People must want to KILL me sometimes.

Well, the title says it all.

Anyone that knows me in real life will agree, I bring a new meaning to "random". And "uber annoying".

This seems to be because of my obsession with all things extremely random. Every day, I have something new and completely logical to say. Not.

Every morning I emerge from my bedroom, looking really messed up (hey, I get tired like normal people you know) with something random to say. Sometimes it's something I made up, sometimes it's repeating something retarded I heard on Illogicopedia, sometimes it's strange news I saw on the BBC Worldwide news site at 4am that morning before I went to sleep.

Whatever way, I always have something stupid to say. Most of the time, it's a single word, such as bagel, bleh, heelloooo, neeeeeh or whatever. Random sentences, such as The bagel man is out to get you, are common too.

But it doesn't end with words. Sometimes I'll randomly come out from my room, doing something dumb, like the omelette man dance, walking into the wall and asking it to make me a sandwich, going up to one of our many pets and making weird faces in it's face, or replying to all questions with a stupid ?pedian word, such as flub nugget, eeble sonk, or anything like that.

To make a long story short, you don't want to know me in real life unless you are prepared to deal with the most idiotic, moronic, dumb, stupid and annoying person you'll ever hear, do NOT, by any means, attempt to approach me in any way, shape or form. The individuals (aka extremely tolerant friends) that do approach me are specially trained individuals who are taught to handle this kind of mentally unstable person.


Did I mention my voice is really annoying, whether I'm being random or not?

OMG

Well, hi.

It would seem I'm now an editor of this blog. Woooooo...

So, I will probably post random stuff at random times. Yeah.

If you have any complaints, please feel free to shove them up your eyeball.

Favicon

Hi, this is RFK. Well, me and Hindley have decided to make a favicon for this blog. I have made a design for it, and Hindleyite will put the code in the html. Here is the original size for the design and then the favicon size:

original

Favicon

This is a rough draft, sorta. If it is accepted I will just leave it though.

Update:

Here is the new design:

2008: A Retrospective - Illogicopedian of the Month

In 2007, Illogicopedia administrator Testicles took it upon himself to bring some sort of quality and direction to the wiki. He continued this into the early part of 2008 with some suggestions to improve Illogicopedia in general. Not much of his suggestions would affect the wiki in a large way, but comments about Illogicopedia's user prize, Writer of the Month, would lead to a changing of the guard in the way the award was structured.

In a move to give greater prominence to the prize, it was rebranded Illogicopedian of the Month and users could now win the award more than once; HelloolleH would be the first person to do this in March 2008. Whilst some past winners have since been nominated, notably Testostereich in Yoon, for the monthly prize, no other user has yet to achieve this feat.

Serpeniver's contest was one of the closest for a while, with Some WHAT? triumphing by one measly vote. Rumblings over the voting system emerged as the "multiple votes for admins/Phantoms" rule was reinserted as a reminder for the Octodest competition with voters actively making use of this. However this seemed to highlight an archaic rule that needed to be changed, and subsequently it was - all users, regardless of rank, now had exactly one vote each.

A renewed vigour seemed to refresh IOTM voting until the year's end, with a string of competitive contests seeing a return for the good old fashioned Illogicopedian of the Month slug out, petering out in a tame December. What do you expect, though? It's Chrimbo.

• Past winners of IOTM
• Testicles's plan

Featured website: Retro Yakking

Retro Yakking

Editor's note: Yes, this is one of my sites. So what? I thought it was about time I rolled out the old backup plan when featured websites were thin on the ground. Nonetheless...

Complaining is a secret pleasure of many people. Let's face it - we all love the odd grumble once every so often because it is cathartic to some degree. Never mind that now, though, because there are pies to be had!

Retro Yakking is a general humour blog based on the complaints of one man on a crusade to "spread the anti-love". It revolves around the culture of the complaint, but there's a bunch of other strange, bizarre and downright annoying weird stuff in there too. Verrrrry Illogicopedian in style and another brilliant vehicle to pimp ?pedia on the Internet. Chyeah.

