Did last year's wiki fiasco spoil April Fools frontpages for good? (2005) April 1, 2005 11:42 AM Subscribe
Did last year's wiki fiasco spoil April Fools frontpages for good, or did I miss the party this year?
We had the party but forgot to invite you. Sorry.
Ha, well, um ...
(felt silly for posting the question but Matt's stunt was very entertaining last year)
posted by Peter H at 12:00 PM on April 1, 2005
Ha, well, um ...
(felt silly for posting the question but Matt's stunt was very entertaining last year)
posted by Peter H at 12:00 PM on April 1, 2005
You can still join in the fun! The current domain for the wiki is still going strong.
posted by Smart Dalek at 12:03 PM on April 1, 2005
posted by Smart Dalek at 12:03 PM on April 1, 2005
Ha, ha, I clicked it, I clicked it.
I blame 08/01 for this change in April Follies. Good night folks!
posted by Peter H at 12:14 PM on April 1, 2005
I blame 08/01 for this change in April Follies. Good night folks!
posted by Peter H at 12:14 PM on April 1, 2005
I was too tired this year and couldn't think of anything to trump past years. I've done a wiki, a gopher server, sold it to Google and Kuro5hin.
What else is left?
(seems the same lack of funny is a problem this year everywhere -- I'd rate this year's april fools online overall at about 1% funny, 99% dumb, and usually the ratio is more like 25-75)
posted by mathowie (staff) at 12:41 PM on April 1, 2005
What else is left?
(seems the same lack of funny is a problem this year everywhere -- I'd rate this year's april fools online overall at about 1% funny, 99% dumb, and usually the ratio is more like 25-75)
posted by mathowie (staff) at 12:41 PM on April 1, 2005
Like everything, April Fools Day runs in cycles. Give it a few years and the good stuff will be back.
(We believe one of the problems is that many pranksters simply don't plan far enough ahead, but we admit that that speculation is open to argument.)
posted by mischief at 12:53 PM on April 1, 2005
(We believe one of the problems is that many pranksters simply don't plan far enough ahead, but we admit that that speculation is open to argument.)
posted by mischief at 12:53 PM on April 1, 2005
What else is left?
Ideas for next year: Turn MeFi into a photos-only blog (except you'd probably have a goat problem), Name Steve@ as guest editor for the day; Name Quonsar as guest editor for the day; confuse the hell out of everyone by turning the main page green and the AskMe page blue; announce a $1000 yearly membership fee; put up a big "closed for rennovations" page...
....
... c'mon, I know some of the other members are far more creative than I am.
I missed the Wiki thing, sadly. I wish there was an archive/mirror of its early, mid, and final state somewhere...
posted by anastasiav at 12:56 PM on April 1, 2005
Ideas for next year: Turn MeFi into a photos-only blog (except you'd probably have a goat problem), Name Steve@ as guest editor for the day; Name Quonsar as guest editor for the day; confuse the hell out of everyone by turning the main page green and the AskMe page blue; announce a $1000 yearly membership fee; put up a big "closed for rennovations" page...
....
... c'mon, I know some of the other members are far more creative than I am.
I missed the Wiki thing, sadly. I wish there was an archive/mirror of its early, mid, and final state somewhere...
posted by anastasiav at 12:56 PM on April 1, 2005
By the way, the MeTa post that got deleted was a joke. Right? Matt? Right?
Looks over shoulder...
posted by anastasiav at 12:57 PM on April 1, 2005
Looks over shoulder...
posted by anastasiav at 12:57 PM on April 1, 2005
MetaFilter could always pull a Jorn, and run off to the dessert for a year and then come back without any reason, and just pick up where it left off. No questions answered.
posted by riffola at 1:04 PM on April 1, 2005
posted by riffola at 1:04 PM on April 1, 2005
Just put gigantic, blinking ads all over the front page and then put a post in MetaTalk, "so, uh... yeah... gigantic blinking ads."
posted by Arch Stanton at 1:23 PM on April 1, 2005
posted by Arch Stanton at 1:23 PM on April 1, 2005
Sorry, mathowie, I thought you were making a self-referential April Fool's joke, and I was trying to play along.
posted by orthogonality at 1:28 PM on April 1, 2005
posted by orthogonality at 1:28 PM on April 1, 2005
You mean the 502-bad gateway error I kept getting earlier wasn't a joke?
posted by TedW at 1:56 PM on April 1, 2005
posted by TedW at 1:56 PM on April 1, 2005
I've done a wiki, a gopher server, sold it to Google and Kuro5hin.
