SmashWiki:April Fools'

This page documents an unofficial SmashWiki policy, a widely accepted standard that people should expect (like the Spanish Inquisition). Slightly more importantly: This page contains material that is kept because it is considered humorous. Please do not take it seriously.

SmashWiki enjoys April Fools' Day. To us, it is a day of shenanigans where most rules are optional and the only goal is to have fun.

Guidelines

Any user is free to participate in the festivities. Note however that while the rules are much more lax, they do still exist. Here are the do's and don'ts of a good joke:

• DO almost whatever you want to your userpage.
• DO post blatantly untrue news items or "did you know" facts.
• DO post things that the majority of users would consider funny; overly-complex in-jokes are less desirable.
• DO begin the tomfoolery at any time on April 1st. You can start a few hours before midnight, but don't get too far ahead. Note that the staff members who perpetuate the most jokes tend to aim for just after European midnight and just before American midnight.
• DO connect with pranks made by other NIWA members, if it's not too much of a hassle.
• DON'T post anything above (or should we say below) a certain maturity level. Keep it clean.
• DON'T do anything that would make the wiki unusable. Garish colours are okay; invisible text is not.
• DON'T be a spoilsport. Don't interrupt or overwrite others' jokes; synergize them instead if possible.
• DON'T do anything that would take significant effort to clean up afterwards. Anything more than a few undos is probably too much. Everyone is expected to clean up their own mess.
• DON'T start anything new once most of the day is over. The average April Fools' joke is most visible in the morning.
• DON'T pile the jokes too high. At a certain point things change from "funny" to "trying too hard to be funny".
• DON'T prank this page in any way.

Chances are you won't get blocked just for defying these guidelines, but there is a line that can be crossed. Stay on the correct side of it.

Admins have a bit more free reign due to their command of more tools, such as global skins and editing protected pages, but they should still not do anything particularily abusive. Joke blocks on established users are not unheard of but should be applied for humorous durations that don't comprimise the user for a significant amount of time (unless of course the target is asked first and is okay with it, or is an admin themselves and can just unblock themselves).

Past April Fools' jokes

Note that users making fools of their own userpages are in general not important enough to be listed here. This is more meant for wiki-wide pranks.

This article or section is incomplete. You can help the world by expanding or finishing it.

2013

Partial recreation of the main page, April Fools' 2013.

In 2013, it was announced that the wiki would be turning into a French-language wiki. The main page and all its constituent templates were translated to suit. In addition, several of the links were replaced with links to either the Wombo Combo page or the related video.

2014

Main page, April Fools' 2014

In 2014, several pranks were pulled by various users:

• The wiki's main skin was modified to resemble the Hot Dog Stand skin of Windows 3.1, with garish red and yellow backgrounds with red, yellow, white, and black text. Earlier iterations surrounded links in a black background, but this was removed after usability complaints.
• The main page's featured article focused on one of the least useful stickers in Brawl (the Panel sticker, Food Effect +2), focusing on useless technical information.
• The Smash Bros. News section claimed that Wreck-It Ralph would be playable in the upcoming SSB4 with Vanellope Von Schweetz as an Assist Trophy; the news item claimed this was from a Nintendo Direct and linked to a Rickroll.
• Another news item linked to another site's April Fools joke: a SSB4 website spoof that claimed to reveal Nester as playable.
• The NIWA News' "upcoming games" section was expanded to include several (in some cases, at the time) nonexistent games, mostly of reputable fan demand: Majora's Mask 3D, Pokémon Generation III remakes, Mother 4, Super Mario Sunshine 2, Star Fox and F-Zero games for Wii U, Elite Beat Agents 2, and Banjo-Threeie. "Pokémon Rose and Lily Versions" was later added to match with Bulbapedia's joke about the next Pokémon games occuring in a Canadian-styled region. Later in the day several other users added increasingly more ludicrous titles.

2015

Main page, April Fools' 2015

In 2015, the wiki became SmashRiki in honor of Riki, a character from Xenoblade Chronicles who appears as an Assist Trophy in Smash 4. The main page was changed to Nopon dialect, and the color scheme changed to Riki's colors.

• The news section was the only part of the Main page that would be untouched during the event, due to a Nintendo Direct airing that day.
• Like the year before, the NIWA News' "upcoming games" included several nonexistent games.
• "Did you know" was replaced with some made-up facts from Riki.
• Festivities are set to end early, so that there is no false information mixed in with the information from the upcoming Nintendo Direct.
• Many articles get vandalized by normally good-faith users by inserting false information.