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> I believe we have more to lose than gain by attempting to be funny Ouch... Seems like he’s just bitter about his engineers’ senses of humor? I can name nume

> I believe we have more to lose than gain by attempting to be funny Ouch... Seems like he’s just bitter about his engineers’ senses of humor? I can name numerous Google pranks that were obviously stupid and legitimately made me chuckle and then move on with my day — their toilet-powered ISP, Rick Rolling YouTube viewers, Google Maps PacMan, even Contoso switching from O365 to Google Apps (there’s a list of dozens more of them on Wikipedia [0]). Sure, some of them were a bust, like adding a mic drop GIF to outgoing Gmail messages without clear consent. Large corporations shouldn’t be literally pranking their users. But can anyone name a Microsoft joke off the top of your head? Maybe I’m in the minority on HN, but I say if you’re confident that you employ some funny engineers who can limit themselves to obvious humor, especially if you’re a small company, why not keep this silly 500+ year tradition alive and well? :) [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_April_Fools%27_Day_jokes https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_April_Fools%2...

cpeterso 8y ago
The Pokémon Go game actually began as a Google Maps April Fools' Day prank: https://blog.google/products/maps/become-pokemon-master-with-google-maps/ https://blog.google/products/maps/become-pokemon-master-with...
C1sc0cat 8y ago
Probably had some ill thought out marketing idea shut down by reasoned technical debate :-)
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
cr0sh 8y ago
> But can anyone name a Microsoft joke off the top of your head? Bob?
chrisseaton 8y ago
> can limit themselves to obvious humor I don't want April fools pranks, but if you do insist on it, then an obvious fooling is somewhat oxymoronic and misunderstanding the point of it. If it's obvious then nobody will be fooled.
- jakejarvis 8y ago
  I actually agree. I don’t want to be pranked/fooled by companies I rely on — in my opinion, companies who don’t understand that are the only ones who fall flat on their faces on April 1st and need to apologize for a PR disaster on April 2nd [0][1][2][3][4][5][and on and on...]. Big brands who want to participate should really think of it as April Dumb Tangential Jokes Day, perhaps! [0] https://blog.google/products/gmail/introducing-gmail-mic-drop/ https://blog.google/products/gmail/introducing-gmail-mic-dro... [1] https://lineageos.org/An-April-Apology/ https://lineageos.org/An-April-Apology/ [2] http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-04-02-ea-apologises-for-frostbites-stupid-anti-nintendo-april-fool http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-04-02-ea-apologises-f... [3] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-01/elon-musk-sends-april-fools-tweets-joking-of-tesla-bankruptcy https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-01/elon-musk... [4] http://hoaxes.org/archive/permalink/taco_liberty_bell http://hoaxes.org/archive/permalink/taco_liberty_bell [5] http://www.buzzfeed.com/jarettwieselman/happy-endings-reboot-rumors-were-an-elaborate-april-fo#.jgQpKP23Q http://www.buzzfeed.com/jarettwieselman/happy-endings-reboot...
  - chrisseaton 8y ago
    Right, and then continuing the thought who wants a 'dumb' joke? That's no fun is it. So let's forget the whole thing.
    - jakejarvis 8y ago
      I think we’re on the same page. Maybe it boils down to the need for jokes that can be easily ignored by people who want April 1st of next week to be an ordinary Monday. In that sense, I’m all for banishing corporate pranks that aren’t 100% non-obtrusive.
ikeyany 8y ago
> But can anyone name a Microsoft joke off the top of your head? Clippy
jamesgeck0 8y ago
> But can anyone name a Microsoft joke off the top of your head? The "DOS for phones" announcement was fun, partially because it was an actual app. https://www.theverge.com/2015/4/1/8324661/microsoft-ms-dos-april-fools-joke https://www.theverge.com/2015/4/1/8324661/microsoft-ms-dos-a...

cpeterso 8y ago

The Pokémon Go game actually began as a Google Maps April Fools' Day prank: https://blog.google/products/maps/become-pokemon-master-with-google-maps/ https://blog.google/products/maps/become-pokemon-master-with...

C1sc0cat 8y ago

Probably had some ill thought out marketing idea shut down by reasoned technical debate :-)

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

cr0sh 8y ago

> But can anyone name a Microsoft joke off the top of your head? Bob?

chrisseaton 8y ago

> can limit themselves to obvious humor I don't want April fools pranks, but if you do insist on it, then an obvious fooling is somewhat oxymoronic and misunderstanding the point of it. If it's obvious then nobody will be fooled.

jakejarvis 8y ago
I actually agree. I don’t want to be pranked/fooled by companies I rely on — in my opinion, companies who don’t understand that are the only ones who fall flat on their faces on April 1st and need to apologize for a PR disaster on April 2nd [0][1][2][3][4][5][and on and on...]. Big brands who want to participate should really think of it as April Dumb Tangential Jokes Day, perhaps! [0] https://blog.google/products/gmail/introducing-gmail-mic-drop/ https://blog.google/products/gmail/introducing-gmail-mic-dro... [1] https://lineageos.org/An-April-Apology/ https://lineageos.org/An-April-Apology/ [2] http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-04-02-ea-apologises-for-frostbites-stupid-anti-nintendo-april-fool http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-04-02-ea-apologises-f... [3] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-01/elon-musk-sends-april-fools-tweets-joking-of-tesla-bankruptcy https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-01/elon-musk... [4] http://hoaxes.org/archive/permalink/taco_liberty_bell http://hoaxes.org/archive/permalink/taco_liberty_bell [5] http://www.buzzfeed.com/jarettwieselman/happy-endings-reboot-rumors-were-an-elaborate-april-fo#.jgQpKP23Q http://www.buzzfeed.com/jarettwieselman/happy-endings-reboot...
- chrisseaton 8y ago
  Right, and then continuing the thought who wants a 'dumb' joke? That's no fun is it. So let's forget the whole thing.
  - jakejarvis 8y ago
    I think we’re on the same page. Maybe it boils down to the need for jokes that can be easily ignored by people who want April 1st of next week to be an ordinary Monday. In that sense, I’m all for banishing corporate pranks that aren’t 100% non-obtrusive.

ikeyany 8y ago

> But can anyone name a Microsoft joke off the top of your head? Clippy

jamesgeck0 8y ago

> But can anyone name a Microsoft joke off the top of your head? The "DOS for phones" announcement was fun, partially because it was an actual app. https://www.theverge.com/2015/4/1/8324661/microsoft-ms-dos-april-fools-joke https://www.theverge.com/2015/4/1/8324661/microsoft-ms-dos-a...