April Fools!

March 31, 2007 9:30 PM

Happy April Fools Day.

[historical note: unstyled view of old page is here. -c 3/31/08]

posted by yeoz to MetaFilter-related at 9:30 PM (135 comments total)

I adimit it, I bought the kitten one, hook line and sinker.
posted by cosmicbandito at 9:39 PM on March 31, 2007

as did I, as did I.

I love the other captions on the same page. But clicking through brings me to the usual offerings of everyday AskMe...
posted by seawallrunner at 9:40 PM on March 31, 2007

...and then I reloaded and got the normal page.

I thought that one was fake, too.
posted by niles at 9:47 PM on March 31, 2007

This is the real thread because you actually went to the trouble of linking to it.
posted by dhammond at 9:48 PM on March 31, 2007

I adimit it, I bought the kitten one, hook line and sinker.

I adimit it, too. I bought it. I expected something here, and STILL bought it. Har, even.
posted by gummi at 9:50 PM on March 31, 2007

This is the real thread
Bloody hell, I demand a recount!
posted by jmd82 at 9:50 PM on March 31, 2007

I liked the little things, like the usernames. They had me chuckling almost as much as the questions.
posted by djgh at 9:52 PM on March 31, 2007

Which kind of chicken that I can buy at the supermarket has the tightest cavity? I need to know for an experiment I'm doing. Are Perdues good? Are fryers better than roasters? You wouldn't get salmonella by putting body parts into raw chicken orifices, right? Thanks for the help.
posted by beatingajoketodeath to grab bag at 9:16 AM - 123 answers +

Jess, can you clarify this one for us? We need a librarian with chicken sex research skills.
posted by bigmusic at 9:55 PM on March 31, 2007

I've recently finalized the sale of a long-running community website to a major media conglomerate. I have not yet told the users. Should I embed a veiled admission in a jokey April Fool's page so that I can point to it later and claim that, technically, I *did* warn them?
posted by anonymous to food & the drink at 9:16 AM - 1142 answers +

Would also like clarification on that one too. (Oh Noes! Mefi sold!)
posted by yeoz at 9:56 PM on March 31, 2007

darn it. I wanted to find out who cortex thinks he is.
posted by bluesky43 at 9:57 PM on March 31, 2007 [2 favorites]

Re: yeoz. *hopes mathowie isn't that cruel*

I actually stared at the screen and wondered if it was a coding mixup and how I could get around it by directly typing in the URL instead of clicking on obviously defective links.

Until I realized it was after midnight.

Dammit, thwarted by irregular sleeping habits, AGAIN.
posted by Phire at 9:59 PM on March 31, 2007

I really wanted to answer those questions. REALLY.
posted by IronLizard at 10:04 PM on March 31, 2007

I got owned.
posted by kdar at 10:04 PM on March 31, 2007

Seconding the pwnage. Thanks. That was awesome.
posted by frogan at 10:07 PM on March 31, 2007

so how long until the fake usernames start showing up as actual members?
posted by MadamM at 10:07 PM on March 31, 2007

IronLizard, me too.
posted by janell at 10:12 PM on March 31, 2007

It just doesn't get much funnier than "Jimmy Svendsen, age 7."
posted by dhammond at 10:12 PM on March 31, 2007

First thing I saw was the one about beating one's wife, when I came home. I was all giddy with excitement and ready to look at the trainwreck. Thanks for nothing, assholes.
posted by geoff. at 10:14 PM on March 31, 2007

Good show, this cracked me up.

But seriously, who does this cortex guy think he is?
posted by Galvatron at 10:16 PM on March 31, 2007

Where can I cast my ballot for vi? TIEM TO MAEK SLAHDSDOT POLLS!
posted by kdar at 10:19 PM on March 31, 2007

Doctor...Therapist...Priest...Mom...Lawyer

It's the little touches that make the joke. Very funny! I like it.
posted by Salmonberry at 10:19 PM on March 31, 2007

*giggles like a schoolgirl*
posted by cortex at 10:26 PM on March 31, 2007

* yay *
posted by jessamyn at 10:28 PM on March 31, 2007

This is one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
posted by the_bone at 10:34 PM on March 31, 2007

"librariansrhotamirite"

haha even the tags are funny.

Matt you went all out. I commend you.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 10:39 PM on March 31, 2007

It was all jessamyn's idea and doing. I take no credit for it.
posted by mathowie at 10:42 PM on March 31, 2007

Yay, Jessamyn!

