Wikipedia talk:April Fools/April Fools' Day 2023

"APRIL2023" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect APRIL2023 and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 May 4 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. Happy Editing-- IAm Chaos  14:42, 4 May 2022 (UTC)

Other serious stuff
On April 1, 2023 the first admins will be removed by the new policy after 3 months of warning. Thingofme (talk) 01:24, 12 August 2022 (UTC)

Replies from 7 January 2023
The first two responses are from this page history
 * 2023! lol1 VNIO ( I made a mistake?  talk to me ) 13:06, 7 January 2023 (UTC)
 * it is 24.130.11.91 (talk) 00:02, 22 January 2023 (UTC)
 * woomy or wawa AlphaBeta135  talk 20:46, 22 January 2023 (UTC)
 * What about veemo? ― Blaze WolfTalkBlaze Wolf#6545 16:36, 27 January 2023 (UTC)
 * What if Splatoon was a BFDI challenge? I have never played Splatoon (I have no plans to play it), but I have seen videos that contain Splatoon and BFDI contents numerous times. TPOT 3 apparently dropped as I am writing this.. AlphaBeta135  talk 20:04, 28 January 2023 (UTC)

List of news topics deemed too controversial for April 1
These are the news topic (4/2022 to 4/2023) that, at the very least, might be a little too controversial to joke about:
 * COVID-19 and pandemic
 * Mexico–United States border crisis
 * 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
 * Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization and abortion
 * 2023 Ohio train derailment
 * 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake
 * Gonzalez v. Google LLC

Requests for adding or removing list item(s) above are open. AlphaBeta135 talk 22:20, 23 February 2023 (UTC)


 * @AlphaBeta135 I think that we should assume that Wikipedians can and will use their best judgement, rather than doing this sort of instruction creep. We should cross the bridge of over-the-top jokes only when we get there, rather than pre-emptively dictating (only) the above topics to be off-limits. After all, there exists an infinite number of controversial topics, and by singling out the above, we risk accidentally creating exceptions that proves the rule (i.e. "Since a topic is omitted, it must be acceptable!"). Sincerely, NotReallySoroka (talk) 21:25, 26 February 2023 (UTC)


 * Maybe you're right, it might've been the media hype (looking at Norfolk Southern train derailment) that got me to write this as well as inspiration from this post. AlphaBeta135  talk 03:16, 1 March 2023 (UTC)

This year's vote
I hosted the first vote back in 2021, and I would have done it in '22 as well but I was getting my PC fixed at the time. This year though, I am available to undertake that responsibility again.

That's all I wanted to say. See you all on Saturday! Diriector_Doc ├─────┤Talk Contribs 17:46, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

April...
OH CRAP, 48 MINUTES. THIS IS A  A ZEEM H ADZRIE   (talk) 23:12, 31 March 2023 (UTC)


 * It's a what? WHAT IS IT?! Thebiguglyalien  ( talk ) 23:47, 31 March 2023 (UTC)
 * only 10 minutes left!  A ZEEM H ADZRIE   (talk) 23:49, 31 March 2023 (UTC)
 * 7 minutes left....  A ZEEM H ADZRIE   (talk) 23:53, 31 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Time flies by! 3 MINUTES, THE SHOW MUST GO ON!  A ZEEM H ADZRIE   (talk) 23:57, 31 March 2023 (UTC)
 * The system will automatically start in T-minus 1 minute.  A ZEEM H ADZRIE   (talk) 23:58, 31 March 2023 (UTC)
 * 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!!! HAPPY APRIL!  A ZEEM H ADZRIE   (talk) 23:59, 31 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Tetris (film) AlphaBeta135  talk 01:12, 1 April 2023 (UTC)

how do you make prank nominations
please tell me? NotOrrio (talk) 01:14, 1 April 2023 (UTC)


 * You can use  ~ to do it. However, remember to immediately remove  , and to avoid using Twinkle. N ot ·R eally ·S oroka  05:37, 1 April 2023 (UTC)

List of things I'd like to see on AFD2023
Every other WMF project, as one big nomination: because Wikipedia is obviously the superior project.

