Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2017-07-15/Humour
This is a draft of a potential Signpost article, and should not be interpreted as a finished piece. Its content is subject to review by the editorial team and ultimately by JPxG, the editor in chief. Please do not link to this draft as it is unfinished and the URL will change upon publication. If you would like to contribute and are familiar with the requirements of a Signpost article, feel free to be bold in making improvements! Staging area detected at Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Next next issue/Humour
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The Infobox Game
Empress Barbara X. Page (If I had an infobox this is what it would be) | |
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Barbie (before age 8) | |
everyone wants to be me | |
Pronunciation | βa-βa-ɻa pʷeɪj |
Born | Barbara PahTootey Falks May 6, 1960 Upper Schlabutkeeville, Michigan |
Disappeared | you wish Linn Run State Park |
Status | lost in the woods |
Died | not established |
Cause of death | not established |
Body discovered | don't you wish |
Resting place | there is no rest for the wicked |
Monuments | hundreds (planned) |
Nationality | French, Canadian, English, Polish |
Other names | just expletives |
Citizenship | world and galaxy |
Education | self-taught |
Alma mater | Spring Arbor University |
Occupation | Wikimedian |
Years active | ten |
Era | common |
Employer | me |
Organization | secret |
Known for | making other editors crazy |
Notable work | Empathy in chickens, English two-letter words, Monarch butterfly migration |
Style | encyclopedic |
Television | nope, too busy writing WP articles and voting on new administrators |
Height | 5 ft 2 in (157 cm) |
Title | "The magnificent..." |
Term | lifetime |
Predecessor | none |
Successor | none |
Political party | there is always a party whereever I am |
Movement | smooth |
Opponent | read my talk page |
Board member of | mahogany |
Criminal charge | failure to disperse |
Criminal penalty | 3 hour jail term |
Criminal status | unconvicted |
Spouse | wishes to remain anonymous |
Children | six |
Parent(s) | Carol and David |
Relatives | Many |
Family | Bros. and sisters |
Awards | Nobel prize for rediculousness |
Ah yes, the infobox. I am a big fan. These boxes come in handy when I only have seven seconds to read an article. They take up a bit of space. My absolute favorite parts of the infobox are the amazing parameters that can be included. For once, I would like to see each parameter filled in with each tiny fragment of information. So I made one about myself.
You are probably familiar with the infoboxes entertainers, gaming, movies, cities, et cetera et cetera.
But DYK....that there are infoboxes for:
- CHERUB, a series of young adult spy novels by author Robert Muchamore, about how the British Security Service employs children, predominantly orphans, under the age of 17, as secret agents? There are actually 14 different infoboxes for this one author[attention spam hunters]
- Four different Dungeons and Dragons infoboxes for the classes of characters? (But what template do you use if an entity is a diety and a creature?)
- Hill of Rome used 15 times, but I thought there were only seven hills of Rome...
- Huts
- heteroisoform which probably needs an article so we all can know what it might be.
- Bullfighters
- yoga schools
- tree, used only four times, I've heard of not seeing the forest, but really
- Water buffalo breed
- Craters on Venus
- Volcanic hotspot
- New Jersey Cabinet
Some infoboxes are not used that frequently:
- state gun laws, only used three times
- London Tramlink route
- Paris Metro line
- pandemic, used ten times, but I thought there were more than that
- curling club
- artificial fly (a sport, not a fake bug)
- korfball
- telephone area code
and DYK... ...that the baseball biography infobox is used over 22,000 times? ...that the football (soccer) biography infobox is used over 100,000 times? ...that the cricketter biography infobox is used over 16,000 times?
editing placeholder
I think infoboxes have a firm future because of our ever decreasing attention span. Besides we've only begun to think of ways to market them. Are you listening Amazon? I think those boxes could be trading cards with just a little tweaking. Heck, someone is probably even now working on a script to add to their .jss user file to do just that.
This would be a worthy-WM-fundable project to solidify bonds with the education community. During study hall (do they even have that anymore?) you can hear the kids say: "I'll give you one Joe Negri for a Phil Ochs, a Melissa Greener and Caroll Spinney". If marketed correctly, the trading cards could fit into those dandy plastic sleeves and become part of a massive collection. I can see my children at the estate sale after my death trying to unload my infobox/biography trading cards off on some clueless investor who trades in infobox futures.