Wikipedia:Humour police
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The humour police is a term used by those in favour of a little colour and a witticism or two in articles to describe those who aren't.
All Wikipedians think that articles shouldn't resort to silliness. However there are definitely two schools of thought on how lacking in H2O the content should be.
Many Wikipedians think, as an encyclopedia, the content should be very dry, and will actively remove any vaguely humorous passages. E.g. "Some conservationalists have kicked up a bit of a stink about the declining number of skunks in north west England" would be acceptable to some, but emphatically not to others. Those in favour of humour note that it is common practice in many worthy tomes such as the Financial Times and The Economist to inject subjects with a little humour in order to make their content more interesting and therefore more readable. Those opposed say it devalues the professionalism of the project. However since the entire Wikipedia is the embodiment of Open Source and thus completely un-professional (what can you do about an encyclopedia the content of which is contributed by its users?) their argument may be considered a rather weak one.
You might well come across talk page statements by some users saying things like "I have put something somewhat funny into some articles, but I won't list it here else the humour police will remove it."
[edit] April Fools
The two viewpoints on how much humour Wikipedia should harbour usually comes to a head on April Fools day. Should the front page contain intentionally misleading but funny content? Should all the humour be restricted to one fictitious entry? In 2005, this was debated well before, during and after April Fools day. And it seems destined to be debated in this manner in years to come.
