81–90 of 175 posts
And, I realize HN is all adding to the conversation - that's me adding to the conversation with actual, non-sarcastic advice. Pretty blown away at why this deserves an entire thread.
"I have a sense of humor. Really I do." Are you sure? I think you're taking yourself and the internet a little too seriously. If the jokes aren't funny don't laugh and don't click. If it really bugs you go ahead and spend a day without reading news on the internet, you'll survive, I promise. April Fools is interesting on the internet because attention is rewarded and that encourages companies to put real effort into…
> It's okay to be silly sometimes, it's actually important. I agree with this entirely, but I think the argument here is that none of these corporate April Fool's jokes are silly, or funny, or clever, or interesting. They're the minimum effort to justify being a "gag" in order to farm page hits. Honestly, when was the last April Fool's prank that "got you" or made you laugh?
Some of the April Fools jokes are quite funny and some of ThinkGeek's in particular actually turn into real products. I could imagine this one becoming real: http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/1ba1/?pfm=af14_homepage_Fea... Sure, it's silly... but it's fun.
"I have a sense of humor. Really I do." Are you sure? I think you're taking yourself and the internet a little too seriously. If the jokes aren't funny don't laugh and don't click. If it really bugs you go ahead and spend a day without reading news on the internet, you'll survive, I promise. April Fools is interesting on the internet because attention is rewarded and that encourages companies to put real effort into…
> It's okay to be silly sometimes, it's actually important. I agree with this entirely, but I think the argument here is that none of these corporate April Fool's jokes are silly, or funny, or clever, or interesting. They're the minimum effort to justify being a "gag" in order to farm page hits. Honestly, when was the last April Fool's prank that "got you" or made you laugh?
People forget that the Internet is a "pull" system, so they consciously have to decide to click on a link and visit a page. It isn't like they're subjected to incessant April Fools pages from corporations. Surely if someone doesn't want to view an April Fools page (or ANY page), they shouldn't CLICK on the link?
The Internet isn't that serious a place. If there is outrage over April Fools pages, that's a bit sad. I mean of the 200 million top level domains housing perhaps thousands of pages each, of what percentage are April Fools pages? It's not a big issue really, nor one that I would see the "ugh sigh" attitude worthy of.
As you say though, I can't remember the last April Fools prank that made me laugh.
Now on to complaining about people smiling in public. . . .
Well, I guess we've reached the ultimate in meta: an internet rant about internet humor. Next I guess somebody should parody this? Then a rant about the parody? Seriously, the internet is full of annoying things, and April Fool's, where folks actually try to have fun with each other, is what's bugging you? I'd place "having to be upset about something 24/7" as much higher on the list than a bunch of bone-headed PR st…
I agree 100%. I have long considered April Fools Day as National Do-Not-Use-The-Internet Day, and I generally treat it as such.