The 'Shroom:Issue 200/Staff Notes
Staff Notes
Written by: Hooded Pitohui (talk), Waluigi Time (talk), Lakituthequick (talk), Meta Knight (talk), GBA (talk), and Ninja Squid (talk)
Hello and welcome, all you readers of The 'Shroom, to our milestone celebration: The 'Shroom: Issue 200! Did you enjoy the fireworks show on the main page? Follow up question - are you sure you saw all of them? There are quite a number of them, honoring familiar faces stretching back over the course of one hundred issues, as well as some icons of the paper and Super Mario as a whole. That main page display was made possible by our dedicated Website Manager, Lakituthequick (talk), and our visionary Graphic Design Manager, GBA (talk), with some additional support, but, well, I could get into paragraphs of acknowledgements right now and run out of space for important announcements. Instead of taking up this space, I'll allow myself to get into the sappy, sentimental talk in the issue's Closing Statement and keep the full list of acknowledgements to our closing credits. For now, just know that an incredible team backed by a vibrant, creative, and passionate community has poured immense amounts of effort into bringing this issue to you!
With issue 200, we have truly reached the top of the flagpole! Within the pages of this issue, you'll find things that have never been done before in The 'Shroom. We've pushed the boundaries of the paper and worked hard to pave the way for brand-new ideas and tweaks that will make it easier to offer more tools to our writers... but, in doing so, we maaaay have finally blown out the budget... You see, newspapers have been on the decline for years. Circulation is down, and revenue is falling. Newspapers are, well, they're old news, and we've nearly emptied out our treasury. Faced with this reality and the need to diversify our sources of revenue, Waluigi Time and I talked it over with the rest of the staff, and we decided that there was only one direction we could go while leveraging our collective skills and resources...
That's right! We bought a mall! We bought an old mall, demolished it, salvaged what we could from it, and built from the ground up a mall all of our own! We even took from the 'Shroom HQ to furnish it, and found stores uniquely suited to stylings of The 'Shroom. It's all of The 'Shroom, the 'ShrooMall, and we're inviting you to take a look! Surely a mall, famously not rendered out-of-date by the rise of e-commerce, will prove a worthwhile investment and secure us a steady revenue stream for years to come! After spending so much on putting this issue together, we could use your support, so stop by and buy something, make a day of it, even.
I'm sure all of you will come for a visit. After all, this community has been supportive enough to get us all the way here! We've grown and we've learned, we've changed and we've taken on new roles here and elsewhere, and members of this community have drifted in and out over the years, but, as the breadth of this issue shows, the Super Mario Wiki and the Super Mario Boards continue to have a thriving, wonderful community across the wiki, the forums, our chatroom, and elsewhere. The 'Shroom would be nothing without your support, so, to all of our writers, to all of our readers, to all of you in the community who work hard at expanding this encyclopedia of Super Mario knowledge or host games on the forum to bring smiles to others, and to the many, many people who have contributed to this project, thank you!
Ah, you see, there I go, already starting to get into the sappy stuff. I better wrap this up and hand it over to Waluigi Time before I get off-track, but I'll see you in the Closing Statement... in a few hours, after you've read the rest of the issue, of course!
—Hooded Pitohui, Director
Hello there, 'Shroom readers! We made it, the big 200! It feels like it's been a long time coming, probably because we started laying the groundwork last year! It seemed so far away then, and yet here we are... Where does the time go? Wait a minute, I should know this one.
We've been talking a lot about ways we can improve The 'Shroom this year, and one of the things we wanted to address was section recognition. While we have the long-standing Section of the Month system in place, by its nature of being vote-based and everyone only being able to pick a single favorite section each month, that tends to leave a lot of high-quality sections going unrecognized. To help boost the recognition of our fantastic team of writers, we're introducing Poochy's Picks in this issue! If you remember the old Staff Section of the Month system from a couple of years ago, this is sort of like that, but now all readers of The 'Shroom can submit sections they think deserve recognition! If a section strikes you as particularly clever, funny, or well-written and you think it deserves special recognition, you can fill out this form up to 1 week before the release of the next issue, and it just might get featured in the next Poochy's Picks! And the best part? There's no limit to the amount of sections you can nominate! (Well, technically you would run out of sections to nominate eventually because they're not infinite, but that's beside the point.)
Speaking of Section of the Month, thinking about that gave us an idea - what sections have historically won it the most? Thanks to our diligent Statistics Manager Meta Knight (talk), we have the answer, and we've compiled the top 3 winners of the past 100 issues for each team in our SOTM Retrospective special! Some of the results may surprise you, and others you may see coming a mile away, but be sure to give it a read and see what we found!
Before I turn things over, I just want to give a big thank you to everyone who contributed in some form to making Issue 200 happen! The outpouring of creativity and passion on display here is amazing, though not surprising - I've seen what this community is capable of! That also includes our fantastic staff who put their blood, sweat, and tears into making this happen. I'm sure you want to actually see more of this cool stuff we're talking about, so I won't keep you any longer. LTQ has plenty more to say about some of the new bells and whistles you'll find on display moving forward!