I hate April Fool's Day, and I thought this was hilarious.
posted by occhiblu at 10:44 PM on March 31, 2007

Word.
posted by dhammond at 10:46 PM on March 31, 2007

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

Also, "I Drove All Night" is my favorite Celine Dion track.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 10:48 PM on March 31, 2007

heee! (^_^)
posted by gomichild at 10:49 PM on March 31, 2007

I don't get the joke.
posted by Eideteker at 10:59 PM on March 31, 2007 [1 favorite]

Man, that poor kitten! I keep trying to click on the post but I get redirected to another page!

Help!
posted by cowbellemoo at 11:02 PM on March 31, 2007

Heh - very creative. Thanks!
posted by nelvana at 11:03 PM on March 31, 2007

cortex helped!

I also have historically hated April Fools stuff that made you feel stupid or that a bunch of people were in on some joke and you weren't, where you wound up feeling p0wned. I wanted to make something that was fun and rewarded close inspection but would go away entirely if it wasn't your thing. Sorry to deny some of you the trainwreck that you felt was finally yours.
posted by jessamyn at 11:04 PM on March 31, 2007 [2 favorites]

I'm confused and crying, but all happy-like!
posted by trip and a half at 11:07 PM on March 31, 2007

Someone should let everyone participate in writing the April Fools day responses, donchathink?
posted by Listener at 11:19 PM on March 31, 2007

amusing stuff, like the "thinly veiled excuse to talk about penis " and "what the fuck is WITH people" categories
posted by edgeways at 11:23 PM on March 31, 2007

Sorry to deny some of you the trainwreck that you felt was finally yours.

No no, it was still great.
posted by IronLizard at 11:26 PM on March 31, 2007

Expecting these kind of surprises to pop up today, has anyone else noticed this yet?
posted by gummi at 11:34 PM on March 31, 2007

Ooh, never mind.
posted by gummi at 11:36 PM on March 31, 2007

Fine, I will not quit. There's this.
posted by gummi at 11:47 PM on March 31, 2007

Give. Me. A. Break.

You know what? I quit. I'm off to bed. Laughing, but off to bed, nonetheless.
posted by gummi at 11:49 PM on March 31, 2007

Yeah, "Doctor, Therapist, Priest, Mom, Lawyer" tabs are good too. Very clever.
posted by Listener at 12:02 AM on April 1, 2007

My heart goes out to hollywoodjodie. I think I'll write her a few more letters.
posted by maxwelton at 12:18 AM on April 1, 2007

Heeheeheeheeheeeee!
posted by Many bubbles at 12:24 AM on April 1, 2007

That was a great surprise. Thanks.
posted by painquale at 12:32 AM on April 1, 2007

...And can I petition for a "what the fuck is WITH people" category for real?

And a "why so hostile" one for things to be moved to retroactively when they're deleted?
posted by Many bubbles at 12:44 AM on April 1, 2007

No, Many bubbles, you may not. Clearly "First World Problems" is the category most deserving of a place in the Real AskMe.
posted by IshmaelGraves at 1:01 AM on April 1, 2007

Well done! Thank you for the laugh!
posted by chrisamiller at 1:02 AM on April 1, 2007

I got a sneak preview of the last LOST episode and the part where Jack's legs get eaten by a polar bear is really confusing me.

Heh. Nice work, MeMods. And I admit to clicking on the kitty thread before I had even read the rest of them, being surprised that it redirected to AskMe, thinking, "Damn, must have already been deleted," going down to the next question, then finally getting it.

Success.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 1:28 AM on April 1, 2007

Well played.
posted by safetyfork at 1:29 AM on April 1, 2007

Blinked twice until I realized it was after midnight...fun stuff for sure, still giggling over some of them. Thanks!
posted by faineant at 1:55 AM on April 1, 2007

I kinda want to read the threads for all the fake questions.

Scratch that. I REALLY want to read the threads for all the fake questions.
posted by chrominance at 3:11 AM on April 1, 2007

After substantial lurking time, I finally signed up today.. and just for one second, I thought that maybe AskMe was always full of trainwrecks deemed too awesome for the general public to see. Then the glorious vision before me was revealed to be nothing more than a cruel trick. Sigh.
posted by plant at 3:11 AM on April 1, 2007 [7 favorites]

I laughed out loud at a few of these; some of the setups are like Far Side cartoons in their sense of "something really bad is about to happen, and this guy has no idea".
posted by teleskiving at 3:18 AM on April 1, 2007

Good job, kids.

