Wikipedia talk:Motto of the day

Today's motto...
→ We will find a brighter day.

Nominate one today!

The Motto of the Day (MOTD) is a project dedicated to creating and displaying a daily unofficial Wikipedia motto included on various user pages. It is an effort to laugh a bit at ourselves, celebrate our achievements, and foster a sense of community. Mottos can be humourous or serious, but must reflect the community or purpose of Wikipedia. Nominate new mottos here.

This page is for discussion of the project itself, not the mottos.

Template

Hi, i've just created User:Benzband/Motd, a new motto template. It's basically copied from User:Rcsprinter123/Header and Template:Motd. benzband (talk) 14:51, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Live the life... (or how I learned to stop worrying and start a discussion on the future of this project)

On January 22nd, an issue emerged on the use of lyrics as well as quotes for mottoes. Relevant discussions can be found at User_talk:Benzband/Archives/January_2012#MotD_CSD, User_talk:Pjoef#Speedy_deletion_nomination_of_Wikipedia:Motto_of_the_day.2FJanuary_22.2C_2012, User talk:Simply south#Re:Viva la Vida and User_talk:Hi878/Archive_4#Speedy_deletion.

What should be done about this or is this a case of IAR? Simply south...... having large explosions for 5 years 16:54, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

According to this, IAR. However pjoef proposed an Arbcom to solve this once and for all. In the meantime i have added a to potentially problematic submissions just for information. benzband (talk) 18:13, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

The Wikimedia Foundation is probably a better route than Arbcom since it is an official WMF policy. Marcus Qwertyus 22:21, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

My POV: Has the particular phrase or lyric found its way into popular culture and ingrained itself there? If yes, then using them should not be a problem - although this line of thought opens up yet another gray area. ~AH1 ^(discuss!) 01:01, 8 February 2012 (UTC)

I think that gray area would be a bit more trouble than it would be worth... ~~ Hi878 ^{(Come shout at me!)} 05:16, 8 February 2012 (UTC)

As I stated before in other talk pages about this issue, I'm not going to approve mottoes with quotations —which are NOT in the public domain from lyrics (but also books, articles, interviews, movies, TV, and etcetera) created after 1923-12-31! But, if someone will do it, then I will take and assume all the responsibility and I MUST BE BLOCKED FROM EDITING INSTEAD OF HIM/HER/THEM/WHOEVER!
I don't know if Arbcom is the right place to discuss this, but the Wikimedia Foundation isn't either. There are many Wiki sites that belong to the Wikimedia Foundation and each of them has its own rules depending on the language and legislation. For example, the copyright policies and guidelines for the English Wikipedia are different from those within the German or Italian versions. MotD works on the English Wikipedia, and in this place we must discuss and find a solution.
Anyway, I checked all the English Wikipedia policies and guidelines about non-free content, plagiarism, quotations and fair use (please, see this) I'm not a judge nor a lawyer or an attorney, but I have NOT found any violation of the above. In my humble opinion, the special point is stated in the last part of Quotations#Copyrighted material and fair use:

“A special case is the use of quotations purely for interest or decorative purposes on user pages. By consensus such quotations are acceptable as long as they are limited in extent [...].

The motto of the day is shown on users' pages, consequently, and in my humble opinion, the use of small portions of copyrighted materials falls under this "special case" and qualifies as fair use.

Happy editing! –pjoef (talk • contribs) 10:28, 8 February 2012 (UTC)

Sorry about having a rather unexpected break. Anyway, what about inserting refs? Should I also put this to WP:3O or WP:RFC? Simply south...... having large explosions for 5 years 19:37, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

Why not? that may be a good idea. benzband (talk) 20:28, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

Live the life... (or how I learned to stop worrying and start a discussion on the future of this project) RFC

Should quotes and lyrics be used as mottoes in the project? Simply south...... having large explosions for 5 years 21:46, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

• Neutral: I didn't even know that such thing existed. I see nothing wrong with using whatever without violation applicable laws (eg. I would oppose citing songs' lyrics in full). — Dmitrij D. Czarkoff (talk) 10:59, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

