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The crushing lameness of April Fools Day on the Internet.

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: The crushing lameness of April Fools Day on the Internet.

#51

Post by alandarev »

carlob wrote: post #12

> How are we going to attract and recruit the best engineers unless we've got a reputation for the very best and most foolish April Fools trickery? I would actually discourage anyone from taking a job from any company that takes April Fools too seriously. Having to put in extra hours to get the April Fools out in time is the only thing that's more soul-crushing than the stupid corporate joke itself.

Spending some time to actually raise the mood of your clients is a no-go place for you? I assume your preference is to work for a no-emotion company 100% dedicated to the product, and a casual chit-chat is a strong NO policy.

The question is whether a joke is funny and made you smile of course.

Re: The crushing lameness of April Fools Day on the Internet.

#52

Post by crusso »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #50
crusso wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

in hope to get some additional sales That's a copout, like blaming the legitimately elected political leaders in a democracy. _People_ do this to holidays and special events because they are easily impressed and inclined to follow social trends like lemmings. If people weren't so impressed by lameness, then the advertisers and marketers would attempt other ways to gather eyeballs. I shudder when I think of how unread…

> If people weren't so impressed by lameness, then the advertisers and marketers would attempt other ways to gather eyeballs. It's a feedback loop; one that is arguably easier to break on the marketer's side. OTOH posts such as OP's complaint are attempt to break that loop on the side of people by signalling that well, we're fed up with crap. I doubt any marketer will listen though.

It would seem to be easier to break the cycle on the marketer's side because you're viewing the problem at the choke point where marketers are ostensibly in control - but really it's a systemic problem with people that would have to be fixed. Fix a couple of marketers and a couple of other marketers step in to fill the void.

Plugging a couple of obvious holes in the dike does no good when the dike is fundamentally unsound.

Re: The crushing lameness of April Fools Day on the Internet.

#53

Post by Argorak »

Well, people think they cannot miss out and need to do it - because their competitor does it. You'll see the same with world cup advertisement in a few months. Most of it is crap, rising above the crowd is hard.

On the other hand, there are some clever things that sound like jokes, but are not: http://stroopwafel.me/

Well, I for my part have my share of fun.

Re: The crushing lameness of April Fools Day on the Internet.

#56

Post by TeMPOraL »

crusso wrote: post #52
TeMPOraL wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If people weren't so impressed by lameness, then the advertisers and marketers would attempt other ways to gather eyeballs. It's a feedback loop; one that is arguably easier to break on the marketer's side. OTOH posts such as OP's complaint are attempt to break that loop on the side of people by signalling that well, we're fed up with crap. I doubt any marketer will listen though.

It would seem to be easier to break the cycle on the marketer's side because you're viewing the problem at the choke point where marketers are ostensibly in control - but really it's a systemic problem with people that would have to be fixed. Fix a couple of marketers and a couple of other marketers step in to fill the void. Plugging a couple of obvious holes in the dike does no good when the dike is fundamentally un…

I think you're right.

So this leads to an obvious question: how do we fix the dike?

Re: The crushing lameness of April Fools Day on the Internet.

#60

Post by canvia »

Argorak wrote: post #53

Well, people think they cannot miss out and need to do it - because their competitor does it. You'll see the same with world cup advertisement in a few months. Most of it is crap, rising above the crowd is hard. On the other hand, there are some clever things that sound like jokes, but are not: http://stroopwafel.me/ Well, I for my part have my share of fun.

I would like to see an ad that is just plain text "We donated the $250k production budget for this ad to Haiti" and a logo. That is far more likely to make me give a company my business than any stupid pointless video clip.
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