I thought the English-only kid with the Japanese-only wireless router was April Fools. It had all the classic elements for a great technical AskMe trainwreck.

• Clueless newbie.
• "Minor" problem.
• Impossibly broad question.
• No manual.
• No information in post.
• Snark from the OP.

Guess not. Now that's funny/sad.
posted by paulsc at 3:39 AM on April 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

mathowie, can you, on the user sign up screen, please include a note that wookiee has two e's?
posted by nthdegx at 4:27 AM on April 1, 2007

Well done everyone. Good darts.
posted by Jofus at 4:35 AM on April 1, 2007

I also have historically hated April Fools stuff that made you feel stupid or that a bunch of people were in on some joke and you weren't, where you wound up feeling p0wned. I wanted to make something that was fun and rewarded close inspection but would go away entirely if it wasn't your thing.

Well done, indeed.

Now I just need to brace myself for the rest of the day. Some of my co-workers are not as considerate as Jessamyn...
posted by Gator at 4:50 AM on April 1, 2007

Dammit, I so want to read some of those threads!
posted by litlnemo at 5:44 AM on April 1, 2007

ligerbeat!
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 5:50 AM on April 1, 2007

Very nice. Thanks for the laughs.
posted by veggieboy at 6:10 AM on April 1, 2007

I wanted to suggest a name for the polyamory's kitten. Well done, jessamyn.
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:49 AM on April 1, 2007

I'd like to see the onion do straight news for april fools.

The rest I can live without.
posted by srboisvert at 6:53 AM on April 1, 2007

I was hoping all of our usernames would be wendell but this works too.
posted by wheelieman at 6:57 AM on April 1, 2007

Brilliant! But for the first time, I had occasion to regret my ingrained habit of reading the site in the order MeFi - MeTa - AskMe. It would have been better if I hadn't seen the three (!) MeTa posts about the joke before clicking on AskMe. But I was still weeping with laughter. Well done, jessatex!

Now can you please open threads for some of those so we can have the pleasure of snarking at AskMe questions without guilt for once?
posted by languagehat at 8:07 AM on April 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

That was just too damn funny. Kudos to all responsible.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:31 AM on April 1, 2007

I now have non-sexual-internet-crushes on jessamyn and miss lynnster.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 8:40 AM on April 1, 2007

DNAB, can we surmise from that comment that you have sexual-internet-crushes on humorists mathowie and cortex? Just asking, you understand...

But just lemme know if I'm getting too personal.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:59 AM on April 1, 2007

I wub you, jessamyn.
posted by iconomy at 9:18 AM on April 1, 2007

:)
posted by caddis at 9:30 AM on April 1, 2007

Bah. My milkshake is unquestionably superior to Haughey's. I could teach him, but I'd have to charge.
posted by cortex at 9:33 AM on April 1, 2007 [3 favorites]

Brilliant.
posted by itchie at 9:42 AM on April 1, 2007

That was the awesomest april fools ever.
posted by sveskemus at 9:43 AM on April 1, 2007

Good show!

I thought that the questions on the 'real' ask.mefi page were another iteration of the joke page, though...
posted by porpoise at 10:04 AM on April 1, 2007

Hilarious stuff.
posted by O9scar at 10:09 AM on April 1, 2007

That was fantastic.
posted by jerseygirl at 10:11 AM on April 1, 2007

Wow. That was absolutely awesome! Thanks for the laughs! Even the comment counts made me laugh.
posted by ClarissaWAM at 10:17 AM on April 1, 2007

awesomeawesomeawesome.
posted by selfmedicating at 10:24 AM on April 1, 2007

I can't believe I missed the beret one on the first pass. Great job. :D
posted by artifarce at 10:30 AM on April 1, 2007

PONY QUESTION: Can we have the "why so hostile" group, so I can read them and laugh on bad days? Seriously?

Oh. And I, as well, was totally p0wn3d by the kitty thread.
posted by plaidrabbit at 10:32 AM on April 1, 2007

Very good - the best I've seen today.
posted by WPW at 10:52 AM on April 1, 2007

"I thought that the questions on the 'real' ask.mefi page were another iteration of the joke page, though."

