Wikipedia:April Fools' Main Page/Featured Article/Archive 2012

Please use this page for discussions surrounding the creation of a Featured Article for April Fool's day 2012

Areas of work needed to complete the front page are:

Ground rules for this activity along with a list or participants may be found on the Main talk page.

Mission

In the past, various unusual articles have been improved to featured article status. These include exploding whale, heavy metal umlaut, Japanese toilet, spoo, Joshua A. Norton, George Washington (inventor), and Ima Hogg. 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 2012. 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.

Requirements

Raul is willing to consider any article for April Fools' Day, as long as it meets three requirements:

R1. It must be a featured article by April 1 2012
R2. It must not have already been used as the main page featured article.
R3. It is not too risqué (more so than any other article that would be used on the front page)

Action items

What are we going to write/promote? We need to pick either a new topic or an existing article to nominate for FA. I think we need half a dozen nominees - then we vote/get consensus on which one is most suitable.
We have to work hard to get it up to featured status. This may be very difficult and might take several attempts.
We have to usher it through all of the phases leading up to FA.
We need to make sure it's on the front page on April 1st. This means starting in on it fairly soon.

Proposals

Just saw that these two articles were promoted:

Olivia Shakespear - Shakespear was an English novelist and poet who had an affair with William Butler Yeats and later married Ezra Pound
Pigeon photography - Finally made it to featured. Way too crazy to be true.

--Found5dollar (talk) 00:48, 10 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I think Olivia Shakespear has potential, but shee seems best for 2013: 150 years after her birth and 75 years after her death. Hans Adler 09:26, 13 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure where to propose it, but if it were improved in time (we have plenty of it)... Nazi talking dogs. It would need some major work in that time though. Crisco 1492 (talk) 16:04, 27 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The sole source for Nazi talking dogs is Jan Bondeson, who has a well-deserved reputation for making sensationalist claims that don't stand up to scrutiny. Unless and until someone can find a primary source for any of his claims, it's definitely not something we should be hosting on the main page. – iridescent 16:20, 27 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

True. Do we have any editors in Germany who could be troubled to look? Clearly documents like that will probably not be online. Crisco 1492 (talk) 23:40, 27 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

My strong suspicion is that if such an extraordinary (and media-friendly) story had actually occurred, in probably the single most-researched period in world history, an actual historian would have spotted it by now. Bondeson is not a historian (he's a doctor based in Cardiff, who dabbles in conspiracy theorising and "believe it or not" miracles-of-nature popular books) and I regularly come across him misrepresenting sources to a ludicrous degree. (Before anyone accuses me of BLP violation, here's a concrete example of Bondeson openly fabricating a source to support one of his pet theories: compare the "poem from old charity documents" he quotes here as proof that the Biddenden Maids legend of Kent is an old legend and not a recent invention, with the actual source of the poem, an 1805 description of Melrose Abbey by Sir Walter Scott.) – iridescent 13:42, 28 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

As you can imagine of the author of pigeon photography (in its present form), I like such stories – and so I had a look. Unfortunately it's mostly rubbish. See my comment at Talk:Nazi talking dogs. There is probably enough left to keep an article on the school and set all the misinformation right, but the truth seems to be even more boring than what I expected. It appears that not only was the training ever meant to be serious research, but also it was never meant to be sold as anything other than entertainment. During the war the owner of the dogs didn't get dog food rations, so she tried to go into troop entertainment. Hans Adler 19:04, 23 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This is a fun title... Monkey Gone to Heaven. "Some Pixies sang of a Monkey Gone to Heaven as a "corrosive, compelling meditation on God and garbage" Crisco 1492 (talk) 23:50, 17 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I second Pigeon photography. I've nominated it twice --T1980 (talk) 01:57, 8 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

A gay typhoon is currently at FAC. HurricaneFan 25 — 14:50, 23 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
- The article was promoted a while ago. Here is what I have in mind as a blurb.
  - There was a gay typhoon in 1992 that blew thousands of people. It had an affinity for wood in the Marshall Islands, and in Guam it made gymnosperms turn brown. According to a bunch of Hawaiians, it was only outblown by something pointy like a tip. Alas, the Japanese felt the pressure differently, but the gay typhoon had its revenge; it made things quite wet in Okinawa.
- --♫ Hurricanehink (talk) 17:57, 19 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I currently have Hadji Ali at FAC, which one reviewer has suggested (if it is promoted) would make a good April Fool's day subject.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:33, 27 January 2012 (UTC) [reply]

(It has been promoted).--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:07, 10 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I support pigeon photography. But I also don't think we should be making homophobic jokes about gay typhoons, so oppose Typhoon Gay (1992). Hadji Ali is a bit underwhelming, and I notice has also been nominated for April Fools TFP. Modest Genius ^talk 09:57, 21 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I second pigeons. It's a great article and there are excellent photos available to use. Actually, the whole thing is so unusual that the TFA text should be totally serious to get the best effect out of it. --Tone 10:37, 21 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Support Pigeon photography. Presented alongside a completely straight blurb about this ridiculous subject, you'll have a perfect tool for prompting reactions such as, "oh what an obvious April Fool's joke," but that transpires to be anything but. -- CountdownCrispy 11:58, 10 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I have ended my participation in all other community processes, but as the author of the pigeon photographer article I will assist with that if necessary. Just to prevent a possible misunderstanding: The article's history contains an edit summary "Protected Pigeon photography: upcoming TFA". Due to a communication problem the article almost became TFA at the time, but it has been held back for April Fools Day. Hans Adler 09:26, 13 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Please see my above comments for support of Pigeon photography --T1980 (talk) 01:44, 16 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Just an FYI, Raul has opened a thread here for discussion of the April Fools FA.--Found5dollar (talk) 18:58, 19 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

A few topics with future potential:

Regards, RJH (talk) 02:53, 5 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

2013

Not sure how many people are watching this page still, but some discussion is already underway at Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests#Icelandic Phallological Museum on April Fools' Day? about the choice for 2013, since an article that had been nominated in the ordinary course of events (Icelandic Phallological Museum) was thought by Raul654 to be a potential April Fools TFA. All views on that, and other possibilities, welcome. Bencherlite ^Talk 20:27, 14 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

For those who aren't following, Olivia Shakespear is no longer valid as it was on the main page last June. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 23:04, 14 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

There was a discussion on Jimbo's user talk page on the problem of too many sex-related jokes on April Fools' Day. I agree. There is nothing wrong with them in principle, but not half of the main page every year. Hans Adler 23:14, 21 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I think if someone were prepared to make Walls of Benin a featured article (probably requires access to a good library), that would have potential as a pseudo-hoax. I guess most people still haven't heard of this "largest man-made structure in the world, larger than Sungbo's Eredo". It should not be hard to write a description that sounds eerily similar to a description of the Chinese Wall, while completely failing to mention it. Hans Adler 23:14, 21 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
- With only three months to go, I think we should focus on articles which are already featured. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 23:25, 21 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]