Do you have a website you would like to be featured on the Illogiblog? Contact me and I'll gladly do a post for you.

2008: A Retrospective - Fun forum topics of 08!

Illogicopedia isn't just about the articles, you know. The forum topics are often more interesting than the featured articles, and the following topics are evidence of this...

• Type Your username WITH YOUR CHIN! and Type your username WITH YOUR EAR! - Warning, it'll make you look stupid so don't do it if the teacher's looking.
• What is indestructable? - A lot of things, actually not what you'd think of, necessarily.
• The albums game - an idea stolen from the Wikipedia albums game. Fun to try with Illogicopedia, too - do it yourself!
• Firefox taking over the world - aliens? Government conspiracies? Spoons? Science friction? Holey moley...
• Barack Obama: Levitator? - Who'd have thought that Obama could fly? Or maybe it's just a cardboard cutout he uses cos he can't be bothered to attend official functions.
• Crazy cats week 2 - Oh yes, the insane category week came back with a vengeance in Arche. Andrew Schlafly was not pleased!
• No no no! - Just no.
• The place for discussion about everything. Well, it never quite took off, but it was a nice thought.
• But I digress - Meh, this is a but off topic... the real conversation lies between the lines, so to speak.
• The Forum Replacement - Where you can say anything and actually get away with it. Maybe.
  

Most of these forum topics are actually still active: don't forget you can revisit these and add stuff at any point (unlike at Uncyclopedia, where you get banned for bringing up old topics).

2008: A Retrospective - Retro Week

For one week in January, Illogicopedia went back to its roots for a celebration of the wiki's first birthday. Retro week saw the reopening of the old Proboards forum and Editthis wiki as users were invited to contribute to both once more.

On the whole, the experiment was something of a success: a bunch of pages created at Editthis were so good they were ported to the main wiki whilst the rest went to create a super-article commemorating the grand day out.

The old forum was given a lick of mellow yellow paint and saw a few contributions from older users but was, according to Silent Penguin, largely a failure. However it was a cool experiment and brought back memories of a time when the community was everything, a time when the forum was more regularly contributed to than the wiki itself. Hard to think of it now, but in the early days of Illogicopedia most articles came out of discussions and general craziness in the Proboards forum. Remnants can be seen throughout the wiki forum, with 'Ask a silly question' continuing to thrive; it even garnered an Illogicopedia Classics post on this blog.

The subject of the old forum came into prominence twice more during 2008: once during passing conversation about how to revive the community spirit and again when one user, unaware of the old one, suggested we create a new forum external to the wiki.

Nowadays, the Editthis wiki has fallen into obscurity, languishing at the second-rate wikifarm. The Proboards forum is also inactive: both are currently locked with no plans to reopen them - that chapter in Illogicopedia's history is firmly closed.

• Illogicopedia:Retro Week
  
• Retro Week articles
• Retro Week Illogiblog announcement
  

Thoughts of the Week (Dec 20)

Hey hey, kids! It's the Illogiblog thoughts o't' week again, brought to you by Illogicopedia's very own moaning Northerner, the Yak. Let's see what Santy's got in store for you this Chrimbo week on th'blog.

• The Christmas Rockin' Article Pursuit is taking off now, with at least four entries guaranteed. There's still time to enter - get your entries in before 12PM UST on 22nd December and you'll be in with a shout of making the coveted Christmas Day feature!
• As you will have noticed from the previous post, the old Illogicopedia has been renamed Wackypedia. The whole case isn't completely closed yet but at least, for now, we can all get on with actually improving the Illogicopedia instead of bickering with Wikia dudes.
• The front page has been tweaked a bit based on some improvements suggested by Ben. Looking a bit better now and it certainly helps differentiate between us and Wikia. Noodles!
• Illogicopedia has now broken into the top 1.9 million sites on Alexa. Not massively significant, but news nonetheless.
• Things were a bit barren a few days ago but it seems activity around recent changes has picked up once more as people have broken up for Christmas. You know what that means? More time for surfing ?pedia!
• I just earned seven dollars fourteen cents this week for doing next to nothing. Yeah, I signed up to a paid blogging service, so there's now another blog on the net to spread Illogicopedia propaganda and improve its Google Rank! I urge you to do the same and do your bit for Illogic. AID EPOC IGOLLI! Also, watch out for a featured website post whoring for my newest propaganda tool. Minted.

