The 'Shroom:Issue 175/Waluigi Time's Writer Testimonials

Waluigi Time's Writer Testimonials

Written by: The 'Shroom's Writers

Compiled by: Waluigi Time (talk)

Hey there 'Shroom readers! Waluigi Time here. We're celebrating 15 years of The 'Shroom this issue, and well, that's a long time! It's even older than some of the people who write for it, if you can believe that. That's pretty impressive for a community project like this.

About two months ago, Hooded Pitohui, being the excellent shiller of community engagement that he is, made a comment that resonated with me: "Writing for The 'Shroom is a grand idea, I can say from personal experience. If I had writer testimonials I'd give those to you, too. Come write about something you enjoy!" So then I thought, okay, but what if he did have writer testimonials, and ever since then the idea's been kicking around in my brain. Now that we're celebrating another milestone for The 'Shroom, it seemed like a good time to finally make that idea a reality, so I reached out to the current team of 'Shroom writers and invited them to write about their experiences with the paper. You probably want to hear what they have to say, so I'll stop talking now.

Alex95 (talk)

The 'Shroom has been a fantastic community effort bursting with creativity, and I can see it continue for more years to come. I've been a part of it myself since 2017, and since then, I've just been more and more impressed by what our community has to offer. Keep it up, everyone, and remember to keep reading and have fun!

Goombuigi (talk)

It feels like a while since I started writing for the 'Shroom, but I remember my journey with it quite clearly, and how I started writing for the paper in the first place.

I first learned about the 'Shroom around 2019. I remember reading it semi-regularly, and when I saw Issue 150 roll around, I thought "Wow, what a milestone! I'd like to be a part of this paper." However, I wasn't very experienced when it came to the internet, and when reading the 'Shroom application, I thought that it all seemed too foreign, and I had too many questions. What section should I write? What's the Super Mario Boards? Who are these people I need to send the application to? I wasn't sure at all how to approach it all, so I didn't. Eventually, I focused on other things in my life, and I lost interest in the 'Shroom entirely.

Half a year later, I found myself stuck at home, with too much free time on my hands. I was learning more about social media, and just like that, I made the plunge to write for the 'Shroom. Within the span of 24 hours, I made a wiki account, a forum account, and a Discord account, and a few days later, I submitted my first 'Shroom application. Back then, I didn't know anyone in the community, so sending in the application was quite a bit scary for me, but I did it and I was accepted. And with that, my first 'Shroom issue, Picross, was a part of Issue 157. Since I was new to wiki coding back in the day, Picross started off quite basic, but soon enough I wrapped my head around it all and I experimented a bit more with the section. Eventually, I started writing Monthly Inquisition for a brief time, and later on I started writing Super Mario Maker Showcase.

I would say the 'Shroom helped me to know the community better, and it also helped the community to know me. Back in my first few months, from March to about June 2020, I didn't do much around the community, but I wrote for the 'Shroom. The 'Shroom was the means by which I first interacted with many people, particularly Pitohui, Roserade, and Ninja Squid.

So, the moral of the story is, if you are debating about writing for the 'Shroom, or doing anything around this community for that matter, don't hesitate about it, and simply do it.

GPM1000 (talk)

Hey everyone, GPM1000 here! If you didn't know, I'm the writer for the Mario Calendar section of the 'Shroom over in Pipe Plaza! As I'm sure you can tell from the section, I was invited to write a little bit about my experiences with this paper, and I knew that I couldn't pass the opportunity up.

While I know I haven't been the most active in the community as a whole, the 'Shroom is something that has actually been consistent in my life for a very long time. I remember when I was much younger stumbling upon the Mario Wiki and finding the 'Shroom. I would read it for hours, starting at the very beginning and seeing how far I could work my way through the issues. Finally, one day, I decided that it would be a fun idea to try to get a section in the paper. I had seen that the Mario Calendar section had been done before, but that nobody was currently doing it, and I saw a perfect opening.

Obviously, that worked out pretty well, as (despite a very long absence a year or two ago) I am still a contributor to the paper. It has stayed as a consistent part of my life for a very long time, and it means so much to me that people still read it and contribute to it in such a meaningful way. Congratulations to all the authors that have worked on this paper for so long, and here's to another 15 years!