Arcaea: Because I got 1 FAR on what was supposed to be a PURE MEMORY on Testify BYD.

Vandalism: Solve the problem at the source, right?

Deletion of articles on Wikipedia: Paradoxes are fun, so we should delete deletion!

Ohio: Average AFD in Ohio :skull: :skull: this hurt to type

En passant: Holy hell! Google en passant! New response just dropped!

Chess: Instead of this being a normal deletion discussion, users take turns playing on a chess board situated above the discussion and say their moves as !votes. If black wins, delete. If white wins, keep.

March 31: Because I don't want to wait one extra day for AFD2024.

172.112.199.166 (talk) 02:51, 1 April 2023 (UTC)


 * Actually, add a few things to that list:
 * Special:UserLogin: Why login, anyway? You can still edit logged out.
 * Observable universe: If those apocalypse talkers won't end the world we're doing it ourselves. 172.112.199.166 (talk) 03:14, 1 April 2023 (UTC)
 * I also want to see APRIL2023 to have over 200 joke AfDs. AlphaBeta135  talk 14:31, 1 April 2023 (UTC)

What should the "Other Pranks" section be called?
Let's figure out a more creative name through discussion hehe

We can't edit war but we can still discuss what the name could be :)

Submit your title ideas here! I think it can be called "Balloon and Wombat Pranks" because of the balloons and the wombats present on them. Aasim - Herrscher of Wikis ❄️ 16:11, 1 April 2023 (UTC)


 * Wombat-Balloon-foolery Diriector_Doc ├─────┤Talk Contribs  16:52, 1 April 2023 (UTC)
 * If KU Balloon wins: Play 99 Luftballons
 * If Wombat wins: Play Mortal Wombat
 * Otherwise (no consensus or whatever): Wombats on a hot air balloon AlphaBeta135  talk 19:13, 1 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Alternatively, if the penguins win: Reactivate Club Penguin AlphaBeta135  talk 19:41, 1 April 2023 (UTC)


 * Keep it as Other Pranks. The Balloon-Wombat War already has a subsection specifically dedicated to it, and there are other pranks not related to the balloons and wombats listed in the section titled 'Other Pranks'. 73.168.5.183 (talk) 22:54, 1 April 2023 (UTC)

Theme
As with more than -1 of the past April Foolses, there needs to be an official theme that we will remember this day by. Submit your ideas here. --delta (talk) 20:28, 1 April 2023 (UTC)


 * This is the 20th AFD celebration of Wikipedia, so I think that accounts for something, right? Diriector_Doc ├─────┤Talk Contribs  20:33, 1 April 2023 (UTC)

I've been reviewing the page for the (by this point) standard end of day write-up. The big take aways to mention this year so far is the facy that this is the 20th year of record April Fools Day pranks, the Keep Uppy Balloon, the Sacred Wombat, the absolutely vast number of deletion nominations, and a summary of the AfD vote (which you have my thanks for organizing Diriector_Doc).Speaking of twenty years, has anyone every stumbled upon a prank from 2003 or earlier? These year pages are quite frankly the reason that April Fools Day pranks are so common, but there must be something from before we started recording in 04. Spirit of Eagle (talk) 22:30, 1 April 2023 (UTC)


 * Oh what a coincidence. AlphaBeta135  talk 22:50, 1 April 2023 (UTC)

Happy final minute of April Fools Day
Thanks for the fun everyone!Spirit of Eagle (talk) 23:59, 1 April 2023 (UTC)

This was a lot of fun. I'll see everyone next year! -- Diriector_Doc ├─────┤Talk Contribs  00:07, 2 April 2023 (UTC)

RfC: Ban pranking other users' user pages
User:Wesoree got banned by User:GeneralNotability for pranking User:Oshwah's user page. However, there is no rule on Rules for Fools that states that people cannot prank other people's user pages. I propose that pranking other users' user pages be formally banned. 73.168.5.183 (talk) 00:06, 2 April 2023 (UTC)


