April Fools Wrap Up

Thanks for the usual April Fools Day flame- every year people fall for it. It never ceases to amaze me how angry and venomous, yet utterly clueless a few people can be despite the blatant obviousness of the joke. Lastly, jfengel sent us the annual April Fools RFC: RFC3251 describes "Electricity over IP" and RFC3252 on "Binary Lexical Octet Ad-hoc Transport" reformulates IP to work over XML."

Comments

Be glad there is no story moderation

[donutello]

Otherwise all of CmdrTaco's stories would be at -1 after today from his karma being beaten to the ground for all the troll stories that were posted today.

Interestingly, I noticed one story (about the retiring carrier pigeons) that was a true story posted today. Any others?

Re:They weren't funny or good

[geekoid]

but not so bored that you couldn't stop reading them? or post about them?
"They were repetive, unimaginative and unfunny. "
to you.

Re:Taco, you're an ass.

[ralian]

Hrm. I personally really liked the time they posted the stories in all sorts of Dialectizer-ed dialects. Although the best would be to redirect slashdot.org to Suckdot. :)

I have to mention ...

[fm6]

My favorite April Fool's media prank occurred back in 1988. NPR solemnly announced that the Reagan administration had found a very creative way to balance the federal budget: Arizona had been sold to Canada.

Not just a brief item either. They did a whole half-hour segment on the "news", including interviews with Reagan administration staffers (not actors or impressionists, real staffers who were in on the joke) and with "acting provincial Governor-General" Bruce Babbitt. Really over the top stuff. I've always wondered why it never raised more of a fuss than it did.

Re:Taco, you're an ass.

[sllort]

In Taco's defense (OMG!) I have to admit that the story about their advertisers removing AC posting, and actually removing AC posting, was funny. It WAS funny. It was funny because it was outrageous but people still bought it.

Now if they'd just made that the only tip-off of the day, it would have been a good practical joke. Instead, they beat us over the head with the unfunny bat till our skulls bled.

Oh well.

Anyone remember the first year?

[CMiYC]

Does anyone remember the first year all of the major geek-sites got together for a April Fool's joke? I barely remember what happened (AKA: This account maybe somewhat off from what really happened). I think Segfault annouced that Microsoft was bascially shutting them down through legal action. So Freshmeat (I think) and Slashdot played along. I couldn't believe it, because they pratically fooled everyone. They lead up to it over the course of a week or so. Quite funny and original.

Re:get a clue....

[jcenters]

Yeah, but what would have happened if the "slashadvertisments" was the only fake story? Everyone would have been freaking out.

While the whole thing was a waste of time and resources, it helped to insure that real stories weren't confused with AFs.

And besides, its a bit of Monty-Pythonish humorous irritation. :-)

The problem with today's theme...

[gilroy]

is actually manifold but can be summed up as

• The more like a legitimate news site you try to make slashdot, the less valid -- and less funny -- randomly placed, intentionally wrong stories are
• A lot of awfully weird crap is happening these days -- ASCII Quake, free-form case mods, CBDTPA -- and it's getting harder to tell what's been made up
• People subscribe to slashdot and expect some return, not a lost day
• Not everyone has the time or inclination to go slogging through an entire day's worth of fakery to see if there's a nugget of truth anywhere
• As Josh Lyman might put it, you forgot to bring the funny... the "humor" simply wasn't humorous, for most of the "articles". Of course, YMMV -- but don't tweak people in an area as subjective as humor and then be angry if people flame you

Re:/. - Worse Than Vogon Poetry?

[dodald]

Whats all the fuss about? Read for yourself :)

The dead swans lay in the stagnent pool.
They lay. They rotted. They turned
Around occassionally.
Bits of flesh dropped off them from
Time to time.
And sank into the pool's mire.
They also smelt a great deal.


Paula Nacy Millstone Jennings
37 Wasp Villas
Greenbridge
Essex
GB10 1LL

Re:/. - Worse Than Vogon Poetry?

[Fingo]

Actualy it was changed in the books. This persons real name was mentioned in the radio series, but changed in the books. Paula Nacy Millstone Jennings is actualy Paul Neil Milne Johnstone, who was a former classmate of Adams.

Dear US: Look up "The Rest of the World"

[Kris_J]

Observe the datestamp on this;

• 13 Updated Slashdot Advertising Policy by CmdrTaco with 320 comments on Tue April 02, 0:13

For anyone ahead the US AF "pranks" clog up everything for about 48 hours starting from our April 1st.

Seriously, limit next year's AF coverage to one internal /. admin related post plus a "Quickies" that reports on other pranks. Having a homepage full of stupid lies does not a happy surfer make.

Oh, yeah, much of the rest of the world doesn't "get" Halloween either, but at least the Simpsons Halloween specials are actually funny. Even if they are played around xmas.

I liked it because it was different

[PotatoHead]

Disabling anonymous posts was kind of interesting actually. (It had better just be one day though!) Wonder how many new accounts were created today vs other days?

The whole thing was different this year. In the past there have been a few mixed in with the regular news, but today nothing but crap. If the plan is to do this every year then it is the beginning of something lame. If the plan is to do something different each year then the whole thing is the beginning of something interesting to look forward to.

I did wonder about what I was missing when I realized that every story was going to be a joke, but then realized that perhaps I should take a day and just miss out! Probably got more work done today than usual. Hmmm...

My favorite was the change in ad policy. Actually was pissed for a moment until I realized what day it was.

The editors should post a best of the clueless collection for comment. After the load of crap today, I'll bet they have some pretty good and totally useless rants to show off.

No one cares.

[kannen]

Quite frankly, I don't really understand why people think anyone will care if a few users leave, 'cause we won't. Yes, that's right, you will not be missed. We are not going to cry. We aren't going to beg you to stay. We aren't even going to try to explain the merits of the site, because, you know what - you don't get it and you won't get it.

Let's be honest - this is a website for people that are wasting time - either by not studying, or by not working. It has semi-interesting articles, but it is most definitely not NPR, the Washington Post, or CNN. It's a geek site, run by a few guys who thought it would be a cool idea. I don't even understand why they stick around (CmdrTaco and Hemos) because quite frankly, I would think that they'd be tired of all the flames they get day in and day out. Do you get as attacked at your job as they do everyday?

If you don't like the site - don't come to the site. If you don't like the site on AFD, don't come to the site on AFD. It's one day. (Ok, kindof two days, but there are now legit articles up, so I'm still going to count it as just one day.)

And furthermore (as I stand a little straighter on my soap box) I don't understand all of the flames about spell checking stories and whatnot. It's not like Taco was a BETTER speller 3 years ago! Nothing has changed. If you didn't like it then, you shouldn't have set up camp in the first place. It hardly makes sense to flame away for flaws that have been here since the beginning.

I know I may well pay painfully for this post, but so be it.