[karajorma]

Well I did notice you hadn't activated it yourself. And since you're complaining that it's not a big deal, I'd have imagined you'd definitely want to partake. Of course the fact you've gone and turned it back off again pretty much shows how interested you are in putting up with the very thing you're saying that everyone else should put up with.

I don't understand the resentment against Goober

The problem is that this happens every year. And it also used to happen more than once a year too. Some of us have seen variations of this joke more than 20 times. Even a funny joke ceases to be amusing after too many repetitions. And this wasn't a particularly funny joke to start with.

[deathfun]

I liked the word scrambler and upside-down smilies, but the auto-scroll and changing font size is ****ing annoying.

I can appreciate the complaints from those for which this affected workflow and Q&A, and I agree we should have April Fools jokes that aren't so disruptive to actual forum use, or just do nothing.  Maybe do what most websites do and make up a story, like a new feature or campaign release or something that is almost believable.

Bah
That's too generic

[Terminator]

I seem to recall a couple years in which forum modifications for April fools day were unable to be easily reverted, resulting in massive nerd rage and conditioned responses that happen every year.

[Sandwich]

Public Service Announcement: The profile option did not affect the CSS pranks I implemented, which is why it, err... didn't affect the CSS pran- bah. Anyway, I've removed those pranks, so force-refresh should get rid of them if you're still seeing them.

[Fury]

Goober, for future reference this is how you do april fools joke: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=84210.0

[Goober5000]

That is indeed a pretty good joke.  I was momentarily taken in myself.

Incidentally, I discovered that XKCD did its own forum manipulation for April Fools Day, though I didn't actually see it as it happened.  Apparently not only admins but also board moderators could set the board to replace certain words and phrases with others -- the phrases being anything that happened to suit their fancy.  And they did it for five days (3/28-4/1), not a mere 24 hours like we have done.

[Fury]

XKCD doing it doesn't mean it was good.

[Lorric]

Me, this is my first April Fools here. I've been registered for over a year but simply missed the last one, so I've no idea what if anything occured.

I thought it was another attack on HLP, so I left a warning in the possible virus thread, logged out, and stayed away, and now I've returned.

However, if I understand this correctly, if April Fools admin adjustments are now optional to experience, this should solve any problem now and forever. I personally don't like April Fools, although I do like the news story hoaxes that get cooked up. But others obviously do like April Fools, or it wouldn't exist, so they can opt in and see what wackiness the admins have in store for them, and then everyone can get what they want. The admins get to have their fun without being hassled about it, people who like this kind of joke get to experience it, and people who don't can carry on as normal. So if I have understood right, I think this is a great thing for everyone. I've only just got back, so I'll go and check my profile for this April Fools thing now.

[karajorma]

I wish people would stop saying "The Admins" when talking about this issue. Goober and Sandwich like to do it, none of the other admins do and some like me are vehemently opposed to doing it.

[Lorric]

I wish people would stop saying "The Admins" when talking about this issue. Goober and Sandwich like to do it, none of the other admins do and some like me are vehemently opposed to doing it.

Forgive me. I did not know.

Which reminds me of something. Why do some admins/mods have red/blue names at the bottom of the page which shows who is online, and some just have normal coloured names?

You know, I have noticed we actually agree on many things, Karajorma. I don't think I've ever opposed you on anything. More than once I've seen a topic and been just happy to let you argue your point rather than joining in because it's the same as mine, but you just do it better than I can.

EDIT: I've also been happy to let you "take over for me" before.

[Goober5000]

A lot of the "old guard" of admins were on board with April Fools shenanigans.  I mentioned Styxx, but Setekh, Thunder, and Windrunner were also eager to act silly from time to time.  Sandwich is also one of the old guard, by the way.

Regarding colored names, red is for admins, while blue is for global moderators.

[karajorma]

A lot of the "old guard" of admins were on board with April Fools shenanigans.  I mentioned Styxx, but Setekh, Thunder, and Windrunner were also eager to act silly from time to time.  Sandwich is also one of the old guard, by the way.

Things change. The old guard don't come here much. Even Sandwich barely posts on this site any more.

Furthermore the old guard don't even exist any more. Even if they did came back they'd all be fundamentally different people because more than 10 years have passed since those sort of shenanigans. There are several things we stopped doing because they became disruptive, unfriendly or just plain annoying after 10-12 years of constantly doing them. We are not the same people we were 10 years ago. We can't judge what HLP should be like based on what it was like 10 years ago. We can't say that just because we did something 10 years ago we should still be doing it.

The issue isn't whether April Fools was a good idea back then, it's whether the way it's being executed now is something worthwhile. And the attitude of the board seems to be that even the people who say they don't mind it simply don't visit the board on April Fools. We've not seen many people say they like it AND continue to stay on the board. So if the goal is to drive people away, why not simply replace the entire forum with a big sign saying "Come back tomorrow" and call that a humorous joke?

If on the other hand the idea is to entertain and amuse people, why not do something that actually make people want to come to the site? A successful April Fools joke is one that you want to share with other people. Do you think anyone has ever said "You should register on HLP today! they've ****ed up the CSS, it's so funny!"

[Goober5000]

Furthermore the old guard don't even exist any more. Even if they did came back they'd all be fundamentally different people because more than 10 years have passed since those sort of shenanigans. There are several things we stopped doing because they became disruptive, unfriendly or just plain annoying after 10-12 years of constantly doing them. We are not the same people we were 10 years ago. We can't judge what HLP should be like based on what it was like 10 years ago. We can't say that just because we did something 10 years ago we should still be doing it.

