Wikipedia:Motto of the day

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 humorous or serious, but must reflect the community or purpose of Wikipedia. Nominate new mottos here.

[edit] The templates

To get the Motto of the Day, just place one of the following templates anywhere you like on your user or user talk page. User:Cremepuff222/RandomMotto, Template:Motd Cquote and Template: Random Motto display tables because the Template:Cquote2 which is used cannot handle tables. Do not place them in tables if you don't want the template to divide itself into visible rows and columns.

Template	What you see	Pros	Cons
{{Motd}}	Today's motto... → Per ardua ad astra ("Through Adversity to the Stars") Nominate one today!	Stands out	Cannot handle bold or italic text
{{Motd plain}}	Today's motto... → Per ardua ad astra ("Through Adversity to the Stars")	Can handle all styles of text	None
{{Motd big}}	Today's motto... → Per ardua ad astra ("Through Adversity to the Stars")	Can handle all styles of text	Makes intentionally small text normal
{{Motd bold}}	Today's motto... → Per ardua ad astra ("Through Adversity to the Stars")	Can handle italic text	Cannot handle bold text
{{Motd cquote}}	“ → Per ardua ad astra ("Through Adversity to the Stars") ” —Today's Motto of the Day	Can handle all styles of text	Has trouble handling tables
{{Random Motto}}	“ Today's motto: → Per ardua ad astra ("Through Adversity to the Stars") September 5's motto of the day: (See another) → We fought for our future Destroyed the invader And brought to our homeland the laurels of fame Our glory will live in the memory of nations And all generations will honour her name ”	Auto-adjusts to fit where it is placed.	Squashes itself if motto is long.
{{MOTD banner}}	Motto of the Day, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. → Per ardua ad astra ("Through Adversity to the Stars")	Bright background. Draws attention to itself.	May be mistaken for a "new messages" banner.
{{User:Download/RandomMotto}}	September 5's motto of the day... → We fought for our future Destroyed the invader And brought to our homeland the laurels of fame Our glory will live in the memory of nations And all generations will honour her name → Next motto	Generates a random motto for each page visit	Can produce redlinks
{{User:Cremepuff222/RandomMotto}}	“ → We fought for our future Destroyed the invader And brought to our homeland the laurels of fame Our glory will live in the memory of nations And all generations will honour her name ”   — September 5's Motto of the day Next motto	Generates a random motto for each page visit	Has trouble handling tables; can produce redlinks
{{User:DannyQuack/Userboxes/Motto}}	Today's motto... → Per ardua ad astra ("Through Adversity to the Stars") Nominate one today!	Fits in small spaces; useful for columns	Is a userbox and cannot be formatted
{{User:Oxguy3/myboxes/MOTD}}	→ Per ardua ad astra ("Through Adversity to the Stars")	Looks like a userbox; fits in small spaces; useful for columns	Cannot be formatted
{{User:Killeroid/MOTD}}	Today's motto: → Per ardua ad astra ("Through Adversity to the Stars")	Bright background. Draws attention to itself.	May be mistaken for a "new messages" banner.
{{User:Secret Saturdays/MottoBox}}	The wise editors at Wikipedia have one thing to say to you: “ → Per ardua ad astra ("Through Adversity to the Stars") ”	useful for columns	It's considered too big for a userbox. It expands depending on the length of the quote.
{{User:Hi878/Random MotD}}	September 5's motto of the day: (See another) → We fought for our future Destroyed the invader And brought to our homeland the laurels of fame Our glory will live in the memory of nations And all generations will honour her name	Bright background. Draws attention to itself. Generates a random motto for each page visit.	May be mistaken for a "new messages" banner. Can produce redlinks.
{{User:Hi878/Random and Today's MotD}}	Today's motto: → Per ardua ad astra ("Through Adversity to the Stars") September 5's motto of the day: (See another) → We fought for our future Destroyed the invader And brought to our homeland the laurels of fame Our glory will live in the memory of nations And all generations will honour her name	Bright background. Draws attention to itself. Generates a random motto for each page visit, and shows the current.	May be mistaken for a "new messages" banner. Can produce redlinks.

You may also add the completely unformatted motto of the day by using {{Wikipedia:Motto of the day/{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTDAY}}, {{CURRENTYEAR}}}}. This allows you to create your own formatting.

[edit] Coordination, feedback, and questions

Every user is welcome to help coordinate the updating of MOTD. Any general inquiries and comments about the project are welcome at Wikipedia talk:Motto of the day.

[edit] Have an idea for a new motto?

Place your suggestions on the nominations page for review and consideration. Follow the instructions there for the correct procedure on how to do this.

[edit] Frequent contributors or supporters of the project

[edit] Templates

Typing {{User MOTD}} in your Userbox area produces

	This user frequently contributes to the Motto of the Day. Do you?

and adds the page to Category:Wikipedians who contribute to Motto of the day.

There is also an icon that you can use. Typing {{User:Hi878/MotD Icon}} will create an icon in the corner of your userpage showing your support for MotD. It uses {{topicon}} so it would be positioned the same way as any other icon.

To be on a list without using one of these, you may want to visit the Participants page.

[edit] Invite new users

To invite new users, add the template {{subst:Wikipedia:Motto of the day/Invite a member}} to their talk page. This creates

Hi there, Motto of the day! Thought you might be interested in Motto of the Day, a collaborative (and totally voluntary) effort by a group of Wikipedians to create original, inspirational mottos. Have a good motto idea? Share it here, comment on some of the mottos there or just pass this message onto your friends.

MOTD Needs Your Help!

Delivered By ~~~~

[edit] Barnstar

Motto of the Day even has its own barnstar award. To give it to someone who has contributed greatly to the project, simply use the template below:

{{subst:MOTD Barnstar|Your message here. ~~~~}}

…and you’ll get this:

		The MOTD Barnstar
Your message here. ~~~~

[edit] Ease of use script

Add the following code to your skin's javascript page:

importScript('User:Hi878/motdtools.js');

This speeds up various functions such as nominating a motto, commenting on a nomination, and closing/reopening a nomination.

[edit] Unregistered users

Edit a section and paste the following code into your browser's URL bar and hit enter:

javascript:importScript('User:Hi878/motdtools.js'); load();

The code also is helpful if you don't want to edit your skin.

[edit] Motto Shop

If you want to get a motto to live by on Wikipedia, try out our Motto Shop!