometimes archaic or arcane language, which unfortunately can sometimes confuse others or cause others to take the WikiDragon's comments differently from how they were intended.
- Battle Scars — From the many battles, whether as an active participant or whilst seeking refuge from unprovoked attacks, the WikiDragon rarely survives beyond infancy without garnering some sort of disfigurement or, at the least, minor scars.
[edit] Symbolism
[edit] Magical Powers
WikiDragons have many magical wiki-powers not shared by other creatures such as:
- Breathing Fire — Like any other dragons, WikiDragons breathe fire naturally. This can unfortunately lead to people assuming that they are making personal attacks or acting particularly aggressively when, in point of fact, the WikiDragon merely is stating facts in a direct, apolitical manner, and fire on the breath still accompanies the words without the WikiDragon's intent to flame anyone.
- Transmutation — Ability to create entire articles from thin air.
- Creativity — The ability to make meaningful graphics, such as a graph or insightful visual; this power confounds other creatures.
- Expertise — Having an elusive ability called "expertise", though many users (of all types) debate as to whether or not this actually exists.
- Awards — Having large stores of magical treasure gained for their work. Conversely, many WikiDragons have few or no awards due to their hiding in the realm of smaller articles or the lack of recognition from non-WikiDragons. Theorists believe that WikiDragons also do not typically give out such awards (for unknown reasons), thus accounting for the lack of awards to WikiDragons from other WikiDragons.
[edit] Locating WikiDragons
[edit] Registration
WikiDragons were once easily found through voluntary registration. Sadly, this self-identification led to increased WikiDragon-hunting and stronger persecution, and ultimately the disbanding of the registry. A limited number of WikiDragons have discovered that, while the registry was eliminated, retaining the mark of the old registry will still allow collation of WikiDragon users in a single page, though this is completely voluntary and not expected to be a significant WikiDragon gathering due to the past persecution linked to the registry. However, due to controversy over the category, it is advised that WikiDragons not register in this category, as the category has been deleted multiple times, and registering only promotes the controversial category toward "most wanted".
[edit] Catchphrases
The personalities of WikiDragons may come out in oft-used phrases, often borrowed from popular culture. Among these utterances are:
- "This is no time to be correcting grammar. Now let's do whatever it is we're gonna do."[2]
- "How long are we gonna argue about the lead, here?! What really need is some work on the rest of the article!"
[edit] Self-Identification
Some WikiDragons Wikidragons may self-identify on Wikipedia, albeit individually, through userpage proclamations through the use of userboxes. Currently, two userboxes are known to exist. The larger box is hypothesized to potentially draw more hunters and increase individual persecution and attacks, but this hypothesis has not yet been proven. All of them should be seen as both pronouncements and warnings.
- The original userbox is {{User wikipedia/WikiDragon}}:
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This user is a WikiDragon. ...one of the last of a dying breed... |
- A larger, bolder version (dubbed "DragonSized") was later created as {{User wikipedia/WikiDragon-dragonsized}}:
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This user is a WikiDragon.
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A more discreet method for a WikiDragon to identify himself is to display an icon along the top bar of his userpage: 
. This can be accomplished by adding the following template on one's userpage: {{Wikipedia:WikiDragon/topicon}}. Optional parameters may be used to offset the horizontal and vertical positions (default coordinates are |30|8, respectively).
[edit] See also
- Wikipedia:WikiDragon/Kudos, A collection of kind messages left for the WikiDragons.
- Image:Wappen Drackenstein.png, A dragon coat-of-arms (from the Greman town of Drackenstein).
- List of dragons in mythology and folklore
- List of fictional dragons
- Dragons in literature and fiction
[edit] References
- ^ [1]
- ^ From the Galactica 1980 episode "Galactica Discovers Earth, Part II", at 46:45 (DVD count), originally spoken by Captain "Boxey" Troy.
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