The 'Shroom:Issue 171/Staff Notes
Hello, all of you readers of The 'Shroom, and welcome the special June 2021 edition of the paper! This month, we celebrate a milestone as FunkyK38 (talk) reaches her one-hundredth issue as the director of Palette Swap, so, as you can see, we've gone all out in celebrating Palette Swap and its focus on art and music in this theme. With special backgrounds and a banner by The Pyro Guy (talk) to go along with plenty of our usual sections that our writers have themed around art and music, we have plenty for you to look at this month, and that's even before we get into all of the special features we have this month.
Because there's so much to cover, I'm going to forego the usual introductions and launch into a rapid-fire list of everything you should take a look at this month beyond our six teams and Spotlight.
First off, the polls have opened and it is officially awards season here in this community! While it released at the same time the polls did, the Community Awards Dossier is still a part of this issue. The dossier has the Community Awards polls and an overview of every nominee on them, so be sure to give it a read and to cast your votes in the Community Awards to show your support for the many members of this community and all they do. I did indeed say "votes," plural, because you can vote once a week. Don't miss the Mario and Fail Awards, either, where you can also vote once a week.
Next up, I want to present the Community Gallery, featuring thirteen wonderful pieces of art provided by some of the many talented artists in this community. So many of you have long given so much to this community with your artistic skill, so consider this showcase our way of thanking you for all you've contributed over the years. Please, give every image in the gallery a look. You don't want to miss any of these.
While the community as a whole has come together to make a gallery this issue, I'm proud to unveil a project that a subset of our community has been working on. The 'Shroom staff has put together a special section to introduce readers to musical pieces that they enjoy. Every participating member of the staff has selected two pieces of music to introduce to all of you, and there's a huge variety of tastes and genres represented, so make sure to turn your speakers up or put your headphones on and give Music on a Staff a read!
The Ultimate Location Battle enters its final round this month, so be sure to help Goombuigi (talk) and Ninja Squid (talk) decide what location they should call the ultimate location above all others.
This month, we prepare to bid farewell to the Eleventh Poll Committee, a team of users who have done an outstanding job making and analyzing the Super Mario Wiki's polls over the past year. As part of these preparations, we're holding our Poll Chairperson Election to determine who will lead the Twelfth Poll Committee through the next year. If you have any interest in running at all, please be sure to post a campaign, and even if you aren't running, check out the election, ask questions of the candidates, and cast a vote.
Finally, it's time again for another 'Shroomfest. In this month's 'Shroomfest, Superchao and I are having some creative differences, arguing about whether cool colors or warm colors are better. Be sure to give the opening story a read, and then pick a side and join the debate, whether through votes, simple posts, or more effortful and creative contributions.
Wew, there's a lot happening this month, isn't there? We have plenty for you to read and do this month, so I'm going to wrap this up so you can go and read through everything we have in this month's issue. At this point, I'll turn these notes over to the woman of the hour herself, your Palette Swap Director for one hundred issues, FunkyK.
—Hooded Pitohui, Director
Hello, all! It's weird to be out of Palette Swap for a set of Director's Notes. This is my 100th issue as the Palette Swap Director, and I'm shocked that I've been here so long! It hasn't felt like it, surely. I've been here since I was in high school, and The 'Shroom has just always been in my life no matter what - whether I was struggling through finals in college, working through a job search, heck, I was Art and Music director before I’d gotten a position on my high school paper my senior year as the Arts and Entertainment editor (do what you know, right?). I think that I've finally gotten the swing of things in the past few years or so - maybe graduating helped me to get myself together. Gotta be responsible for yourself, right?
The reason I'm here today is to say a big round of thank-yous to plenty of people who have gotten me to this point:
-Thank you to Super Mario Bros. (talk), who first invited me to join his staff waaay back in 2013, for trusting little naïve me with a whole sub-team.
-Thank you to my former directors: Henry Tucayo Clay (talk), Superchao (talk), Meta Knight (talk), RandomYoshi (talk), and Raregold (talk) for always being patient with me and helping me learn more and get better at wiki coding.
-Thank you to my fantastic past writers, however many issues you wrote or drew for, it's a huge contribution and I thank you for taking the time out of your schedules to submit work each month.
