Wikivoyage talk:Joke articles/Archive 2007-2018

Protecting joke articles?

What I'm about to suggest is really un-Wiki, but...

While April Fool's articles get polished to a high sheen before and during the big day, they tend to attract edits afterwards that are marginally if at all funny and detract from the overall quality. I don't think this is fixable: writing collaborative humor is hard, and it's even harder to filter out "good" from "bad" edits. And, except for that one special day a year, it's not Wikivoyage's goal to write humor.

So I'd suggest that, on April 2nd, the articles get permanently locked. That way they stay funny (or at least as funny as they ever were) and users' and admins' time is not wasted. Opinions? (WT-en) Jpatokal 09:39, 21 April 2007 (EDT)

Bump? (WT-en) Jpatokal 23:03, 24 April 2007 (EDT)

Un-wiki it may be, but the number of Hell edits is getting a bit ridiculous... -- (WT-en) Bill-on-the-Hill 23:30, 24 April 2007 (EDT)

Agree. Edits to joke articles like Arial are still ongoing, and serve no project purpose. -- (WT-en) Colin 00:03, 25 April 2007 (EDT)

Disagree, mostly on the principle that reverting damage is better than blocking. Arial's hardly a hotbed of edits (one batch of decent jokes added in a whole year), and even the edits to Hell have tapered off in the last week. Before taking the step of protecting them, I'd like to try putting a disclaimerbox at the top of these articles asking people not to edit them (and take the "plunge forward" invitation out of the status box at the bottom) to see if that helps. - (WT-en) Todd VerBeek 00:26, 25 April 2007 (EDT)

Agree with Todd... changing the plunge forward would probably help tremendously. And change "this IS an April Fool's joke" to "this WAS an April Fool's..." may help a little too. We could just put that box at the top of the article. How about:

This was an April Fool's Joke article, we amused ourselves tremendously in making it. Please refrain from dragging out the sillyness and plunge forward on some real articles! – (WT-en) cacahuate ^talk 02:24, 25 April 2007 (EDT)

I went ahead and changed the template as above, and moved the notes to the top of the pages... but if you've got a better idea on the wording for the template, go for it... – (WT-en) cacahuate ^talk 02:40, 25 April 2007 (EDT)

I think this probably makes sense. What if we move them out of the main namespace and into a new namespace, "Joke:", "Archive:" or "Historical:"? That would make it clear why we're protecting them. --(WT-en) Evan 11:16, 26 April 2007 (EDT)

So, I'm in support of protecting these articles. It's been over a month and hell is still getting edits, we should strongly discourage edits and the reformed template isn't doing that. I vote protect. -- (WT-en) Sapphire • (Talk) • 22:53, 8 May 2007 (EDT)

Werd, protect. (WT-en) Jordanmills 01:00, 9 May 2007 (EDT)

Asking nicely isn't working as well as I hoped. - (WT-en) Todd VerBeek 11:24, 16 May 2007 (EDT)

Well then, I went ahead and protected them since I'm completely out-voted... though I really don't think they were getting all that many edits anymore, and it isn't difficult to keep reverting them. But I guess it's not a huge deal, and now we don't have to think about it anymore  :) – (WT-en) cacahuate ^talk 18:48, 16 May 2007 (EDT)

April Fool's 2008

Swept in from the pub:

After checking with a few admins, I've plunged forward and created You as our April Fool article for 2008. Please chip in! (WT-en) Jpatokal 16:40, 21 March 2008 (EDT)

Well, this seems to have been a remarkably unpopular idea? Looks like we aren't going to have anything this year unless people get to work and/or come up with something better in the next two days... (WT-en) Jpatokal 01:55, 30 March 2008 (EDT)

Next year

An idea for next year: ape Wikipedia and do both DOTM and OTBP for actual places with improbable names, like Dildo, Fucking or any of the many Hells. (WT-en) Jpatokal 02:35, 2 April 2009 (EDT)

Kanto from the Pokemon games might make a nice destination article, as well. (WT-en) ChubbyWimbus 18:58, 12 December 2009 (EST)

April 1

Swept from the pub:

Hey folks, it's March! Anyone have any good candidates for an article to feature on April 1? Perhaps a tie-in to this month's big blockbuster, with an article called Wonderland? Alternatively, maybe it's time to feature a travel topic, like Traveling with mothers-in-law, or an itinerary like Around the world in 80 days? (WT-en) LtPowers 11:06, 5 March 2010 (EST)

I gotta admit, I really like the idea of a Wonderland article, I think there could be potential there. Although I'd rather not think of it as a tie-in to some recent incarnation of it (I'd hate for us to seem too trendy) but a reference to the classic story. (WT-en) PerryPlanet ^Talk 13:01, 5 March 2010 (EST)

Just some other suggestions: any of the islands from Gulliver's Travels or an itinerary through all of them could be fun. Good fake travelogue. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 14:37, 5 March 2010 (EST)

Oh, I was also thinking of Narnia last year; there might be too much to cover there, but the "Get In" section would be interesting at least. (WT-en) LtPowers 18:06, 5 March 2010 (EST)

Mordor? (WT-en) Andyfarrell 18:58, 5 March 2010 (EST)

Mordor would have been my suggestion as well. Indeed some might argue that Brussels does a good impression ;). --(WT-en) Burmesedays 22:47, 5 March 2010 (EST)

If we did Mordor, perhaps include "It has been proposed that this article be merged with Brussels. If you have an opinion, please discuss on this article's talk page". (WT-en) Andyfarrell 09:00, 6 March 2010 (EST)

I'd also vote Mordor, provided Andy's suggestion is implemented :) -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 01:19, 16 March 2010 (EDT)

Oz? - (WT-en) Andyfarrell 09:04, 6 March 2010 (EST)

Shouldn't that be a redirect to Australia? =P (WT-en) Jpatokal 07:20, 15 March 2010 (EDT)

I'll repeat my suggestion from last year: we should take a page from Wikipedia's book and feature actual but improbably named destinations like Dildo, Fucking or Hell (articles brought up to guide level, of course). Add in news entries about eg. Kawasaki's Iron Penis Festival (plenty more like this in the Discover archives) and it should be pretty funny. Whaddaya think? (WT-en) Jpatokal 06:56, 9 March 2010 (EST)

How about BumFuck Egypt? (WT-en) TomNativenewYorker 14:06, 13 March 2010 (EST)

There's nothing like re-inforcing a stereotype.--(WT-en) Burmesedays 23:49, 15 March 2010 (EDT)

Or Bam Fa'aq (Egypt). (WT-en) Texugo 01:11, 16 March 2010 (EDT)

Actually, my vote is for Mordor as well.(WT-en) Texugo 01:21, 16 March 2010 (EDT)

Is that a bandwagon I hear? I'm on! Mordor. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 03:21, 16 March 2010 (EDT)

I like Mordor too x), K I'm on Mordor. -(WT-en) SnappyHip - 11:23, 16 March 2010 (GST)

Um, no offense, but really? Compared to Oz or Wonderland, there's really not much to write about, is there? (WT-en) LtPowers 08:00, 16 March 2010 (EDT)

Hop on the bandwagon Lt, it's heading to Mordor! (WT-en) PerryPlanet ^Talk 13:24, 16 March 2010 (EDT)

Look, if you guys can whip up a nice guide, go for it. Maybe there's more material available than I realize. (WT-en) LtPowers 13:52, 16 March 2010 (EDT)

"Eat" and "Drink" will clearly be a bit sparse, but "Stay safe" should more than make up for it :) Does anyone have an off-site wiki available where this could get started? Typically the April 1 article isn't rolled out until, um, April 1. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 14:09, 16 March 2010 (EDT)

It calls for creative recipes for Lembas bread. A special crusty travelers version. As you might find served in Vang Vieng or Gili Trawangan.--(WT-en) Burmesedays 22:02, 16 March 2010 (EDT)

Are you ready guys? Tomorrow is the 1st of April! (WT-en) jan 05:46, 31 March 2010 (EDT)

April Fool's day article 2011

Swept from the pub:

After little more than two weeks it is April 1st again. Any suggestions for this year's joke article? How about Atlantis? (WT-en) Ypsilon 05:18, 16 March 2011 (EDT)

I'd love to do a pair of articles on Tlön and Uqbar, but unless other current users are familiar with the story to help on it, I could easily support Atlantis.(WT-en) texugo 06:32, 16 March 2011 (EDT)

I nominate Mesoamerican Barrier Reef -- (WT-en) felix 11:14, 20 March 2011 (EDT)

How about a region from Pokémon? (ie. Kanto) Or just the Pokémon World in general? (WT-en) –sumone10154 18:59, 22 March 2011 (EDT)

Just three comments and April fools day is after four days? I've read the short story by Borges a couple of years ago so I guess I could come up with something on that. Mesoamerican Barrier Reef... well, I don't really get it. The Pokemon idea seems ok too, if the article won't be filled with just tsunami, Fukushima [1] and earthquake jokes. (WT-en) Ypsilon 08:35, 28 March 2011 (EDT)

I think anything Japan-related would be disrespectful at this point. Besides, we have an article for the real Kanto region on which the Pokemon map is based. (WT-en) texugo 09:46, 28 March 2011 (EDT)

Sorry, I wasn't thinking about Japan when I nominated the Pokémon idea. I've never read the story about Tlön and Uqbar and I don't get the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef idea either so I'll just support Atlantis. (WT-en) –sumone10154 10:54, 28 March 2011 (EDT)

I was not actually serious about Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, it was just that (WT-en) texugo posted both the Mesoamerican and the April fools comments at around the same time and could not resist it. On a more serious note, if Mesoamerican Barrier Reef is not an April Fools joke then it should probably be deleted as an article as it does not seem to be good for anything much else. -- (WT-en) felix 13:32, 28 March 2011 (EDT)

• Neverland may also be a good one. Whatever it is should be chosen soon. There are only a few days left to make it suitable. (WT-en) ChubbyWimbus 18:40, 28 March 2011 (EDT)
  • That's a good one; it has several well-defined locations and it's old enough that there may be public-domain media that can be used. (WT-en) LtPowers 11:15, 29 March 2011 (EDT)

So it's April Fool's day already and the article isn't created yet! I'm assuming the article will be Atlantis right? (WT-en) –sumone10154 12:17, 1 April 2011 (EDT)

Not too many comments in this section, seemingly. IMHO there's nothing wrong with Neverland, but Atlantis has got three supporters, in a few hours it's already April 2 here in Europe so I'll create Atlantis right now. Otherwise we must wait a whole year until the next April Fool's day :(. (WT-en) Ypsilon 14:36, 1 April 2011 (EDT)

Joke articles

Swept from the pub:

