User:Xdude gamer/HumorousSignpostDraft

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The Signpost



HumorousSignpostDraft

Tales of the Seven Ages of Wikipedia

Here begins the prose of the Seven Ages of Wikipedia.

The WikiInfant's Tale[edit]

One day, in a time where the Wikipedian cause was not as strong, and there were still a few articles unmade, a good-natured fellow joined the site. He was just a boy back then, but he felt like he could make something great.

He was a WikiInfant of the truest nature. He only used Wikipedia as a basic research tool and for really nothing more. But one day after reading the latest news about how Columbia dropped from the sky on a lonely afternoon, he suddenly realized the potential in writing.

He had always been rather interested in news so he decided he would look at more news and try to make an unmade page!

Trouble was, he was looking at the wrong kind of news, those funny tabloids you find in the checkout section in a Walmart. So, in theory, you can probably infer what's about to happen here.

He started writing about how Oprah Winfrey was dating Eminem and that they had suffered a massive breakup. Oof. Not good. Why the heck would Oprah date a rapper anyway? So then, those original mods who looked over Wikipedia back in the early 2000s looked at this dude, laughed, and deleted his edits.

"What?"

"IT'S FAKE NEWS MAN!"


The WikiChild's Tale[edit]

This WikiInfant grew in maturity that day. Now he realized his potentially important role in the community as piggyback-rider of the moderation staff. He made his first great edit for the newly-created Typo Team, replacing "and and" in an old article in November.

Ah, me! What a good WikiChild he was. I remember him well. He did once start the Great Edit War of January 2004 and then again in February, but otherwise he was a good chap! I always figured he might make it far in this world.

Well, one night, he did! He created the majority of a Wikipedia page on the Super Bowl of that year and ended up getting some nice sayings said to him. He felt that he had made such a great choice that he went ahead and started another edit war, this one being a month after his January one.

Though the ban hammer was dropped upon him that day, he did once come back one day...


The WikiTeen's Tale[edit]

Once upon a blue moon, when the sky was black and full of great stars, their was a boy who called himself a WikiLover. He had been a WikiInfant and a WikiChild before, but now he had matured into a great old WikiTeen.

Much like a real teen, he would take a long break, and then out of boredom, strike fear into the hearts of editors with his rampant vandalism. No one knew why he did all this stuff. He just one day started doing it.

One day, the WikiTeen didn't strike one day. One day turned to a week, and then a month. For four months he struck not once. His WikiBreak was welcomed with arms. When he returned, he struck once more, this time with a full page.

But unfortunately, the page was nominated and elected successfully for speedy deletion, his account suspended. In his great sadness, a few hours of wait, he had a revelation.

"I do solemnly swear," he said, "that I will never vandalize again!"

And with that comeback, he stayed true to his word and grew up a stage. He followed the limits and the rules. He was so close to becoming a WikiBarbarian, but in the end he prevailed.

The WikiYoungAdult's Tale[edit]

The mighty WikiSoldier that came from a scrawny WikiTeen was quite a good man most of the time. He fixed typos in his WikiProject and made productive edits almost every day.

One day, he felt exhausted from his hard work and decided to blow off some steam. BOOM! Suddenly, he was going haywire, putting so many edits down on the page that within three or four talkpage discussions and ludicrous pranks later, there was a full-blown edit war going on.

Living up to his name, the WikiSoldier kept his pride hanging out of his bed, and carried on with the war for so long that soon, he too became tired of the conflict. But soon, he yielded, put his apology out, and accepted his punishments.

The WikiAdult's Tale[edit]

A WikiSoldier there matured, a fine lady was she. This woman referred to herself as a WikiJustice and rightfully so! She felt the need to bring her justice to the cheap, warring WikiBarbarians who crossed the line and brought fear to the hearts of all Wikipedians.

But then, something happened. She suddenly felt the situation slipping out of her cold grip. So, she did what seems to be a logical decision and went on a rampage, destroying all who opposed the rules and all that attempted to argue with her twisted view on said WikiBarbarians.

"JUSTICEBRINGER360! What are you doing? You're destroying everything!" piped up one of the mods one day.

"I'm doing the job of a WikiJustice! I'm bring WikiJustice to all who oppose the law."

"No, it's just too much! Too much! It's all screwed up!" said he.

"What would you do if the Edit Wars starting piling up?"

"I would personally take a break. But do come back again."

So she did. And she greatly enjoyed her break. It was the beginning of her descent into WikiSenior-dom. But the first break brought her to clarity. She became one of the best WikiJustices we've ever had. We think.


EPILOGUE: The WikiSenior's Tale[edit]

In the end of his career, the WikiSenior lost his enthusiasm in the editing process. Every once in a while, he was of great help, but the sparkle of his editing years was of great cost and to edit he would only take a request.

The WikiSenior helped the Infants learn, and the Children edit, and helped the Lovers listen, and the Soldiers mature, and the Adults arise to the occasion.

He became a WikiElder, respected infinitely by the community. But unfortunately, the WikiElder disappeared off the web. He has experienced WikiDeath...

But it is not his last breath.

New life will one day breath into him or one of his same power. One who will grow from WikiInfant, an ignorant fool of the web, to a WikiChild, a not-as-ignorant fool of the Wiki, and to a WikiLover, who will cause great arrogance to be spread, to a WikiSoldier, who will make great edits and not-so-great edits, and to a WikiJustice, who will make the best decisions, a WikiSenior, who will help others to make those decisions, before they too experience the final WikiDeath.

