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UF/BeDope/Segfault Shutdown!
Well, after doing some checking around today, it appears
that as yet unknown entity has managed to shutdown BeDope, User Friendly, and Segfault.
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> Dammit each and every time I get pissed at a /. story, Hemos is always the one who posts it
Yes, and others get pissed at Sengan, and still
others, at CT.
Get over it.
Hmm. Because the sites are back up?
Hey, I dont see why everyone is getting so bent outta shape. I thought it was hella funny.
Are all (most of) you people honestly saying that you've gotten to the bottom of this comments page and you still fail to see the humor in this? April Fools Day is all about finding out that some terrible thing is actually your friends' trying (rarely succeeding) to get a rise out of you.
Personally, I'm all kindsa impressed...but I bet a couple of the jokesters felt pretty bad when people started offering money and whatnot to "help the cause".
Oh yeah, to everyone who thought this was a horrible nasty thing to do to someone:
You're fired, your dog just got hit by a car, Star Trek has been cancelled 'cause it's geeky, and your ISP is now charging by the minute.
:P
I loved it. The greatest thing about April Fools is that many people just forget. I was really going, even a little past the item about Linus having to put his daughters thru college. I can get back to the real news tomorrow. Wonderful stuff...
Straight from UserFriendly (go read it yourself on the daily static at http://www.userfriendly.org/static/ , its changed in the last minutes)
:-)
I was saying all along it was an april fools joke, but I didn't have time to post yesterday. I had to defend myself all day because all my co-workers were walking around muttering "revenge". I haven't the faintest idea why
TYING A LEAD WEIGHT TO THE CHAIN I YANKED YOU WITH
00:03 PST 02 APR 1999
Well, after over *1000* emails on the subject, I can see that some people, maybe 10% or so, were actually angered by the joke. This came as a BIG surprise to me for a variety of reasons, but I think the main one is that I truly had no idea how much people cared about User Friendy. Scouts honour and all that.
Interestingly enough, the rest of the mails were along the lines of "Damn you, you got me," to "I have *never* been had like that before, you guys are *brilliant*." The congratulatory stuff aside, I'm dismayed that some people actually think that I (and the other site owners) conducted this joke with malicious intent. I draw this comic strip because I enjoy making people laugh, at big companies, little companies, people, events, and even me. The opportunity to make people laugh at themselves is very rare, and April Fools was the best opportunity to take. So the joke was put together, we carefully executed it, and it seems the majority of readers thought it was damn-ass funny.
The one's who thought it was very UNfunny raised a few points. They mentioned the 'cry wolf' syndrome. The pointed to 'having their feelings manipulated'. Some of them even said that this brand of humour was beneath UF. My answers: If UF or any other site really does get sued, you'll KNOW its real very quickly. If you think you've 'been manipulated' keep in mind that my purpose was to shock you and make you laugh at yourself. And finally, brands of humour are very subjective. Enough people found the prank funny enough that I think we did all right. With an audience as large as UF's, I *have* to base it on percentages.
And for the record, I am both humbled and flattered by the amount of caring and devotion shown by the readers. I can't stress enough how much I underestimated the community. I'll never do that again, or at least try hard not to. I won't apologize for the joke, not ever, but I am indeed sorry to the people who felt betrayed. I'm a cartoonist. I'm here to make you laugh, and if I make you upset, it makes me upset to...probably more than you realize.
Thanks for all the support. UFies are an awesome group of people.
Hi,
:)
:)
It's 9pm in Munich, my mate just phoned to see if I wanted to go for a beer, I told him I was waiting for news of the impending appocalype
But UF is back up, which I'm glad about, though I
must admit that I was looking forward to the prospect of watching "the company" crash and burn,
besiged by a geek jihad.
Ah well, time to go sink a few jars, It's only lager, but the Germans have yet to learn how to brew "beer"
later
jb@eso.org
You missed one... last_time_you_brushed_your_teeth
:)
It's my personal favourite.
The word from Userfriendly:
:)
;)
;) As the Norwegians say, "Takk!"
Y'ALL HAD YOUR CHAIN YANKED
11:00 PST 01 APR 1999
(April Fools!) There is no mysterious corporation throwing its weight around. There were no registered letters. There were no threats. We control the horizontal and the vertical and we gave your collective leg a slight pull. Yup, we bad.
We did learn some interesting things during this whole farce. I got some very concerned letters from Microsoft employees, some of them quite senior in the ranks, who said they'd land really hard on any 'brain-dead idiot' that pulled something as stupid as legal action against User Friendly or the other sites. See, MS employees can be nice and smart too. They even fall in the top 20 companies who frequent UF on a daily basis.