I think we should move joke articles such as Earth out of the main namespace and into a subpage of Wikivoyage:Joke articles after the April Fool's Day is over. This would prevent the article from being easily linked to from the main namespace. –sumone10154^(talk) 20:04, 16 October 2012 (CEST)

Delete - Non-notable place or venue. Lacks reliable sources which are independent of the article's subject, who appear to be editing this themselves as an advertisement. Likely WP:SPAM. ... oh, wait a minute, this isn't Wikipedia so linking every second word to some random policy document isn't going to make the planet simply go away? Oh well. :) K7L (talk) 03:57, 17 October 2012 (CEST)

Support - It's funny, and definitely a practice we should continue, but articles like Earth and Sol get confusing, as technically, they are destinations ;) Some people may search "Earth" for a list of all continents/countries. I'd also propose creating one, using the MediaWiki imagemap feature to make the map clickable with either links to the continents, or possibly every country in the world. JamesA ^>talk 08:22, 17 October 2012 (CEST)

I agree we should move the joke articles as User:Sumone10154 suggests. If we want to create a real article, that really is a separate thing to consider. --Inas (talk) 10:11, 17 October 2012 (CEST)

One possibility would be to create Earth (planet) as a joke and Earth as a table of contents or disambiguation to whatever's on that planet as a valid, serious existing article at the continent or region level. Creating the Milky Way galaxy as a page and putting the joke articles as a subpage under them could be a broad enough category to encompass them all, but would likely be unwieldly? K7L (talk) 20:33, 17 October 2012 (CEST)

It looks like the breadcrumb trail does not work properly now that these are in project space as subpages. For instance. Wikivoyage:Joke articles/Hell (Hades) has a breadcrumb link 'Earth' to Wikivoyage:Earth, which evidently does not exist. K7L (talk) 14:52, 2 November 2012 (CET)

According to the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, (the ultimate travel guide) the entry for Earth says "mostly harmless." Gamweb (talk) 13:48, 3 November 2012 (CET)

Redirects to Joke Articles

VFD discussion regarding redirects from main namespace:

Per the discussion on the pub, I have moved the joke articles to a subpage of Wikipedia:Joke articles, so the following redirects should be deleted. I have already removed all links to the redirect pages.

• Arial
• Bodoni
• Cocobanana Beach
• Ems
• Goudy phrasebook
• Lower Caisse
• Port Clarendon
• Upper Caisse
• West Upper Caisse
• West Upper Caisse County
• Earth
• World
• Hell (Hades)
• Flaccid Peninsula National Park
• You
• Jurassic Park
• Mordor
• Atlantis

–sumone10154^(talk) 21:28, 1 November 2012 (CET)

• Delete Thanks for doing this. --Inas (talk) 23:03, 1 November 2012 (CET)
• Delete - Sounds like the logical thing to do. Although I believe Earth should be recreated as an article linking to all the continents, as there could be a few searches for it. There is also the possibility of later creating an "imagemap" as we discussed on Talk:Main Page where users are able to click on particular countries and be taken to their articles. JamesA ^>talk 04:48, 11 November 2012 (UTC)
• Delete. Makes sense. --Globe-trotter (talk) 16:20, 19 November 2012 (UTC)
• Keep; the redirects a) are harmless, and b) make it much easier to get to these articles, and c) provide a bit of levity for the curious searcher. If a reader has enough of a sense of humor to search for "Jurassic Park", we ought to take him to our article on Jurassic Park. LtPowers (talk) 20:24, 19 November 2012 (UTC)
• Keep I agree with LtPowers...there is no harm in keeping these pages as redirects. AHeneen (talk) 14:31, 20 November 2012 (UTC)
• Earth appears to actually be a real place (although I can't insert that claim in Wikipedia yet for want of a good reliable source which is neutral and independent of the article's subject). It should therefore return a list of continents or a main index of some sort (much like fr: has a map of continents on its main page). The rest of these seem harmless, though. K7L (talk) 02:42, 21 November 2012 (UTC)
• Keep Pashley (talk) 21:17, 22 November 2012 (UTC)
• Keep per LtPowers. Earth is a bit of a different question, though. I'll throw a suggestion out there to move our current article to Earth (joke), but that type of decision would need to be made somewhere other than the vfd page. --Peter ^Talk 02:24, 26 November 2012 (UTC)
• Comment: As much as I'm tempted by Earth → mostly harmless, the joke redirect should be on Earth (planet) to liberate Earth for a main index for intraplanetary global travel. K7L (talk) 04:01, 26 November 2012 (UTC)
• Keep per LtPowers -- Alice^✉ 09:03, 6 December 2012 (UTC)

Outcome: kept. --Peter ^Talk 21:34, 18 December 2012 (UTC)

April Fool's day article 2013 - swept from the pub

Swept in from the pub

Remember the fine tradition from Wikitravel with a joke article each April 1st? BTW last year there wasn't any April Fool's day article. Is it something worth continuing here on Wikivoyage? And if you think it is, how about Duckburg for this year's joke article? We all are familiar with and love Donald Duck, right? :) Ypsilon (talk) 20:53, 15 March 2013 (UTC)

Last year everyone was so down on the project that no one had the heart. Duckburg's certainly an intriguing suggestion. I don't have any off the top of my head, aside maybe from a slightly immature, but possibly fun pop-up thought of Uranus, but will think a bit. --Peter ^Talk 21:20, 15 March 2013 (UTC)

Some additional suggestions:

• w:Springfield (The Simpsons)
• w:Tatooine
• w:Valhalla

Springfield might be particularly fun. -- Ryan • (talk) • 21:45, 15 March 2013 (UTC)

Springfield would be awesome if we could do it well, but I'm not sure a joke article could pass the threshold for using even the single photo that adorns the wp article, so I don't know if it would be worth it...

I'll be thinking on other options... Texugo (talk) 21:50, 15 March 2013 (UTC)

A few things do come to mind:

• Tlön (my personal favorite, but perhaps a bit obscure)
• Flatland
• Narnia

Texugo (talk) 21:59, 15 March 2013 (UTC)

I think Valhalla (or Olympus) could be really fun. Narnia also appeals, although I think the godly destinations have more opportunities for silliness. --Peter ^Talk 22:18, 15 March 2013 (UTC)

Or maybe South Park. With "Shitty Wok" in the Eat section of course. How about some micro nation like Talossa or Lovely? Ypsilon (talk) 23:01, 15 March 2013 (UTC)

I really like the idea of Narnia - the 'Get in' section would be very fun! The godly ones sound fun too, but perhaps we could do Middle Earth or the Death Star? --Nick (talk) 00:05, 16 March 2013 (UTC)

We already have Mordor. I've advocated in the past for Wonderland, but I really like the Duckburg idea. The geography is not consistently defined, but we can fudge that since there are so many sources from which to draw. That also means there are a lot of attractions available to be added. The drawback is that pictures will be hard to get. If we want to tie into something that's currently popular, what about Westeros? LtPowers (talk) 01:09, 16 March 2013 (UTC)

Some of these suggestions sound pretty cool. Others I think would be good include Gotham City (Batman) and The Capitol (Hunger Games). Maybe we should have a poll of all the suggestions. I know we don't like polling, but this isn't really that important, time is of the essence and we want a place that the most amount of people have heard of. JamesA ^>talk 01:42, 16 March 2013 (UTC)

Agree with James, should have a poll. Btw, what about GTA's either Vice City or Liberty City? --Saqib (talk) 11:10, 16 March 2013 (UTC)

Poll is a good idea, another suggestion: Sin City. Jjtk (talk) 11:39, 16 March 2013 (UTC)

I think a poll is a good idea as well. --Nick (talk) 11:44, 16 March 2013 (UTC)

Why don't we wait until Monday to let others make suggestions and comments, and then whatever we have on Monday morning can be collected into a list and people can state their favorite(s). By the end of the week everyone who is interested should have had time to comment, so we can pick the one with the most support and then start drafting the article. -- Ryan • (talk) • 16:08, 16 March 2013 (UTC)

Let's avoid fake information. Here is my proposition: On April 1st, replace the "Destination of the month" box with the description of a place that sounds totally April-foolesque, but is actually true. Link to actual article. Only real information. How about space travel or the thermal bath in Antarctica? Nicolas1981 (talk) 07:38, 18 March 2013 (UTC)

That's a Wikipedia attitude. The "looks like a joke but isn't" works for them, but please let's not start copying them in this respect, too. We are not Wikipedia. LtPowers (talk) 14:33, 18 March 2013 (UTC)

I somewhat agree with Nicolas, our efforts should not go waste. We should focus working on articles which can be useful even in the future.--Saqib (talk) 14:40, 18 March 2013 (UTC)

Using real articles would a) break from tradition, and b) fail to be appear to be a joke. While there are plenty of crazy, unbelievable things on Wikipedia, there really aren´t enough "unbelievable" travel destinations out there, and even the ones that sound crazy (Fucking) are really just normal travel articles. The things we have done in the past have been really good, harmless fun. Why ruin that? Texugo (talk) 14:50, 18 March 2013 (UTC)

Agree with Tuxgo. Our editorship is not as erudite as WP's. We had better be ourselves to be better. N'fact we might even let someone do a WPesque Appril Fools on Main Page if he can do us a good one. That need't dampen our enthusiasm for a real April Fools per our traditions. I'm lok'n forwrd to it! --Rogerhc (talk) 16:48, 18 March 2013 (UTC)

I think our April Fools tradition is a great exercise in barn-raising [2], and a nice return to a happy past that had been squashed by the soul destroying reality of our former corporate overlord bloodsuckers. It's also a good exercise in creative and engaging writing, which is always something we're trying to foster in our editors, and to use to rope in some new interesting contributors. Back to fun! --Peter ^Talk 22:38, 18 March 2013 (UTC)

OK, you convinced me :-) I won't be able to edit as I have never had time to watch the movie, but I am looking forward to a fun article! Nicolas1981 (talk) 06:37, 22 March 2013 (UTC)

I was going to suggest something Historical rather than purely fictional, How about Pompei? ;) Sfan00 IMG (talk) 16:55, 21 March 2013 (UTC)

→ Pompeii. -- Ryan • (talk) • 17:03, 21 March 2013 (UTC)

Pompeii sounds like just another coverup. -- Felix (talk) 18:02, 22 March 2013 (UTC)

Nominees

Consolidating from above, here are the lists of nominees (listed alphabetically, please add anything I missed). Add your name next to whichever one(s) you support. -- Ryan • (talk) • 17:05, 18 March 2013 (UTC)

