Wikipedia:Requests for comment/April Fools' 2

This RfC aims to discuss April Fools' Day jokes on Wikipedia and offer proposals regarding such jokes. Mz7 (talk) 17:47, 6 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

This page in a nutshell: Most of the sections here have been closed. The following is a summary of the major results from this RFC: There is consensus for keeping April Fools pranks out of the article namespace. This includes files, categories and templates that are used in the article namespace. There is consensus for keeping April Fools jokes out of the help namespace. Aprils fools jokes on the rules for fools page are also forbidden. There is consensus for the exemptions that the main page has historically enjoyed to continue. There is consensus to add the following text to the disruptive editing guideline in a new section: All edits on April Fools' Day must continue to adhere to all applicable Wikipedia policies and guidelines, including (but not limited to) edit warring, no personal attacks and the biographies of living persons policy. With the exception of the Main Page, all edits that are intended to be humorous should be kept out of the article namespace and be tagged with {{Humor}} (or equivalent template, such as the inline {{April fools}} or {{4-1}}) to avoid misleading users. There is weak consensus against banning all April Fools jokes.

Background

April Fools' Day is a tradition in some Western cultures that involves playing jokes and pranks on others every first day of April. The community has tolerated April Fools' Day jokes on Wikipedia to a degree. However, the extent of this tolerance has been the subject of much debate, including a request for comment in 2013 which established a consensus for keeping April Fools' Day jokes out of the mainspace and for tagging all jokes with {{Humor}} or similar template. These consensuses are detailed in the information page Wikipedia:Rules for Fools.

In 2016, a dispute involving, among other things, an April Fools' Day joke 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 and a remedy that encouraged the community to hold an RfC regarding whether the leniency for April Fools Day jokes should be continued and if so, what should be allowed. A subsequent discussion at Wikipedia:Village pump (idea lab) was then held to determine the direction such an RfC should travel.

Format

Start new proposals by creating new sections; each section should be treated as a separate proposal to be discussed and closed independent of the others, similar to how the 2013 RfC operated. There is a section at the end for general discussion about the topic, rather than on a specific proposal. Discussion about the RfC itself should take place on the talk page.