-A special thank you to Walkazo and her family for her amazing work while she was with us. Walkazo, you were an incredible person and your passion for art and music was so evident in both of the sections you wrote under me. Thank you for sharing that passion with me, and thank you to Pantaro for uploading her finished work for her.
-Thank you to our current Director and Sub-Director Hooded Pitohui (talk) and Roserade (talk) for keeping me on still, and giving me some new projects to work on with new writers who can make use of my experience.
-Thank you to my fellow current sub-directors team, Yoshi876 (talk), Hypnotoad (talk), Doomhiker (talk), Roserade (talk), Hooded Pitohui (talk), Zange (talk), Ninja Squid (talk), and Alex95 (talk), you all are an amazing team to work with and you're all angels for putting up with me.
-Thank you to my current writers: Yoshi876 (talk), Doomhiker (talk), winstein (talk), Goombuigi (talk), Magolor04726 (talk), and Lakituthequick (talk). You guys are amazingly creative and I always look forward to reading your sections and seeing what you have to say.
-And finally, thank you to you, dear readers. I doubt I could have come this far without all of you behind us. So many of you have come to join us as writers, whether that's in Palette Swap or the rest of The 'Shroom, you all vote for your favorites in Section of the Month and the Community Awards, and you give us feedback and interact with us to improve for the future, so don’t feel like you haven't made a contribution to this paper. Keep on being awesome, everyone!
I think that's all for me right now. I love this job, and I love this community of crazy creative people, whether you are making a comic about Mario and co. in preschool, ranting about Chex Mix, or cataloging changes on the forums. I'm not going anywhere for now, so I'll try to push for 200 issues as long as my Directors are willing to keep me around. Thank you again, everyone, for all your support, and as I always say, please check out the fantastic sections in this issue!
Best wishes and lots of love!
—FunkyK38, Palette Swap Director
Staff Section of the Month for May 2021
| STAFF-VOTED SECTION OF THE MONTH | ||
|---|---|---|
| Section | Writer | Reasoning |
| Drawn and Pressed | winstein (talk) | A good history lesson on a very interesting newspaper comic that started as one thing before completely switching focus to another. winstein does a good job of explaining it's history as well as explaining what kept the comic going strong even after it's concept shift. |
| Mushroom Tribune | Chester Alan Arthur (talk) and Hooded Pitohui (talk) | We feel like it really effectively uses cross-promotion. As recent News Flush articles have shown, you can have 'Shroom sections referencing other sections or even ongoing events in the community and add something special to them by doing so. This section weaves in references to Waluigi Time's Mushroom Kingdom Smackdown without losing its identity. It still stands on its own, with its own jokes and style of writing, and that's important, too. We'd like to highlight this as an example for folks looking to strike that balance between cross-promotion of sections and not getting so bogged down in references that their section becomes indecipherable to someone outside of the community. |
| Peddler's Place | Coffee | Despite being only one item, Coffee's section never fails to make us laugh with it's simple yet hilarious gag based humor. |
| Super Mario Maker Showcase | Goombuigi (talk) | Goombuigi shows the value of conciseness in this section, making the section a light read that keeps your attention by giving a brief overview of the courses he covers without getting bogged down listing off every little detail. He keeps readers interested by only giving them the broad outlines, giving just enough specifics that they can get a good picture of the level in their heads and going no further. |
| The Wrecking Ball with Whomper Thwompite | Raregold (talk) | Switching things up this edition spoofs a fundraising driver and it's quite simply very funny. Specifically it's spoofing of for-profit colleges and the idea of an ever expanding Mario plumping company. |
| World of Plight | Magolor04726 (talk) | We will give Magolor credit for his approach to Steve's entry. It took a little bit of technical refining to make it work and to ensure it incorporated alt text for accessibility purposes, but writing Steve's entry in a Minecraft book was a cool way to frame the section. We also appreciate the little snippet at the start that makes this section feel like an ongoing journal entry. |
| The 'Shroom: Issue 171 | |
|---|---|
| Staff sections | Staff Notes • The 'Shroom Spotlight • 'Shroomfest • Poll Chairperson Election |
| Features | Fake News • Fun Stuff • Palette Swap • Pipe Plaza • Critic Corner • Strategy Wing |
| Specials | Community Awards Dossier • Community Gallery • Music on a Staff • Ultimate Location Battle |
