Wikipedia talk:Motto of the day/Nominations/Archive 3

Archive 1Archive 2Archive 3Archive 4

I've done it!

I've created a welcome template using MotD. You can see it here. It is a slightly modified version of this. Let me know what you think, everyone, and tell me if I should make any changes. I expect you all to use this now! ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 05:35, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

FYI, MediaWiki page names are CasE seNsiTive. Anyway, it looks good. Kayau Voting IS evil 05:59, 25 July 2010 (UTC)
Oops... :) ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 17:22, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Community Portal

Adding an MOTD section to the Wikipedia:Community portal would be really great. What say?--Forty twoThanks for all the fish! 01:56, 26 July 2010 (UTC)

Yes, put in one of the MotD templates. Sounds like a good idea. ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 01:58, 26 July 2010 (UTC)
Well, if everyone agrees, anyways. Maybe I'll drop a note at VPM to tell everyone about MOTD changes. Kayau Voting IS evil 01:58, 26 July 2010 (UTC)
We will need to ask at Wikipedia talk:Community portal first.--Forty twoThanks for all the fish! 02:01, 26 July 2010 (UTC)
By everyone I mean everyone on WP. Kayau Voting IS evil 02:19, 26 July 2010 (UTC)r

Yep \o/ it seems to be a good idea! –pjoef (talkcontribs) 11:32, 27 July 2010 (UTC)

Yeps. --Extra 999 (Contact me + contribs) 14:02, 28 July 2010 (UTC)

This has been proposed more than once and opposed by a few. I've even proposed WT:Community portal#Some suggestions very recently and it looks like its going nowhere. Simply south (talk) 14:20, 28 July 2010 (UTC)

There already is a MOTD link. It's right beside humour. Kayau Voting IS evil 14:28, 28 July 2010 (UTC)
Too bad this has been rejected. I was looking for placing a banner on Community Portal. May be a Signpost story instead. Anyone interested?--Forty twoThanks for all the fish! 01:40, 29 July 2010 (UTC)
Me!!! (But you already knew that...) :) ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 01:51, 29 July 2010 (UTC)
Looks like neither of you have read mono's talk. Do take a look. :) Kayau Voting IS evil 01:53, 29 July 2010 (UTC)

Christmas series

I was going to post this idea straight in the specials section, but a quick search in the archive has shown this had a one-off appearance. As such, it might not be approved, so I thought I would post the idea here first for some general consensus.

My idea is to have a 12 days of Christmas motto for each of the 12 days, starting on 25th December, and running through to 12th night (January the 5th, I think it is). Each day, we add one more line, until we have the entire song. There are two ways of doing it. One would be to have the original words, but with some linking to it:

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, a Partridge in a Pear Tree
This is for December the 25th 2010
On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, two Turtle Doves</ br>

and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

This is for December 26th etc...

The other way would be to rewrite the words according to what takes our fancy. What's wrong with a little pastiche? ;-)

On the first day of Christmas, my Jimbo gave to me, an encyclopedia for me
This is for December the 25th 2010
On the second day of Christmas, my Jimbo gave to me, two featured articles</ br>
and an encyclopedia for me
This is for December 26th etc...

I haven't written them all (didn't think it would be worth it until there was concensus), but I did think that WP:5P would do as a link for Five Golden Rings.

If this idea goes down well, I would suggest we then write it between ourselves... let's make this a truly collaborative motto! Stephen! Coming... 16:35, 10 August 2010 (UTC)

