April Fool - how to prepare for the onslaught

[MacGyverMagic/Mgm]

Based on my experience in previous years, I have no doubt April 1 will bring
out a lot of pranksters.
We had a lot of mess before. Are there any preparations to keep things under
control this year?
If not, we should organize something ASAP.

Mgm
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[Stan Shebs-2]

MacGyverMagic/Mgm wrote:
> Based on my experience in previous years, I have no doubt April 1 will bring
> out a lot of pranksters.
> We had a lot of mess before. Are there any preparations to keep things under
> control this year?
> If not, we should organize something ASAP.
>  
You could get a two-fer by announcing that WP is now "completed" and
that therefore no further editing is necessary, then protect (or
semi-protect?) all pages for the 48 hours necessary to catch all timezones.

:-)

Stan


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[Philip Sandifer-2]

On Mar 19, 2007, at 5:33 PM, MacGyverMagic/Mgm wrote:

> Based on my experience in previous years, I have no doubt April 1  
> will bring
> out a lot of pranksters.
> We had a lot of mess before. Are there any preparations to keep  
> things under
> control this year?
> If not, we should organize something ASAP.

I think the easiest thing to do would be to get a page where recent  
changes to the encyclopedia can be looked at together so that we can  
see what's going on. Secondarily, the ability to make targetted lists  
of pages that we can watch and see when get changed would be useful.

Once we have those, all we need is some admins who can look at a  
calendar and who are sensibly mirthful - that is, unwilling to accept  
crap in the articlespace, and tolerant of amusing hijinks in the  
project namespace.

-Phil
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[James Farrar]

On 19/03/07, Stan Shebs <[hidden email]> wrote:

> MacGyverMagic/Mgm wrote:
> > Based on my experience in previous years, I have no doubt April 1 will bring
> > out a lot of pranksters.
> > We had a lot of mess before. Are there any preparations to keep things under
> > control this year?
> > If not, we should organize something ASAP.
> >
> You could get a two-fer by announcing that WP is now "completed" and
> that therefore no further editing is necessary, then protect (or
> semi-protect?) all pages for the 48 hours necessary to catch all timezones.
>
> :-)

I like it :)

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[George Herbert]

On 3/19/07, James Farrar <[hidden email]> wrote:

> On 19/03/07, Stan Shebs <[hidden email]> wrote:
> > MacGyverMagic/Mgm wrote:
> > > Based on my experience in previous years, I have no doubt April 1 will bring
> > > out a lot of pranksters.
> > > We had a lot of mess before. Are there any preparations to keep things under
> > > control this year?
> > > If not, we should organize something ASAP.
> > >
> > You could get a two-fer by announcing that WP is now "completed" and
> > that therefore no further editing is necessary, then protect (or
> > semi-protect?) all pages for the 48 hours necessary to catch all timezones.
> >
> > :-)
>
> I like it :)

Or just revert the database back 48 hrs after the fun's all run its course...

"What April 1?  There was no April 1 this year, we skipped straight to
the Second..."


--
-george william herbert
[hidden email]

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[Ron Ritzman]

On 3/19/07, Stan Shebs <[hidden email]> wrote:

> You could get a two-fer by announcing that WP is now "completed" and
> that therefore no further editing is necessary, then protect (or
> semi-protect?) all pages for the 48 hours necessary to catch all timezones.

Hell, let's just http redirect the whole site to uncyclopedia

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[Steve Bennett-8]

On 3/20/07, Stan Shebs <[hidden email]> wrote:
> You could get a two-fer by announcing that WP is now "completed" and
> that therefore no further editing is necessary, then protect (or
> semi-protect?) all pages for the 48 hours necessary to catch all timezones.

Why miss out on this golden opportunity to make thousands of people
realise that anyone can edit Wikipedia?

Steve

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[Ron Ritzman]

On 3/19/07, Steve Bennett <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Why miss out on this golden opportunity to make thousands of people
> realise that anyone can edit Wikipedia?

"user:Anyone" doesn't seem to exist. Here's someone's golden opportunity.

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[Philippe Beaudette]

It's not available for creation... but not sure if it exists or is just not available to be created.