Article	Supporters
w:Duckburg	LtPowers, Ypsilon
w:Flatland	Texugo, User:AHeneen
w:Gotham City	Sumone10154, Peter, AndreCarrotflower, PerryPlanet, JamesA
w:The Hunger Games universe#The Capitol	Sumone10154, JamesA
w:Kingdom of Lovely	Ypsilon
w:Liberty City (Grand Theft Auto)	Saqib, AndreCarrotflower
w:Narnia (world)	Ryan, Texugo, Sumone10154, Peter, Nick, Ypsilon, PerryPlanet, User:AHeneen
w:Russian Bath in Antarctica	User:AHeneen
w:Sin City#Setting
w:South Park	AndreCarrotflower, Ypsilon, PerryPlanet
Space
w:Springfield (The Simpsons)	Ryan, Nick, AndreCarrotflower, Ypsilon, PerryPlanet
w:Talossa	Ypsilon
w:Tatooine	PerryPlanet
w:Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius	Texugo
w:Valhalla	Ryan, Peter, Nick, Ypsilon, PerryPlanet
w:Vice City	Saqib
w:Westeros	Ryan, Peter, Ruud
w:Wonderland	Ryan, LtPowers, Nick, PerryPlanet
w:Innsmouth

Looks like it's Narnia. Time to get to work/goofing around? --Peter ^Talk 01:17, 22 March 2013 (UTC)

And so it begins! JamesA ^>talk 03:28, 22 March 2013 (UTC)

An Important Announcement from Wikivoyage Labs

Swept in from the pub

An Important Announcement.--Wikivoyage Labs (Complain) 23:39, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

A bit late perhaps? --Nick (talk) 23:40, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

Woah - these technological leaps take time!--Wikivoyage Labs (Complain) 23:41, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

Plunge forward! I love the bit from our WT troll ;) --Peter ^Talk 04:25, 2 April 2013 (UTC)

Haha, nice! :-) Nicolas1981 (talk) 08:49, 2 April 2013 (UTC)

Hilarious! Ikan Kekek (talk) 09:31, 2 April 2013 (UTC)

Good one, beam me up Scotty! • • • Peter (Southwood) ^(talk): 09:50, 2 April 2013 (UTC)

April Fool's day article 2014

Swept in from the pub

Sorry guys for bringing this up very early but 1st April is approaching so I thought of presenting an idea. I think having Wikipedia as DotM will attract many Wikipedians. --Saqib (talk) 13:29, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

Why not? ϒpsilon (talk) 19:00, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

I like this idea a lot. You might want to move this discussion to the Pub so that it gets a wider audience. -- Ryan • (talk) • 19:02, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

At first I didn't thought this is important but per Ryan above, I've moved this discussion to pub. I think the best way to select our April Fool's article through voting as we did last year so I'm creating a table below, please feel free to add suggestions and add your name next to those you support. --Saqib (talk) 19:43, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

I too like the idea of doing Wikipedia - do you mind if I add some things to your mock-up? --Nick ^talk 19:46, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

Why not Nick. Plunge forward please. --Saqib (talk) 19:54, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

I added another article suggestion for the April day to the table - maybe not as good as WP but certainly more absurd... ϒpsilon (talk) 20:21, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

Might want to look at Wikivoyage_talk:Joke_articles#Nominees for last year's runners-up, which appear to be w:Gotham City, w:Springfield (The Simpsons), w:Valhalla and maybe w:Wonderland or w:South Park. K7L (talk) 15:41, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

A Smurf village might also be an idea? K7L (talk) 16:05, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

@K7L: No doubt, many good ideas were nominated last year for the April Fool article and we've plenty of good option to choose one from them this year but I would say let's not lose the opportunity and select "Wikipedia" over those brilliant fictional destinations. No doubt, having an article on one of those fantasy lands might be more fun than having an article on boring Wikipedia but having an article on Wikipedia may be very beneficial for WV because the article can attract many Wikipedians to WV. What do you think? --Saqib (talk) 17:40, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

I think I agree with Saqib - this could be a fun and novel (in every sense) way of attracting more users across from WP, whilst continuing our tradition of joke articles. --Nick ^talk 22:46, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

We're a week out from April Fool's Day, so if anyone wants something other than Saqib's suggestion of Wikipedia, speak up soon, otherwise let's move forward with that one. -- Ryan • (talk) • 20:30, 25 March 2014 (UTC)

What can we do on WP on 1 Apr to attract attention to the article? Nurg (talk) 06:37, 27 March 2014 (UTC)

A message on social networking website such as Twitter and FB. Also, Wikipedia's next Signpost is going to publish in a day or two. We can ask the editor to write some about our April DotM. What else? --Saqib (talk) 11:09, 27 March 2014 (UTC)

Last Signpost in fact included thoughts about April Fool's Day articles ...on WP. ϒpsilon (talk) 21:28, 29 March 2014 (UTC)

April Fool's article proposals

Article	Supporters
Wikipedia	Saqib, Nick, ϒpsilon, Ryan
State of denial	ϒpsilon
Example	Example

April Fool's Article 2014

Swept in from the pub

T minus 3 hours till midnight UTC. Is it ready to go? Do we have a banner?

-- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 21:02, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

One hour left. Should we just call off April Fool's this year and slot in Xiamen? -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 23:10, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

Aren't you aware of Wikivoyage:Travellers' pub#April Fool's day article 2014? --Saqib (talk) 23:25, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

To Saqib: Yes I am. My question is, is the article finished and do we have a DotM banner for it that can go up on the Main Page. -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 23:44, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

Oh okay. Yes, I think article is finished but it would be great if you give it a quick view for copyediting please and yes, a DotM banner is definitely required and since, we're running out of time, please feel free to look out for a appropriate banner. On the other hand, I don't think we need to that put that banner in the archives though. --Saqib (talk) 23:54, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

Looks like someone did a copy-paste move of Wikivoyage:Joke articles/Wikipedia to Wikipedia? That breaks attribution. K7L (talk) 00:23, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

Yes, Andrew did that and that strikes me too. I'm not sure why he removed the useful shortcut leading to Wikivoyage:Cooperating with Wikipedia and instead replaced it with our April Fool article and without attributions. I think we should keep our Wikipedia page as shortcut for something useful rather than replacing it with an joke article. Anyway, I've fixed everything now and lets travel to Wikipedia!--Saqib (talk) 00:33, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

Sorry, my mistake. -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 21:30, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

April Fool's article 2015

Swept in from the pub

A little under six weeks until the day we've been waiting for the whole year ;). So let's hear some suggestions. How about Time travel? South Park or some other fictional place? A planet? A dish? A web site like last year? Trololo? Some place we invent from scratch? Or should we be so boring that we feature some place that exists for real but has a fun name?

BTW in Next year above it's suggested that there'd be more than one joke article for the April Fools day. So what would you think of having not only a joke DotM, but also a joke OtBP and joke FTT? ϒpsilon (talk) 15:59, 19 February 2015 (UTC)

It's possible that we'd have both an FTT and a destination, not sure if we'd have all three (unless there's some obvious thing to replace OtBP - on the beaten path? off the bike path? maybe not...) K7L (talk) 23:07, 21 February 2015 (UTC)

I've moved this discussion to the pub since we normally figure out the April Fool's Day article there, and it will get more attention. For suggested ideas, Wikivoyage talk:Joke articles#Nominees has a lengthy list of ideas from 2013. As to doing three articles, I think we should concentrate on one, and only do three if enough people contribute to the first one that three looks like a viable possibility. -- Ryan • (talk) • 17:00, 21 February 2015 (UTC)

So finally the planning started. Thanks for initiating it YPSI. I agree with Ryan, we should concentrate on only one and we should go with the nominees presented last year. --Saqib (talk) 17:51, 21 February 2015 (UTC)

I still think Wonderland would make a fine article. Keep in mind when selecting a topic that it's necessary to be able to get free images to illustrate it. Powers ^(talk) 18:59, 21 February 2015 (UTC)

Woo! I've been looking forward to this! I love the idea of a Time travel travel topic; I myself was going to suggest The Future, and I think that would fit really well in Time travel. I tend to prefer the more abstract concepts to the cultural references. PerryPlanet (talk) 20:09, 21 February 2015 (UTC)

Nominees

Anyone may add nominations for the April Fool's 2015 article(s) to this table in alphabetical order. Anyone may add their name into the "Supporters" column for as many nominees as desired. Note that the selection of an April Fool's article is NOT a vote, but having a clear indication of which ideas have been proposed, and which are strongly supported, is a useful tool for focusing the discussion.

Proposed article	Supporters	Notes
w:Land of Oz	LtPowers, AndreCarrotflower, Nicolas1981	Public domain illustrations available (examples)
w:Springfield (The Simpsons)		Images from the TV show cannot be used under the CC-SA license
Time travel	PerryPlanet, ϒpsilon, Ryan, Saqib , Traveler100, Danapit, Bigpeteb, Half past, Nicolas1981	Can be illustrated with a variety of motifs (for this topic just our imagination is the limit!), so there are plenty of free photos on Commons we can use
w:Westeros
w:Wonderland (fictional country)	ϒpsilon, WhatamIdoing, LtPowers, Danapit, Nicolas1981	Plenty of public domain illustrations (examples)
w:Westworld
w:Whoville	Danapit	Some illustrations available (here)

Result: Deadline is over. Outcome is Time travel. --Saqib (talk) 10:03, 28 February 2015 (UTC)

How do you figure? It's not a vote, remember? The poll was just supposed to focus the discussion. Powers ^(talk) 16:23, 28 February 2015 (UTC)

Obviously I know its not a poll. It has been made clear above. We're supposed to start work on article from now on as a month left. So what do you think is the outcome? Wonderland ? --Saqib (talk) 16:27, 28 February 2015 (UTC)

There is no outcome, because there has been no discussion of the poll results. Powers ^(talk) 16:28, 28 February 2015 (UTC)

I'm not sure where the one month deadline came from, and I agree with Powers that asking for any further comments or feedback prior to declaring "deadline is over" would have been the proper way to proceed, but since there was fairly overwhelming support for "Time travel", and since User:K7L has already made a good start on Wikivoyage:Joke articles/Time travel, I am in favor of moving forward with that. With that said, if a pattern develops where future discussions are summarily declared "over" without any advance warning, that would be a cause for significant concern. -- Ryan • (talk) • 22:03, 28 February 2015 (UTC)

Pardon for being so hasty and declaring the outcome but it didn't crossed my mind that we're supposed to further discuss on the outcome even if one gets majority votes. As for deadline, last year we started working on article before arrival of March. We had a whole one month to work on the article but due to lack of interested volunteers, a month time wasn't enough. This discussion was started a week earlier so I thought one week time was enough for voting. But yes, I missed to state the deadline in advance notice. Anyways, I take back my declaration of outcome and look forward to see discussion if anyone want to begin. --Saqib (talk) 22:15, 28 February 2015 (UTC)

