Wikipedia talk:April Fools' Main Page/Archive 2007

A mock-up is presented on the adjacent project page. Please help complete it. See 2006 archive for last year's discussion and result.

This article describes the proposed presentation of the Main Page on April Fool's Day. The proposed components of the Main Page could be presented on 1 April, 2007, and if deemed a success, can be a guideline for presenting the Main Page on future April Fool's Days.

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 can make it.

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 humourless that it cannot show some whimsy in how it presents itself to its readers.

In this proposal "we" can refer to any group of Wikipedians interested in editing articles for April Fool's Day.

Featured article

In the past, various unusual articles have been improved to featured article status. These include exploding whale, heavy metal umlaut, Japanese toilet, spoo, and Joshua A. Norton. People seeing some of these articles listed on the Main Page sometimes believe that it is a joke, when in fact, these articles are well-written and quite deserving of featured article status.

An unusual article (such as exploding toad or Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch) will be edited up to Featured article status and listed on the Main Page on 1 April, 2007. The "recently featured" sentence could be changed to "other featured", and link to the above-mentioned unusual featured articles.

Given the amount of time it takes to bring an article up to Featured article status, an alternative solution would be to use an article that has already been made a Featured article, but has not yet been listed on the Main Page (such as Read my lips: no new taxes).

we still need suggestions for the article on april fool's. Any suggestions? The Placebo Effect 02:16, 10 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I think we can bring exploding toad up to FA status in time for April Fool's. --Deathphoenix ʕ 16:14, 10 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

In the news

Since this describes current news, April Fool's activities, if any, are limited to finding unusual pieces of news and publishing them in this section. This section would be unchanged or largely unchanged from any other day, albeit with a couple of interesting or unusual events that may have occurred in the days leading up to 1 April, 2007.

I like the idea, but I feel that this particular part of the plan (the ITN) has been done so many times by so many sites. I mean, the idea is to basically do what Fark.com does every day. I love the concept of using an unusual article that is actually of Featured quality to be the article of the day, and using an odd Featured Picture. Thus, if everything else is going to be April Fools-y, ITN might as well be, too. There's just something about it that doesn't sit right with me. -- Kicking222 02:38, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Selected anniversaries/On this day...

This section should focus on unusual, but factual events occurring on 1 April, mostly April Fool's jokes played by other people. This would serve the dual purpose of providing fact and reminding the reader that this is April Fool's Day, which may further convince them that the Wikipedia is presenting "joke facts". Selected anniversaries can include anything that happened as described in April Fool's Day#Well-known hoaxes.

Did you know...

This section should focus on some trivia that can be presented in a manner that is unbelievable to the reader. See the mock-up for proposed entriies.

Please provide a signature after your message. Thank You! --S iva1979^{Talk to me} 09:41, 26 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

One should b about the Water hoax The Placebo Effect 23:59, 8 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The question is, are we going to abide by the normal rules of DYK? That is to say, in general, articles featured in DYK need to be less than five days old or has to have been expanded beyond a stub in the past five days. To find four or five articles created (or greatly lengthened) between March 27 and March 31 will be tough... unless we purposely create some weird articles in that short span of time. It would certainly be possible, assuming people could decide upon what topics on which articles should be created and bring together sourcing. -- Kicking222 02:41, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I think the fudged with the rules last year on April Fool's I don't see why we can't this year. The Placebo Effect 02:47, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Picture for April Fool's Day

Will we be able to use the pirate picture or will we have to find a new one? The Placebo Effect 02:47, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Other things to do

Would it be possible to have a Featured Redirect or a Featured Disambiguation Page? The Placebo Effect 18:06, 7 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

That might be funny to established editors but not to a general readership, who aren't familiar with the different types of Wikipedia pages. Too in-jokey I think. Redquark 18:27, 8 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There could always be something more generic, like Featured Badger or something along those lines. Readro 20:19, 9 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

What about the featured picture? A photo that looks too faked to be real maybe? SteveBaker 23:26, 8 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This is a basic copy of last years April 1 page, We need some new content for all of them. If someone could find a good picture to make featured for this day, I would love to see it please. The Placebo Effect 23:59, 8 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The problem is most pictures wouldn't pass the FPC process. I'll look through the archives though. (I don't think we have the villan or the pirate anymore) | AndonicO ^{Talk | Sign Here} 01:10, 9 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Well there's always parody, copy an famous encyclopedias just avoid the lawsuits. lol. Or make the page full of one subject and change the main page accordingly. For example, "Wikiendo" can be this year's subject. The main page would be filled with everything Nintendo related - like a crazed fanboy took over. The hues of gray & white in the background would be changed to hues of red & white, etc. This is something that can easily be done I guess. I'm that experienced with Adobe Photoshop. Changes done at the adjacent page seem a little too discreet for someone looking for a quick find here. Just to spark some inspiration, this is what GameFaqs did. Again full of one subject, X-Box [1]. FMF|contact 01:13, 9 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think that's going to go down very well here. The plan has to be to put up true facts - written to our usual standards - but somehow contrive to make them very, very hard to believe. The joke is that this is just a normal Wikipedia front page - and the April Fool is entirely in the heads of our suspicious readers. It's good if we can pull it off. SteveBaker 02:42, 9 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

We could borrow some uncyclopedia material for the FA of the day. Personally, I was always fond of Pong! the Movie... JoeSmack ^Talk 03:11, 9 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I assume that you're kidding. In any event, I'll note that Uncyclopedia's content is not licensed under the GFDL. —David Levy 03:21, 9 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I wonder if there is anything we could do to get a WikiWorld cartoon onto the front page? Those generally look like joke articles. SteveBaker 22:21, 9 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Good idea. By the way, Image:Piratey, vector version.svg (the pirate) is still an FP, much to my surprise. I doubt it can get much better than that. :-) | AndonicO ^{Talk | Sign Here} 00:53, 10 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Fake press release?

A couple years we did a press release saying we were being bought out by Britannica -- how about Google? Heck, if we tried, we could try convincing them to play along... :-) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by TheProject (talk • contribs) 02:54, 9 January 2007 (UTC).[reply]

It's rather unfortunate and embarrassing that some of the most trusted members of the community have vandalized our main page. Thankfully, any such behavior will now be met with prompt reversion and a stern warning. —David Levy 03:07, 9 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Much better to present unusual events (that are true) rather than making something up. It would be easiest to do this for "Did you know?" and "On this day", much harder to do for current news and events. --Deathphoenix ʕ 16:16, 10 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

On this day

How about "1970 - the Gremlin is introduced to the American market." Piet | Talk

that's a good start. but i think something like "1970: Gremlin turned loose, charges through American market" would be better. with this new sentence structuring, the status of gremlin is now vague and [i]seems[/i] monster like, while not saying anything untrue about the event. just plain ol' american hype. ;)

2006 archived

I've copied the 2006 version to its archive page at Wikipedia:April Fool's Main Page/2006, i'll now update this project page to use the current wikicode. —Quiddity 07:14, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]