Another, much more salient thing was discovered: the voice of the UFie community (and the Segfault community, and the BeDope community, and the Slashdot community, all of which overlap heavily) is a mighty and powerful thing. I'm glad I'm not on the bad end of the stick you guys were waving.
My thanks to my partners in crime, who came up with, developed and executed this terrible joke: Mike at BeDope, Scott at Segfault, Rob at Slashdot, and the local gangsters Arcterex and Iambe. Take a bow, people. You guys did great.
Now here's hoping you all will forgive us for this laugh at your expense. Until next year.
One last thing: my thanks to the all of the UFies for being such good sports. I know the joke hit some of you particularly hard (as indicated by some of the e-mail that has crossed my screen) but ultimately the chain yanking we did was to prove that UFies can laugh at themselves as well as at certain unnamed companies.
this whole April Fools joke is getting really old now. i don't know how many times they're going to try to drill it into us that these sites shutdown (they didn't).
anyone who looked at today's date should know to take everything they read today with a grain of salt.
The Germans know how to brew beer.
The rest of the world doesn't know how to drink it.
I just spoke to the author of Userfriendly. The entire thing is indded a prank, with all three sites in on it. Things should be back up in a few hours.
News like this should get posted on the front page of./ not buried in here!
--Eric Iverson
There's a mirror UserFriendly and SegFault on
'kgbvax'. hth. (ObGoodOne)
Dammit each and every time I get pissed at a /. story, Hemos is always the one who posts it.
/., and instead just posts stories blindly.
/., because I'll be using it to filter anything that Hemos posts.
How many times in one day can the same story be posted ? I get the feeling sometimes that Hemos doesn't even read
What the hell have we been talkign about all morning. It's sure is a good think that Rob built the filter stuff into
Thanks, Aaron Newsome
See subject.
Love,
Waldo
... is obviously substantially different from what we're used to in the UK.
Did anyone fall for any of the April Fools `jokes'?
Did anyone find them funny? At all?
Oh, did you know that Microsoft are purposely omitting the word 'gullible' from the new Encarta? :)
They're pulling your leg. Rest easy. ;)
I'll admit they had me going till all three sites went down...at which point I'm thinking "this has to be a prank...a frighteningly believable prank, but a prank". Then I laughed, found out the next day Userfriendly has owned up, and went on with life. :)
Just about the only really scary thing is one can't exactly put it PAST megacorporations to do these kinds of lawsuits anymore...still, I'm glad to know we were all merely being kidded with. ;) Like people DON'T expect at least one "joke story" or at least one huge, Malkavian-scale prank on April Fools Day. Sheesh. ;)
Making a toast to Lord Arlecchino,
Since this topic should be dead anyway...
What is up with all the new Slashdot cookies? Is it just a little joke by Rob and Co? I find them kind of funny.
So far I've seen:
- religion
- visa_number
- high_school_gpa
- sexual_orientation
- iq
- income_bracket
- soc_sec_number
- mothers_maiden_name
All with what looks like random numbers as their value. Did I miss any?Later,
Xamot
?
Hey, um, like - you know, you posted this before, man. This is so old, dude. ;>
This is the written version of "slapstick humor" that Americans are so fond of.
There's no punchline, it's not witty or entertaining, but it bears a resemblence to the Three Stooges poking each other in the eyes. Some people find this funny. I hope it entertained the owners of UserFriendly, segfault, and the other one whose name escapes me right now.
Better April Fools jokes:
The BBC's documentary on the "Italian Spagetti Harvest"
Taco Bell's Purchase of the Libery Bell
The exchange of comic strip artists on comics pages in 1997
This whole thing just goes to prove that too many computer people, even the ones who stage practical jokes, have no real sense of humor.
Better luck next time.
-Dean
Definately April Fool's day. For those who had any doubt at all, User Friendly is now back up, and admitting to the whole prank on the static page.
Shawn Asmussen
Maybe you should read Rob's posting about complaints for posting things twice and Hemos' comments up here... it kinda makes sense to have a day in wich you can get a little bit anoying in return (if that really is the intention here).
Besides, I think this day has been pretty funny so far. Keep on going everyone!
I bet they havent had that many hits for ages.
I have to admit, though, the Register piece about the UserFriendly/Segfault/Bedope shutdown was by far the funniest part of this whole affair. Story here.
P.S. The U.S. love affair with The Three Stooges was over decades ago.
Professional Wild-Eyed Visionary
And people wonder why they - ESR et al - refer to this place as being full of kiddies.
The fact is that although I don't mind a good practical joke, the emphasis here is on "joke". I do mind a plain wind up at the expense of many people who are - or were - loyal supporters.
