Information:Rules for Fools

While April Fools' Day can be fun, there are several rules you need to follow to avoid disrupting the encyclopedia.

April Fools' Day has historically been a contentious day on BattleTechWiki, and the limits on how editors may play jokes and pranks on other users and the encyclopedia have been disputed for some time. While there is no consensus on a complete April Fools' Day joke ban, editors are advised to use common sense. To help settle the debate on what is and is not allowed on April Fools' Day, several rules have since been established based on Wikipedia's rules for the same for users who choose to play jokes on April Fools'.

The rules

All edits on April Fools' Day must continue to adhere to all applicable BattleTechWiki policies and guidelines, including (but not limited to) edit warring, no personal attacks and the policy on real persons. With the exception of the Main Page, all edits that are intended to be humorous should be kept out of the article and help namespaces, as well as their respective talk pages; and be tagged with {{Humor}} (or equivalent template, such as the inline {{April fools}} to avoid misleading users.

General

BattleTechWiki policies and guidelines still apply on April Fools' Day, especially the policies on edit warring, no personal attacks and the policy on real persons. The Main Page is exempt from rules No. 1, and No. 2:

1. All jokes and pranks must be kept out of the "article", "help", "talk", and "help talk" namespaces. Jokes that affect articles, including files, categories and templates that are used in the article namespace, will be treated as vandalism. Depending on the nature, you risk having your account possibly blocked from editing.
2. All jokes must be tagged using {{Humor}} or similar templates, or the inline template {{April fools}}.
3. All jokes must be acceptable. Jokes that are hateful, discriminatory, and/or intended to make others feel unwelcome will not be tolerated. (This should go without saying: If you think that the joke you're about to publish might be taking it a bit too far, you should assume that it is, and do not publish it.)

Tips and advice

Conduct

• New editors who are unfamiliar with April Fools' Day on BattleTechWiki may see these jokes as vandalism, while other editors may find the jokes (no matter how innocent) unwanted if placed in areas such as their userpage. It is a good idea to find out whether the recipient of a joke is open to this type of humor before playing the prank. In general, editors should avoid reverting jokes that comply with the above rules and are made in the spirit of April Fools' Day.
• Editors who revert non-harmful jokes should be assumed to be acting in good faith, and should not be sanctioned.
• As Policy:Real People is still in effect, avoid jokes that are directed at or reference real persons. Think carefully before nominating an article for deletion.
• Please do your best to make your joke visible towards others. Hey.... if you have a joke then share and tag it, don't change some obscure redirect page that isn't visible towards others and expect a happy response.
• It is a very good idea to let Wiki Staff know (our discord is a good way) that you have created April Fools' Day content. So that it doesn't get thought of as random vandalism.

Material

• Please double-check the current time. April Fools' Day starts at 00:00 UTC April 1 and ends at 00:00 UTC April 2. Please do not play April Fools' jokes outside this time, even if it is April Fools' Day in your own time zone.
• Since no April Fools' Day jokes may appear in the Talk: namespace, please do not create joke merge proposals, requested moves, or other proposals that would ordinarily appear in the article talk namespace.

See also

• How To Be Funny And Not Just Stupid on Uncyclopedia