Some of these were appreciated more than others. For instance, the K5 buyout was what introduced me to MeFi; I'd never heard of this place before seeing this article. It took me a while to warm up to this place. I remember hating the blue colour scheme and using the Met4filter.org style until it broke.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 2:07 PM on April 1, 2005
Some of these were appreciated more than others. For instance, the K5 buyout was what introduced me to MeFi; I'd never heard of this place before seeing this article. It took me a while to warm up to this place. I remember hating the blue colour scheme and using the Met4filter.org style until it broke.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 2:07 PM on April 1, 2005
anastasiav writes " Ideas for next year: "
Change the "posted by" attribution to a different user name for each comment.
All users have a number, and I assume comment authors are identified in the database by that number.
Say that Mefi has 23028 users, and assume that the comment table is called "comments" and the structure of the comments table is something like:
comment_id, post_id, user_id, comment_text, whatever
Run this sql:
1. Rename the comments table
alter table comments rename to comments_base
2. Create a view to replace the table
create view comments as
select comment_id, post_id, cast( random() * 100000 as int ) % 23028 +1 as user_id, comment_text, whatever
from comments_base
3. Then recompile any other views and stored procedures so they see the new comments view rather than the old table.
Each comment then gets a randomly assigned user name, which changes on each page view.
Another way to do this would be to make the changes constant, so that Mefi readers could try to figure out who the comments belonged to. To do that, you'd do the same as before, but you'd generate the random number only once. We'll pick the number 15678. Only the view has to change:
create view comments as
select comment_id, post_id, ( user_id + 15678 ) % 23028 +1 as user_id, comment_text, whatever
from comments_base
posted by orthogonality at 3:03 PM on April 1, 2005
Change the "posted by" attribution to a different user name for each comment.
All users have a number, and I assume comment authors are identified in the database by that number.
Say that Mefi has 23028 users, and assume that the comment table is called "comments" and the structure of the comments table is something like:
comment_id, post_id, user_id, comment_text, whatever
Run this sql:
1. Rename the comments table
alter table comments rename to comments_base
2. Create a view to replace the table
create view comments as
select comment_id, post_id, cast( random() * 100000 as int ) % 23028 +1 as user_id, comment_text, whatever
from comments_base
3. Then recompile any other views and stored procedures so they see the new comments view rather than the old table.
Each comment then gets a randomly assigned user name, which changes on each page view.
Another way to do this would be to make the changes constant, so that Mefi readers could try to figure out who the comments belonged to. To do that, you'd do the same as before, but you'd generate the random number only once. We'll pick the number 15678. Only the view has to change:
create view comments as
select comment_id, post_id, ( user_id + 15678 ) % 23028 +1 as user_id, comment_text, whatever
from comments_base
posted by orthogonality at 3:03 PM on April 1, 2005
Well, you've ruined that one.
posted by eyeballkid at 3:20 PM on April 1, 2005
posted by eyeballkid at 3:20 PM on April 1, 2005
Here's an idea...if anyone has a funny concept: EMAIL IT TO MATT FOR GDS SAKE!
posted by ColdChef at 4:19 PM on April 1, 2005
posted by ColdChef at 4:19 PM on April 1, 2005
(seems the same lack of funny is a problem this year everywhere -- I'd rate this year's april fools online overall at about 1% funny, 99% dumb, and usually the ratio is more like 25-75)
I think it's because these are pretty grim times.
posted by five fresh fish at 4:25 PM on April 1, 2005
I think it's because these are pretty grim times.
posted by five fresh fish at 4:25 PM on April 1, 2005
"Change the 'posted by' attribution to a different user name for each comment."