  • Support first version - it is not common practice to change quotes. Besides, it doesn't sound well if we re-write it. I like the idea, though we'd better get started with it fast, because twelve mottos could take a lot of discussion! :) Kayau Voting IS evil 03:42, 11 August 2010 (UTC)
  • Comment - Well, if we do that we won't have new year motto unless we have the seventh day quote, use a new year quote and then have the eigth day quote on Jan 2nd. Otherwise Support 1st version. Derild4921 16:08, 11 August 2010 (UTC)
Comment As not many people have commented on this, I've posted an invite to the current contributors of MOTD/Nominations asking them to pop by (I went through the history for the last week or so, and invited those who haven't already posted here) and make their thoughts known. If this is going to work, I think this would need to be agreed on sooner rather than later, and have buy-in from as many people as possible. If the consensus is yes, then great! If not, then "oh well, never mind". Stephen! Coming... 16:05, 12 August 2010 (UTC)
Weak Support- I like the idea, but what's holding me back is that we have to consider that not all readers and users are Christians. Secret Saturdays (talk to me) 16:34, 12 August 2010 (UTC)
I'm not Christian. Hell, I don't even believe in God, but I still celebrate Christmas. I think everyone knows the song, so it should be a big deal. It's not like we're promoting Christianity. SimonKSK 16:47, 12 August 2010 (UTC)
Yeah, but there are religious zealots/idiots out there that might interpret that we are promoting it. Secret Saturdays (talk to me) 18:20, 12 August 2010 (UTC)
I agree with Simon. While I don't believe in god either, this is comparing true love to Jimbo, not god. Kayau Voting IS evil 01:32, 13 August 2010 (UTC)
/o\ I think that there will be a problem with the new year's eve&day. –pjoef (talkcontribs) 16:50, 12 August 2010 (UTC)
  • Support second version. I'm good with modifying quotes, and we've already used the first version. My only concern would be that some people might celebrate Christmas on the 6th of January. ~AH1(TCU) 17:25, 12 August 2010 (UTC)
  • Strong support - but definitely we need a New-Year quote in the middle. Just don't do the 8th Day (I think it's that), but do 8 and 9 on the 2nd Jan. --Smaug123 (talk) 07:58, 13 August 2010 (UTC)
  • Meh I don't mind either way. This is certainly a bit different, but it kinda excludes any brilliant Christmas/New Year quotes we may find. sonia 08:38, 13 August 2010 (UTC)
  • Weak oppose - How are they going to work if some days have already been taken up with special nominations already, (like New Year)? I also agree with Sonia, I would be sceptical about nominating all of these because it will stop any really good quotes getting through until the next year; (even if it doesn't get through this year, which I expect as there is only a month and a bit left, it will take up all of next year if it gets through). WVRMadTalkGuestbook 16:48, 13 November 2010 (UTC)
  • Oppose I have changed my mind about this thing. I think that we should be able to have whatever mottos we can come up with; this squashes any possibilities for having any great Christmas mottos that someone may come up with for the entire time that one could be relevant. This is too rigid; blocking out twelve days of the schedule for one specific thing is too restricting. ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 02:03, 3 December 2010 (UTC)
  • Oppose - I feel like once the holidays are over, many people just want to move on with the rest of the year, so users may not want to receive holiday quotes for every one of the days of Christmas.I also agree with WVRMad in that a lot of good quotes will not be able to get through. MMS2013 20:16, 22 December 2010 (UTC)


PLEASE, DISCUSS FORMAT, SET OF LINKS AND OTHER ISSUES RELATED TO THIS SERIES OF NOMINATIONS (Christmas 2010 Series) ON THE SPECIAL NOMINATIONS PAGE!
THANK YOU!!! –pjoef (talkcontribs) 08:39, 8 December 2010 (UTC)

Being bold

It looks like the general consensus is to go with it, so I have taken the liberty of setting up a new section for each day (plus the opening line) and will place it in the Special nomination sections in a bit. I suggest (for the purposes of KISS) that each section only deals with one line; this is in bold at the top of each section, just below the section header. To nominate a line, you use the Edit 1, Edit 2 as would normally be done. I'll add a couple to show you what I mean.

Once all the lines are agreed, then the whole song can be merged together and added to the schedule on the appropriate days, and in the correct format.

I should add that although I am being bold, I am not being presumptuous. I accept that this may still not run, or that some of the days might be replaced by a more appropriate quote for that day. Stephen! Coming... 12:43, 13 August 2010 (UTC)

Done it. Hope the layout is ok! Stephen! Coming... 12:53, 13 August 2010 (UTC)
BTW, the version of the song I have gone for is the main one listed on the article page. Stephen! Coming... 12:54, 13 August 2010 (UTC)

First of all, instead of arguing about all of this there, I think we should figure out how we are going to do this on this page, because more people see it. :) Second, I like this idea, and although I preferred the second idea, this works too. However, there isn't much to comment on yet, because nothing is linked, so... If people agree that we should discuss this here instead, I think that we should move the whole set of nominations for this to this section, and then start commenting, adding links, etc. here. ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 00:14, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

Um... I have placed them on the specials page already! It's linked back to this discussion. I agree, we need more participation. Stephen! Coming... 06:57, 17 August 2010 (UTC)
Should we have the links for each day repeated in the subsequent days? eg. Two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree. --Smaug123 (talk) 20:14, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

Flaw

Can i just point out one flaw in this? They can't work on some days as there are already mottos there, even at least one that was another special nom. Simply south (talk) 00:42, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