Phew. So that's what's happening around the Illogicopedian house this festive period. Altogether now: "Christmas my arse!"

2008: A Retrospective

Greetings from Illogic HQ!

Over the coming weeks the Illogiblog shall be taking an affectionate look back at the events of 2008. It's been a fun year, with Illogicopedia reaching a higher audience share than ever and the article count topping 5,000 and we're all a lot more insane for it.

Work on the retrospective began in Octodest as one whole document (yes, this is two months in the making) and is ready for publication here at the Illogiblog. At the end, we'll consider whacking it all into a Word document or something so you can print it out and sell it to homeless people. Keep checking back for more posts, which will include a look back at topics such as the best forum posts, collaborative projects and major events which shook Illogicopedia to the core.

Stay chooned, and in the meantime enjoy your Christmas.

Wikia renames old site as "Wackypedia"

http://wackypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page


Well, that should solve that then. Enough bashing Wikia, OK? Let's move on. :)

Enter the Annual CRAP competition!

Ever wanted to get your article on the front page?

Yep, and I already did that ages ago. ~ Smart Alec

Shut up, you. This is your chance to have your very own featured article over the hectic Christmas period, when literally tens of people flood to the Illogicopedia because they have nothing better to do.

The Christmas Rockin' Article Pursuit

It's m-m-magical! ~ Mr Hankey

Enter the Christmas Rockin' Article Pursuit today, because there's only a week left to perfect your article into a finely tuned Santa's Grotto of fun-filled festive frivolity. Go on, get in the Christmas spirit!

Web outlook - Vol.1

Welcome to the first issue of web outlook! This is a new weekly post (since I don't have one) which is about things outside the beautiful gates of Illogia. I will scout the web with a small torch and a shovel to find the latest web-related newz.

1. 5 major British broadband companies (including Virgin Media, Sky and talktalk) made internet history when they blocked access to a Wikipedia page. The Internet Watch Foundation added the page to its blacklist due to naked young girl on the article Virgin Killer.
   
2. The social networking site Bebo has changed its profile homepage to a 'social inbox', which includes twitter, gmail, ymail and flickr. Most users dislike he change, dubbing it as 'ugly' and 'done on Paint'. Personally I don't like it either.
3. Google is putting its web browser chrome out of beta mode after only 100 days. Usually companies will hold on to the beta tag for as long as their grubby hands can untill they slip.
4. Sony have been sued $100,000 (£665,476) by the U.S government for letting people under 13 sign up for their online music service.

Visit the blog Thursday next week for your next update of what's going on around de web!

R.I.P WOOLWORTHS 1909-2008

Thoughts of the Week (Dec 10)

Another mad, mad week with lots going on. But first, an update on last week's thoughts...

The Browse page is now expandified to include some mint formatting I nicked from Wikipedia (good old Uncle W). See this post for more info on that. Elsewhere, the Userbase Extending Faction now includes a bunch more links for people to click, and Anorak's Corner IllogiMeta has been launched. Check 'em out if you feel so inclined, but beware of hostile fnurdles.

The headlines this week... (dun dun dun, Big Ben bongs)

• Wikia seems ready to negotiate. KyleH has been strangely absent of late but came back a couple of days ago with a compromise that some users have already expressed their satisfaction with. Please, get your butt down there and chip into the discussion!
  