• Conditional support: As far as they are not in full or a copy vio, ie. attributed to. --lTopGunl (talk) 16:19, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Comment: This shouldn't be a problem, as all mottos are attributed via the little arrow (→) that precedes each quote. benzband (talk) 16:54, 6 March 2012 (UTC)

• Support Provided copyright policies are observed, I don't see a problem. Begoon ^talk 00:25, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

No MOTD for 2 days

Just wondering why the past 2 MOTD pages haven't been created? I would dive in but don't want to mess anything planned up :) ·Add§hore· ^{Talk To Me!} 01:54, 6 March 2012 (UTC)

I'm sorry for that, but it's very simple: very few editors/contributors to MOTD take the time or have the time to review the nominations. –pjoef (talk • contribs) 07:47, 6 March 2012 (UTC)

Cheers for that, Lets see if we cant get some more action going on :) ·Add§hore· ^{Talk To Me!} 13:14, 6 March 2012 (UTC)

Ouch! I've been otherwise occupied for a few days and so i haven't been following this… also Hi878 hasn't been around lately and it feels rather silly for two people to vote/nominate by themselves :P I don't know what would encourage people to participate in the project (even if there is a pretty long list of participants and many transclusions of the various templates across Wikipedia). benzband (talk) 16:52, 6 March 2012 (UTC)

I sent out a little message to people that use the MOTDs so hopefully that will pull in a few people. Hopefully I will be able to participate now that I know about this project as well :) ·Add§hore· ^{Talk To Me!} 17:40, 6 March 2012 (UTC)

Happy to hear this… :D Let's see if we can get the project going again :) benzband (talk) 18:01, 6 March 2012 (UTC)

• We shouldn't stress about this. The project has been running for years right? There must therefore be a huge archive of MotDs, right? All we need to do, then, is just recycle from this archive if our flow of new ideas has dried up. Myself, I haven't seen most of the past messages and so they would be good as new. And if they are wise and witty then they will be worth repeating. Andrew Davidson (talk) 23:43, 6 March 2012 (UTC)

• I haven't read through most of the discussions, so I can't say how practical this is: Similar to what Andrew said above, why can't we simply have a little 'database' of all/subject-wise entries, and do a little coding for a bot to automatically and randomly fetch from the lot daily (when there are no new entries)?. If there happened to be something new added, we could instruct the bot to fetch that... Wouldn't that be possible? I personally think asking people to join this project will not be that successful, because IMHO people would prefer to do something more uh beneficial, than to work hard on a userpage template/content. No offense to anyone, just my honest opinion... Rehman 02:14, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

The bot sounds like a very feasible and goo idea. After further discussion I will propose to ass the task to User:Addbot. Other than that, dont join the project, just give the In Reviews page a look over once in a while :) ·Add§hore· ^{Talk To Me!} 08:42, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

Sure :) Rehman 09:38, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

A tweaking of the templates may be possible to implement this kind of thing. benzband (talk) 18:16, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

There was a discussion about reusing old mottos randomly just in case there is not a motto for a given day, but the proposal was rejected (or not implemented).
Here are the links to the archives: 2006; 2007; 2008; 2009; 2010; 2011. –pjoef (talk • contribs) 09:02, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

Do you have to check the archives for the MOTD before you put it in the schedule? ·Add§hore· ^{Talk To Me!} 13:39, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

No, this is done before during the review process and, sometimes, when there is consensus, mottos have been reused, possibly with a different set of links. (See: Wikipedia:Motto of the day/Nominations/Frequently used ideas). –pjoef (talk • contribs) 11:07, 13 March 2012 (UTC)

It is encouraged however. Simply south...... facing oncoming traffic for over 5 years 18:47, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

Also don't forget for emergency nmottos, see Wikipedia:Motto of the day/Nominations/Emergencies. Simply south...... facing oncoming traffic for over 5 years 18:47, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

Hi guys, sorry I've not been around. Life kinda getting in the way. Less money for more work these days! sigh... •martyx• tkctgy 14:19, 26 March 2012 (UTC)