Philippe
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Ron Ritzman
  To: English Wikipedia
  Sent: Monday, March 19, 2007 8:04 PM
  Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] April Fool - how to prepare for the onslaught


  On 3/19/07, Steve Bennett <[hidden email]> wrote:

  > Why miss out on this golden opportunity to make thousands of people
  > realise that anyone can edit Wikipedia?

  "user:Anyone" doesn't seem to exist. Here's someone's golden opportunity.

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[Steve Bennett-8]

On 3/20/07, Philippe Beaudette <[hidden email]> wrote:
> It's not available for creation... but not sure if it exists or is just not available to be created.

Yeah I couldn't work out a way of distinguishing between a
non-existent user, and a user who has never done anything.

Steve

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[geni]

On 3/20/07, Steve Bennett <[hidden email]> wrote:
> Yeah I couldn't work out a way of distinguishing between a
> non-existent user, and a user who has never done anything.
>
> Steve

Like this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&user=Anybody

--
geni

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[Ron Ritzman]

On 3/19/07, geni <[hidden email]> wrote:

> http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&user=Anybody

Wikipedia, the encyclopedia that anybody can edit but anybody never has.

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[Jeremy Cushman-2]

> > Yeah I couldn't work out a way of distinguishing between a
> > non-existent user, and a user who has never done anything.
> >
> > Steve
>
> Like this:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&user=Anybody
>
> --
> geni

Actually, that won't do anything because if the account was created from
another account it won't show up in the new account log for that user.
You need to go to their user page.  If there's a "User contributions" link
the user exists, otherwise the user does not.
--Mets501


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[Stephen Bain]

On 3/20/07, Steve Bennett <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> Yeah I couldn't work out a way of distinguishing between a
> non-existent user, and a user who has never done anything.

The only definitive method for determining whether an account exists
is [[Special:Listusers]].

--
Stephen Bain
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[Steve Bennett-8]

On 3/20/07, Mets501 <[hidden email]> wrote:
> Actually, that won't do anything because if the account was created from
> another account it won't show up in the new account log for that user.

Created from another account? What do you mean?

Steve

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[Erik Moeller-4]

On 3/19/07, MacGyverMagic/Mgm <[hidden email]> wrote:
> Based on my experience in previous years, I have no doubt April 1 will bring
> out a lot of pranksters.
> We had a lot of mess before. Are there any preparations to keep things under
> control this year?
> If not, we should organize something ASAP.

Just make April 1 of every year Spring Cleanup day and be done with it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Naconkantari/cleanup

--
Peace & Love,
Erik

DISCLAIMER: This message does not represent an official position of
the Wikimedia Foundation or its Board of Trustees.

"An old, rigid civilization is reluctantly dying. Something new, open,
free and exciting is waking up." -- Ming the Mechanic

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[Andrew Gray]

On 20/03/07, Mets501 <[hidden email]> wrote:

> > http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&user=Anybody
>
> Actually, that won't do anything because if the account was created from
> another account it won't show up in the new account log for that user.

I don't know what "created from another account" means, but no log
entry is very simple - created before late 2005, when the log was put
in place.

--
- Andrew Gray
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[Angela-5]

> > http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&user=Anybody
> Actually, that won't do anything because if the account was created from
> another account it won't show up in the new account log for that user.

That also won't work for accounts made before the user creation log
was invented. The way to tell is to look at their contributions list.

If the user page link is red or blue, they exist. It if it gray, they do not.

Compare these two:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Anybodyx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Anybody

Angela

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[Steve Bennett-8]

On 3/20/07, Angela <[hidden email]> wrote:
> If the user page link is red or blue, they exist. It if it gray, they do not.
>
> Compare these two:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Anybodyx
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Anybody

Woot, the authoritative answer.

Out of curiosity, if it's possible to show a grey link, you'd think it
would be possible to show something more explicit like "There is no
user with this name."..

Steve

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[Earle Martin]

On 20/03/07, Ron Ritzman <[hidden email]> wrote:
> Wikipedia, the encyclopedia that anybody can edit but anybody never has.

The encyclopedia that Anybody can edit, but Nobody never has. (How's
that for grammar?)

--
Earle Martin
            http://downlode.org/
http://purl.org/net/earlemartin/

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