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Am the only person who thinks we should not do April Fools anymore? It’s funny when you’re 8 and in school. It’s just become a day of annoying corporate bullshi

Am the only person who thinks we should not do April Fools anymore? It’s funny when you’re 8 and in school. It’s just become a day of annoying corporate bullshit as an adult.

kelp 6y ago
You are not the only person. I would be super happy if we just stopped this thing once and for all. It was kind of funny 20 years ago. It's not anymore.
- 2muchcoffeeman 6y ago
  It’s still funny. Just don’t do a joke at the expense of another person or inconvenience people. IKEA sent an email about Hund Couture. They made a little video with dogs dressed in clothes made of IKEA bags. Amusing. Hurts no one. Sending someone a fake bill that looks real isn’t really funny. I’m not even sure what that is.
lopatin 6y ago
Even if we wanted to, how do you stop April fools? You can't just call it off, it's not a national holiday.
- nonbirithm 6y ago
  Just make it extremely clear it's April 1st and do something unusual instead of lying to everyone. The worst part of April Fools' isn't the spirit, it's the deception and inauthenticity. I remember one creator on YouTube this year who put it as: "yes, today is April 1st, but what I did is real, not a lie, and it took actual effort to achieve."
- rorykoehler 6y ago
  There are two ways you could do it. 1) the extreme way. Make it illegal under fraud laws (at least for corporations) or 2) create a non-binding agreement and get companies to commit to it via petition or similar.
klyrs 6y ago
It was funny in the late 90s. Slashdot would go all wonky, everything was a lie, and it was mostly absurd press releases and wacky scientific "findings". You could say "bah humbug" and stay off the internet and mostly avoid it. Or, you knew what you were getting into after maybe the second headline. But the voltswagen thing was way too early. Jokes and serious news are mixed on sites like HN. This shit with deliveroo is unthinkable. And all this in a environment where fake news isn't just rampant, it's been weaponized. Yeah, count me out. It's gone too far. Companies really need to quit it. At least, we could hope that HN could keep this crap off the front page
- linkdd 6y ago
  > [...] it was mostly absurd press releases [...] Makes me thing about the april fools on LinuxFR[1] [1] - https://linuxfr.org/news/mise-en-place-du-port-du-masque-avec-qrcode-d-identification https://linuxfr.org/news/mise-en-place-du-port-du-masque-ave... TL;DR: Since the government authorized facial recognition on security cameras and the mask prevents that, they voted a law to have a QRCode on your mask to enable "facial" recognition Obvious fake news, but funny read anyway.
- joejacket 6y ago
  It was never actually funny or amusing on Slashdot. I would usually block the domain for a few months after to make sure I didn't go back.
ganeshkrishnan 6y ago
at least corporations should think twice before doing stupid tricks like this.
quickthrowman 6y ago
Internet April Fools jokes were fine and cute when the most viral a story could go was being #1 on slashdot, in 2001. Today? Not so much.

Am the only person who thinks we should not do April Fools anymore? It’s funny when you’re 8 and in school. It’s just become a day of annoying corporate bullshit as an adult.

kelp 6y ago

You are not the only person. I would be super happy if we just stopped this thing once and for all. It was kind of funny 20 years ago. It's not anymore.

2muchcoffeeman 6y ago
It’s still funny. Just don’t do a joke at the expense of another person or inconvenience people. IKEA sent an email about Hund Couture. They made a little video with dogs dressed in clothes made of IKEA bags. Amusing. Hurts no one. Sending someone a fake bill that looks real isn’t really funny. I’m not even sure what that is.

lopatin 6y ago

Even if we wanted to, how do you stop April fools? You can't just call it off, it's not a national holiday.

nonbirithm 6y ago
Just make it extremely clear it's April 1st and do something unusual instead of lying to everyone. The worst part of April Fools' isn't the spirit, it's the deception and inauthenticity. I remember one creator on YouTube this year who put it as: "yes, today is April 1st, but what I did is real, not a lie, and it took actual effort to achieve."
rorykoehler 6y ago
There are two ways you could do it. 1) the extreme way. Make it illegal under fraud laws (at least for corporations) or 2) create a non-binding agreement and get companies to commit to it via petition or similar.

klyrs 6y ago

It was funny in the late 90s. Slashdot would go all wonky, everything was a lie, and it was mostly absurd press releases and wacky scientific "findings". You could say "bah humbug" and stay off the internet and mostly avoid it. Or, you knew what you were getting into after maybe the second headline. But the voltswagen thing was way too early. Jokes and serious news are mixed on sites like HN. This shit with deliveroo is unthinkable. And all this in a environment where fake news isn't just rampant, it's been weaponized. Yeah, count me out. It's gone too far. Companies really need to quit it. At least, we could hope that HN could keep this crap off the front page

linkdd 6y ago
> [...] it was mostly absurd press releases [...] Makes me thing about the april fools on LinuxFR[1] [1] - https://linuxfr.org/news/mise-en-place-du-port-du-masque-avec-qrcode-d-identification https://linuxfr.org/news/mise-en-place-du-port-du-masque-ave... TL;DR: Since the government authorized facial recognition on security cameras and the mask prevents that, they voted a law to have a QRCode on your mask to enable "facial" recognition Obvious fake news, but funny read anyway.
joejacket 6y ago
It was never actually funny or amusing on Slashdot. I would usually block the domain for a few months after to make sure I didn't go back.

ganeshkrishnan 6y ago

at least corporations should think twice before doing stupid tricks like this.

quickthrowman 6y ago

Internet April Fools jokes were fine and cute when the most viral a story could go was being #1 on slashdot, in 2001. Today? Not so much.