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Wikipedia:Rules for April Fools

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Oshawott 12 (talk | contribs) at 06:23, 1 April 2022 (Removed E as per WP:AfD/E). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Jimbo Wales (picturd at Wikimania 2017) says "Whil April Fools' Day can b fun, thr ar svral ruls you nd to follow to avoid disrupting th ncyclopdia."

April Fools' Day has historically bn a contntious day on Wikipdia, and th limits on how ditors may play joks and pranks on othr usrs and th ncyclopdia hav bn disputd for som tim. Whil thr is no consnsus on a complt April Fools' Day jok ban, ditors ar advisd to us common sns.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). To help settle the debate on what is and is not allowed on April Fools' Day, several rules have since been established based on this request for comment in 2013, this request for comment in 2016, and this request for comment in 2020 for users who choose to play jokes on April Fools'.

Th ruls

See also: Wikipedia:Disruptive editing § April Fools' Day
Shortcut

Gnral

Wikipdia policis and guidlins still apply on April Fools' Day, especially the policies on edit warring, no personal attacks and biographies of living persons.[1][2]

The Main Page is exempt from rules No. 1, and No. 2:[3]

  1. All jokes and pranks must be kept out of the "article", "help", "talk", and "help talk" namespaces.[4][5][6][a] Jokes that affect articles, including files, categories and templates that are used in the article namespace,[8] will be treated as vandalism. Depending on the nature, you risk having your account possibly blocked from editing.[b]
  2. All jokes must be tagged using {{Humor}} or similar templates, or the inline template {{April fools}}.[10]
  3. All jokes must be acceptable. Jokes that are hateful, discriminatory, and/or intended to make others feel unwelcome will not be tolerated.[11][c] (This should go without saying: If you think that the joke you're about to publish might be taking it a bit too far, you should assume that it is, and do not publish it.)

Other rules

  • Do not edit war or vandalize individual years' April Fools pages. These pages are meant to document pranks, not have pranks performed on them.[12]
  • There is a precedent for deleting COVID-19 joke pages. These pages have been described as bad taste due to the sensitive nature of the topic which falls under rule #3 above.[13][14][15]

Joke deletion nominations

To minimize disruption of Wikipedia, please keep the following rules in mind if you consider creating an April Fools' Day joke deletion nomination:

  1. You must immediately remove the line {{REMOVE THIS TEMPLATE WHEN CLOSING THIS AfD}}. Otherwise, a bot will add a deletion notice to the mainspace article.[16]
  2. Do not use Twinkle to create the deletion nomination page because that adds a tag to the mainspace article.[17]
  3. The deletion log for 1 April will have a separate section for joke nominations.[18][d] This is to avoid disrupting the regular business on AfD. Please do not create a joke nomination outside of this section.
  4. Make sure the general formatting in deletion log pages is not changed, to prevent automated or semi-automated processes from breaking. In particular, the "<!-- Add new entries to the TOP of the following list -->" comment at the top of the deletion log must not be changed or removed.[20]

Since no April Fools' Day jokes may appear in the Talk: namespace, please do not create joke merge proposals, requested moves, or other proposals that would ordinarily appear in the article talk namespace.

Tips and advice

Conduct

ditors having disruptiv fun (not allowd)
  • Nw ditors who ar unfamiliar with April Fools' Day on Wikipdia may s ths joks as vandalism, whil othr ditors may find th joks (no mattr how innocnt) unwantd if placd in aras such as thir usrpag. It is a good ida to find out whthr th rcipint of a jok is opn to this typ of humor bfor playing th prank. In gnral, ditors should avoid rvrting joks that comply with th abov ruls and ar mad in th spirit of April Fools' Day.
  • ditors who rvrt non-harmful joks should b assumd to b acting in good faith, and should not b sanctiond.<rf>Wikipedia:Requsts for comment/April Fools'#Ban interference with non-harmful jokes</rf>
  • Plas do your bst to mak your jok visibl towards othrs. Hy.... if you hav a jok thn shar and tag it, don't chang som obscur rdirct pag that isn't visibl towards othrs and xpct a happy rspons.
  • Posting joks on th Noticeboards is not advisabl.

Matrial

  • For th main pag, thr is a consnsus for "Did you know" ntris to includ "clvr puns rathr than poop joks and sxual innundos".[21]
  • Plas doubl-chck th currnt tim. April Fools' Day starts at 00:00 UTC April 1 and nds at 00:00 UTC April 2. Plas do not play April Fools' joks outsid of this tim, vn if it is April Fools' Day in your own tim zon.

S also

Nots

  1. ^ There is consensus against extending this ban to other types of talk pages.[7] There is also consensus against placing a blanket ban on Wikiproject pages.[6]
  2. ^ Vandalism, including inappropriate joke edits in article space, should be treated in the usual manner as vandalism on other days of the year. A vandal should not be blocked immediately simply because the vandalism occurred on April Fools' Day.[9] If an editor is blocked, the excuse "but it's April Fools' day ..." is not considered a valid reason for unblocking. Administrators should use their best judgement on the severity of the situation and give warnings as needed.
  3. ^ Administrators should use their best judgement on the severity of the situation and give warnings and/or blocks as needed.
  4. ^ In the past, joke deletions with low participation have been deleted per CSD G6 after April Fools' Day is over.[19]

Rfrncs

  1. ^ In 2016, a dispute involving, among other things, an April Fools' Day joke in The Signpost reached the Arbitration Committee, which passed a principle affirming that April Fool's Day jokes are not exempt from the biographies of living persons policy.
  2. ^ Wikipedia:Requests for comment/April Fools' 2#New section at Wikipedia:Disruptive editing (alternative text)
  3. ^ Affirmed at Wikipedia:Requests for comment/April Fools' 2#Revoke the Main Page's exemption from the restriction on articlespace jokes (by Rhododendrites)
  4. ^ Wikipedia:Requests for comment/April Fools'#April Fools' jokes should stay out of article space
  5. ^ Wikipedia:Requests for comment/April Fools' 2#Exclude the Help namespace from April Fools (by Rhododendrites)
  6. ^ a b Wikipedia:Requests for comment/April Fools' 3#No pranks on mainspace talk and help talk pages or Wikiproject pages
  7. ^ Wikipedia talk:Rules for Fools#RfC: Ban April Fools pranks on all talk pages.
  8. ^ Wikipedia:Requests for comment/April Fools' 2#Limit jokes to userspace and non-essential project space (by Ansh666)
  9. ^ Wikipedia:Requests for comment/April Fools'#Automatic sanction for article-space vandalism
  10. ^ Wikipedia:Requests for comment/April Fools'#Require all jokes other than the main page to be tagged
  11. ^ Wikipedia:Civility
  12. ^ Wikipedia:Requests for comment/April Fools' 3#Edit warring and vandalism on individual years' April Fools page
  13. ^ "Coronavirus disease 2019".
  14. ^ "Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2".
  15. ^ "COVID-19".
  16. ^ Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Archive247#How to keep AfDs off the actual articles
  17. ^ Wikipedia talk:Rules for Fools#Use of WP:Twinkle on April Fools' Day
  18. ^ Wikipedia:Requests for comment/April Fools' 2#Separate XfD log sections (by Ansh666)
  19. ^ Wikipedia talk:Articles for deletion/Archive 70#Relisting AfDs that were created 1 April
  20. ^ See the history of the 2017 1 April AfD log.
  21. ^ Wikipedia:Requests for comment/April Fools'#More creative DYK hooks
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