How many Wikipeders does it take to Change a Light Bulb? [possible satire]
- 1 User to start a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changing_a_Light_Bulb article.
- 1 editor to tag it with the “No original research” template. (Without giving a reason)
- 3 users to find citations for the article.
- 1 editor to claim it violates the Wikipedia “Neutral Point of View policy”. (without giving a reason).
- The original user to ask why he thinks this way on the talk page.
- 5 users to find occurrences of changing a light bulb in popular culture.
- 1 anonymous user to correct an “it’s” to “its”.
- 1 editor to revert it.
- 1 editor to revert the revert because it was a real typo.
- 10 users to rant in the talk page that Changing a lightbulb is not notable enough.
- 10 Wikipeders to start similar articles in French, German, Spanish, Catalan, Esperanto, Ido, Hebrew, Klingon, Mandarin Chinese, and other languages.
- 10 more people to periodically keep the articles in sync with the English version.
- Starting the cycle again on the localised wikipedias.
- 1 Person to argue that the article should be merged into the main article about the inventor of the lightbulb.
- 5 People to argue on the talk-page who the inventor of the lightbulb was.
- 1 Person to start a wikiquote page about changing lightbulbs.
- 1 Person to add it to wikibook.
- 4 persons to gradually delete content from the section about “choosing a good chair”, until it only reads “choose a good chair.”
- 1 person to write it again.
- 1 deletionist to remove the article due to all of its perceived problems.
- 3 months from now:
- 1 different user to feel the absence of the Changing_a_Light_Bulb article, create it and start the cycle all over again.
About this Document ¶
Copyright and License ¶
This document is Copyright by Shlomi Fish, 2009, and is available under the terms of either the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (CC-by-sa) 3.0 Unported (or at your option any later version) or alternatively the GNU Free Documentation License, version 1.3 (or at your option any later version).
Inspiration ¶
The main inspiration for this document has been the document “How Many Newsgroup Readers does it Take to Change a Lightbulb?” whose origins are unknown. Some of my recent exposure to being a Wikipedia contributor inspired me to create an adaptation of this to the world of the English Wikipedia. Note that I still find Wikipedia an indispensable resource and enjoy contributing to it, and approve of it as a whole, despite the many problems that it constantly faces in its daily maintenance (and which are being handled mostly fine).
A similar feature is Eric Lippert’s “How many Microsoft employees does it take to change a lightbulb?”, which seems to have also provided some inspiration for me (albeit a more subliminal one). While being based on something real, it is kind-of amusing .
Other Wikipedia Humour ¶
- Professor Wikipedia: CollegeHumor video
- xkcd: The Problem with Wikipedia
- xkcd: Wikipedian Protestor
- xkcd: In Popular Culture
- xkcd: Simple
- xkcd: Citogenesis
- xkcd: Visited
- Moshe Zadka: Wikipedia is funny
- Uncyclopedia - the premier “content-free” Encyclopedia.
- Wikipeetia - The Misspelled Encyclopedia
- “Wikipedia has…”, “Chuck Norris and the Wikipedia” and “Chuck Norris and Wikipedia Deletionists” - aphorisms in my aphorisms collection.
- Calamities of Nature: “Wikipedia”
- Calamities of Nature: “Communal Memory”
- Tweet by alisonclement
- Working Daze Strips starting from 6 July, 2006 (may require registration).
Similar Bits Elsewhere ¶
- “How Many Newsgroup Readers does it Take to Change a Lightbulb?”
- “How many Microsoft employees does it take to change a lightbulb?” - quite serious.
- “How many software developers would it take to change a lightbulb?” - was published several years after the “How many Wikipedia Editors” bit, and has a somewhat different format, but it’s still incredibly amusing.