Man, that would so confuse and piss everyone off. It'd be a great April Fool's prank.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 4:47 PM on April 1, 2005
Man, that would so confuse and piss everyone off. It'd be a great April Fool's prank.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 4:47 PM on April 1, 2005
Just put gigantic, blinking ads all over the front page and then put a post in MetaTalk, "so, uh... yeah... gigantic blinking ads."
Awesome. Just awesome.
Or, you could just put up a JRun error page.....
too close to home?
posted by graventy at 5:01 PM on April 1, 2005
Awesome. Just awesome.
Or, you could just put up a JRun error page.....
too close to home?
posted by graventy at 5:01 PM on April 1, 2005
but grim times usually lead to good art (just not this year)
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:46 PM on April 1, 2005
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:46 PM on April 1, 2005
guh, I should have done a joke site about JRun. If I would have thought of it earlier this week I could have done something great with that.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:46 PM on April 1, 2005
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:46 PM on April 1, 2005
This is Dr. Flugenhuffer. The man you know as jonmc drowned in a beer stein at 3:45 this afternoon.
posted by jonmc at 5:53 PM on April 1, 2005
posted by jonmc at 5:53 PM on April 1, 2005
I am the real Dr. Flugenhuffer! This man is a fake! And he still refuses to admit that the moon landing was faked!
posted by graventy at 7:37 PM on April 1, 2005
posted by graventy at 7:37 PM on April 1, 2005
Just wipe the DNS for the day - scare the crap out of 20,000 people AND get a day off from babysitting them into the bargain.
posted by dg at 7:41 PM on April 1, 2005
posted by dg at 7:41 PM on April 1, 2005
I was hoping Matt would put up a deliberately awful rendition of the new design for a day: lots of overlapping text, a pre-teen colour scheme and a few well-chosen animated GIFs.
There should probably be a punchline here.
posted by NinjaPirate at 3:10 AM on April 2, 2005
There should probably be a punchline here.
posted by NinjaPirate at 3:10 AM on April 2, 2005
^ insert above ^
Do you really think I wished for a 12-inch pianist?
posted by taz at 4:51 AM on April 2, 2005
Do you really think I wished for a 12-inch pianist?
posted by taz at 4:51 AM on April 2, 2005
eyeballkid writes "Well, you've ruined that one."
Not at all.
The beauty of my proposal is that it would "sneak up" on users, few would notice it until they saw a controversial post apparently signed by a Mefite they'd previously taken notice of: "Whaaaa? Ethereal Bligh just wrote 'George W. Bush is our greatest Prezidint EVAR!'"
posted by orthogonality at 4:54 AM on April 2, 2005
Not at all.
The beauty of my proposal is that it would "sneak up" on users, few would notice it until they saw a controversial post apparently signed by a Mefite they'd previously taken notice of: "Whaaaa? Ethereal Bligh just wrote 'George W. Bush is our greatest Prezidint EVAR!'"
posted by orthogonality at 4:54 AM on April 2, 2005
(seems the same lack of funny is a problem this year everywhere -- I'd rate this year's april fools online overall at about 1% funny, 99% dumb, and usually the ratio is more like 25-75)
I think it's because these are pretty grim times.
Since the day was at the end of the work week it would be well known which would make it harder pulling the joke off. Especially looking at the fact it fell on many employees’ pay day by being the month’s first day and Friday.
posted by thomcatspike at 10:54 AM on April 2, 2005
I think it's because these are pretty grim times.
Since the day was at the end of the work week it would be well known which would make it harder pulling the joke off. Especially looking at the fact it fell on many employees’ pay day by being the month’s first day and Friday.
posted by thomcatspike at 10:54 AM on April 2, 2005
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
posted by iconomy at 11:58 AM on April 1, 2005