Enjoy the issue!
—Waluigi Time, Sub-Director
Oh, hello there! Didn't notice you coming in, here here, take a seat. Coffee? Here you go.
Welcome to the 200th issue of The 'Shroom! I can tell you about how happy we are and what a milestone it is, but you'll end up reading that six times on this page alone that way! Instead I'm here to update you on what changed digitally.
Now the changes are oftentimes subtle, but it's 2023, so some of these are due. First of all, take a look at our fancy new sharp backgrounds! They are still your familiar mushrooms and stars, but they have been recreated as vector images to ensure that they look sharp on any screen. Additionally, these backgrounds are now layer based, which means it's now possible to mix and match shapes and colours without any effort. Secondly, if you're on a desktop or laptop, and you're using the default wiki skin, you may notice that articles now only go so wide, giving your eyes a rest while also making it easier for writers to tune the position of images better.
Let's address some bigger changes as well. You probably noticed the new typefaces in the paper paper as part of our updated aesthetics and logo. The logo and headers now use the Luckiest Guy typeface, while a few other places feature the Paper Mario-esque Mochiy Pop One! That last one is also free to be used by writers within sections if they want to (within reason).
On that note you'll notice that the table of contents on the main page are a bit more game-y now, and not unlike what you saw in issue 189. This is ever so much more playful than the "plain" boxes from before, isn't it?
Big thanks to GBA (talk) and TPG (talk) for the bulk of the work on graphical assets, both for this issue as well as beyond! I also express gratitude towards Meta Knight (talk) for his big undertaking of revamping the archives (which he'll tell you about himself below), and creating a few new interactive templates for our writers to use; check out his Persona special for a demonstration!
Finally, a big thank you goes out to our resident host, Porplemontage (talk). He has enabled us to add interactive elements earlier this year, and allows The 'Shroom to grow in its little corner of the Super Mario Wik. A lot would be impossible without his continued helpfulness in the last 17 years.
Now, what else is there? Oh, yes! It's November! It is time for the yearly Awards Director Election! Do you think you can run the wiki's big anniversary event? Check out the election page and post your campaign! If you don't plan on running, do make sure to vote on your favourite runner as well.
Okay, that's all the time I've got. I gotta get back to playing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on my Nintendo Switch. Please enjoy this issue, and thank you for sticking with us for all these years.
—Lakituthequick, Website and Programming Manager
Greetings everyone, and welcome to the culmination of nearly a year's worth of work. This of course, is The 'Shroom: Issue 200! This is a huge milestone, and I want to sincerely thank Hooded Pitohui, Waluigi Time, GBA, Lakituthequick, Shoey (talk), and all of the other amazing people that chipped in to make this happen; both within The 'Shroom Staff and everyone else who graciously submitted a volunteer section.
I was there when Issue 100 was released 8 years ago. It was a huge testament to the team at the time, and was one of the main reasons I decided to join a few months later. Here we are today though, and make no mistake, something like this is an event. The 'Shroom has been around since 2006, and to be here 200 issues later, it genuinely is remarkable. It's an honor to have been able to be so deeply involved with this production along with Pito and WT, and I hope that you read every ounce of this issue, because a lot of effort went into making it.
One major project that was handled for Issue 200 actually isn't anywhere to be found in Issue 200! We've always been dedicated to keep up with The 'Shroom history, such as our Writer History and Section History spreadsheets. We've also had The 'Shroom Archives, which listed each issue from now all the way back to those 2006 Beginnings. To make things even easier for any 'Shroom historians, the archives has been completely overhauled! We didn't just give them a fresh coat of paint though, because now every issue lists every section that has been produced, complete with author credits, and links to take you there! We've got a nice hub that will take you through the different eras of The 'Shroom, so go take a look!
We also have a lot of Specials to offer, which you can view on the front page! I won't go into all of them in detail here because you really should check them out yourself. I'll give a brief overview of what there is to offer. We've got thorough dives into media to give you the scoop. We've got stories, artwork, music, guides, wholesome reflections on the past, and even a visual novel game! That's not even mentioning all of the extra content within the Sub-Teams themselves.
Every pixel that's a part of Issue 200 had someone behind the screen to create something for you all to experience. They were passionate, had something to say, and this is a great moment where everyone has come together. I'll stop yammering though so you can get to reading the rest of it. Thank you everyone for reading The 'Shroom for as long as you have, and if this is your first time around then I welcome you as well. Please, on behalf of everyone involved here, I hope you enjoy The 'Shroom: Issue 200.