I don't see the existing start on time travel as precluding Oz and Wonderland; one is a travel topic, the others are destinations. K7L (talk) 01:58, 2 March 2015 (UTC)

There certainly seems to be more enthusiasm for the former. Most of the folks who worked on fictional destinations in the past seem to have moved on. I still love our Jurassic Park article, though. Powers ^(talk) 02:38, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

I'll make an entire wiki out of this

Antiv31 (talk) 09:19, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

An Uncyclopedia for travel? Sounds cool! :)

If you want to use some of the content from our joke articles I think you need to check out Wikivoyage:How to re-use Wikivoyage guides. ϒpsilon (talk) 09:39, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

I think en.uncyclopedia.co briefly tried an "UnVoyage" parody which never got off the ground, having only created four pages or so. Likely it exists only because they parody Wikipedia (but claim the reverse), so want to claim a complete set of sibling projects such as news, meta, commons, dictionary even if most of these namespaces are idle. K7L (talk) 15:01, 7 March 2015 (UTC)

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Travel ϒpsilon (talk) 15:21, 7 March 2015 (UTC)

http://en.uncyclopedia.co/wiki/UnVoyage:MacArthur_Park and a few other pages. K7L (talk) 15:30, 7 March 2015 (UTC)

Good idea. I'll set the wiki up and called it Untravel. Antiv31 (talk) 09:36, 18 March 2015 (UTC)

Nope wait. Untravel is already taken, so Fictravel? Antiv31 (talk) 09:41, 18 March 2015 (UTC)

Fictravel

Swept in from the pub

Essentially it is a joke version of a travel wiki like this one... anyone interested in joining? Antiv31 (talk) 09:44, 18 March 2015 (UTC)

Can you provide more details on the intended wiki? I would be interested in joining a wiki that's being written as a travel guide to fictional destinations provided it's being written in serious humor. My concerns are :

• Are there enough fictional destinations?
• Will you be covering similar ground to UnVoyage?
• Does compiling a travel guide about places in an authors work constitute fair-use (given it could be an extensively derivative work) if done in depth?

ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 10:10, 18 March 2015 (UTC)

Do you have a link? BTW I would also like to see someone start a 'Time-travel' guide, given the success of this years joke article here. However, I'd really like to see a 'time-travel' wiki done more seriously, so it can be a student resource. ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 10:12, 18 March 2015 (UTC)

We hope to be more successful than UnVoyage, and covering fictional locations constitutes fair use in my opinion (look at TV Tropes for example).

I don't have a link yet but I'll get on to it. Antiv31 (talk) 21:19, 18 March 2015 (UTC)

You know I wasn't even allowed to edit as an IP because I use Telstra.

IP edits If you're an IP who wants to edit (and not vandalize), you can request IP block exemption. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 14:12, 19 March 2015 (UTC)

Oh thanks man. Antiv31 (talk) 05:39, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

As for the site, http://fictravel.hostingsiteforfree.com

Not up yet, need to install MW first (and even then it will have to be MW 1.18). Antiv31 (talk) 06:00, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

Not 1.18, but I will use 1.24.1. Antiv31 (talk) 08:50, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

Rare system of five stars discovered

Swept in from the pub

Greetings, kind sirs. Astronomers have discovered a very rare system of five connected stars: a pair of closely linked stars - binaries - one of which has a lone companion. It is the first known system of its kind and our company intends to build a magnificent Five Star Hotel there. We are confident that your fine initiative of creating a Wikipedia-sized compendium of advertisements for individual hotels in random locations is a brilliant one and look forward to spamming adverts for Five Star Hotel to every destination in entire galaxies. Once you see our new hotel, you will understand. A mere 250 light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major, the luxurious Five Star Hotel is mere steps away from dining, shopping, museums, tacky souvenir stands and random chunks of stray asteroids, ideal for every class of business and pleasure voyager. You'll love our friendly staff and beautiful sunsets, with often no fewer than five Suns of different brightnesses lighting up the landscape. We also offer discounts to frequent fliers on Star Alliance, the world's largest global space shuttle alliance, Our fine collection of bizarre incidental fees has won industry awards for originality from major trade publications three years running, and Five Star Hotel intends to build on this fine legacy. A beacon of hospitality across the universe, Five Star Hotel is worth the 250 light-year detour for the scenery alone and we welcome the opportunity to speak very highly of ourselves here. User:FiveStarHotel 15:40, 8 July 2015 (UTC) —The preceding comment was added by K7L (talk • contribs)

The who with the what now? Hobbitschuster (talk) 15:53, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

K7L seems to be annoyed at the touts again. Powers ^(talk) 00:03, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

I still don't see, what this is supposed to be good for here at the pub. Probably a joke, but I seem to not get it. Yeah, touts are annoying, but why all this effort to connect touting to the newest advancements of astronomy... Hobbitschuster (talk) 12:08, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

Yes, a joke. Someone finds five stars and immediately builds a hotel on them, as a play on rating systems and the over-used "five star hotel" boast. K7L (talk) 14:27, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

Well it seems to conclusively prove that Germans have their sense of humor surgically removed in early youth ;-) Hobbitschuster (talk) 23:01, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

Can we save this for the next April Fool's Day? It might be a lot of fun. WhatamIdoing (talk) 00:43, 10 July 2015 (UTC)

I had fun reading it! It is an inside joke which will probably not be understood by non-editors and people who have not fought with spam, so the perfect place for this joke is a pub discussion :-) Syced (talk) 08:02, 10 July 2015 (UTC)

I thought there already was a joke article about some place like Sodom or something that was written in typical toutese... wasn't there? Hobbitschuster (talk) 12:28, 10 July 2015 (UTC)

Wikivoyage:Joke_articles/Atlantis#Sleep ϒpsilon (talk) 12:58, 10 July 2015 (UTC)

This years April 1st article.

Swept in from the pub

Early suggestion I know. but wanted time to do the research if needed.

Last year Wikivoyage managed to write an excellent article on time-travel, with a good mixture of fictional and genuine historical elements.

There was a suggestion at the end of the article (Go next) about parallel universes, so...

For April 1st 2016, why not think big, really big? As in in the whole Interdimensional Multiverse?

Some of the existing time-travel article could be re-used, but an article on Interdimensional travel would also allow for future spoof articles on practically any fantastical or futristic universe you can think of ;)

Depending on you definition of interdimensional you could link to some genuine articles on places like Taured, Shangri-La Undone etc ;)

ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 14:46, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

So tempting to say "Next year Wikivoyage managed to write an excellent article on time travel, with a good mixture of fictional and genuine historical elements." :) K7L (talk) 05:45, 27 January 2014 (UTC)

Uncyclopedia. Wikivoyage:Joke articles/Wikipedia's evil twin. ϒpsilon (talk) 17:02, 3 February 2016 (UTC)

Heaven or Valhalla. We already have the other place.

Space as a real destination is constrained to the bounds of existing manned exploration (so ends at the Moon); there have been various proposals over the years for more ambitious space travel topics as April 1 pieces, such as Star Wars planets or the "astronomers detect system of five stars, some random tout immediately builds a five star hotel..." shtick. Mars has been done.

Various locations from works of fiction have also been proposed over the years. Tatooine for Off the Beaten Path anyone? K7L (talk) 19:45, 3 February 2016 (UTC)

The list of last year's nominees that didn't make the cut can be found at Wikivoyage talk:Joke articles#Nominees 2. -- Ryan • (talk) • 21:17, 3 February 2016 (UTC)

I still want to do a summary topic on Interdimensional travel, if only to link in some of the other brilliant ideas people have had. 80.176.129.180 15:29, 28 February 2016 (UTC)

Maybe in a parallel universe the article has already been written? K7L (talk) 20:44, 28 February 2016 (UTC)

Nominees

Time is going by, so here's a start at nominations for the April 1 article using the nominations from 2015 that didn't make the cut. Please add any you would like to see, and add your name to those that interest you. This is not a vote, but typically if one nomination is garnering far more support than others we end up choosing it. I'd suggest making a final choice by March 15 soon so that there is time to write the article. -- Ryan • (talk) • 02:26, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

Proposed article	Supporters	Notes
w:Land of Oz	Powers (talk), ויקיג'אנקי (talk)	Public domain illustrations available (examples)
w:Springfield (The Simpsons)		Images from the TV show cannot be used under the CC-SA license
w:Westeros	User:Wrh2
w:Wonderland (fictional country)	Powers (talk)	Plenty of public domain illustrations (examples)
w:Westworld
w:Whoville		Some illustrations available (here)
w:Multiverse	ShakespeareFan00 (talk), K7L (talk)	This would be an overview/travel topic (like the Time Travel article).
w:Whoville		Some illustrations available (here)
Biblical w:Land of Israel	ויקיג'אנקי
w:Hill Valley (Back to the Future)	ויקיג'אנקי

• Comment: At this time last year, we had already begun writing the April 1 piece. I don't think it's realistic to wait two weeks before starting writing, at this point, as that would take away half of our available time to create the page. Instead, I'd suggest starting the page at Wikivoyage:Joke_articles/...whatever... for any of these that look like they might have support - the worst that can happen is that an idea will be started but not actually get the featured-for-a-day status if the outcome is to pick something else. I also note that this discussion has already been open since January with relatively little interest (except maybe in a parallel universe or two) so is unlikely to draw strong reactions. K7L (talk) 04:19, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

  If you or someone else wants to take the lead on this please do so - as you've pointed out the discussion has so far drawn very little interest, so it would be a bit disingenuous if there were complaints about moving forward after the discussion had mostly gone dormant. I solicited nominations and suggested March 15 for a decision solely to ensure the article wasn't skipped this year, but I would rather not be the one to try to wrangle the cats if someone else is willing to get things rolling. -- Ryan • (talk) • 04:39, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

  I like the idea of a multi-verse/alternate universe. The only issue I can think of is how we would top it next year. DethDestroyerOfWords (talk) 16:00, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

So Wikivoyage:Joke articles/Interdimensional travel? K7L (talk) 17:00, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

• Interdimensional travel/parallel universes/something like that sounds like a promising idea, as long as the article doesn't become too similar to last year's article. ϒpsilon (talk) 17:04, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

I'd thought of time travel for this year's vacation but my neighbours, the Joneses, already went there next year and the year after; it's getting a bit repetitive. To keep up with them, I'm planning my next trip as a hyperspace leap through a wormhole at the centre of a rip in the fabric of space and time to the only of a billion alternate, parallel universes in other dimensions in which the Maple Leafs could actually win a Stanley Cup since 1967. No one's ever seen that before. (The catch is that they win the cup on behalf of Toronto (Prince Edward Island), an Agloe NY-sized speck of dust on a map, beating out some team from Val-Jalbert. Toronto Off the Beaten Path anyone?) K7L (talk) 17:20, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

Possibly you already did that in the past? ϒpsilon (talk) 17:26, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

• The dimensional travel idea seems unusually similar to last year's joke travel topic. I'd much prefer to return to a joke destination for this year. Powers ^(talk) 20:38, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

One possibility would be to have a set of three articles - one main geographic destination, one "off the beaten path" and one travel topic - much as we have as featured star articles any other day of the year. Is there enough interest? K7L (talk) 21:44, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

Another option, Wikivoyage:Joke articles/Interdimensional travel/Land of Oz *is* one of the multiple parallel universes so does fit with the other joke. It's currently mentioned in Wikivoyage:Joke articles/Interdimensional travel with 'Oz' pointed to Australia, which would be really easy to quick-fix if you do indeed want a destination article for 'Oz'. K7L (talk) 17:07, 9 March 2016 (UTC)

I'd suggest that if someone wanted to write a very specifcly targeted destination article, then doing East Berlin (pre 1990) might be a reasonable suggestion, if someone wants to do the research. We really, really should get an Unvoyage Wikia set up at some point, so that the great talent shown in the Joke articles here cen be utilised all year round. :)

ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 12:25, 9 March 2016 (UTC)

Why Wikia? We already have IB for that. The lovely "we wait for dissatisfied communities to leave, then use the search engine duplicate content penalty to destroy their new projects" experience is very much the same concept, but frivolous litigation adds to the entertainment value.