InsaneBlathers (talk)

Honestly I don't have much experience with the Shroom so there's not much to say here, but the people that work there, that's a different story.

Pito and Waluigi Time in particular have been very supportive of me throughout my time on the boards (and later, the Shroom), and it's been really nice interacting with them other the last year. Hopefully I'll continue to keep working on the Shroom and I'm excited to see how things go from here!

Koops (talk)

Where do I begin...

So picture a young idiot walking around, sightseeing and stumbling head-first into a scout's community and staying there thinking he's gonna have a good time when in reality it was actually a schoolhouse and said kid would end up adopting an autonomous lifestyle that would lead them to never question what they're doing while still maintaining enough consciousness to realize the mess they're deep into (That's me signing up for the 'Shroom).

In all seriousness, writing for the 'Shroom was, at first, something I never realized I'd be doing from the outset. Kid Koops going through the Mariowiki looking at information and studying up for a mario exam he was never taking, suddenly discovers the magic of digital newspaper. It was quite a shock, you could say. To think a bundle of people online could get together and simply create a funny was way beyond the fathomable realm that my brain could conjure, so obviously I may or may not have become cat and manifested curiosity. And with curiosity, comes death. The second I look into it more and more with every issue that passes and I read, boom, I'm suddenly reaching for the seat of the chair in NS' office with an application in hand ready to be shredded and myself ostracized (Hi NS). At that moment, I had sealed my fate. Though the Travel Guide position was vacant and in a state of respite with no need to be disturbed, I nonetheless still bit the forbidden apple and took its mantle, unbeknownst to where that would lead my then tainted post-innocent self.

It was a rather easy start, all things considered. I wanted an excuse to draw and get better at it, and I also was fascinated by the inner workings of the community and such, so obviously I was going to thrive in that environment. And thrive I have. Within barely three issues, my sections were already receiving things such as section of the month awards, staff-voted or otherwise, and not going to lie, seeing myself reach these places early on did a good job of bolstering my now decaying ego. I still remember getting my Toad Town section out, it was the first one that had effort put into and I was pretty proud of it at the time (And in a sense, I still am, it was a stepping stone after all), and then I pretty much killed it when I did the one on the Underwhere. Needless to say, my career was made. But then came life, and with life, much less time to write and even think about what to write.

Eventually, I'd skip months, and months slowly became a year... so I said to myself I would maybe find something else to write about that wouldn't consume as much time but I could still have fun doing... Enter my current LP. I figured that actually playing a game for the 'Shroom and only writing a little would go a long way since I'd dedicate a period of time to recording instead of doing it in multiple sessions, and the writing part was all just knowledge on the game itself. My FE7 playthrough on the 'Shroom is I find the perfect opportunity to not only do something fun that contributes to the community at large and helps establish something of a presence for me, but it's also great for me to simply let myself go and engage in something that interests me with a bunch of other people willing to see me gush about Fiora Fire Emblem for example, or pogging in front of a Marcus crit, you know, all that stuff.

And with that, my experience with the 'Shroom (so far) in a nutshell. It sure has been a ride and will most definitely continue to be as such for a while. Thanks for listening in.

Here, have a Bantu

Long John Spaghetti (talk)

Expecting Waluigi Time? TOO BAD, Long John Spaghetti time! Pfft, haha. Hey, Paisanos! It’s-za me, Long John Spaghetti, and I’m here since Waluigi Time commissioned me to write about my experiences writing for The ‘Shroom. Contrary to popular belief, writing for the paper takes more than just slapping stuff down on a Google Doc and hoping they accept it. It takes passion. I know that sounds cliche, but hear me out.

My first attempt at writing for The ‘Shroom was a little piece called “John’s Semi-Professional Opinions”. However, at the time, the concept was a bit daunting, as I was still a new user. So, I just plopped it in a fan creations thread, made a few more in there, and never really spoke of it again. Next was a concept that never got off the ground: an unnamed one-off that documented the big boom in the number of roleplays on the forum, causing the creation of the Roleplay board. However, I couldn’t really find a way to write it without the majority of it being about Mushroom City Car Wash, so the idea was scrapped.