From UF:
> I'm glad I'm not on the bad end
> of the stick you guys were waving.
Well, now.
Why the hell would I want to support these guys in any kind of problem now? Even if it's not a joke next time, they've had their chance.
The way I'm feeling right now, I'd be quite happy to see all these sites sued, and I'd take great pleasure in ignoring it.
Yeah, my chain was yanked. The purpose of a joke is to amuse. This one didn't.
I've been trying to persuade the people in the company I've just joined that Slashdot is a good way of keeping tabs on what's happening in a marketplace that it's considering moving into. I'm not entirely sure how I'm meant to ensure that they keep that opinion after today, and I'm not even sure I want them to myself.
stevied asked plaintively:
> Did anyone find them funny? At all?
Yes, I loved the Metalab (né Sunsite) one. "Windoze is soooo good that we will surrender to the Borg." Bwa ha ha ha ha. Ouch, make them stop!
BTW, check the IDs on the fake cookies Rob is sending today. Now, that's funny. :-)
So is the article about IDG's findings real, or just another 4-1 post?
Irresponsible...
You guys (all sites involved) need to re-evaluate your position in the "community".
"Byte's" been doing this for years, but it was
expected.
I was genuinely concerned about "Userfriendly".
"April fool" is all fine and good when it occurs
on April first; it's not _AT ALL_ funny when
it starts before April 1st, and seems to affect
our dearly held "rights" of free expression (speaking as a USA citizen).
I'm disappointed with ALL of the sites that
participated in this particular 'hoax'..We've
enough 'GENUINE' threats to our platform of choice that we shouldn't have to worry about 'fake' challenges.
And British humor is sooo cerebral. :)
Spam spam spam eggs and spam.
Seriously, April Fools jokes are funny the same way that practical jokes are. Funny to everyone but the one fooled. The more sadistic you are, the more funny it is.
The fun isn't really the "punch-line" anyway; It's the construction. Some April Fools jokes are just stupid. The best ones are the ones that appeal to our most gullible qualities. The kind that in retrospect seem so obvious but that at the time had us hooked good.
This is one of my favorites: "I read an article yesterday that modern grammarians are meeting to vote on whether or not they should change the spelling of the word gullible. It seems that a good deal of them think it should actually be spelled gullibull from now on."
When you can catch someone with this one it's classic.
Edu. sig-line: Choose rhymes with lose. Chose rhymes with goes. Loose rhymes with goose.
Comparing? THEN use THAN.
Ditto. Maybe it was just funny when I was younger, or maybe people are just getting less funny themselves.
-lx
Making so many people genuinely worried about the site, people offering donations of money for legal defense, voicing their concern and trying to round up support for people who had apparently been victimized - that's pretty fucking funny.
Here's a funny April Fools joke - why don't I just run around claiming that I'm dying of a terminal disease, wait for people to send all their condolences and offers of support, and then, several days later on April 1st, tell them I was kidding? If it was just a one day thing, shutting down the site for April Fools, it would have been ok, but the entire week beforehand? This has been nothing but a collective 'crying of wolf' among the nerd community.
After all this, I think said community is going to be a little more reluctant to offer their support to any site who actually does have litigation launched against them.
-lx
And we should believe you because why?
You're not even logged in.
-lx
no! I still don't believe you! It was real!
-lx
It's back up.....
Well, well, well; three holes in the ground...
There is a comics page switch this year, too! This time, it's among non-syndicated artists, and includes Helen, Bruno, Keven & Kell, & many others. You can hook in at http://grove.ufl.edu/~normal/switch.html
-- Meet the Residents -- http://www.residents.com/
How many times are you guys going to post about this?
Yes, I fell for it, until I went to slashdot 10 seconds later. I thought Microsoft had objected to the jokes or something.
No, it's not funny, since I actually wanted something specific from the site today...
(On the bright side, my UF t-shirt arrived today.)
If you actually go to the front page at BeDope, you can easily tell that this is just a joke. Here is the list of the supposed victims:
Microsoft
Apple
the Vatican
Coca-Cola
LucasArts
Intel
Transmeta
the White House
the FBI
the CIA
McDonalds
the NSA
Hallmark
Disney
Be, inc.
And the reason for being sued is just that there were some typing mistakes. And the BeDope team is supposedly on a spiritual retreat in Tibet.
And if you look under that article you can see that yesterday, a newly found comet was named Comet BeOS.
And if you look under that article you can see that on 26 March 1999, an article was put out titled "SimCities Out Of Control".
BeDope being down is definitely an April Fool's day joke.
