Love it or hate it, one thing’s for sure, the annual day of trickery marked April 1st is downright annoying when it comes to the Web.
From Gmail Custom Time (sending you back in time to send e-mails that can change the course of history) to a phony TechCrunch vs. Facebook lawsuit (equally not funny), these gags are simply a waste of our time.
Big blogs and small blogs alike all try to see who’s the ‘cleverest of them all.’
Resident editor Thord Daniel Hedengren talks about how writers must be on extra guard come the first of April. Scribes run the risk of getting caught with their pants down – potentially killing their credibility.
Readers, on the other hand, can sit back and enjoy the show. But here’s the thing: I just find the silly Web gags self-serving.
I love a good gag. Like the time dad left a humongous bluefish he caught in the tub for poor ol’ mom. But when it comes to the Internet, I think the jokes are lost in translation.
Call me a Grinch.
What do you guys think?
Of course, if you rip me a new one, I’ll just say this was all one big joke.
Author: Andrew G.R.
Andrew G.R. is the owner of Jobacle, a career advice and employment news blog and podcast designed to make work better. Follow him on Twitter.
I view it as just another test of creativity. Like most posts, some hit and some don’t.
Today, mine was pure genius. Simple, obvious, uproariously funny.
April Fool!
A lot of them did display as arrogance. The amount of “This blog was sold to [insert company/a-lister name] for [large amount of dollarage]!” posts was quite painful.
Be creative, surprise your readers, throw them, but don’t make them feel silly :)
I was thinking of pulling the ol’ “My blog with a fresh install of WordPress 2.5 was haxxorred!!!” trick, but decided against it. Guess I’m just unfun.
Bah Humbug
Early in the morning when I was first checking things, I didn’t even think about it being April Fool’s day.
So for people like me who don’t know about the holiday while reading, it can be very bad. I’d almost decided to stop reading a few blogs until I read the comments.
If you’re going to do something, make it obviously fake. Hell, even DeviantArt’s wasn’t bad.
YES, april fools day is the worst day of the year in the blogosphere, everyone thinks that they can trick everyone else but they do nothing more than make themselves look silly.
Quit rick rolling each other and post some serious stuff bloggers!
I think the best gags are the ones that’re obviously jokes, and are more of a satire or something than an earnest attempt to fool people. Granted, that’s not really what April Fools is about, but it’s nice.
A good example for gaming fans is this modern-style trailer for a fictional 80s game, produced by Blizzard of World of Warcraft fame:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/moltencore/