Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The crushing lameness of April Fools Day on the Internet.

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 175 posts

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

#161

Post by argumentum »

When Google first started doing this, it was great. A welcome respite from our expectations of corporate monotony. Plus, it was genuinely unexpected, and therefore more funny.

Now that every company has to do something, or risk being labeled uncool by users/potential recruits, the humor seems forced (and therefore less funny).

Perhaps the best April Fools Prank Google could pull now would be to treat this day like any other. Imagine the irony of billions of people waiting to be "surprised", anticipation slowly increasing throughout the day, wild speculation about any normal announcement that Google makes.

Now that would be funny.

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

#163

Post by 27182818284 »

rnernento wrote: post #72

"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…

Nah, most people have a sense of humor, but few people are comedians. Lots of people can read, few are good writers.

I cannot think of a single Internet April Fool's joke that is funnier than the bottom-tier amateur comedians I know at the local club.

This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, though. Comedy is hard. A team of developers and project managers that try it once a year are...well... you know the expression "Keep you day job"? I think that sums it up.

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

#164

Post by hoodoof »

argumentum wrote: post #161

When Google first started doing this, it was great. A welcome respite from our expectations of corporate monotony. Plus, it was genuinely unexpected, and therefore more funny. Now that every company has to do something, or risk being labeled uncool by users/potential recruits, the humor seems forced (and therefore less funny). Perhaps the best April Fools Prank Google could pull now would be to treat this day like an…

No April Fools tricks? That's a very big risk for a company the size of Google to take.

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

#167

Post by stcredzero »

RivieraKid wrote: post #152
rnernento wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blizzard's made me laugh. I think the Google Pokemon map was funny. The celebrity photobombs on the front page of Google. These are nerds making these not standup comedians. Pretty much every internet April Fools gag is funnier than SNL these days...

Pokemon and other Google's "jokes" were just pathetic. Apparently, typical Googler has a sense of humour of a 5 years old.

Didn't a famous software dev blogger write that everything he needed to know about managing programming teams was written in a book titled something like: Everything You Need to Know about Talking to your Five Year Old?

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

#168

Post by jafaku »

dgabriel wrote: post #145
jafaku wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except we didn't subscribe to the LameJokes channel, so why should we receive jokes instead of whatever the channel was supposed to give us? You should realize that this is the internet, not America, and April's Fool is an American tradition.

This is completely incorrect. It's celebrated widely in European countries & elsewhere. April Fools didn't even start in the US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools'_Day

It's not celebrated in Asia, Africa, South America, and in most European countries. Probably your propagandized media and education system lead you to think that everyone celebrates American holidays.

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

#169

Post by iamdave »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #159
iamdave wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I call bullshit to the highest rank on that line. A complaint gets eyeballs on the problem, a complaint opens ears to the problem. Complaining is not whining . Complaining is not furtive. Complaining is speaking up.

Hm. Proposing reasonable alternatives is speaking up. Suggesting changes to the process opens ears to the problem. Complaining is whining, unproductive and corrosive to discussion. I call BS on the attitude that complaining is really a public service, that its done with the highest motives. Its done to vent, to gain sympathy, to feel better. Not to help.

Or it may just be a matter of perspective; a manager might call a customer raising a complaint about terrible service someone whining for rebates on their next meal. Does the customer see it that way? Are they venting to feel better or are they making a complaint because they want to redress a failure to deliver qualitatively on their expectation as patrons? Is it both?

Is asking to be escalated to a manager when you call your ISP after numerous failings by level 1 support to adequately solve-to your satisfaction promulgating 'whininess'?

End of the day whatever your chosen nomenclature of "I had the expectation of X and the responsible parties failed, so I'm going to speak up about it" it's just my lone opinion that calling it "victimizing yourself" is absurd.

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

#170

Post by JoeAltmaier »

iamdave wrote: post #169
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hm. Proposing reasonable alternatives is speaking up. Suggesting changes to the process opens ears to the problem. Complaining is whining, unproductive and corrosive to discussion. I call BS on the attitude that complaining is really a public service, that its done with the highest motives. Its done to vent, to gain sympathy, to feel better. Not to help.

Or it may just be a matter of perspective; a manager might call a customer raising a complaint about terrible service someone whining for rebates on their next meal. Does the customer see it that way? Are they venting to feel better or are they making a complaint because they want to redress a failure to deliver qualitatively on their expectation as patrons? Is it both? Is asking to be escalated to a manager when you…

As long as you provide a way forward, a suggestion or solution, that's cool. Just complaining - that's unproductive.
Post reply on HN