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Microsoft Memo Bans April Fools' Day Pranks (theverge.com)
Everyone hates April Fools' Day, and Microsoft is taking a stand against its own corporate pranks. From a report: Microsoft's marketing chief Chris Capossela has warned all employees to not participate in the process of annoying hoaxes on Monday. In an internal memo, Capossela explains that "data tells us these stunts have limited positive impact and can actually result in unwanted news cycles." He encourages all teams inside Microsoft not to do any public-facing April Fools' Day stunts. "I appreciate that people may have devoted time and resources to these activities, but I believe we have more to lose than gain by attempting to be funny on this one day," says Capossela. That's probably a safe bet, as we've seen some April Fools' Day pranks backfire spectacularly in the past. Google was forced to apologize for adding Despicable Me minions into emails and muting threads a few years ago, causing email havoc for Gmail users. Microsoft has also participated in many April Fools' Day pranks over the years, including an MS-DOS mobile for Windows Phone and Google insults.
Spot on. In today's victimhood culture any attempt at humor is extremely dangerous.
I recently went to a local stand up show and almost all performances were extremely bland (or about Trump), because joking about anything controversial is just too dangerous with SJW Stasi everywhere.
I don't hate the pranks as much as I hate April 1 itself. The whole thing has gone too far, and you wind up questioning every new story the whole day. It's become a useless day for announcing anything slightly different. Nobody believed 1 gig Gmail boxes when they announced on April 1.
The problem today, isn't that people don't have a sense of humor or that they are delicate snowflakes. But we are in an era of contradicting information, and where we have Flat Earthers, Anti-Vaxers, Anti-GMO, Climate Deniers, in general people who just don't want to accept well documented science, because it doesn't fit their world view, and they heard about these dangers from some random dude, who may or may not actually believe what they said, but was being sarcastic. I am sure if you dug in Slashdot History back in the 1990's there will be some comments from me, on topics about evolution, I had some sarcastic comments about the earth being flat and made some bizarre convoluted proof around it, as it is my natural sarcastic nature. However today, I am afraid to do this with the general public who doesn't know me. Because they will take my sarcasm out of context and use my "evidence" as proof in their head that it might be right.
A joke like changing Slashdot pink, with ponies will no longer pass today. Because...
1. It would be considered sexist: as implying that there are no women on Slashdot. Where before it was just considered a joke of making the site seem like it is for a different audience.
2. Someone who liked the idea, will be annoyed to see it go, or assumed the site was for kids, only to have them exposed to much of Slashdot coarse comments.
3. People new to the site, may assume it was a different site.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
"Everyone hates April Fools' Day"
Nice projection there.
If you don't hate April fools, you are probably part of why everyone hates April fools :P