The 'Shroom:Issue LXXXI/Pipe Plaza

http://www.thexephyrboard.net/XLights2.gif http://www.thexephyrboard.net/XLights2.gif http://www.thexephyrboard.net/XLights2.gif http://www.thexephyrboard.net/XLights2.gif http://www.thexephyrboard.net/XLights2.gif http://www.thexephyrboard.net/XLights2.gif http://www.thexephyrboard.net/XLights2.gif http://www.thexephyrboard.net/XLights2.gif    Pipe Plaza {| border="1px solid black"

Director's Notes ()
Greetings, everyone!! Welcome to the 2013 Holiday Issue!! We've finally reached that wonderful time of the year, with both Christmas and the next New Year, 2014, rapidly approaching, and so The 'Shroom takes on a different look and feel to celebrate that.

However, I still have no special news about the Pipe Plaza, so that means it's time for...

Section of the Month!!
The SotM poll for Issue LXXX got only 10 votes, so please be sure to cast your vote in this month's poll!!

The November Section of the Month, with 4 votes (40% of the total), is...

...Community Report, tying with Upcoming Games for the most consecutive Pipe Plaza SotM wins with its third win in a row!!!

Written by 'Shroom Spotlight Manager, Community Report presents readers with the latest wiki news, such as promotions and demotions, the proposals which have reached a consensus, and the ongoing proposals and talk page proposals. YoshiKong also got second place with his Projects Seeking Contributors section, which earned 3 votes (30%), while Monthly Report, written by myself, was the third-placed section, with only 2 votes (20%).

Well, I guess that's all for now, folks!! I hope you all have a great Holiday Season!! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Pipe Plaza Team!!!

Monthly Report ()
Hello, readers, and welcome to the last Monthly Report of the year!! Once again, I have no news on this section to share with you, which means we're going straight to the wiki stats from the last three months, followed by comparisons between those sets of statistics. Let's check them!

(Credit goes to and  for the table coding. Stooben originally created it when writing this section back in Issues XXIII, XXV and XXVI, and SMB based his coding for Issues XXXIX, XL and XLI – which I am using in this issue – off of Stooben's coding.)

*All times EST.

Community Report ()
Hey, everyone! Welcome to the special Holiday issue of the Community Report, bringing you the latest in wiki news. To begin, our Featured Articles system has been to specify that the staff reserve the right to veto nominations that are poorly justified or made in bad faith. Our use of the Autopatrolled rank has also been changed. Previously, the rank was given to users who were considered very trustworthy in their day-to-day wiki editing, and their edits would automatically be marked as patrolled for the staff. It has recently been decided that this rank is now given solely to retired wiki staff.

Moving on, these are the Proposals which have reached a consensus since last month's edition.

And these are the Talk Page Proposals which have reached a consensus.

And these are the Talk Page Proposals currently in progress.

And that concludes December's edition of the Community Report! See y'all back here next month. I wish you all a safe and merry Christmas, and all the best for 2014.

NOTE: The information, such as dates of deadlines included in this report is correct as of December 15th, 2013.

UPdate ()
Welcome to UPdate, the Pipe Plaza's newest feature! What exactly is this "UPdate" about, you say? Well, we cover all things Userpedia, which is nicknamed "UP." Combine "UP" with "update" and you've got a name for the section! Since this is our introductory section this month, I will focus more on what Userpedia actually is and tell everybody a bit about its history. In future months, we hope to be able to bring updates on Userpedia's ongoing projects, including general improvement projects for the website itself and all updates to stories and comics from the memberbase.

What is Userpedia?
Simply put, Userpedia is the wiki about the Super Mario Wiki community. It started on June 12th, 2007 as the "User Wiki" on the EditThis wiki host after the MarioWiki administration implemented strict policies against stories and comics about the community being hosted in the website's userspace (as it was deemed unproductive and a waste of space). "User Wiki" ended up moving to "Mwuserpedia" (which stood for "MariowikiUserpedia") on EditThis, and then to "Userpedia" on the Scribblewiki host after the services provided by EditThis proved to be inadequate for the growing project's needs.

The Scribblewiki era (which took place during most of 2008) proved to be Userpedia's most successful, with activity often matching and even surpassing the Super Mario Wiki's. Members joined often and many user's projects were active at the time, and the website even got its own dedicated Awards category in the Super Mario Wiki Awards Show. However, Scribblewiki's servers ended up shutting down and its management did not properly back up any information, leaving Userpedia practically in ruin. Its once large community started dwindling down to a few dedicated contributors, who would be the ones to pick up the pieces and find Userpedia a new home at the Adriels website.

Userpedia still operates to this day and is now hosted independently. While it isn't overflowing with the activity it once had several years ago, it still has dedicated members that post comics and stories and set up user profiles. There is a lot of potential that Userpedia has to offer to the community of the Super Mario Wiki, which is why The 'Shroom supports its goals.

What is UP with Userpedia?
Right now, Userpedia's members are mostly focusing on updating their fiction projects and user profiles. Some comics that were updated in the past month are: Tales from the Moon by Hitokage, Packy and the Quest of MacGuffin by Banjonator1, and Cashew Comics by Puddin. Be sure to check each of those projects out!

Otherwise, the administration of the site has slowly, but surely, been working on several projects in order to improve the functionality and feel of the site overall. This has included the streamlining of policies, new processes and projects to help with collaborations and editing, and much more. These will probably be implemented in the near-distant future and will be announced on Userpedia when they are ready to be launched.

Wrap-UP
That is all for the UPdate this time around! I am hoping to make this a regular section in the Pipe Plaza, so if you have any suggestions or ideas (or would like contributing to the project), go on over to The 'Shroom's board on the Super Mario Boards and let me know what you have in mind! Thank you for reading!

Featured ()
Hello, as you know it’s around Christmas time so I’ve prepared a little treat for you. Unfortunately the treat was lost during the editing process so all you’re left with is the section. Enjoy anyway.

Featured Articles

 * Mario Party DS gained Featured status on November 25th.

Re-Featured Articles
No new articles have become refeatured.

FA Nominations
There are three ongoing Featured Article Nominations.
 * Princess Daisy was nominated on November 17th.
 * Boo was nominated on December 10th.
 * Princess Peach was nominated on December 13th.

Failed FA Nominations
Two new articles failed the FA nomination process.
 * Minus World was vetoed by admins on November 18th.
 * Super Mario 3D World was vetoed by admins on November 18th.

Unfeatured Articles
No new articles have become unfeatured.

Unfeaturing Nominations
There is one ongoing Unfeaturing nomination.
 * list of Paper Mario beta elements was nominated for unfeaturing on October 31st.

Failed Unfeaturing Nominations
One new article has failed the unfeaturing process.
 * Kirby failed on November 25th.

Thanks for reading and have a Merry Christmas and a Moderately Happy New Year.

Tip of the Month ()
Remember, you can be as involved on the wiki as you want. If you want to be a quieter member, go right ahead. It is up to you how deeply you get involved in the community.
 * }