Yeah, me too, just now.
posted by Listener at 10:58 AM on April 1, 2007

"ligerbeat" - heh. It's funny because it's true!
posted by GuyZero at 10:59 AM on April 1, 2007

I don't know if any of you ever play any games at "jay is games" but he has a pretty decent fools' joke up: an endlessly loading game. In the comment thread there are some people who are still waiting for it to load, anticipating how good it's going to be.
posted by maxwelton at 11:06 AM on April 1, 2007

I laughed a lot last night.
Thank you.
posted by bru at 11:56 AM on April 1, 2007

I don't understand "ligerbeat", so I'm going to cut off my hand.
posted by trip and a half at 12:00 PM on April 1, 2007

Wait - unless you guys deliberately spelt wookiee wrongly as a reflection of the ongoingMeFi "wookie" misconception - in which case this would be the best April fool ever.
posted by nthdegx at 12:18 PM on April 1, 2007

You used my kitten-drowning question. I feel warm and fuzzy.
posted by blag at 12:18 PM on April 1, 2007

Really well done. Like several others, I admit that I initially thought the kitten-in-python question was for real!
posted by treepour at 12:44 PM on April 1, 2007

This is wonderful. Thank you, Jessamyn and Cortex!
posted by Asparagirl at 12:45 PM on April 1, 2007

That was awesome, jessamyn.
posted by brundlefly at 12:52 PM on April 1, 2007

I thought "I wonder if anyone posted any joke questions to AskMe?" so I look, and think, "Aha, somebody posted the classic kitten-in-a-python question! Let us read it!" Then when redirected to AskMe Proper I thought, "Wow, Jessamyn must be on the ball. It's already gone. Guess there's no room for humor in AskMe"

And I was wrong. Wonderfully, hilariously wrong.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 1:07 PM on April 1, 2007

I don't get the one about the chopped liver.
posted by Mom at 1:50 PM on April 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

Very nice. Thank you. I thoroughly enjoyed that. The rest of the web I'm afraid to read today, though.
posted by mmahaffie at 1:55 PM on April 1, 2007

My cow-orker wears this really annoying beret. We are on a television show and I keep making hints that maybe it's not the best fashion statement -- I bought him a Yankees cap, I talk in an affected French accent whenever he's around -- but he's not getting it. I have access to power tools and explosives, how can I be less subtle?

That one took me a minute, and then I laughed my ass off.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 2:13 PM on April 1, 2007

...was out hunting and I accidently shot my friend in the face. hes being a whiny bitch about it, can i not claim its an accident if I shoot him again?

Sure, take him hunting again.

Very original jokes from Matt and Jess. I Love them all.
posted by thetenthstory at 2:43 PM on April 1, 2007

ligerbeat = Napoleon Dynamite ligers plus awesome 80's tween fan mag TigerBeat! (OK, it's from before the 80's but whatever).

Plus pretty much all of the usernames and categories were awesome. Not just that one.
posted by GuyZero at 2:55 PM on April 1, 2007

I was afraid "ligerbeat" would fly under the radar. Glad it didn't.
posted by cortex at 6:16 PM on April 1, 2007

ligerbeat was awesome, but I had to ask jessamyn for the beret/explosives reference. That one was brilliant but subtle.
posted by mathowie at 6:43 PM on April 1, 2007

My cow-orker wears this really annoying beret.

Folks, cow orking is a serious subject, and those who are compelled to ork cows are not to be laughed at: they suffer from a very specific mental illness and they deserve our respect and support. I am disappointed that people here at MetaFilter would be so callous as to make the cow orking community the brunt of tasteless April Fool jokes.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:08 PM on April 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

Well done!
posted by Mister_A at 8:02 PM on April 1, 2007

Stick-in-the-mud: I went to Ask today to, you know, ask a question and decided to defer given both the page overlay and the general "haha, question-asker asshats" tone here. Given J'myns years-long denouncement of the holiday, I've got to say that I was a bit dissapointed to see that she had a hand its in its perpetuation.

Ultimately, "whatever", but I felt there was someting vaugely un-community about the whole deal.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 8:17 PM on April 1, 2007

Okay, I still don't get the beret/explosives one, as I'm not sure what show is being referred to. Please to be explaining?

(My personal favorite was the 1142 answers to the MeFi - sold - to - media - conglomerate question. That's so... Meta!)
posted by hincandenza at 8:22 PM on April 1, 2007

The beret one is supposed to be written by adam savage. Make sense now?