 * First of all, I blocked, I did not ban. Second, you should not need a formal rule for something that should be common sense: unless you are on very good terms with someone, you shouldn't be messing with their userpage. GeneralNotability (talk) 00:08, 2 April 2023 (UTC)


 * For the record, WP:USERTALKSTOP (a part of our user-page guidelines) already states that "one should avoid substantially editing another's user and user talk pages, except when it is likely edits are expected and/or will be helpful." Spirit of Eagle (talk) 00:18, 2 April 2023 (UTC)


 * Support although I do not know if this RfC is necessary since all of Wikipedia's policies and guidelines that apply on any other day of the year also apply on April Fools' Day. Namely, the jokes need to be in good taste, and they need to be done in a manner to minimize or eliminate the risk of disruption they may cause. Any prank that affects reader-facing stuff should be treated as vandalism. Also it is a bad idea to prank other people's user pages without their explicit consent. Aasim - Herrscher of Wikis ❄️ 11:35, 2 April 2023 (UTC)


 * Oppose as a formal rule as WP:CREEP per /. Iff this is something that happens frequently, beyond the one instance mentioned above, I'd be fine with a line in WP:FOOLS that strongly urges caution before doing such a prank but does not blanket ban it. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 16:53, 2 April 2023 (UTC)


 * If you look on the IP's talk page, you can see that the IP was warned for edit warring on a April Fools subpage. This RfC seems very pointy in my opinion. Pizzaplayer219TalkContribs 17:26, 2 April 2023 (UTC)

Poll for non-AfDs?
@Awesome Aasim, it looks like you created the AfD Google survey. I was hoping that there would be an additional survey for non-AfDs as a way to incentivize/reward more creative types of pranks. (My view is that we're starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel when it comes to AfD jokes, whereas I think there's a lot more untapped potential elsewhere.) Would there be support for having that? Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 16:48, 2 April 2023 (UTC)


 * @Sdkb I initially added a Microsoft Forms but then someone else did the same so I deleted mine. I can still restore it if that is needed.
 * Maybe we can have an informal discussion rating the top non-XfD pranks. Aasim - Herrscher of Wikis ❄️ 16:59, 2 April 2023 (UTC)

I’d support doing something to honor non-AfD related pranks. Spirit of Eagle (talk) 17:36, 2 April 2023 (UTC)

Wait, when should the AfD poll end? I designed the ombox in a way that would "close" the poll that someone else made to end at 4 April 2023 00:00 UTC. AlphaBeta135 talk 00:19, 4 April 2023 (UTC)
 * I think it’s ok to close the poll now. The voting time was a bit short in my opinion, but everyone was on notice and had a realistic chance to cast a ballot. Plus, viewership of the April Fools day page is plummeting as people return to editing as normal. I think the best decision is to keep the poll closed for this year and remember to keep it open longer in future years. Spirit of Eagle (talk) 21:08, 4 April 2023 (UTC)
 * I created the Google Form. My intention was to keep it open for a week, but then I saw someone add a countdown to my ombox, so I just went with the flow.
 * Also, I'm totally in favour of doing something special for non-AfD jokes. Can't think of anything specific, but I'd be happy to see it. Diriector_Doc ├─────┤Talk Contribs  23:04, 4 April 2023 (UTC)

My AFD noms are not listed on the page!
I was too shy to add them myself as I didn't know how to add a funny or relevant description. Could someone do it for me? Thanks. <B> Naruto love hinata 5</B> (talk · contributions) 01:14, 3 April 2023 (UTC)

What does "woomy" mean?
"The result was totally unrelated, woomy." But WHAT DOES "woomy" mean in this context? But i know 1 thing: WOOMY IS NOT A ENGLISH WORD, I KNOW INKLING GIRL SAYS IT, BUT WE OBVIOUSLY DON'T TALK INKLING! JamesBNE (talk) 10:40, 31 July 2023 (UTC)