Besides, an UnVoyage has been tried already and is mostly gathering dust: uncyclopedia:UnVoyage:Main Page, uncyclopedia:UnVoyage:New Jersey, uncyclopedia:UnVoyage:San Fernando Valley, uncyclopedia:UnVoyage:MacArthur Park. Gag me with a spoon. Totally. K7L (talk) 15:58, 9 March 2016 (UTC)

Page banners

I'm having problems getting {{pagebanner}} to display (at all) on anything outside mainspace, including Wikivoyage:Joke articles and Wikivoyage:Bad jokes and other deleted nonsense. As I had a suspicion that the creation of a Pagebanner extension last summer may have affected this in some manner, I tried recreating the old {{pagebanner}} experimentally at {{pagebanner-old}} and inserting it once as an experiment on Wikivoyage:Joke articles/Interdimensional travel. The result is a mess; the banner image appears but the TOC is not displaced into it.

Am I doing something wrong, or is {{pagebanner}} just plain broken in project space? K7L (talk) 15:53, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

For whatever reason the extension is disabled in some namespaces by default. Ask @Jdlrobson: or file a phabricator ticket and ask that it be enabled in all namespaces as there should be no reason that I can think of to have it disabled in some namespaces. Can the pagebanner-old template be deleted? It won't work without CSS updates. -- Ryan • (talk) • 15:57, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

Go ahead and nuke template:pagebanner-old and template:pagebanner-old/doc as a failed experiment. This isn't going to work. K7L (talk) 16:20, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

I've raised a task. Jdlrobson (talk) 17:36, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

Thanks. I'm surprised this slipped under the radar as de.voy uses separate namespaces for itinerary and travel topics, but maybe there are no pagebanners in use over there yet? K7L (talk) 18:44, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

@K7L, K7L: and @User:Wrh2: I personally got this fixed today and you can now see it in action on Wikivoyage:Joke_articles/Interdimensional_travel. Happy banner-ing! :-) Jdlrobson (talk) 23:20, 15 March 2016 (UTC)

Subarticles

Assuming Wikivoyage:Joke articles/Interdimensional travel is the main article (basically a wildcard topic) and any number of fictional destinations (individual "universes") can be created as subarticles under it, I've created Alice's Wonderland and the Land of Oz. Pooh bear's Hundred Acre Wood is started but incomplete (although the books are based on a real UK destination, a forested park near the Five Hundred Acre Wood); a few other "universes" (like Middle Earth and Neverland) remain as red links. Many-worlds interpretation and the predictable "visit the parallel universe where the Leafs win the Cup" shtick is pretty much untouched so far. Most of these subpages have no one else contributing anything so far. K7L (talk) 19:19, 15 March 2016 (UTC)

Don't worry, Maybe some of those red-links can be used in future years? ;) ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 23:16, 16 March 2016 (UTC)

Well, it's already bigger than last years article (and this wasn't intended) . It's 4 articles vs 1 :). ( I sort of suggested Interdimensional stuff partly so some of the other "joke" destinations could have a parent article, even if it's not a 'continent' article in that sense.) And yes we do need more writers. (I still say someone should set up a new UnVoyage so those of use that want to "seriously" write about fictional or "alternate" places can do so.) ;) ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 23:21, 16 March 2016 (UTC)

Four articles? Well, only if we don't consider the White River (Ontario) page as part of the Hundred Acre Wood joke... and its only real claim to fame is its role as birthplace of Winnie the bear. K7L (talk) 02:27, 17 March 2016 (UTC)

Banner?

One week until April 1. Do we have a featured destination banner or should we just re-use Narnia or one of the others which already exist in Category:DotM banners? K7L (talk) 17:02, 25 March 2016 (UTC)

Time to put the April Fool's Day feature to bed for good?

Swept in from the pub

This is the first year since I've been active at Wikivoyage (so, at least 2012) that the clock ran out on us before we made a DotM banner for our annual April Fool's Day gag, nor even made a final decision about which joke article to run. While it may be a fluke, I have to admit that in my casual observations I've noticed the community taking less and less of an interest in this annual tradition with each passing year. Last year, and even more so this year, it seems almost as if we've regarded it as more of a tedious chore than a fun diversion. I think we as a community really have to take stock and ask ourselves whether the April Fool's joke article is something we want to continue spending time on in 2017 and beyond. Don't get me wrong; I'd be all for scrapping it if that's what we decide - as it's impossible to actually visit these joke destinations, the feature is useless to travellers; as for the editors, again, no one seems to find it fun to do anymore.

-- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 00:05, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

I agree, it is not something anyone should think is necessary. But if someone has a good idea (ask here & seek consensus) & wants to do the work, I see no reason to stop them. Pashley (talk) 01:14, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

If nothing's ready, could you just put this one up (admittedly, with a recycled banner from yesteryear):

Interdimensional travel
Featured Travel Topic
Why repeat that voyage through time you already took next year when parallel universes like the Land of Oz, the Hundred Acre Wood or a world where Detroit wins the Super Bowl await you?

K7L (talk) 01:30, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

Agree. Definitely no problem if someone still wants to do it, but the community effort could instead be spent going into a new initiative which would be a win for everyone. Also I notice collaborative comedy doesn't really work so well :) --Andrewssi2 (talk) 01:35, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

Honestly, I think this year's lack of energy is more a fluke than a sign of some kind of long-term downward spiral, because I thought last year's April Fools article went great; I didn't contribute very much personally, but just looking at how much content went into the time travel guide makes me believe that a lot of fun was had putting that together. April 1st kinda snuck up on me this year, hence why I personally haven't contributed to this year's festivities, but I think this year the idea got a little overextended, given that there are apparently five April Fools articles this year instead of our usual one. Maybe the lesson to take from this is to keep our humor a little more focused. PerryPlanet (talk) 02:18, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

The problem isn't the subtopics. The problem is that only one or two people contributed to any of these pages. Of course they're a disappointment, because nobody cares. If more people had contributed, the result would've been viable - as it was most other years (with 2012 skipped entirely as that was the year of the big move). K7L (talk) 02:24, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

Regarding K7L's suggestion above with the recycled banner: As I said, running the April Fool's joke article doesn't serve the traveller in any way because these are not destinations, itineraries, etc. that can be visited in real life. In point of fact, it's detrimental to our site's purpose to take space that is usually used to point travellers to useful information and instead redirect them to content that is useless for their purpose in coming to Wikivoyage. (I doubt very many readers come to Wikivoyage on April 1st specifically seeking out the joke articles, nor do many of them probably bother reading the articles once they realize they've been punk'd.) In the past, we've judged (and I've agreed) that mildly inconveniencing our users for one day out of the year is a fair trade-off vis-à-vis the enjoyment our editors got from writing the joke articles. But take that enjoyment out of the equation and we're left with a tedious chore and a net negative effect on our users. So my response to the suggestion is, what would be the point? Just because "that's what we've always done"? -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 03:18, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

Err, Andre, don't take this the wrong way, but what does anything you just said have to do with K7L's recycled banner suggestion? PerryPlanet (talk) 03:36, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

PerryPlanet - K7L asked "if nothing's ready, could you just put this one up?" My response is, "what would be the point of doing that?" I admit my comment started out rambling, but I thought the last couple of sentences made my point clear. -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 03:56, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

I thought you were being facetious in those last couple of sentences. The point of K7L's suggestion obviously isn't because "that's what we've always done" (in fact, we've never recycled a banner for an April Fools article before), the point of the suggestion was clearly to offer a quick and easy fix to the DotM banner matter you yourself brought up. PerryPlanet (talk) 04:15, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

The point of my question was, is the lack of an April Fool's feature really a problem that needs fixing, "quick and easy" or otherwise? It doesn't serve our readers and none of us editors seem to care, so for whose benefit exactly would it be on the Main Page? -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 04:37, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

I've put the proposed banner on the main page - the article is written and it's April 1st, so let's not waste the efforts that went into creating it. -- Ryan • (talk) • 05:24, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

(response to the original comment) I'm very much opposed to "putting the April Fool's article to bed". The April Fool's article has always been a hit-or-miss thing, and while K7L did a lot of work this year, it didn't end up being a collaborative effort. But so long as someone is willing to give it a shot, it's not something that needs to be discouraged. Similarly, if someone wants to bring the WV:Collaboration of the month or some other feature back, we shouldn't "put it to bed" solely because it's a feature that's been moribund. Hopefully at some point in the future we'll have enough editors that we won't be so dependent on just one or two people taking ownership of these sorts of efforts, but until that time I think we ought to encourage these types of endeavors when someone wants to pursue them. -- Ryan • (talk) • 03:26, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

I raised the #Banner? question a week ago and was met with deafening silence. If nobody cares, so be it, but I see no reason why we should commit now to abandoning the April 1 piece for next year - even if this year's joke was a bust. K7L (talk) 05:26, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

Here's one oppose vote to abandoning the joke article section, even if really I haven't had time to edit this year's articles. If you look at April fools articles from earlier years, they used to be much shorter. In 2012 we even didn't have one. Also, articles were at least in one instance started on April 1st and edited only during this day.