I turned off the joke redirect, so things should be back to normal now.
posted by mathowie at 8:36 PM on April 1, 2007

Good idea, but small suggestion:

I kept getting the fake askme page whenever I went to askme throughout the day. That got annoying and the joke less funny.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:18 PM on April 1, 2007

Weird. Was supposed to be cookied so it'd only show on the first visit. Do you rule your cookies with an iron fist, Brandon?
posted by cortex at 9:20 PM on April 1, 2007

Some people need to get a sense of humour. I thought it was hilarious and extremely well-done, with the first question being just what we expect to see on AskMe.

sale of a long-running community website to a major media conglomerate.
Is it just me who is thinking that this would be the perfect time to slip in an announcement like this? You know - "well, the joke part was the bit about announcing it here pretending to be a joke, the rest was totally serious". No? Just me? Yeah, I thought so.
posted by dg at 9:36 PM on April 1, 2007

I really REALLY appreciated the number of comments to the Lost thread.

I would tell you how hard that made me laugh, but I think the others are watching me via the Pearl station.

I've said too much.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 10:18 PM on April 1, 2007

That was beautifully done. (I'm glad this thread is here or I would have missed the joke - having not visited at all yesterday.)
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:01 PM on April 1, 2007

"The beret one is supposed to be written by adam savage. Make sense now?"

Ahhhh, now it makes sense.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:37 AM on April 2, 2007

I felt there was someting vaugely un-community about the whole deal.

Right, because you didn't like it, whereas everyone else in the community seems to have gotten a huge kick out of it. So it shouldn't have happened, just to satisfy you. As opposed to the community. Gee, there's somethnig vaguely un-community about that.
posted by languagehat at 5:25 AM on April 2, 2007

Ogre Lawless's shoelace is undone.
posted by flabdablet at 6:15 AM on April 2, 2007

oh noes i'm pregnant

I'm having a hard time thinking of a less anti-community prank than this one. I'm sorry it bugged you, Ogre Lawless, but short of a steadfast refusal to even acknowledge April Fools Day exists, what would have been less invasive/jarring than a one-click-long collection of jokes about, essentially, the normative behavior of this very community?

It didn't supplant the community's function; with a couple of obviously, outlandishly fictionalized exceptions it made no reference to actual users, and it disappeared right quick. Not quite the same as running serial bullshit stories folded into your normal news feed (heckuva job, Malda) or lying about the site folding or other such dramatic prank bullshit.
posted by cortex at 6:41 AM on April 2, 2007

Weird. Was supposed to be cookied so it'd only show on the first visit. Do you rule your cookies with an iron fist, Brandon?

I also got it on every visit that day, but maybe this is just a cache thing? I just clicked through instead of trying F5. I'm fairly confident my Firefox cookie settings are just the defaults.
posted by teleskiving at 7:07 AM on April 2, 2007

I lol'd
posted by drezdn at 9:38 AM on April 2, 2007

Oh, geeez. I didn't notice the tabs until someone up-thread mentioned them.

Well done, jessamyn and cortex. And you too, mathowie, for letting them do it.
posted by deborah at 11:48 AM on April 2, 2007

So it shouldn't have happened, just to satisfy you.

I'm so glad that languagehat gets it -- its all about MEEEE!

That some of the A-Fools "questions" -were- spot on made me think that some humor was being found at the expense of folks who post obvious, obtuse or obfuscating Asks. I presume company policy is to beshit upon them then? I inquire as I'm sure many of us have at one point or another asked such a question and should know the consquences of such ill-conceived musings. Clearly, such fools should not be tolerated -- perhaps a pony can be invoked to have "ASSHAT" replace their user name. Thanks for clearing that up, everybody. [/snark] So went my thinking yesterday.

Also, I do not wear shoes, having had my feet blown off by a land-mine at a very tender age. And really, I'm not all bent about this or anything, I just thought "ROFL: asshat question askers" kind of strange from mgmt, especially the "I hate April Fools Day" mgmt. Perhaps it was off perception on my part. I clearly should have gone to church instead of logging on yesterday. Also: I do not go to church.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 1:16 PM on April 2, 2007

That some of the A-Fools "questions" -were- spot on made me think that some humor was being found at the expense of folks who post obvious, obtuse or obfuscating Asks. I presume company policy is to beshit upon them then?

Where are you getting this? How does the idea that we're willfully shitting on users jibe at all with how the site has historically been run? How does having a self-reflective sense of humor about what does and does not sit will in the community's norms qualify as anti-community?