Here ends this prose.


This page is a draft for the next issue of the Signpost. Below is some helpful code that will help you write and format a Signpost draft. If it's blank, you can fill out a template by copy-pasting this in and pressing 'publish changes': {{subst:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/Story-preload}}


Images and Galleries
Sidebar images

To put an image in your article, use the following template (link):

[[File:|center|300px|alt=Placeholder alt text]]

CAPTION
{{Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/Filler image-v2
 |image     = 
 |size      = 300px
 |alt       = Placeholder alt text
 |caption   = CAPTION
 |fullwidth = no
}}

This will create the file on the right. Keep the 300px in most cases. If writing a 'full width' article, change |fullwidth=no to |fullwidth=yes.

Inline images

Placing

{{Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/Inline image
 |image   =
 |size    = 300px
 |align   = center
 |alt     = Placeholder alt text
 |caption = CAPTION
}}

(link) will instead create an inline image like below

[[File:|300px|center|alt=Placeholder alt text]]
CAPTION
Galleries

To create a gallery, use the following

<gallery mode = packed | heights = 200px>
|Caption for second image
</gallery>

to create

Quotes
Framed quotes

To insert a framed quote like the one on the right, use this template (link):

{{Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/Filler quote-v2
 |1         = The goose is on the loose!
 |author    = AUTHOR
 |source    = SOURCE
 |fullwidth = no
}}

If writing a 'full width' article, change |fullwidth=no to |fullwidth=yes.

Pull quotes

To insert a pull quote like

use this template (link):

{{Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/Quote
 |1         = The goose is on the loose!
 |source    = SOURCE
}}
Long quotes

To insert a long inline quote like

The goose is on the loose! The geese are on the lease!
— User:Oscar Wilde
— Quotations Notes from the Underpoop

use this template (link):

{{Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/block quote
 | text   = The goose is on the loose! The geese are on the lease!
 | by     = Oscar Wilde
 | source = Quotations
 | ts     = Notes from the Underpoop
 | oldid  = 1234567890
}}
Side frames

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

A caption

Side frames help put content in sidebar vignettes. For instance, this one (link):

{{Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/Filler frame-v2
 |1         = Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
 |caption   = A caption
 |fullwidth = no
}}

gives the frame on the right. This is useful when you want to insert non-standard images, quotes, graphs, and the like.

Example − Graph/Charts
A caption

For example, to insert the {{Graph:Chart}} generated by

{{Graph:Chart
 |width=250|height=100|type=line
 |x=1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8|y=10,12,6,14,2,10,7,9
}}

in a frame, simple put the graph code in |1=

{{Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/Filler frame-v2
 |1=
{{Graph:Chart
 |width=250|height=100|type=line
 |x=1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8|y=10,12,6,14,2,10,7,9
}}
 |caption=A caption
 |fullwidth=no
}}

to get the framed Graph:Chart on the right.

If writing a 'full width' article, change |fullwidth=no to |fullwidth=yes.

Two-column vs full width styles

If you keep the 'normal' preloaded draft and work from there, you will be using the two-column style. This is perfectly fine in most cases and you don't need to do anything.

However, every time you have a |fullwidth=no and change it to |fullwidth=yes (or vice-versa), the article will take that style from that point onwards (|fullwidth=yes → full width, |fullwidth=no → two-column). By default, omitting |fullwidth= is the same as putting |fullwidth=no and the article will have two columns after that. Again, this is perfectly fine in most cases, and you don't need to do anything.

However, you can also fine-tune which style is used at which point in an article.

To switch from two-column → full width style midway in an article, insert

{{Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/Signpost-block-end-v2}}
{{Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/Signpost-block-start-v2|fullwidth=yes}}

where you want the switch to happen.

To switch from full width → two-column style midway in an article, insert

{{Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/Signpost-block-end-v2}}
{{Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/Signpost-block-start-v2|fullwidth=no}}

where you want the switch to happen.

Article series

To add a series of 'related articles' your article, use the following code

Related articles
Visual Editor

Five, ten, and fifteen years ago
1 January 2023

VisualEditor, endowment, science, and news in brief
5 August 2015

HTTPS-only rollout completed, proposal to enable VisualEditor for new accounts
17 June 2015

VisualEditor and MediaWiki updates
29 April 2015

Security issue fixed; VisualEditor changes
4 February 2015


More articles

{{Signpost series
 |type=sidebar-v2
 |tag=VisualEditor
 |seriestitle=Visual Editor
 |fullwidth=no
}}

or

{{Signpost series
 |type=sidebar-v2
 |tag=VisualEditor
 |seriestitle=Visual Editor
 |fullwidth=yes
}}

will create the sidebar on the right. If writing a 'full width' article, change |fullwidth=no to |fullwidth=yes. A partial list of valid |tag= parameters can be found at here and will decide the list of articles presented. |seriestitle= is the title that will appear below 'Related articles' in the box.

Alternatively, you can use

{{Signpost series
 |type=inline
 |tag=VisualEditor
 |tag_name=visual editor
 |tag_pretext=the
}}

at the end of an article to create

For Signpost coverage on the visual editor see the visual editor series.

If you think a topic would make a good series, but you don't see a tag for it, or that all the articles in a series seem 'old', ask for help at the WT:NEWSROOM. Many more tags exist, but they haven't been documented yet.

Links and such

By the way, the template that you're reading right now is {{Editnotices/Group/Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Next issue}}.