Another thing, the argument earlier raised that editing April fools day articles happens at the expense of editing real articles is just silly. How can we know that people who now have been working on the joke articles would've used those minutes and hours to improve real articles (instead of doing something else) if there would've been no joke article? ϒpsilon (talk) 08:49, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

(unindent) For the record, I was not suggesting that we "commit now to abandoning the April 1 piece" going forward (though given the title of this section, I can understand why some might have been confused). I merely wanted to open the door to a discussion about whether we should force ourselves to continue doing it every year if 1) no one particularly wants to anymore and 2) it doesn't benefit the traveller. It's well and good to uphold tradition, but I'm of the opinion that when things like this stop being fun, we should not feel compelled to do it anyway for the sole reason that it is a tradition. But if in 2017 the script is flipped and we're all chomping at the bit to write the April Fool's Day article, of course there is no reason why it should be forbidden. -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 15:01, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

I think the error of last year (which was repeated this year in an even bigger way) was to name a "tough act to follow" topic. If your topic is basically "everything" (time travel and inter-dimensional travel) twice in a row, how do you get a new idea for the time after that? Hobbitschuster (talk) 19:56, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

That's a really good point. I'm thinking next year we should flip the script entirely and try for something that's narrow and more specific, but still offers plenty of comedic potential. Maybe something like "The Toilet" or "Your Computer." PerryPlanet (talk) 20:47, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

We had Wikivoyage:Joke articles/You one year. A bit too narrow and specific? I suppose Wikivoyage:Joke articles/I don't care where this itinerary goes just so long as it gets me out of Syria would've been topical this year, but would hit a raw nerve. Every time it tries to suggest a destination, the narration text is interrupted by a {{warningbox}} before the phrase is complete, restart with another destination and get {{warningbox}}ed again... K7L (talk) 04:27, 2 April 2016 (UTC)

Having done time travel in 2015 year, and interdimensional travel in 2016, Cyberspace for 2017 would again be a broad topic, but could probably be done ( someone did Wikipedia one year).

However, I would had I not suggested interdimensional travel this year (which was partly so that there was an additional framework article for more narrow ones on fictional places in future years.), I would have suggested a much more narrow topic, like doing a place which was a travel destination in the mid-late 20th century but writing the guide as it would have been for some past date, examples being pre 1990 Berlin, The London of the Mid 60's (or 1951) etc which whilst still destinations would have radically different articles from the ones we have for the current Wiki-Prime date.

I would have no objection to limiting April 1st items to "real-place" but historical. ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 08:53, 2 April 2016 (UTC)

I'd have nothing against destinations like Oz and Wonderland if those who'd suggested them had actually contributed a few jokes once they were created. London was already done to death next year, so reliving time travel to London again is tediously repetitive and not very funny. Saying something was viewable only through time travel or visiting parallel universes was an easy way to say "it won't happen here, now or in this universe" as a cheap shot. "Go back in time before bankrupt Detroit became a 2013 ghost town; see the Lions win the Super Bowl in a parallel universe" is an easy way to say that here and now Detroit is penniless and ruined, has lost half its population, and has no hope in Hell (Hades) of winning the match. At this point that joke has been done, but it was amusing briefly. Listing historical real places just to list them, but not making any jokes or cheap shots about them? That could get dull at times.

There are destinations which are really borderline as to "is it real or is it Disney?" Wikivoyage would have us believe that Radiator Springs is a real place and the Hundred Acre Wood an April 1 jest? Most arbitrary. One could just as honestly claim the Ashdown Forest is very much real, while AASHTO's list of US highways lists no Route 66 at any point since 1985. A grain of truth in an otherwise-nonsensical destination, or a passing cheap shot at something real in an otherwise joke context, can always be used to some effect or can serve as an opportunity to link to some real articles between jests. Just remove the bits that aren't actually funny.

It might be possible to turn something real like the Magellan voyages into a comedy of errors ("follow this itinerary to arrive home three years late, down to your last ship...") with Magellan refusing to leave shore again for centuries, or at least until he can come up with a workable GPS sat-nav. Maybe the RMS Titanic is a joke as it's as doomed as doomed can be... no, wait a minute, that's a real article, just like Breaking Bad and Around the World in Eighty Days. An Axis of Evil tour through every country which George W. Bush has turned into a war zone might've been topical in its day. Who knows?

It's not that fictional destinations on April 1 are inherently problematic; it's just that nobody cares at the moment. If there's interest in a fictional place next year, create it, much as we always have. K7L (talk) 15:24, 6 April 2016 (UTC)

Getting my April 2017 topic suggestions in early...

• Cyberspace (and I note we already did Wikipedia.)
• Nanopia - Fancy a safari through the jungle of your own lawn? or indeed the forests of Shahg piell?

• East Berlin (1988). (I know time travel has been done before), but I was thinking that we hadn't done a specific historical destination, writing a guide as it would have been in print at the time. Maybe this article could be written more like old style travel FAQ's you'd find on BBS of that period?

Sfan00 IMG (talk) 15:34, 24 December 2016 (UTC)

Concerning April fool's articles, lets this time choose a topic that a large groups of voyagers are interested in and familiar with to make sure there will be more edits than last spring. The 2015 article (time travel) was superb IMO. ϒpsilon (talk) 15:41, 24 December 2016 (UTC)

(edit conflict) It's hard to know what will attract contributors. The folks who voted for Wonderland, the Hundred Acre Wood and the Land of Oz contributed nothing to the destinations once they were created. I'm tempted to stay away from abstract concepts like time travel and parallel universes because the last two destinations were in this vein, but unless it's more than just one or two people creating these the result will be disappointing. K7L (talk) 16:31, 24 December 2016 (UTC)

That's partly why I suggested East Berlin, mostly because the modern day articles on the same area already existed. Back revising them though would need some liason with de.wikivoyage Sfan00 IMG (talk) 16:28, 24 December 2016 (UTC)

I like the cyberspace idea! DethDestroyerOfWords (talk) 14:54, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

I'm tempted to take w:Bart to the Future and run with it, the year is 2020 or 2030 and United Simpsons of America president Lisa (Elizabeth Marie) Simpson is hard at work in the nation's capital, Springfield, attempting to undo the damage caused by the aftermath of the 2016 election, California's 2018 vote to secede from the Union and China's foreclosure on what's left of the country in 2019. Maybe Russia would be willing to buy Alaska back, more likely they would decline if it means they have to take Sarah Palin as part of the deal. K7L (talk) 15:04, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

We Voyagers do love our trams...

I really like the historic East Berlin idea. The past couple of years we've done extremely broad topics, and last year I think we definitely overextended ourselves with the number of people we actually have who are willing to chip in. I think it would be a refreshing change of pace to do something that's not only much more focused, but has a lot of easily-accessible info we can pull from. I know we have plenty of history buffs around here, and as the attached image shows, there's even stuff for all our transit enthusiasts to get into. PerryPlanet (talk) 17:09, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

• Bigly, a Great American place where everything is Huge. --Traveler100 (talk) 17:18, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

  Um, shouldn't that be yuge, like the great wall? K7L (talk) 03:50, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

The Basket of Deplorables, a group of Confederate states whose secession allowed Clinton to become president in 2021.

I like the East Berlin idea in principle, but I'm not sure how many of our editors are a) old enough to have any recollection of the GDR and b) ever visited. I mean, I know some things from history class and tales of people who were there, but that's about it. Call it the grace of the late birth, to borrow a phrase. Hobbitschuster (talk) 19:49, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

I feel like I'm in the same boat as Hobbitschuster about East Berlin. Yeah, it would be a cool idea to pull off, but I don't know enough about it to contribute more than my copy-edit services. EDIT: I had another idea. What if we put up fictional versions of real places? Like the Apple Valley or Blumenort article. Then we can all choose an article we're most familiar with and put down what we actually wish we could write. Maybe fill it with silly touting, talk up a really minor landmark, or sprinkle all sorts of regional humor / in-jokes throughout the article. DethDestroyerOfWords (talk) 14:50, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

The problem with talking up relatively minor local landmarks is that no one outside the WJM-TV viewing area knows Apple Valley (established 1969) as a non-descript outer Twin Cities suburb or recognises it as notable for little other than an impressive state zoo. The in-jokes risk being lost on outsiders. Native Manitobans would quickly recognise Blumenort as a Mennonite agricultural backwater, but further afield? I'm all for skewering a real place as a long-overdue break to the endless abstract "parallel universe" and "Wikipedia" concepts in recent years, but we should stick to some place and time that the voyager would know. Silly place names might work if the joke is really obvious - like an itinerary around the world overland through every Dull and Boring real place with a silly name, clear out to Chicken Alaska. Parodies of an entire real country (or the broken pieces of a country which would be left in some dystopic past or Armageddon-style future) might work better than making fun of individual high schools in obscure Minneapolis suburbs. K7L (talk) 17:05, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences would like to announce that: Lalaland

has won the competition to be Wikivoyage's featured destination for April 1, 2017.

Congratulations to all, good work. Thank you. K7L (talk) 22:38, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

So we have roughly a month to settle on anything and write the article. That's not much... Hobbitschuster (talk) 22:52, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

Yes, and "Lalaland" is likely a mistake which the Academy will quickly abandon. :) That said, a month is not unreasonable - even for something as lengthy as the "time travel" article which appeared a couple years ago - or was it a couple years from now? That was written in a month or less. "Atlantis" was built in a day. Then again, maybe a time travel article has no deadline. :) K7L (talk) 02:01, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

User:Hobbitschuster/East Berlin has been partially built, but there are still holes in the wall and my motivation is about to commit Republikflucht. You may edit as well, but we might end up deciding on another article. Hobbitschuster (talk) 02:05, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

It may be a bit late to suggest this, but writing about all the wacky conspiracy theories around the Denver International Airport gave me an idea: Truth seeking, a travel topic written from the perspective of conspiracy theorists, that would incorporate references to Area 51, The Grassy Knoll, men in black, Illuminati, you name it. There's a wealth of material to work with there—maybe even too much (perhaps we should make a point of leaving out Cryptozoology phenomenon, just to make things a little more manageable). At the same time, I don't want to undercut the splendid work Hobbitschuster has put in to creating the East Berlin guide, so we can also just put my idea on the back burner for consideration next year. PerryPlanet (talk) 19:32, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

Get in#By black helicopter? K7L (talk) 20:18, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

Proposal chart

Here's a chart to aggregate the current ideas and show interest levels. Please add your name / more notes about YOUR idea / more proposals as desired.