• Illogicopedia hits the magical two million mark at Alexa... well, we need something to cling onto in these cold winter months. Yes, Illogicopedia's World Domination is at hand... Mwhahahaah.
• The Article Improvement Drive (Oh no, not that again...) is bubbling like a jacuzzi on the lowest setting at the moment. Some articles have been cleaned out, whilst the ongoing process of tagging forges ahead. Oh yeah, if I ever delete an article in error, don't be afraid to tell me about it. Call it Uncle Pete syndrome, but often your mouse pointer hovers over that deletion button....
  
• Aaaand a nice, pleasant note on which to finish. Some of the guys at the Christmas Specials Wikia have compiled their top ten best and worst Christmas special television shows of all time. Worth a look, even if there's not a single British programme on there...
  

Once again, I bid you farewell and hope you aren't too disconcerted with the politics flying around Illogicopedia at the moment. See you soon, and stay sober drunk.

A WHOLE YEAR!

That's right. A year ago I made my first edit , on my own user page! I've seen a LOT happen in my time, from vandals to wikia-war. Thanks to all the editors who have helped me and stood by me, and to those who haven't :). Its been enjoyable being part of the community and now I feel im a proper part of the wiki (if thats okay).

Its still amazes me how slow its gone!

Guess who's back (back). Back again (gain). T3's back (back). Tell a friend.

Yeah. I'm back. How was the site without me. Probly better.... Nevermind that.. You may want to know what I've been caught up in to stop me from going on Illogicopedia.

Well I kinda got obsessed making video game videos with my capture card I got about two months ago. Here are two of them:

• An EA skate. montage I made with my friends. (Of course I'm T3canolis...)
• A Left 4 Dead Demo montage. (It's from my point of view)

Watch 'em. Rate 'em. Favorite 'em, Ya know.

Illogi Classics - #20, Ung! Goat

Yet another entry to the Illogicopedia articles (Toilet) Roll of Honour.

Ung! Goat

A strange one, in more ways than one. To start, who'd have thought such a repetitive, contentless article would make it to the ranks of Illogicopedian Classic? Well, it's not so much for its quality that this article is featured here, more for its backstory.

Ung! Goat started life on the Uncyclopedia where it was created by a certain metal person. It was quickly deleted, but spotted by an administrator of a recently formed and particularly nonsensical encyclopedia, which was on the lookout for new editors. Upon suggestion of the Illogicopedia to the author, the article was recreated there, where it has stayed to this day. The rest, so they say, is history: the creator in question has become one of the site's most esteemed contributors alongside such greats as Francis E Dec and Andre Breton, earning administrator status in record time. Well, it was quicker than a penguin attempting to open a fridge anyway.

But what about the article, Yak? Well, it may not be the best ever (in fact chances are it would be deleted/Mexicanised today), but it certainly has a place in Illogicopedia's history as one of its earliest, and craziest pages.

Then there's the question of what the hell's going on. Need we ask? The general nonsensical humour stems from the fact nobody has a clue what's going on. The writer was probably high on something at the time, so it's unlikely we will ever find out...

Wikipedia and censorship

Warning: A serious post follows! Also, reader discretion is advised when searching for web info on this topic.

If you live in the UK, there's a chance your IP is currently blocked from editing on Wikipedia because the Internet Watch Foundation have blacklisted the site. Why? Well, the issue stems from an image used in an article about Virgin Killer, an album by 70s Rock Band The Scorpions, which supposedly depicts child pornography on the album cover.

As with all child sexual abuse reports received by our Hotline analysts, the image was assessed according to the UK Sentencing Guidelines Council (page 109). The content was considered to be a potentially illegal indecent image of a child under the age of 18, but hosted outside the UK. -- IWF Statement

As a result, the page in question cannot be viewed on UK browsers. Wikimedia have protested that other sites such as (Warning: may not be SFW >>) Amazon continued to host the picture (though the cover now seems to have been replaced with an alternative, non-offensive version) and it can easily be accessed via Google Images without the application of Safesearch. Wikimedia go on to claim that they "have no reason to believe the article, or the image contained in the article, has been held to be illegal in any jurisdiction anywhere in the world".

The POV bit!