My first successful submission was GoldenMario 007, where it replaced the cast of the James Bond film Goldeneye with Mario characters. I’m still not sure why it got accepted, since I wrote it on a whim after seeing a video where somebody modded Mario into Goldeneye 007, the N64 game. Honestly...GoldenMario sucked. I didn’t put any effort into it, to be completely honest. I think they needed some filler for Palette Swap, since a lot of the sections were put on hold due to Mario Awards. As such, starting in this issue, GoldenMario 007 has been cancelled.

Now, I have two new ‘Shroom sections. First is Turn Right to Go Left (debuting in this issue! Go check it out in Strategy Wing!). As you might tell by the name, this is a humorous Walkthrough/Let’s Play/Review mix of Cars: The Video Game. I was inspired after looking at Waluigi Time’s To Infinity and Beyond section, a full 100% walkthrough of Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue. Of course, a 100% walkthrough just isn’t my style, so I decided to go with a more “humorous guidebook” approach to this section. Stay tuned for more issues! I won’t explain the second new section in much detail in order to avoid spoilers, but I can say this: It stars Luigi and it’ll take place in the AKG4 timeline.

In closing, once I had some idea of what I was doing, I loved writing for the Shroom! I look forward to creating new sections and expanding on existing ones, and I hope you (if you don’t already write for the Shroom) will consider writing for the Shroom!

Ciao!

Maximumriley (talk)

Happy Anniversary To The Newspaper That Got Me In Trouble At School

My experiences with this newspaper are very sentimental, because reading the paper led to my first job which was writing for the paper. I found SuperMariowiki.com one day while I was in school, searching for Mario Advance 4. I eventually found the page for the series, but something caught my eye. There was a Christmas page featuring something called The Shroom. Before I knew it, I was hooked on this series of online news, especially the Fake News section. The fact that I got in trouble with my English teacher for reading The Shroom during class didn't stop me from reading it again and again. I read the new articles when they came off the press. I also read a lot of the articles from previous years because it's fascinating to see people excited about old games -- particularly the ones we now love to hate! I'm looking at you, Sticker Star! (That 2011 press image was everything we wanted, and it was a lie? How?) Eventually, I started thinking that The Shroom was barren without an ask column, and so I applied for a job working there (and I sent it to the wrong place). Once I resubmitted my application, Doomhiker approved my new column and asked me to write it out. I finally had a job at my beloved Shroom and it's still great today.

MrConcreteDonkey (talk)

I first started writing for The 'Shroom in September 2010 (Issue XLII), a couple of months after I joined MarioWiki. I don't remember why exactly I signed up, though I do remember liking Gabumon (talk)'s Fake Game section from the issue before a lot, so it could've easily just been because of that. After applying, I got hired to write Fake TV (now TV Tomorrow) and Fake Characters (now dead). Looking back now, obviously I don't think they're great but I had a lot of fun writing them, and about in a few of them I do find a joke where I think, actually that is kinda funny.

After about a year and the Fake News director changing from Ralph to Edo, somebody resigned or something which resulted in Edo getting promoted and asking me to take over Fake News - I was blown away at the time and very glad to accept. I got a bit bored of the two Fake News sections I was writing so I decided as director it'd be easier to just circumvent the whole application process and just write for whatever, and not commit to just writing a single thing. That's probably the closest you can get to being corrupt as a 'Shroom sub-team director. Actually, I don't think I've regularly written a Fake News section in nearly 10 years. Out of everything I've written for FN, I think I've always enjoyed writing Shop Scout the most because I get to write a bunch of dumb, short jokes for the item descriptions and include a bit of fluff around it. I like writing Hot Records too, even though coming up with a chart that properly works for it is quite complicated.