Hmmm... Perhaps we could just put the one that would have been on January 1st the next day, and just have the rest be off by one? ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 01:06, 26 August 2010 (UTC)
My idea was to have 1st Jan be its own quote, and have two new lines on Jan 2nd. I would also prefer it if the entire verse was written out each day. --Smaug123 (talk) 21:35, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
Why on Earth am I in a box?! I also want to standardise the format of these mottos; new section! --Smaug123 (talk) 21:44, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
Sorted. When you add a space just before a sentence starts, it puts it in a box. Simply south (talk) 18:41, 10 September 2010 (UTC)

Standardised format

There are several possible formats. The one I favour myself is:

On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

Three French Hens
Two Turtle Doves
And a Partridge in a Pear Tree

(I have put in wikilinks to WP:WP just for demonstration purposes.) The features I think are best are:

  • Every line up to the current day is given, not including its links (except on 2nd Jan if we have a different motto on the 1st Jan, when the 2nd Jan would contain two new, linked, lines)
  • The new line(s) is emboldened, the rest aren't
  • Numbers are typed, ie. Three not 3

Then perhaps on the Twelfth Day, we could link every line. How does this sound? --Smaug123 (talk) 21:44, 3 September 2010 (UTC)

Good! I think that format works. ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 18:23, 11 September 2010 (UTC)

Is it possible to discuss format, set of links and other issues on the Special Nominations Page? –pjoef (talkcontribs) 17:06, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

Nothing is happening...

Due to the fact that this has been almost completely ignored since the proposal was made, I want everyone to know that if this hasn't been figured out and scheduled by the twentieth, I am going to move all of the mottos that have been scheduled later than they normally would be up so that the schedule is filled. I will leave Christmas day blank when I do this, however, for obvious reasons. I also would like everyone to know that my new-found opposal to this thing is not influencing this; I am just trying to make sure that we won;t suddenly have a slew of days without mottos. ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 02:08, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

And of course, if anyone objects to this, please tell me so. ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 02:00, 9 December 2010 (UTC)

A Proposal

This didn't get enough discussion in the "Suggested Changes" discussion, so I'm going to discuss it here.
The idea is this: Remove the "Decisions" section from the Nominations page. People who go there would want to see things that they could discuss, not things that have already been closed and added to the schedule (or not) and that they cannot do anything about. I see no point in keeping it there. Thoughts? ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 02:16, 25 November 2010 (UTC)

Come now, people. There must be someone with this page on their watchlist. :) ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 01:33, 29 November 2010 (UTC)

Oppose ~ Decisions has its own page, it is embedded into and a subpage of Nominations, and serves its purpose well. Sorry, but I can't see any reason for removing it from the Nominations main page. –pjoef (talkcontribs) 10:01, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

I don't see your reasoning; why not remove it from the Nominations page? It would still be in the navbar, and we would still be using it, but there isn't much point in having it in the Nominations page. "Nominations", in my mind, implies "Open Nominations". ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 03:32, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

Agree with pjoef. Kayau Voting IS evil HI AGAIN 05:46, 6 January 2011 (UTC)

This is a question for both you and Pjoef. Pjoef, you said "...and serves its purpose well." What purpose is that, exactly? What purpose does it serve, being on the main nominations page? ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 05:54, 6 January 2011 (UTC)
It can let us see everything at the same time. By looking at the nominations page right now, I can see that the MOTD is not doing as well as it did when I left. :( Kayau Voting IS evil HI AGAIN 06:25, 6 January 2011 (UTC)
That is only because I went through and moved a bunch of conversations (all but the one) to the decisions page a few hours ago. :) ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 06:48, 6 January 2011 (UTC)
But there are only 6 decisions! Think about last summer. It's not the same any more. :) Bob, this is not an argument... Kayau Voting IS evil HI AGAIN 07:01, 6 January 2011 (UTC)
Kayau, Bob's comment was in response to my edit summaries. :) ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 00:01, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

Anyone there?

First of all, this isn't me coming back early. I'm still probably going to be gone for another month, but I noticed a problem that was so worrying that I have to jump in and comment, despite the fact that I'm "avoiding Wikipedia" for a while. There are only five more days of mottos, and then we will run out. Have fun, everybody; I'm sorry that I'm not going to be able to help with this one. ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 18:09, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

Time, department skies. Er...I mean another week of mottos have been added. Someone could send a message around encouraging people of the project. Simply south...... 00:19, 23 February 2011 (UTC)

WE HAVE ONE MOTTO LEFT.

