Wikipedia:Don't delete the main page
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This humorous essay contains comments by one or more Wikipedia contributors. It is not a Wikipedia policy or guideline, though it may contain advice. A potential measure of how the community views this essay may be gained by consulting the history and talk pages, and checking What links here. |
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This page in a nutshell: There are jokes, and then there are "oh, fudge" situations. |
One admin was discussing the deletion of the main page in IRC and asked if the technical ability to delete pages with over 5000 revisions, like the main page, had ever been re-enabled. Another admin (jokingly) commented that he had tested it and found that the main page still couldn't be deleted. The first admin thought he would test it for himself. The main page got deleted.[1]
You might think you are having a laugh, but sometimes, the joke is missed. If you find yourself having to say "jokes do not come across well here", you are best off commenting on such.
In other words, do not even joke about causing disruption. Someone may miss the joke. Some will even warn not to even joke about joking about causing disruption.
[edit] Historical context
As honored in the village stocks, this succeeds the admin who locked the servers for half an hour by deleting the Sandbox, necessitating the restriction of deletions for articles with over 5000 edits. It is followed by the editor who used a bot to add 1200 useless edits to the Main Page, hoping to bring it up to the 5000-edit level where it would not be deletable. Fortunately, the Main Page now enjoys a sui generis immunity to deletion in the software.[2][3]
[edit] References
- ^ "I deleted the Main Page". Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
- ^ http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2008-February/089554.html Hopefully the issue is fixed. hopefully...
- ^ Check for yourself
[edit] See also
- Main Page log
- Wikipedia:Don't stuff beans up your nose
- Wikipedia:Bad Idea Machine
- Wikipedia:Village stocks – other Very Bad Ideas that have been tried