Eventually as my time as director went on I thought I'd get too busy to compile the whole thing every month. But then I... didn't? I finished school and completed four years of university degrees and over the whole time still had more than enough time left to work on the sub-team, if a bit less to write sections for it. Around the start of 2019, Superchao (talk) pointed out to me that by January 2020 I would've been FN director for a whole 100 issues and I realised that if I didn't retire then I'd have to stay on for nine more years, so really there was no better time to step down. Plus that year I was finishing university and wasn't sure where I'd be in life, so I quit that January. Then mere issues later my record was broken by FunkyK38 (talk). The moral here is to always, always go for 200.

Outside of Fake News, also in 2010 I got hired to write Should Have Been for the main team - a sort of review/opinion section which also included beta elements, and most importantly didn't require me to be good at any of the games I talked about. People seemed to really enjoy it - I even got recognised by a guy on another forum for writing it (no I am not making this up for clout. Shut up). In hindsight I packed FAR too many images into it, so now it all looks very ugly, and they're also random images I plucked from the Wiki so if anyone reuploads one of them it ruins everything. It got sorted into Critic Corner when that sub-team was created and I kept on writing it for a few years, though a bit less often and branching out into non-Mario games. Over time my interest just died out a bit and I stopped writing it, though I tried to bring it back for special occasions like Issue 100, where the beta elements section got separated into the new Strategy Wing sub-team.

Uhh let's see what else... Forum Update? I brought that back from the dead for Pipe Plaza at one point. That was fun to write. I just had to look at the stats page which existed back when the forum used SMF and talk about whatever drama took place that week. I gave it up for a year or two then went back to it, and eventually added stuff like quotes and a "Thread of the Month" award. I know Hooded Pitohui (talk) likes it, at least. I think it's pretty interesting to go back to and look over, which I guess was one my goals while writing it, and nice to think that we've gone from the forum slowly dying over my time writing it to a real burst of activity in the past couple of years.

Since March 2020 I have been writing 'Shroom FM in Critic Corner. It is nice to be back. It's also prompting me to listen to a lot of music, which I was doing anyway but it's nice I have a reason to do it. I got 6 votes at the community awards and none of them were me, and someone PM'd me on Discord once to tell me my music taste was good (again I promise this really happened) so that's nice.

As for community stuff - uhh - I won the Flag Contest in 2010? And I also won second place because I didn't think people would like my first flag (a Welsh Porplemontage (talk)) enough and overestimated how many of the other entrants would take advantage of the 'you can enter more than once' rule. That's all I can think of.

That's everything I know about "The 'Shroom". Thanks.

Ninelevendo (talk)

I originally signed up for the ‘Shroom in 2014 to write a short Mario Kart tips section, mainly because it seemed like a fun way to put my writing skills to use and give others something fun to read. This, at its core, is what the ‘Shroom is about: Fun. There’s no annoying advertisements or propaganda; it’s something that you can always come to if you want an interesting read on any random topic, whether it’s Brawl in the Family style comics, extremely in-depth reviews about food and guides on how to play an obscure rpg, you’re bound to find something that’ll grab you attention.

Coming back to writing a full length review was a great exercise, and having others read it and possibly enjoy it is great motivation, so I’m glad that this digital newspaper is running to give me a platform to test my abilities and improve. I’d like to thank all the staff and writers for the tremendous amount of effort that they put in to making the ‘Shroom something that can be fun for everyone, and I hope to continue contributing in the future.

Ninja Squid (talk)

175 issues. 15 years.

The 'Shroom has come a long way, and the level of support it got is so much remarkable. For a small community, and maintaining a project like this for 15 years is a magnificent milestone.

As someone who started reading it around the release of Issue 100 in 2015, writing for it since 2016, and being a part of the Core 'Shroom Staff since 2018, I just cannot express how much I absolutely love our community newspaper. I am always thrilled to see how much love and care our writers put in their section. To tell the truth, one of my favorite things about my position is opening the board and finding out that I got a new application for a 'Shroom section.