Wikimedia stands by its 'Wikipedia is not censored' stance, and I for one agree with them. What will the nanny state think of next? We won't be able to view the article about Middlesex? Well, that was a bit of an over the top reaction, but if Wikipedia give in to the censors now, who knows what they'll have to concede in the future.

Of what use is that repellent picture? -- "A caring mother", from Wikipedia Talk:Virgin Killer

To any concerned parents: I suggest that you take on board the fact that Wikipedia is not censored before letting your child use the site. Yeah, the pic was a bit repulsive but it was an actual album cover and is therefore encyclopedic, if you see what I mean. The fact that it caused controversy when it was first released makes it all the more notable and important that the image be used in the article. Wikipedia could take the picture down but it would border on breaking their own code of ethics, so argue all you like but there'd have to be some major policy changes for Wikipedia to give in to this one.

My guess is that this will blow over pretty quickly and we will have forgotten all about it by the New Year. Fact is, IWF received a complaint and they have to be seen to be acting upon it: meantime, Wikipedia get a bit of free publicity. So, despite the fact our friends at The Free Encyclopedia lose some editors for a while, they at least get a bit of promotion, gratis. :)

Web links, all SFW

• BBC News Online — Wikipedia child image censored, IWF backs down on Wiki censorship
• Guardian.co.uk — Wikipedia falls foul of British censors, Amazon US under threat as internet watchdog reconsiders Scorpions censorship, How the IWF blacklist stops you seeing the Scorpions' album cover, Internet ban on 'child porn' album sleeve, Internet Watch Foundation reconsiders Wikipedia censorship & British censor reverses Wikipedia ban
• Wikimedia Press Release
  
• Webtrends.about.com article
• Metro article
  

New Monaco...

Well, there's nothing more to say, really.

Aw no, not another one of those statistics posts

Indeed, time for a report on the Feedjit statistics for the past couple of weeks. It seems the Illogiblog's more popular than ever, with visitors from countries as far afield as the Phillipines, Puerto Rico, Panama, Italy and Hungary hitting illogicopedia.blogspot.com. Check out the visitor map for North America:


Illogiblog is now in the top four million sites on the web according to Alexa traffic stats. It is also getting around twenty hits a day now (sometimes more), with people finding the site from Google Search, Illogicopedia and Uncyclopedia. Well, that isn't a large variety of links, but it's a start...

For Illogiblog to increase its rank further, it would have to have more visitors referred from various other sites in the top ten such as Facebook, MySpace etc. In this regard, illogicopedia.org fares slightly better, ranking at just over 2.1 million - certainly a bit of a jump from the last update, when it ranked in at around six million. Whoa!

Site-Wide Improvement Drive™

Part of the second Article Improvement Drive is the campaign to prettify some of Illogicopedia's more prominent pages, including those linked to from the front page and the sidebar. It is planned that this will give us more of an identity and further separate us from the old wiki - hopefully we left all the "childish and juvenile" connotations behind when we left W*kia.

Well, the Site-Wide Improvement Drive™ is underway. I completed a new version of the Browse page but some of the categories still need streamlining - this will be done in due course. Probably. By the way, I pinched and tweaked the design from Wikipedia's Topics Index... you might have guessed by now that that's the best way to create 'new' designs. The Community Portal (pictured) has been given a lick of paint, too... how blue.

Next up are the Featured Articles Portal and maybe the Help section. If anybody wants to give it a go, please do - make a rough version in your userspace and we'll probably be able to settle on something. Ultimately, it is hoped the front page will also be completely revamped, though it's difficult to settle on something definite.

Illogiblog General Disclaimer

Please note that the views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not represent the views of the Illogicopedia group or the ?pedia Weblog as a whole.

All text is licensed under the Creative Commons Sharealike License unless otherwise stated.

Apart from that, go nuts.

Thoughts of the week (Dec 3)

December already! Before we know it, Christmas will be upon us and insantaty will have well and truly set in.