DES Khaddafi KGB genetic jihad Uzi Rule Psix Qaddafi cryptographic Peking Mossad Legion of Doom Albanian Serbian Saddam
Is there anyone who can substantiate whether this is indeed an April Fool's Day joke (and a mean & nasty one at that) or if there is some real litigation going on here?
I've only seem rumors on both sides...
-------
-------
software engineer, geek grrl, fresh air junkie
every author should post this _at_least_ one time today. in fact...if it could be there twenty times or so, someone might actually see it.
And it grows ever more tiring with each incarnation.
Check out Linux University
However, I liked the Compaq one. Especially the way they actually put up a Shockwave game and everything.
-- David Mansell, Cambridge, UK.
> You're fired
;-)
Actually I quit!
> your dog just got hit by a car,
Don't own a dog!
> Star Trek has been cancelled 'cause it's geeky,
There are better reasons to cancel Star Trek!
> and your ISP is now charging by the minute.
They already do!
Nice try though!
Why don't you post it one more time on the front page? I don't think enough people have heard about it yet.
But seriously, how much 'checking around' did you do, and what did you 'find out'? hmmm?
University Book Store is shutting down?
No sig.
I've never seen such a big bandwagon!
Isnt this going a bit too far? :P
Just got the email:
:)
:-)
--email starts here--
Subject: [LATEST] April Fool!
Date: 1 Apr 1999 19:49:10 -0000
From: editor@segfault.org
To: latest@segfault.org
April Fool!
Straight from the department of Segfault.org Information
I am pleased to announce that Segfault.org is once again open for business, all this recent activity over lawyers has in
fact been a run up to the April Fool's joke today of the site closing. If you want to hear my mumbling apology then read
on, otherwise I'm facing public execution (death by Windows Installation) from the mob already outside my door!
Obviously it was in fact co-ordinated between myself, User Friendly author Illiad and BeDope editor Mike Popovic,
with others from Slashdot and Freshmeat in on it too.
However I'd like to thank you all anyway. I received so many e-mails of support saying they you were willing to help, a
few lawyers offering to defend Segfault for free and even people offering to donate money just to help, I was
overwhelmed. I've been worn out battling with Wired reporters and other websites all wanting the exclusive, and
arguing with a few websites that wanted to ruin the joke for everyone before it had been completely played out.
Once again I have to say you are all wonderful people, and I thank you, even though it wasn't a real threat. (And no, I
didn't take any of the money
I'm really dead now, aren't I
Written by Scott James Remnant
--
Weasel
Get over it. It was a joke, and if it ruined your career, then that's too damn bad. I really hate people like you. You're the kind of person who sits at home and gets more and more bitter every day because of it, thus forcing you to stay home, until one day, you blow up and go postal.
______
everyone was born right-handed, only the greatest overcome it.
http://leftorium.net
Read an article posted 31 Mar for proof
At Rob's behest every author will be posting it.
Yeah, I'm that guy.
If this is truly an April Fool's joke it is about as funny as the story last year about JWZ passing away in a car wreck.
I fail to see the humour.
The more you know, the less you understand.
This is just annoying. Yes, it's April Fool's day, and yes humor is good, but a lot of are still looking for the same real information that we always are, and that gets hard when the jokes outnumber real stories 2 to 1.
It was a well planned and stupendously executed prank.
:-)
It was great watching so many people fumble around worrying about the status of Segfault/UF/BeDope
I know I've had fun today.
It's people like you that make this such a great joke.
It's the fools that get upset over April Fool's jokes.
Sorry that you didn't get it right away and missed out on all the fun.
It was just a little to coincidental (three sites, shutting down on April 1?) for me to believe.
It's funny, laugh.
~enucite~
http://perl2000.com/Webmaster/Support/
I'm afraid. I'm afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going.
check the support site.
i was had.
-Z
I'm afraid. I'm afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going.
I can see the CNNfn story now...
:-)
"Microsoft stock fell sharply this morning in brisk trading on ill-fated rumors that it was the 'yet unnamed' source of litigation against several web sites. Although there is no legal precedent or even advantage for targets of litigation to withold the names of aggressors, these sites set up April Fools schemes involving alleged lawsuits by 'unnamed' companies that most Linux advocates assumed to be Microsoft."
"Upon realization of the prank, traders brought Microsoft stock briskly back into the black, and it's currently trading at about 2.5 points above it's open."
Any alternate theories?
-- "In order to have power, I must be taken seriously." -Mojo Jojo
Don't criticize his "doing some checking". It's a lot of effort to travel to his two major libraries, check his periodical archives, wade through six web search engines, and skim DejaNews. He did get the news here after confirming it's not a trivial rumor.