I think you read a little too much into my comment.  Naturally there are a lot of things different between now and then, some for the better, some for the worse.  Change happens.  But through that change, there's something to be said for keeping traditions.  Just because the people mature, or Real Life intervenes, or new members arrive and old ones leave, doesn't preclude that.

I wish you could understand that the issue is not the presence or absence of April Fool's shenanigans. The issue is that you executed them badly and without particular wit.

I already agreed with you here.  My point was that the moderatorship and populace of the XKCD forums were willing to tolerate a disruption in the forum discussions, whereas HLP's membership and some of the admins reacted strongly against it.  (To play my own devil's advocate, rearranging the sentences in a post, which in some cases also affected the bbcode, is a lot more disruptive than just replacing phrases.)

As far as the execution goes, what often happens is that either April Fools isn't discussed, or it's discussed but nobody can think of a good idea, or someone thinks of a good idea but can't implement it in time.  Then April Fools rolls around and I think that at least something should be done, so I whip up some sort of forum manipulation in the PHP code.

[jg18]

I think the option to opt out of April Fool's Day modifications should be removed. If the modifications are sufficiently annoying/disruptive to enough people that there needs to be an opt-out option, something is seriously wrong with the modifications and they should not be used at all. April Fool's Day pranks shouldn't make a significant number of forum members (let alone guests) wish the pranks weren't there.

Furthermore the old guard don't even exist any more. Even if they did came back they'd all be fundamentally different people because more than 10 years have passed since those sort of shenanigans. There are several things we stopped doing because they became disruptive, unfriendly or just plain annoying after 10-12 years of constantly doing them. We are not the same people we were 10 years ago. We can't judge what HLP should be like based on what it was like 10 years ago. We can't say that just because we did something 10 years ago we should still be doing it.

I think you read a little too much into my comment.  Naturally there are a lot of things different between now and then, some for the better, some for the worse.  Change happens.  But through that change, there's something to be said for keeping traditions.  Just because the people mature, or Real Life intervenes, or new members arrive and old ones leave, doesn't preclude that.

Depends on whether the traditions in question are worth keeping, or worth keeping in their original form.

I wish you could understand that the issue is not the presence or absence of April Fool's shenanigans. The issue is that you executed them badly and without particular wit.

I already agreed with you here.  My point was that the moderatorship and populace of the XKCD forums were willing to tolerate a disruption in the forum discussions, whereas HLP's membership and some of the admins reacted strongly against it.  (To play my own devil's advocate, rearranging the sentences in a post, which in some cases also affected the bbcode, is a lot more disruptive than just replacing phrases.)

As far as the execution goes, what often happens is that either April Fools isn't discussed, or it's discussed but nobody can think of a good idea, or someone thinks of a good idea but can't implement it in time.  Then April Fools rolls around and I think that at least something should be done, so I whip up some sort of forum manipulation in the PHP code.

I'm not too familiar with the xkcd forums, but do they include something analogous to community projects and tech support for said projects? My impression from the OP in that xkcd forums thread is that the discussions there aren't especially pressing:

If you can't possibly tolerate your VERY IMPORTANT DISCUSSIONS on a webcomic forum being momentarily disrupted, I suggest taking this opportunity to go outside, take a walk, knit a sweater, [...] Shoo.

As for planning, well, umm... start earlier? And maybe no prank is better than a problematic one?

The sentence shuffling was amusing for about two minutes, until I realized it was impossible to get anything done while it was active.

I mentioned to Iss Mneur a few months ago that the wxL Team should do something for April Fool's. I came up with a few ideas before settling on the one we used.

[Klaustrophobia]

I think the option to opt out of April Fool's Day modifications should be removed. If the modifications are sufficiently annoying/disruptive to enough people that there needs to be an opt-out option, something is seriously wrong with the modifications and they should not be used at all. April Fool's Day pranks shouldn't make a significant number of forum members (let alone guests) wish the pranks weren't there.

seriously?  the old "I don't like it so no one should get it" reasoning?  the entire purpose of the opt out button is to make it so that the pranks no longer affect you.  and you propose removing this feature, and then further removing the pranks because now they affect you? 

 

[jg18]

I think the option to opt out of April Fool's Day modifications should be removed. If the modifications are sufficiently annoying/disruptive to enough people that there needs to be an opt-out option, something is seriously wrong with the modifications and they should not be used at all. April Fool's Day pranks shouldn't make a significant number of forum members (let alone guests) wish the pranks weren't there.

seriously?  the old "I don't like it so no one should get it" reasoning?  the entire purpose of the opt out button is to make it so that the pranks no longer affect you.  and you propose removing this feature, and then further removing the pranks because now they affect you? 

 

No, it's the "a lot of people don't like it so it's probably a bad idea and shouldn't be done at all" reasoning. Maybe some of the modifications pass this test and thus should be forced on everyone, even if they aren't exceptionally funny.

[Klaustrophobia]

the point here is that the opt-out option now makes it such that people that don't like it can choose not to be affected by it AT ALL.  thus, there is no reason for a blanket ban on shenanigans, and anyone still yelling about it is frankly just looking for something to argue about.  hell, make it opt-in instead of out and now you have to actively choose to participate.  absolutely no one will be taken by surprise next year.

[NGTM-1R]

the point here is that the opt-out option now makes it such that people that don't like it can choose not to be affected by it AT ALL.

If you require an opt-out option to keep the forum civil for this sort of thing, you've already lost.

[General Battuta]

I think it's actively opt-in right now, inn't

[jg18]

The box is currently unchecked in my profile, so it's opt-in.

And I don't have a problem with shenanigans, as long as they're funny or at the very least as long as they don't make using the forums highly unpleasant or impossible.