What I love about the community newspaper is how great of a platform it is for sharing our passions with other follow community members and readers, how it contributes to helping communication with others, or just being an entertaining feature for everyone. Such examples are Superchao (talk) with Mach Speed Mayhem, doing analyzes of F-Zero characters, a franchise he likes (Nintendo, please bring back F-Zero). Waluigi Time (talk) with his section Shmaluigi, Private Investigator, featuring the famous roleplay character of the community. ZelenPixel (talk) with her section On the Origin of Species where she share with us her passion about Spore, her favorite game. Ray Trace (talk) with SIMulation where she discuss her own passion about The Sims, or even Goombuigi (talk) who is sharing levels of Super Mario Maker 2 for you to try out, Super Mario Maker 2 being one of his favorite Mario games with Super Mario Maker Showcase. That's just to name a few, there's a lot more for you to enjoy in our community newspaper!

Am I still passionate about this project, after close to six years being involved in it as both writer and staffer? Of course, and I dare say even more than when I first started!

I dare say that The 'Shroom has definitely help me discover many awesome aspects of this community, but also a lot of amazing people, and the friendships I created thanks to our community newspaper is definitely precious to me. This is simply to tell you how much The 'Shroom has a platform to share passions is a strong aspect of this community, and this is possibly the recipe for its success. Just look at how it started as small as like this, to now being this. This is incredible!

My hope is that our community newspaper keeps growing like that going into its 20 years and even beyond! As we are marching towards 200 issues, there is still a lot to do with our community newspaper. As long as it keeps improving and evolving with us, The 'Shroom will have a long life ahead of it.

One thing for sure is that reaching 175 issues and fifteen years, would not have been possible if it were not for this wonderful community. Therefore, thank you so much for this milestone, Super Mario Wiki Community! Let us keep moving forward all together!

—Ninja Squid

Quizmelon (talk)

I first signed up to write for the ‘Shroom on a whim in 2016 while looking for a way to put my enthusiasm for the Mario series and my developing interest in writing to some use. Of the potential article formats presented to me, TV Tomorrow seemed like the most fun choice, and so, beginning with Issue 111 that June, that was what I wrote. And now, 64 issues later, I’m still going. Well, television doesn’t stop, you know, even when it’s fictional. There’s always another Tomorrow on which TV will be.

TV Tomorrow is the only ‘Shroom article I’ve ever written, apart from a one-off for the 150th issue about the Mario community on QuizUp. It’s developed a bit since it began; I personally don’t think I hit my stride until about 2018, when my writing style matured a bit and I started to put a bit more effort into my section. Still, I’ve managed one an issue since my debut, which I’m quite proud of. I know I don’t make the biggest contribution to the ‘Shroom, but I hope I’ve made at least a little bit of an impact. (I mean, I keep getting nominated for the Best ‘Shroom Section Design Community Award, even though all I do is illustrate my articles with random pictures from the wiki to compensate for my terrible art skills. So I must be doing something right.)

But of course, it’s not really about the impact I make, it’s about doing something I enjoy, and I really do enjoy writing TV Tomorrow for the ‘Shroom. Writing for the ‘Shroom has become a monthly routine of sorts for me, and I’ve never considered quitting or missing an issue, because it’s not a lot of work, and I love doing it. I’ll admit I’ve never been the most involved with the wiki community; I barely use the Super Mario Boards. But I’ve never ever felt like an outsider here. Everyone I’ve met has always been welcoming, friendly, and approachable, and all in all it’s a great community that I’m glad to be able to contribute something to.

The Shamancer (talk)

Hello.

glance at an email

I'm here to talk about my experiences as a Shroomer because this Waluigi Time (talk) emailed me about it.

It's been fun. Let me go back a little to explain why I'm here. I played Splatoon 2 and I needed something to help guide me about it. Basically, Inkipedia. I learned about the NIWA (Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance), and found the Mariowiki. Once here, I absorbed as much knowledge as possible. I even bought Mario+Rabbid Kingdom Battle because of the Mariowiki. Then I saw the Shroom. It looked fun, so I jumbled up an account, and got in. My first section was my proudest. Then, I started going on a tangent and ignored the actual quality of my sections and decided to quit. I only stuck in because of this other section I made, titled I Choose You! I've only been here a couple months, but it's been fun creating sections. Maybe I'll stick around for a couple of years, we'll see.