We are at the end of the schedule. Are you all really going to keep pulling me out of my break to say this? ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 23:37, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

I've approved the only motto with reasonable support. Kayau Voting IS evil 01:38, 12 March 2011 (UTC)
My heading still applies. One motto left. Hop to it, everyone. :) ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 02:34, 12 March 2011 (UTC)

OK, it looks like this is the time for a mechanism for emergencies to be developed. This issue lacked attention last summer, when the MOTD was at its peak. I again propose a set of lower-quality mottos reserved for emergencies. Or we could do repeats of the very best ones. Thoughts? Kayau Voting IS evil 02:43, 12 March 2011 (UTC)

I like the first idea, obviously. :) I'm done dealing with this MoTD stuff now! Let me stay on my break without having everything fall apart in my absence! ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 03:00, 12 March 2011 (UTC)

Like I said above, normally a message is sent to everyone involved which normally relieves the crisis so getting participation. I have been busy again and have not been able to get round to it. If I seem to be the only one to do it, I can only send the message Sunday evening. Maybe we can have a random motto from a previous day? Difficultly north (talk) 00:31, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

I was puzzled when I checked my userpage and saw there was no motto. I was saddened when I came here and saw that you guys seem to have ran out of mottos.. because I like having a dynamic userpage.. something new and witty to read every day.. It would be a shame for this project to die. I know Hi878 is opposed to it but I strongly suggest that this project start reusing older mottos.. pick the best of the best and set it on auto random shuffle or something.. New ones can still be added, but this way it always ensure there'll always be something to display. There's so many mottos archived now that you can easily afford to reuse old ones, there's no way anyone would remember a motto from 2 years ago for example. Anyways, think about it. -- œ 06:55, 16 March 2011 (UTC)
I have just found four needing approval, so that should last us until Saturday. Simply south...... 09:08, 16 March 2011 (UTC)
Sorry, correction. Sunday. I also left a note at BOTREQ for a message to be sent to all members but. Nobody has taken that up.Difficultly north (talk) 01:15, 18 March 2011 (UTC)
Which did absolutely nothing. Simply south...... 19:50, 20 March 2011 (UTC)

Emergency mottos

Proposal: Reuse old mottos in desparate situations

Above proposed by OlEnglish.

  • I hate the idea. I think we just need to try harder; when I end this rather long break, I most certainly will try as hard as I can to keep this thing going. It really isn't necessary to reuse mottos, and even though the argument for doing that right now is very good, if it becomes accepted in any way, I'm sure more times will eventually be found, and we will all get increasingly lazy. This is all I am going to say, as I really am wanting to be away from Wikipedia right now. ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 00:17, 17 March 2011 (UTC)

Proposal: Keep a list of lower-quality mottos for future use

Like oe's, this one has been proposed before. Kayau Voting IS evil 12:17, 17 March 2011 (UTC)

