User:IronyChef/TestKitchen

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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Comic Predictor

The {{LATESTCOMIC}} template is known to be very expensive, causing the wiki to have to do a lot of work on every page it occurs (which, if reports are true, really is every page.)

Since xkcd is released at regular intervals (for the time being) it should be possible to do some simple date math to predict what the next comic's number will be, and when it will be released.

Using {{LatestComicOnDate}} to predict the latest comic on a given date...

Today xkcd 36
Tomorrow xkcd 36
Wednesday xkcd 37
Thursday xkcd 37
Friday xkcd 38
Saturday xkcd 38
Sunday xkcd 38
Next Monday xkcd 39

The goal here is to have {{LATESTCOMIC}} be simplified by using said date math, and thus tax the wiki less.

Testing rollover behavior (here, December 2013)...

Dec 27 xkcd 1309
Saturday xkcd 1309
Sunday xkcd 1309
Monday xkcd 1310
Tuesday xkcd 1310
Wednesday xkcd 1311
Thursday xkcd 1311
Friday xkcd 1312


Bylines

Well, non-wikipedians may not know that every page is editable, and many are left with the impression that explanations are written by some mysterious other. Well, why not let bylines, a la a newspaper or other journalistic enterprise, dispel both illusions.

{{byline}} can be used to give attribution to explanations. Whoever creates the page simply inserts the {{byline|TheirUsername}} in the explanation, so they can rightfully be acknowledged for their effort:

Authored by TheirUsername.

Later, if somebody else tweaks the explanation, they can (if they want) add their username to the byline, as in {{byline|TheirUsername|FixerUpper}}, so they too can be recognized:

Authored by TheirUsername, with additional contributions by FixerUpper.

This can go on for a bit, if necessary, with more people, when they make a change, electing to put their name on the byline: {{byline|TheirUsername|FixerUpper|CosmeticCorrector}} which looks like this:

Authored by TheirUsername, with additional contributions by FixerUpper, and CosmeticCorrector.

... and so on.

What? Not the wiki way, I hear you say? Au contraire, mon frère. The wiki is in fact very diligent about keeping track of every single contributors's work; no change is truly anonymous (even if some changes are attributed to an IP address.) There's nothing conceptually different between this history and a byline, except the latter is manual, elective, and on the honor system. (And for those of you who would "trust, but verify", the history remains that verification to resolve any conflict that may arise... but I think we're all grown-ups here.) All the byline does is elevate attribution to the main page, as many other literary works do. Nowhere in the wiki code of conduct does it say your contributions must remain unattributed, part of a vox populi pâté, it only says that they may be edited, altered, etc. by other contributors. And, oh, by the way: they have attribution rights, too.

UserBoxen

Having several diligent editors that help keep the spam from taking over, I've borrowed userbox templates from elsewhere and placed some tin stars on said editors, now officially deputized.

I've got a few more ideas in this vein, too... if I could only keep the spam at bay long enough <sigh>