Abracadbragablonghakorabinorasoquagauagavorteziamax! (Hey! Magic is hard!)

The Shamancer

Waluigi Time (talk)

What, did you expect me not to write something for this? TOO BAD. WALUIGI TIME. I first started reading The 'Shroom around the time I came to the wiki back in 2010. One of my first ten edits after making my account was voting for Super Mario Bros. in Issue XLV's Director Election, actually. I highly doubt that I actually knew who he was or what any of his campaign goals actually meant at the time, but hey, sixteen other users already voted for him, so it seemed like a good idea. Hurray for bandwagoning! My earliest memories of The 'Shroom generally involve Fake News, but I also remember reading Fading Into Obscurity and Should Have Been. I was really into reading The 'Shroom back then, which ironically caused me to stop reading it. I would check multiple times a month for a new issue, and usually it would just end up being the same one I already read. I decided that I should start checking less often to avoid that, which eventually led to me just not checking in regularly at all. I would still read it from time to time, but nowhere near the frequency I used to. In hindsight, I should've just looked at the clearly displayed date that said when a new issue would release, but if I had a nickel for every weird thing my past self did that I couldn't explain I'd be a millionaire.

So fast forward to November 2020, when Glowsquid asked me to create an account on the Boards so the staff could ask if I wanted to become a patroller. Being on the Boards was really my first time interacting with the community side of things around here, and I saw a lot of people talking about The 'Shroom. It seemed like a good time to get back into reading it, and I also ended up participating a little bit in the Sunlight vs. Moonlight 'Shroomfest. I also started kicking around the idea of writing my own section for Fake News. One of my unused ideas was actually to write a cooking section about intentionally bad recipes made with items from the Mario franchise, which is really hilarious to me in hindsight. If you know about Waluigi Time Cereal, you know why. Later I thought it would be fun to write a section pitting two Mario characters against each other in combat and figuring out who would win, and I settled on Mushroom Kingdom Smackdown. After some encouragement from Pitohui and NS to give me that final push (thanks guys!), I submitted my application on Christmas Eve, got accepted for Issue 166, and the rest is history.

Mushroom Kingdom Smackdown is still running today (and you can suggest fighters for it on the Boards hint hint), and I've also started a few other 'Shroom sections (Shmaluigi, Private Investigator my beloved) and written some one-offs over the past not-quite-year. I love not only writing 'Shroom sections, but also getting to see what the other talented and creative members of this community come up with every month, and participating in other sections and events like Mach Speed Mayhem and 'Shroomfests. It's so much fun and if you don't already, I highly encourage you to consider writing for The 'Shroom. I'd also say you should read The 'Shroom, but you already are, so good job!

winstein (talk)

The first thing that I have seen from the 'Shroom is due to how the Mario Wiki put the information box for the 'Shroom up in the forefront, where it never goes away. This indicated that it is a community highlight and also a sign that there's more to this community than just providing information on the Wiki. I would even go ahead and say that if a community does more than populating a wiki with information, it signifies solidarity. Even with the impressive number of issues the 'Shroom had accrued, I never thought about joining it.

When Hooded Pitohui suggested that I write about comic strips was, I decided it's worth a shot in writing something for it. It should be noted that prior to this, I did write articles for a different Pokemon website before, so it's not like I'm new to this. Also, some things I mentioned in chats or messages indicated that I am a fan of newspaper comics, an underappreciated form of media, and in fact an advocate for Garfield (a series that invited a lot of ridicule). That is why it was appropriate that I started the article series writing about Garfield instead of putting my proposed article (it is still unpublished to this very day). I think my first article was a decent effort and also one that I spent a lot of time in, even if it's not the most perfect one.

Upholding a certain standard when writing articles is a very strenous thing, because when writing while keeping in mind to be truthful and having references, it can get a bit daunting to finish them especially when it comes to deadlines. I probably cannot manage too many articles due to this, since when I written two articles it felt like going uphill to get both of them done. It probably feels worth it to get complete articles even if they're not what I envisioned since there are some ideas that I had to cut due to time constraints, but I hope that whatever I laid out is enjoyed nonetheless.

Thank you for reading.

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