  • I almost like this one. I think that instead of a list of "lower" quality mottos, we should just nominate mottos, specifically for this, as we would for normal ones, and hold them to the same standards as we do normal ones. We can have seven on this backup list, and if we need to use, say, one or two of them, we try to replenish those mottos that we used as soon as possible. This way, we have up to a week of mottos that are still new, and high-quality, for emergency situations. Our reputations will not suffer (hopefully) as a result, which I'm sure we all would approve of. :) ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 06:21, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
    • I don't think that's different from doing what we're doing now... Either way, we end up with the same number of mottos, don't we? Kayau Voting IS evil 08:10, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
      • It would do the same as the idea you had, except we wouldn't need to have lower-quality ones when we run out. The emergency mottos would be of the same quality. We would end up with the same number of mottos either way, yes, but we would end up with the same number of mottos with your idea as well. Your idea and mine are the same, except mine was more specific in how I proposed it, and I want to have the same quality of mottos for the emergency list. ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 21:16, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
        • I think you misunderstood my idea. When I say 'lower-quality' mottos, I mean mottos that would normally be declined because of lack of consensus. Kayau Voting IS evil 03:16, 20 March 2011 (UTC)
          • I understood your idea perfectly. I think that I have been pretty clear about that in my last two posts, but I'll put it in bold just so everyone understands. WHAT I AM SAYING IS THAT WE SHOULD USE REGULAR QUALITY MOTTOS FOR THE BACKUP LIST INSTEAD OF LOWER QUALITY ONES. Sorry if I am seeming rude, but I think that I was very clear with what I was saying, and I am getting somewhat frustrated. ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 17:21, 20 March 2011 (UTC)
            • Yes, I do understand that you mean we should use regular quality mottos for the backup list instead of lower quality ones. Here's what (I think) would happen in a normal case:
              • On 1/1, there are mottos up to 5/1. There are 10 mottos in the IR page. 2 of them are high-quality ones that User:Example approves immediately. That means the mottos last till 7/1. 3 of them are relatively lower quality and the consensus is 'very weak', so Example declines them. The rest are all unanimous opposes which Example declines. On 7/1, the IR page is empty and there's no motto for tomorrow. Uh-oh.
            • Here's what'll happen with my suggestion:
              • On 1/1, there are mottos up to 5/1. There are 10 mottos in the IR page. 2 of them are high-quality ones that User:Example approves immediately. That means the mottos last till 7/1. 3 of them are relatively lower quality and the consensus is 'very weak', so Example saves them for emergencies. He declines the rest as they're terrible. On 7/1, the IR page is empty and there's no motto for tomorrow. Example then uses the lower-quality emergency ones. Phew - three more days.
            • Here's what'll happen with your suggestion (I think):
              • On 1/1, there are mottos up to 5/1. There are 10 mottos in the IR page. 2 of them are high-quality ones that User:Example saves for emergencies, seeing that there are still 4 more mottos. 3 of the IR mottos are relatively lower quality and the consensus is 'very weak', so Example declines them along with the rest as they're terrible. On 5/1, Example sees there are no mottos for the next day, so he uses the higher quality emergency mottos. On 7/1, the IR page is empty and there's no motto for tomorrow. Uh-oh.
            • Sorry if I misunderstood your suggestion. Kayau Voting IS evil 14:22, 21 March 2011 (UTC)
+1. At least the lesser known motto could have its oppunity to shine. --Tyw7  (☎ Contact me! • Contributions)   Changing the world one edit at a time! 16:02, 21 March 2011 (UTC)
You pretty much have mine correct. However, I think that to make mine work a bit better, instead of just having approved mottos go to the emergency list, we would have a specific nomination section/subpage/whatever for the emergency list. I see why mine might not be as favorable as yours, but I just hate the idea of using lower-quality mottos under any circumstances. ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 22:22, 21 March 2011 (UTC)

And if this discussion doesn't work out, we could keep using (This space for rent.) Simply south...... 19:34, 20 March 2011 (UTC)

That's not impossible... Kayau Voting IS evil 14:22, 21 March 2011 (UTC)
Used once its funny, used twice it would lose its funniness. --Tyw7  (☎ Contact me! • Contributions)   Changing the world one edit at a time! 16:02, 21 March 2011 (UTC)
This one's related to the one down there. Kayau Voting IS evil 12:00, 22 March 2011 (UTC)

Proposal: Ad hoc Motto

Above proposed by pjoef.

An ad hoc template or page with something like "MOTD NEEDS YOU!/YOU CAN HELP"... and the link to MOTD's participants page/section. (Of course, I think we need to work harder) –pjoef (talkcontribs) 11:44, 22 March 2011 (UTC)

Emergencies page

I have created a page (Wikipedia:Motto of the day/Nominations/Emergencies) with some emergency considered mottos in the archives. Simply south...... trying to improve for 5 years 15:01, 4 April 2011 (UTC)

Let us commence brainwashing the People by sending MOTD propaganda posters invitation templates. --The Σ talkcontribs 21:49, 17 June 2011 (UTC)

Eurhythmics

Its time to close that one but I can't decide on which one has the best consensus. Maybe could i ask if either someone else decide or can everyone just pick one? Simply south...... eating shoes for 5 years 20:50, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

Decisions on nominations page?

I know I have brought this up before, but I feel it necessary to bring it up again, seeing as it was never discussed. Is it really necessary to keep the decisions on the main nominations page, or can we remove it? I don't think that people going to that page would want to see a section full of a bunch of nominations that they can't do anything about; they would just want to see those that they could comment on. Really, it is just taking up a rather large amount of space. Would anyone object to the particular section's removal? ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 17:00, 22 July 2011 (UTC)

And, knowing how ignored this page is, I'll wait two weeks (unless several people unanimously don't mind), and if nobody has objected (or commented at all), I'll remove it. ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 17:04, 22 July 2011 (UTC)

No objection. And your edit summary was highly effective. PrincessofLlyr royal court 18:28, 22 July 2011 (UTC)
I've found that using an edit summary like that usually ends up getting a couple people to come here. :) ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 19:11, 23 July 2011 (UTC)

Due to the overwhelming consensus that has appeared in this discussion, I shall remove the section from the page. ~~ Hi878 (Come shout at me!) 18:31, 5 August 2011 (UTC)