Wikipedia:Milestones/2003/French Christmas logo

Originally released in WP:Announcements on 13:57, 10 December 2003

December 10th Press release : Logo putsch on the French Wikipedia ! French Wikipedia always promoting novelty and fun : Wikipedia-wide approved logo replaced by another, to celebrate forthcoming Christmas event During the night between the 9th and the 10th of december, the french logo was mysteriously changed, and a new, very colourful and happy one now stands in place. 12 hours later, no reversion has been done yet to the grayer version, much to the surprise of external observers. User:Tim Starling reaction was to shake his head; his comment on that lack of reaction was "amazing". The lack of reaction of french wikipedians might have several explanations : it may be suggested that some just did not notice. It may also be that french wikipedians are all editing under cologne blue skin (a statistician might be able to give more feed back on this). User:Anthere also suggested that the old logo might still be in the "cache" for most users. External observers reactions were diverse. Some thought the new logo great. User:Angela commented "That's so unfair! Fr have such a beuatiful logo for Christmas and en still have the old boring white one." She also asked "I hope it does stay. I love it. Do you think there is any chance it would be allowed on en?". Some wondered why this logo appeared so early before Christmas; however, some answered that Christmas fun time was beginning just after Thanksgiving in the US, and that Thanksgiving was now over. Other mentionned the new logo might be POV, and wondered if french Wikipedia had an equivalent logo during the Ramadan (nde : the Ramadan just ended last week). Evidence shows the logo was uploaded by w:fr:Utilisateur:Guillaume Bokiau, but it is yet unclear how the official logo could be so easily replaced without technical input. Some users mentionned User:Brion VIBBER or User:Eloquence names, as being likely to be involved in logo change issues. Rumours also suggest that Guillaume could be the author of the new logo as well, though this fact has not been confirmed yet. ant

Further reading:

• http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2003-December/013343.html the original mailing list message
• w:fr:Utilisateur:Guillaume Bokiau/Logos for the logo collection.
• meta:Logo putsch
• Logo-Putsch in der französischen Wikipedia was the first article in the newly founded German de:Wikipedia:Kurier