It's nice to see people are settling into our new home, activity seems to be quite high again, the average over the last week or so being over 150 edits per day. Once again there's lots going on this week, with I'll Ask the Questions Here seeing a revival and the return to glorious form of a number of our most esteemed writers. I expect VFF to be teeming with quality pretty soon...

• The Community Portal has been expanded a bit to include some of the newer projects and a picture of some elephants (?!) to make things look a bit nicer.
  
• A while back someone attempted to create an 'Illogicopediapedia', a wiki about the wiki: a novel idea, but flawed in the sense nobody would ever visit it. There's nothing to stop something similar happening at the Illogicopedia though and it might be nice to see some of the 'anorak' articles grouped together in some sort of meta project.
• Can't remember if I mentioned this in a previous post, but I think the Userbase Extending Faction should be revitalised. I've stuck a few links on there, and it might be worth keeping people updated on latest 'outside the community' projects via the Illogiblog.
• I've started a new Digg link for Illogicopedia, since the previous one linked to the old site. If you have a Digg account, why not take a look? From time to time I also post links to a few Illogiblog entries, such as this one, so keep an eye out for them in the future.
• The New User Log seems to indicate we're getting a steady trickle of new/old users. Glad to see people are finding the site, even if they are rediscovering us after the move.

I have more thoughts, but I'll probably dedicate a whole blog post to them at a later date. For now, though, I have to go and buy some Christmas presents otherwise some people will be very cheesed off.

The BJAODN never ends

You may remember I mentioned BJAODN.org, where deleted Wikipedia howlers live on, in a recent post. Well, I'm pleased to say they back our campaign to spread the word about Wikia. A massive shout out to the guys guy over there - cheers!

And while we're on it, let's have a bit more BJOADN, shall we? Why the hell not. Remember, these are reproduced verbatim under the GFDL license, so watch out or the GNU will get you.

• RoboCop is programmed to follow four prime directives; serve the public trust; protect the innocent; uphold the law; get his freak on. ''It's true! I saw him on the Citroen adverts!''
• Ha ha ha is a phrase used by individuals of Uberhuman origin. It has innumerable different uses, each of which expresses a complex of interwoven nuances, and is therefore often found to be difficult to comprehend by the Weaker Ones. One of the rather simplistic interpretations offered by acclaimed Uberhuman scientist Aybabtu Ownage translates it as: "If you are reading this then you just got owned."
• Volkswagen is a type of car built in Germany. Hitler drove Volkswagens. That is all.
• In 2025 the penguin invasion will beguin its conquest over the known world. The invasion will last about 38 days. Almost all of the human population will die out only about 13% of the origional population will survive. The remaining humans will be in scattered military bases around Russia. The origional start of the campain is 2018 when Germany (out of fear)sends the penguins
• This deleted article.
• There are no non-flammable monkeys. All monkeys are flammable in some way shape or form. If you cannot get a monkey on fire, you are not trying hard enough.
  

Finally, all this BJAODNing has made me think - what would be Illogicopedia's equivalent? "Good jokes and other deleted non-nonsense"? Might be worth trawling the deletion log for... keep your eyes and bananas peeled.

Complaint Wiki

A little bird told me that some people are getting a bit cheesed off with Wikia. OK, it wasn't a little bird and more like everybody who I've been talking to for the last three weeks. It's my personal opinion that Wikia's essential aims are noble but hugely clouded by advertisers and the need to please them. For this reason, I think people should have access to information which will help them decide whether Wikia really is right for them.

Complaints wiki does a good job in this sense: it's an archive of discussions relating to the Wikia situation with links to press articles and specialised sections for each wiki that has moved from Wikia. It must be noted that, although it is a wiki, it's more for reading than contributing to: feel free to leave your opinions in the comments section of this post.

Do Wikia care about us? I suspect not. However, read the complaints wiki and make up your own minds. Of course, we wouldn't want to influence your opinion in any way, would we? The Illogiblog does not wish to incriminate itself any further for 'forcing its views upon people'. So, forget you even read this post and I'll personally post some treacle toffee to your house.