—Meta Knight, Statistics Manager
At the end of most Mario levels, if your final two timer digits match, the game celebrates your luck with Fireworks. The flagpole is lowered, the level is completed, and you move on, while small, colorful bursts of light fill the sky to mark your departure. The creative direction of our 200th issue is a testament to this. For our second triple digit milestone of The 'Shroom, we decided years ago to pursue the Issue 200 project with an open mind. One potential route was to, at last, cap off our long and storied history with a final celebration, ultimately backed by fireworks. Of course, this wasn't fully evolved, and we have to pay the electricity bill for our humble 'Shroom HQ a little while longer, except now we also have to power an entire mall and provide an infinite supply of fireworks for this celebration. Oh dear. Good thing we don't have a budgeting manager.
Regardless, our commitment to being the wiki's primary creative outlet for writers, editors, forum-goers and all MarioWiki users still remains, even after nearly 17 years of publication! Behind these pages stuffed to the brim with community writing, art, and music, stands a group of dedicated individuals I'm fortunate to count myself part of. The skies of Issue 200 are filled with shining faces of both past and present, and our eyes (try to ignore the dark circles) can only glitter at the future; many people have left their mark on this paper in the last hundred issues, and hopefully many more will in the next however many.
Extending my sincerest thanks to LTQ and TPG—without whom many of the decorations for this issue would not be possible—but especially LTQ for helping us realize the fireworks show on the front page. Open up a music tab in the background for the best effect! Also, thanks to the graphic design managers who came before me, who built the aesthetic for our little community paper from the ground up through grit and wiki markup, all well before my time. Another shout-out to our directors Pitohui and Waluigi Time for their magnificent leadership in preparation for the issue, and Meta Knight for tirelessly processing so many applications. Finally, congratulations to all of the people who helped make this issue, and The 'Shroom, what it is today. Reaching 200 issues is no small achievement, and we can move on to the next era with the flagpole behind us, and fireworks overhead.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I just have to finish this next project.
—GBA, Graphic Design Manager
Greetings, 'Shroom readers! It's Ninja Squid here! Your former Statistics Manager, former Director, and current staff consultant.
It would have been foolish to think I wouldn't come out of the basement and take the time to celebrate the release of Issue 200! While my secret ninja projects aren't close to completion, I still have plenty of tricks up my sleeves, and among them is, well, a plan to thank everyone who has put this amazing work into the release of such a massive issue!
I have not been around a lot this year, but still, from a behind-the-scene user's perspective, I have seen how much time and effort the whole staff of your community's newspaper has put into this long-term project, and goodness, it was a lot, so I want to take the time to commend them for their contributions to not only releasing a massive issue, but to the entire organizational effort it took to make Issue 200 a phenomenal moment for the entire community. You gave it your all, and this issue is truly a testament of how much you enjoy this community, so as a community member, staff mate, and friend: Thank you so much for your contribution to the history of our community newspaper! It means a lot to have you here, bringing so many positive vibes to this place.
That said, this colossal project wouldn’t have been possible without the contribution of so many members of this community. You are the ones shaping the newspaper the way and making it what it is, and you are the heart of the Super Mario Wiki community. With your continued contributions, you are the ones who have permitted The ‘Shroom to have a long history of 200 issues in the span of seventeen years! For a small community like here, that's quite a lot. It really shows how much you are enjoying this place, and as a member myself, I can understand it. Thank you for giving life to The 'Shroom!
Now though, I'd rather not take much more of your time, and I want you to enjoy all the wonderful sections crafted by the writers, as there's a lot to look at! Again, a huge thank you to anyone who has contributed directly or indirectly to the community's newspaper over the years, and especially to those who gave life to issue 200 in its current form. Let's hope for many, many more sections, issues, and years to come for our community newspaper!
In the meantime, I’ll go back to the basement. I can't let Perch have access to my secret ninja plans unattended.
See ya!
—Ninja Squid, Former Director
Poochy's Picks
Poochy has dug up some sections from issue 199 that deserve a shout-out!
| Poochy's Picks from Issue 199 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Section | Writer | Comments |
| The ? Panel | winstein (talk) | winstein, as usual, delivers with excellent art and humor in this month's comic. The ongoing feud between Wario and the giant spear man is a funny basis, and Waluigi's reactions and the bonus panel at the end really sell it. There's also some fun details sprinkled throughout like Waluigi's mug and the callback to Wario's original design. |
| What's in a Campaign? | Shoey (talk) | A fun section from Shoey as he covers a series of goofy robots that have a lot of heart but don't really get anywhere. The well-written coverage of the matches makes it very entertaining to see just how poorly things inevitably go for Team Death. |
| Anton's Half-Baked Reviews | Anton (talk) | Concise but detailed, accompanied by great silly-and-fun illustrations, there's not much more I could want out of a Reese's review. What needs to be said is said, and not much more, but it still gets down to a pretty granular level (see the helpful note about Reese's Thins being easier to carry to-go because the chocolate on the top doesn't peel off as easily). |
| Is there a section you'd like to give a shout-out? Get a section in front of Poochy by filling out this form! | ||
