Talk:Main Page/Quote

How to add quotes:

• Go to the line of the last quote.
• Add a line immediately after it (this should be before the closing }} brackets)
• type "|<!--YOUR-QUOTE-NUMBER-->YOUR-QUOTE-HERE" on that line

(The quote number is not functionally necessary, but it allows keeping track of how many quotes there are without counting)

• Look at the first line of the template

It should look something like this:

{{Choose|c={{#if: {{{1|}}}|{{rand|37}}|{{#expr: ({{rand2|10}}+27)}} }}

• Adjust the number that is in the place of the 37 to reflect the number of quotes in the list.
• Adjust the number that is in the place of the 27 to reflect ten less than the number of quotes in the list. (in this case.. 27)

The purpose of the first number is to choose a random element from the list of quotes.

The second lets us pick from among the last ten quotes in the list.

• Preview your reply to make sure nothing is broken (or someone will be able to see it on the main page before it gets fixed)
• Profit!

VengefulDonut 00:34, 27 February 2008 (EST)

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For what it's worth, the nowiki formatting around square bracketed 'B' in the Toady quote about boats was simply in the interests of quoting accuracy; the original word was not capitalized and I still have that kind of formatting in my heart from college paper citations. --Alfador 12:16, 24 March 2008 (EDT)

Ah. It looked to me like a weird, failed boats/bloats pun. I don't think it really matters; you can change it back if you like. --Savok 17:19, 24 March 2008 (EDT)

Thank you! And done. --Alfador 11:27, 25 March 2008 (EDT)

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Say, why was the "interrupted by carp" quote removed? I loved that one. --JT 02:58, 13 April 2008 (EDT)

Blame Savok, he thought it was unfunny. --GreyMario 16:22, 24 April 2008 (EDT)

And regarding VengefulDonut stripping off that last one, PTTG's quote was simply hilarious. If you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at? --JT 02:19, 29 April 2008 (EDT)

Thinking on this some more, the idea that anyone can just reverse a quote at their leisure strikes me as unusual. If a quote is an obvious spam, that's one thing; if a quote is something that you don't think of as funny, I think there should be some sort of consensus system involved. There are at least a couple existing quotes that I don't find funny in the slightest (Spiders Everywhere, you've been processed, GreyMario's), but I don't remove them. --JT

My 2 ☼ on the subject: Unless a quote is offensively directed at a particular user/person, I don't see how there are any grounds for removal. If it is, it's perfectly acceptable for the addressed person to remove it, if they so choose. Additionally, you may remove quotes of yourself, whether or not they're offensive, regardless of who added the quote. In all cases, it's the sole responsibility of the addressed person to remove a quote, not someone else.

I think that makes sense.. but perhaps I'm too far off base? --Edward 07:37, 29 April 2008 (EDT)

When anyone is able to add a quote at their leisure, we will naturally end up with plenty of quotes that aren't funny. If anyone is able to remove a quote at their leisure, quotes that aren't funny will disappear. This is parallel to the wikipedia editing process in general, and I think this kind of process has decent results. Although I am open to other proposals. On the topic of racy jokes: I'm sure there are plenty of group-targeted jokes that could be stated in DF terms that would be very funny; just pick a group, a metaphor, and a stereotype. But even if you tell a member of that group to grow a thicker skin or to stop taking themselves seriously or learn to take a joke, it doesn't turn the joke from something alienating to something entertaining. In the right context, those kinds of jokes can be very funny even to those on the butt end of them. Standup comedians succeed or fail based on their ability to create it. But I don't think that the front page is the right context. VengefulDonut 10:24, 29 April 2008 (EDT)