Is it your position that there is no such thing as a bad question for AskMe? If not, do you think we should just never speak of them, and pretend they do not exist?

I'm not trying to be combative, I just don't see the nastiness you read into it and I want to understand why, because I'm having a hard time imagining anything less offensive than this setup.
posted by cortex at 1:26 PM on April 2, 2007

Also: I do not go to church.

My only other AFD activity yesterday was to set my twitter and IM status to CHURCH.
posted by jessamyn at 5:40 PM on April 2, 2007

do you think we should just never speak of them?

Let us never speak of the bad AskMe questions again.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:19 PM on April 2, 2007

Cortex: I'll apologize for -my- earlier combativeness -- languagehat always bring it out in me. I didn't think it was -intentionally- mean spirited, though I felt poorly for those who have asked questions close to the humor therein. The piss was being taken, yes?
posted by Ogre Lawless at 7:19 PM on April 2, 2007

And lord knows none of us is ever deserving of that.
posted by flabdablet at 8:31 PM on April 2, 2007

Heh. If it's any reassurance, Ogre, I was pretty firmly in the "food skepticism is a reasonable thing" camp.
posted by cortex at 10:16 PM on April 2, 2007

And lord knows none of us is ever deserving of that.

Don't be a douche. Of course we all are deserving of that from time to time. Is there not a difference, however, from us taking the piss of ourselves and those who run a site (with previous and still maintained "I love you all" caveats on my part) taking the piss of the userbase?
posted by Ogre Lawless at 8:46 AM on April 3, 2007

There's some sort of difference, sure. I'm not sure if it's a meaningful let alone dismaying difference in this case, though, which is what's got me puzzled.

If all of those fake questions had been submitted by non-admin mefites, would it have been less troubling?
posted by cortex at 9:34 AM on April 3, 2007

If all of those fake questions had been submitted by non-admin mefites, would it have been less troubling?

In fact, many of them were from non-admin MeFites.
posted by jessamyn at 9:57 AM on April 3, 2007

If all of those fake questions had been submitted by non-admin mefites, would it have been less troubling?

Probably, yes. Its about the same as getting The Business from one's boss as opposed to getting the same Business from one's coworkers. Your boss, as does mine, may vary.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 1:22 PM on April 3, 2007

I hear you, I think. So, taking it further, is there anything in the presentation of the questions that makes some of them seem specifically admin-authored? Though it's not so, would it be plausible to say that that exact page, as posted, could have been written entirely by non-admin users? If not, which, and why?

I guess I'm wondering if there's anything about the joke page that had a Boss flavor to it, or if it's strictly the knowledge of (partial) authorship conveyed in this thread that generates the distaste. I know we were both going for funny AskMe tropes in general, rather than aiming at specific users or mocking by proxy, but I'm not clear if we missed the mark there or if it's just a post hoc reaction to the fact that we were the ones pressing the button.
posted by cortex at 2:13 PM on April 3, 2007

is there anything in the presentation of the questions that makes some of them seem specifically admin-authored?

Why yes, of course! The fact that each and every one of the questions was a perfectly hilarious nugget of humor, brilliant, shining examples of the kind of incisive and thoroughly entertaining wit that could've come only from the minds of very, very talented individuals of the highest merit!

[NOT SHAMELESS SUCKING UP TO ADMINS. NO WAY.]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:35 PM on April 3, 2007

I'll stop being a douche if you'll stop being a petty, nitpicking wowser. Deal?
posted by flabdablet at 9:54 PM on April 3, 2007

Though it's not so, would it be plausible to say that that exact page, as posted, could have been written entirely by non-admin users?

Given that the page was a hard overlay, no. Otherwise, sure. It was exactly the button-pressing aspect of it that got me a bit off-center: the buy-in required of both asker and responder would make me think Ask to be something of a fragile creature. And really, it was funny. Like tripping blind people I love you man.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 10:34 AM on April 4, 2007

Given that the page was a hard overlay, no.

Okay, fair enough, and agree-to-disagree. I find these kinds of perception questions interesting; I appreciate you hashing it out with me. And if you really want to fuck with 'em, move the toilet. Hugs!
posted by cortex at 10:39 AM on April 4, 2007

I laff'd
posted by dgaicun at 1:18 PM on April 4, 2007

So did we ever figure out how to shot web? My friend and I have a bet going on and we need to know before Spider-Man 3 comes out.
posted by Eideteker at 7:51 PM on April 6, 2007