2017 Proposed article	Supporters	Notes
Cyberspace	DethDestoryerOfWords	We've done Wikipedia as an article and could expand upon this idea.
Nanotopia		Fancy a safari through the jungle of your own lawn? or indeed the forests of Shahg piell?
East Berlin		Time travel has been done before, but we haven't done a specific historical destination. It could be written a guide as it would have been in print at the time. Maybe this article could be written more like old style travel FAQ's you'd find on BBS of that period? There are quite a few history buffs on here that we might convince to contribute. Also trams.
Bigly (pronounced Big League by some)		a Great American place where everything is yuge. Surrounded by a large wall, amazingly thriving heavy industry economy with a government not run by politicians. Must regard statement by local media with caution.
w:Bart to the Future		Alternate timeline inspired from Simpsons in which Lisa is elected President. In time, this occurs after "bigly" (above).
Create Joke versions of existing articles	DethDestoryerOfWords	This could allow contributors to pick an article they love or have a connection to and write what they've always wanted. Ideally, contributors could show off some of the local in-jokes and humor. I would suggest we include Apple Valley as one of them. See Blumenort for another example of what this could look like.
Truth seeking	PerryPlanet	A travel topic written from the perspective of conspiracy theorists.

I wrote a thing on East Berlin in Userspace

Have a look here it's neither complete nor perfect, but I mentioned some of the things I know through tales of my mother, media depictions and looking stuff up on WP. If the tone is too mocking or negative or the "Stasi everywhere" running "gag" (Is it a "gag" if it's true?) might be overdone and it is explicitly not meant to sway the debate one way or the other, but I hope having this in the back pocket avoids having nothing at all to feature. If you want to edit, feel free to do so. Hobbitschuster (talk) 23:52, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

I actually liked your writing style on this. Berlitz guides are probably what I was thinking about when I said matching contemporary print media. When did Lonley Planet start printing? ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 10:06, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

"Across Asia on the cheap" was published in 1973. But LP did not become the world-spanning behemoth it now is until much later. It would be interesting to find out whether they ever published a guide on the GDR in particular Hobbitschuster (talk) 10:40, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

An itinerary for April 1st?

In complete contrast to the Destination article, does anyone here have any thoughts as to whether there should be a spoof itinerary as well? My thought here was that if someone was interested they should take someone historical record of an expedition to a (then) next-to-impossible destination and turn it into a suitable article. I can't think of many that are pre 19th century though, Then again, there were people that travelled all the way from England, to shrines in Italy/Byzantia in the 11th and 12 th centuries...Hmmm... Do we have any religious journey docents? ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 19:20, 11 March 2017 (UTC)

Perhaps re-launch The Crusades, as an itinerary which sends the voyager through all of Arabia to get bogged down in endless and futile religious wars, "Life of Brian" style? (Hmm... was it Iran or Iraq who had the WMD? Oh well, too late now!)

Another possibility would be a "great wall" of Trump tour, which promises to be yuge but doesn't quite deliver.

I suppose, if we were to do this, we'd need to create the standard set of three features (East Berlin as DoTM, some fictional place as OtBP, plus the proposed itinerary as FTT). We'd also need main page banners for each of them... which was one point on which we'd fumbled last year's April 1 topic set badly. That'd be 20 days to throw together two more articles and their banners. Doable, were anyone actually interested, but I'm indifferent at this point as it's likely the extra pages would find few contributors. K7L (talk) 21:10, 11 March 2017 (UTC)

Naah. Overkill. -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 22:40, 11 March 2017 (UTC)

OtBP, could be something like the formerly next to impossible destination of "Shayg-Piael", which thanks to modern developments was only recently opened up to semi-commercial nano-tourism. Visiting Shayg Pieal, used to be a rather complex process involving some of the nastier heavier metals or exposure to high-power radiation, and it was a rather convoluted process to get home having visited. However since the patents on "Szalinski" process expired last year, there have been a few firms that are now offering paid excursions to the limits of magnification.

( Do you want me to put something in a stub? That could naturally then be magnified to reveal more detail?). ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 23:03, 11 March 2017 (UTC)

We already did Wonderland last year as a way of making characters very tall or very small. That went over like a lead balloon... not one contribution from anyone. Seems like a waste of time? K7L (talk) 23:37, 11 March 2017 (UTC)

Okay then, I'll hold on this for next year... Give me a chance to read up on "Szalinski" patent more closely ;) ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 10:08, 12 March 2017 (UTC)

April 1 Wikivoyage:Discover items

Mödlareuth was created for inclusion as part of a set of April 1 {{discover}} entries, which were part of the 2017 East Berlin joke:

• In Cold War Europe, tiny Mödlareuth was nicknamed "Little Berlin" as it was divided by the East German border wall (pictured).
• Magadan, an oblast in the Russian Far East, served as a gateway to the notorious Kolyma Gulags.
• Bautzen, home to an medieval-era old city in Saxony, was infamous throughout East Germany for its penitentiaries.

Do these get archived to Discover if they only appeared for a day and were only listed to complement the main April 1 destination? K7L (talk) 19:23, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

2018

Proposals

London (1951)		The thought was to have a travel article focusing tightly on the Festival of Britan, and London at that time. This would be a continuation of the thought in 2017 about doing real places, but in an historical era. I say 1951 and the Festival of Britan rather than 1851 because much as the Great Exhibtion would be a valid historical destination, the former is perhaps more easily researched?
Nano-pia	User:ShakespeareFan00	We did time-travel and multi-dimensional stuff, previously.. We hadn't done a change of scale.. This would present an opurunity to draw on various tropes from Sci-fi, as well as various real-life aspects of what really goes on in say your back garden at a smaller scale (seem to recall a David Bellamy documentary about what goes on in a lawn from years ago.). (Side note: For article context the development of nano-scale tourism could have been recently opened up as the relevant "Szalinski" patents had now expired, not sure what the outcome into the inquiries about various accidents was, I'd have to research that further..)
Cockaigne		wikipedia:Cockaigne - A medieval utopia, known in German as Schlaraffenland.
Latin phrasebook		Which Latin phrases would make sense for a traveller to the Roman Empire?
Roman Empire		We have a historic article for Roman Empire, but need something aimed more specifically at the needs of time travellers looking to give birth to a Messiah in a cow shed at the fringes of the Empire in this actual time period. A "stay safe" section indicating how to avoid being crucified by Pontius Pilate or gouged by moneychangers at the Temple would also be of value.
Gibberish phrasebook	ϒpsilon	We can give the reader a deep understanding of history, grammar, dialects etc. before moving on to the phrases. fvsdhlvbsdlhjfbvlbfsbf
My House, Mars or some other saved nonsense	ϒpsilon, Koavf (Mars--it's topical) AndreCarrotflower (another vote for Mars)	Or hey, we can do something unprecedented, take something from Wikivoyage:Bad jokes and other deleted nonsense and develop it into an April Fools Day article.
Valhalla		We already have the other place.
Antebellum Confederacy		Buy and sell slaves, travel the Mississippi River in the style of Huckleberry Finn, gin plantation cotton for market before it's all Gone with the Wind.
Travel guide for bears	User:Koavf	We already have an article for Jellystone Park, but it's written from the point of view of the human voyager to cynically dismiss bears as dangerous animals in a condescending, speciesist fashion. We need to redress this inequity by creating a travel guide for bears, which should point out the best spots to nab pick-a-nick baskets and the best strategies for evading disturbance by park rangers. Pooh Bear's Hundred Acre Wood was covered well last year, but aren't we smarter than the average bear?

Two months left to the April Fools day. Let's pick something that virtually everyone can contribute to, that has usually resulted in the most extensive Joke articles. ϒpsilon (talk) 19:38, 1 February 2018 (UTC)

I think we should nix the Blitz as a joke article, as the deaths of thousands of people is not a funny topic or a respectful topic for a joke. Ikan Kekek (talk) 02:21, 12 February 2018 (UTC)

Agreed with Ikan Kekek about the Blitz, and "Antebellum Confederacy" is even more problematic. I also think we should nix any article that deals with time-travelling to a place and time in history. That's what we did last year with East Berlin. Also, I'm no prude, but "Kinkspace" might be a bridge too far for some of our more conservative-minded readers. The last thing we should want to do at this juncture of history is put people off. My vote goes with Mars. -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 14:51, 12 February 2018 (UTC)

If we nix every possible historic destination, that narrows our options considerably. We'd be left with fictional silliness like Radiator Springs (although even that may be disqualified because of the Route 66 history) or travel guides to the sewer system or a shag pile carpet. K7L (talk) 15:03, 12 February 2018 (UTC)

That's not what I'm suggesting. I'm suggesting that because "East Berlin, 1986" was last year's topic, then "London, 1951"; "American South, sometime before 1860"; or "London, during the Blitz" (though I see that one has been removed) are too similar. (And that's not to say a joke article like that should never be featured again - just not two years in a row). If that disqualifies too many of the current nominees, that just means there were too many nominees of that type in the first place. Also, what's wrong with "fictional silliness like Radiator Springs"? It seems that would make for a fine joke article. -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 15:37, 12 February 2018 (UTC)

I'm the person that suggested East Berlin last year, on the grounds that writing about actual destinations albiet historical ones was more in keeping with a travel guide, compared to the science fiction themes (ie Time travel and the Multiverse) expressed previously. If someone wants to write a travel guide for Mars, it would be an interesting idea, but I'd be more inclined to suggest it focused tightly on specualtive science/tech development (like an archive National Geogrpahic article on a space colony I read once) than on space opera elements. I can understand the view of not doing the same thing every year...

London (1951) was suggested as it was what I wrote a stub of as a speculative "spoof" article when trying to get some people to do time travel guides for educational purposes in 2013, (It didn't get very far, and got deleted at Wikversity.). I was intending in suggesting East Berlin last year that doing historical destination was what became the April 1st tradition here. Hence I would back the suggestions about London at various dates, Renessiance Italy, Rome or Bronze Age Britiannia (which is mentioned in a time-travel themed novel from the Sci-fi golden age)

As proposer, I've removed my Kinkspace proposal on the grounds that it could (albiet controversially) written as a genuine travel topic, subject to the relevant Wikivoyage policy.

I did suggest Nano-tourism in the 2017 round for April 1st of proposals but fairly late in development. I've got an understand section very roughly started out, but would need some input on possible destinations. A carpet safari is one I'd already considered, but was needing someone that would be able to better comment on what species you might see. Also what small species would you find in a typical American lawn for example? Another inspiration for suggesting this was a Murray Lenister sci-fi novel called "The Forgotten Planet", but I felt it was easy to do a nano-tourism idea generally than it was to world build from a single (possibly still copyright) source novel.

ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 17:14, 12 February 2018 (UTC)

If someone does write Wikivoyage:Joke articles/Mars, I'd prefer that this be a new article started from scratch instead of merely re-hashing an existing BJAODN article which wasn't all that funny. A one-way Mars trip could conceivably be within reach less than a generation from now, so this is just outside what would qualify under Wikivoyage:What is an article? today. There have been Voyagers to Mars, but they were robots. K7L (talk) 10:08, 13 February 2018 (UTC)

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘Can we make shitty Mark Whatney jokes? Hobbitschuster (talk) 16:02, 13 February 2018 (UTC)

Depends... given that certain golden age sci-fi writers set quite few works on Mars. - https://sci-fi-london.com/mars-collection. the "

Maybe using a language style more appplicable to a 1950's or 1960's Berlitz guide could also be borne in mind if writing a more conservatively worded but still speculative Mars article?

adapting some themes/ideas from multiple writers, and adapting for some modern tropes as well...

".. First "species" groups on Mars can contain telepathic and reflectively empathic individuals, which can lead to unexpected physchological shock both for the unprepared tourist, and the unfortunate Martian. In extreme cases the inadvertent projection of cultural and literary tropes from earth tourists has lead to confused Martians invoking extreme fear in tourists unintentionally, as well as Martian warnings attempts being misread as a different type of threat.

"Although unique microbial fauna are present on Mars, with suitable quarantine and hygiene precautions, cross-contamination of this with terran originated material is unlikely. The tourist is unlikely to have any serious reaction to so called 'Martian' Flu, although concerns have been raised as to the potential for parasitical and pathogenic contamination in some deep glacial water sources. Epidemological work on first 'species' susceptibility to terran originated parasites and pathogens is ongoing."

An alternative idea, (but would need some technical setup) is to render some Wikivoyage pages like the now ancient European Videotex-BBS systems (like PRESTEL) and so on, which is how I recall doing some "travel" research in the early 1990's. (There is a suitable monospace font http://bjh21.me.uk/bedstead/ which could be used. ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 11:14, 16 February 2018 (UTC)

Did we reach a decision? ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 12:31, 27 February 2018 (UTC)

Apparently not yet, but Mars (also the month of March in Swedish and French lol) has been discussed in the last comments and has several supports in the table above, so maybe we should pick that one. Three weeks left to April Fools! ϒpsilon (talk) 20:30, 11 March 2018 (UTC)

Anyone? Shall I plunge forward and create Wikivoyage:Joke articles/Mars? ϒpsilon (talk) 14:57, 13 March 2018 (UTC)

I say take the existing Mars article as a starting point, pluge forward:) ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 21:10, 15 March 2018 (UTC)

April 1st, 2018

Swept in from the pub

Wikivoyage:Joke_articles/Mars

Any reader of Rice Burroughs, Bradbruy or Heinlein out there? ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 21:48, 23 March 2018 (UTC)

The box at the top of the joke article suggests that nobody help work on it. Maybe that shouldn't be posted there just yet? WhatamIdoing (talk) 02:45, 25 March 2018 (UTC)

I'm also consideirng making some updates to earlier efforts like Joke_articles/Time_travel. ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 11:14, 25 March 2018 (UTC)

You're right, WhatamIdoing, the box shouldn't be there before April 2nd.

Tangentially, ShakespeareFan00, after the April Fools day is over, to my understanding joke articles shouldn't be edited any more. At one point, such articles were even protected but this doesn't seem to be the case any longer. ϒpsilon (talk) 11:33, 25 March 2018 (UTC)

Okay, I'll respect consensus then. ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 12:06, 25 March 2018 (UTC)

As a little reminder; everyone is welcome to join in editing the joke article :) . ϒpsilon (talk) 13:18, 29 March 2018 (UTC)

I Will also note that User:ShakespeareFan00/Nano-tourism which I drafted as a 'proposal' , has been brought up to stub status by someone else. Maybe it will be possible to have both a "Destination" and broader "Travel Topic" This year. No objections to contributions on it either. ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 13:22, 29 March 2018 (UTC)

Yeah, or we could save that for next year, depending on how much it gets expanded in the two and a half days we have left. --ThunderingTyphoons! (talk) 13:55, 29 March 2018 (UTC)

My vote would be to save it for next year. —Granger (talk · contribs) 15:13, 29 March 2018 (UTC)

Hmm... I had a different thought for 2019..ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 15:48, 29 March 2018 (UTC)

Then we could save it for 2020, maybe. Running two April Fool's articles in the same year seems like a waste of energy to me—energy that could be better spent improving our real articles. —Granger (talk · contribs) 16:14, 29 March 2018 (UTC)

The box was only created for use back when the joke articles were still in mainspace (ie: Hell (Hades) and not Wikivoyage:Joke articles/Hell (Hades)) and someone still believed that there was a risk that someone would edit these in the mistaken belief they were real articles and not jokes. In that respect, {{joke}} has outlived its usefulness and is no longer needed nor valuable.

That said, a set of multiple articles on April 1 of the same year has been done before and seems harmless. In theory, we could create a DoTM, an OtBP and an FTT plus the three "discover" entries, if we had the material. It's just a question of how many are willing to contribute. (Another tactic is to mix real and fake info on a common theme, as was done by placing Wikivoyage:Joke articles/East Berlin opposite a matched "Discover" set of three real entries for Cold War themed destinations like the Soviet gulags and tiny, divided Modlareuth - which ran for a day instead of the usual three. K7L (talk) 18:24, 1 April 2018 (UTC)

Shouldn't our April Fool's article be (have been?) mentioned on our facebook page? Scrolling back to last year, I notice East Berlin was? Andre? ϒpsilon (talk) 19:40, 1 April 2018 (UTC)

I'm in the process of doing that currently. I usually try to update our Facebook page not necessarily directly at midnight UTC, but at a time of day when the greatest number of people are likely to be on Facebook and will actually see the posting. It's Sunday, currently the afternoon and evening in the U.S. and Europe respectively, so now seemed like the opportune time. -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 19:43, 1 April 2018 (UTC)

Great! ϒpsilon (talk) 19:49, 1 April 2018 (UTC)

An idea for April fool's 2019

Swept in from the pub

I know this is discussing this way early, but I cannot see the harm in that given how we have in the past struggled to get something together in the last days of March... An idle thought I had yesterday was travel for space aliens or Guide for extraterrestrial visitors or some such. I think the possibilities are boundless and we could do a lot of tongue in cheek humor. And if it doesn't "work" we have eleven month to come up with something better. Hobbitschuster (talk) 09:37, 21 May 2018 (UTC)

My suggestion might not be practical or even possible, but wouldn't it be funny if on April fool's day we put every article in the "star" category, no matter what condition the article was in, just for that day. I can imagine the confusion of many Wikivoyage users, in particular, who saw the "star" template on every single page they visited! Selfie City (talk) 13:41, 21 May 2018 (UTC)

I'm sure Elon Musk could be convinced to sponsor the creation of such content! Jokes aside though, I have my doubts about the coverage these April fool's articles get, since I wasn't aware of their existance until I stumbled on the category a few weeks ago by coincidence. So if, as you mentioned, it's a recurring struggle to get something together in the last days of March then perhaps the idea of running an April fool's joke itself should be reconsidered? Is it really worth spending the effort on it? ArticCynda (talk) 22:52, 21 May 2018 (UTC)

I find that kind of pages as a waste of time for the project and something that might encourage the creation of junk or troll pages. Just saying. --Zerabat (talk) 12:41, 30 May 2018 (UTC)

After thinking this over a little, I'd have to agree with ArticCynda. Do we really need a April fool's joke every year? Or even at all? We're a travel guide, not a comedy show. Selfie City (talk) 13:35, 30 May 2018 (UTC)

Do we really need to listen to ArticCynda? Hobbitschuster (talk) 21:54, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

Maybe we should go ahead with Guide for extraterrestrial visitors. Sounds like a good idea, and would give us time to work on it. --Comment by Selfie City (talk | contributions) 21:21, 18 November 2018 (UTC)

A guide for extraterrestrial visitors already exists as Wikivoyage:Joke articles/Earth. K7L (talk) 22:47, 18 November 2018 (UTC)

Oh. --Comment by Selfie City (talk | contributions) 01:29, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

2019

What didn't we do this year?

One of the idea was 'Nano-tourism', but I had a different idea..

A different idea for 2019 would be to do something reflecting the history of Travel information systems :-

http://www.galax.xyz/TELETEXT/INDEX.HTM was Teletext font for HTML, Would it perhaps be possible to make some Wikivoyage pages that look like an old-school BBS style system?

Various UK travel systems used Teletext/Viewdata quite extensively. Not sure what the US used... ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 20:50, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

Teletext over OTA TV never caught on in North America and most have never heard of it. [3] announced its optimistic introduction in 1984, CBS conducted a short-lived on-air trial as w:ExtraVision and the whole concept was silently forgotten two years later. The boxes were expensive ($300 in those days, which was comparable to the price of a new 14" colour TV) and, with so little content, there was no reason to buy - even if one could find the hardware. There were some early desktop computers (such as the Apple ][, introduced in 1977) which used NTSC TV sets as their original video display, but these didn't compete in the same market segment and even a dial-up modem was very rare back then. K7L (talk) 14:05, 18 August 2018 (UTC)

Another idea for 2019?

Brexitannia - since 29 March is supposedly Breg-zit day (whoopee-do), for 1 April we could do a satirical guide to the new unicorn country that awaits visitors, in the plausible absence of much real advice to publish. It might be a fun way to let off steam for those who are sick of hearing the B-word every day for what seems like forever; I'd like it to be silly and funny, not bitter or depressing (so not like reality). On the other hand, a potential concern is that it would be controversial with our readers or editorship, and as I obviously do not wish to cause or exacerbate divisions here, am hoping to get community feedback. --ThunderingTyphoons! (talk) 17:50, 14 December 2018 (UTC)

"Fog in Channel: Continent cut off." --Traveler100 (talk) 20:52, 14 December 2018 (UTC)

Sounds like it could be funny if done well, but I share the concern about causing controversy. My feeling is that it's better to steer clear of politics, but if you think we can handle it... —Granger (talk · contribs) 11:19, 15 December 2018 (UTC)

Of course it is also possible that we will only find out what the exit will be like days before the event. If that were the case it would be better our efforts were spent on updating the relevant parts of the travel guide with facts rather than frittering away the remaining time on fantasy (sound familiar?) But if the manner of departure is decided on some weeks before, we would have time for both.--ThunderingTyphoons! (talk) 13:11, 15 December 2018 (UTC)

This is a joke article, so the manner of departure can be something entirely contrived, such as defeating the Spanish Armada and rebuilding an Empire by force with redcoat soldiers and sailing ships, just like it was in the Victorian era or earlier. K7L (talk) 18:36, 16 December 2018 (UTC)