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Ask Slashdot: What Happened To the Prank Apps That Used To Be Popular?
OpenSourceAllTheWay writes: Back when PCs were more boxy looking than today and people used floppy disks to store stuff, there were a bunch of prank apps around that one could put on a DOS or Windows computer to annoy the hell out of siblings, classmates, coworkers and others. (Here is a listing of some older prank apps and some more recent Android prank apps.) Some prank apps would flip the Windows desktop upside down. Some would make the mouse pointer move in strange ways or make it give you the middle finger. Some would cause you to hit the right keyboard key and still mistype a word. Some would play an audio file in the background every now and then that gave the impression of your computer making strange noises for unknown reasons, even turning the OS volume up before the sound, and then down again, making it impossible to make the sounds stop. There are many more computer users today than there were back then, yet there doesn't seem to be much new in the way of prank apps -- at least for Windows. Why is that? Did Windows 8 cause PC users to lose their humor?
Installing those prank apps on someone else's computer is now a felony. Much like other pranks people used to play at school back then that would now get you thrown out if not prosecuted.
Jive filter, it still exists: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...
Those text filters lost their appeal when AOLers flooded the internet with their all caps rants and ravings filled with misspellings and colloquialisms, and the novelty wore off, as it was no longer populated mostly by intellectuals who learned and typed formal English.