Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2017-07-15/Humour: Difference between revisions

Humour

The Infobox Game

By Barbara (WVS)

Empress Barbara X. Page (If I had an infobox this is what it would be)
Barbie (before age 8)
everyone wants to be me
Pronunciation	βa-βa-ɻa pʷeɪj
Born	Barbara PahTootey Falks (1960-05-06) 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
• Water buffalo breed
• Craters on Venus
• Volcanic hotspot
• New Jersey Cabinet

ce*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?

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.