Top 10 April Fools Stories

SlashRating©
10
slashdottit! tm

ddelmonte writes with a link to a brietbart story on the top ten April Fools Day hoaxes, as determined by the San Diego-based Museum of Hoaxes. Two great British examples: "In 1957, a BBC television show announced that thanks to a mild winter and the virtual elimination of the spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. Footage of Swiss farmers pulling strands of spaghetti from trees prompted a barrage of calls from people wanting to know how to grow their own spaghetti at home. In 1977, British newspaper The Guardian published a seven-page supplement for the 10th anniversary of San Serriffe, a small republic located in the Indian Ocean consisting of several semicolon-shaped islands. A series of articles described the geography and culture of the two main islands, named Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse."

And so it begins...

[Anonymous Coward]

Be back on April 2, although I'm not sure it'll be any different than a usual Sunday with Taco at the helm.

PONIES~~~! etc.

Re:And so it begins...

[Anonymous Coward]

I want OMG Ponies for a second year! BRING BACK THE PONIES!!!

Re:And so it begins...

[Ponies_OMG]

BRING BACK THE PONIES!!!

Only if you promise to be good and give me 5 billion dollars.

Re:

[MonkeyDluffy]

Mod this up!!!!

Re:

[jimmydevice]

I'd mod you up, but I replied to your pathetic plea.
HAHA

Re:

[coolgeek]

Make sure to click the "slashdotit" link to get the full effect...

Re:And so it begins...

[Anonymous Coward]

You will be greatly missed.

Re:And so it begins...

[Anonymous Coward]

I know. What's Slashdot without Anonymous Coward?

And, actually, removing Anonymous Coward for a day would be an amusing joke.

Re:And so it begins...

[Anonymous Coward]

Inverting the function of the "Post Anonymously" checkbox would be funny

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Displaying scores in roman numerals would be fun.

Re:And so it begins...

[Anonymous Coward]

Would that make it Ars Slashdotica?

Re:

[Dunbal]

Displaying scores in roman numerals would be fun.

      As would changing the font to Cyrillic.

Re:And so it begins...

[grub]

What's Slashdot without Anonymous Coward?

Slashdot without Anonymous Coward is like Crackwhore without AIDS: you still come around but the reduced risk makes it boring.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:And so it begins...

[Anpheus]

You see his user ID? He doesn't have much long left.

Hush now and respect your elders, even if they are hell bent on self-destruction.

Re:And so it begins...

[Anonymous Coward]

At this point, the best joke that could be played on slashdot's users would be to just make April 1st a normal day. We'd end up spending the whole day trying to figure out what was up.

Re:

[nmb3000]

Regardless, I'd say we tag every story put up today as omgponies.

Ever since last year, OMGPONIES == April Fools for me. Bring back the pink!

Re:

[Seumas]

Yeah, I won't be back for about 48 hours. Slashdot typically suffers from a severe case of mental retardation on April first. More than the usual Slashtardation, even. It would be interesting if they at least tried to just slip one or two believable items in and worked them in a humorous way, but it just turns into one large guffaw. It's like when a four year old kid learns the "pull my finger and fart" thing and then does it every two minutes for an entire week straight.

Re:

[linvir]

48 entire hours?! Why, with that kind of time frame, you might even have time to step away from your computer, or even go outside! We eagerly await your safe return.

Re:

[kinglink]

One day with out AC? It would be the best day ever!

Alas I'm guessing this is the true april fools.

Re:New Discovery ! There ARE Linux Desktop Users !

[gardyloo]

I think you meant "In Soviet Russia, April Foolz! you!".

OMG PONIES!!!

[Red Cape]

I LUV CUTE THINGS!

"slashdottit!"?

[Dirtside]

So in the little box, it says "slashdottit!".

Let me break that up a little:

"slashdot tit!"

So is /. turning into a porn site for AFD? Let the mammary-related jokes begin!

Re:"slashdottit!"?

[Zeebs]

"slashdottit!"

This must be the slashdot equivalent to farks "boobies". I for one welcome our new full chested over-ladies?

Re:"slashdottit!"?

[metlin]

I for one welcome our new full chested over-ladies?

Don't you mean, hairy geeks with man-boobs? Given that this is Slashdot and all that? :-\

Re:"slashdottit!"?

[Zeebs]

I renounce my previous post and am now going to gouge my eyes out in an attempt to stop the burning.

Re:

[DaveM753]

While you're at it, would you mind taking care of my eyes, too?

(bleehhhhh....)

Re:

[The Great Pretender]

You mean "hairy geeks with moobs"

Re:

[jdunn14]

Have you seen Cowboy Neal? Unfortunately, it's still overlords.

Over-ladies?

[Savage-Rabbit]

I for one welcome our new full chested over-ladies?

I think the word you are looking for is: dominatrixes.... You... strange... strange individual!

Re:"slashdottit!"?

[Psycosys]

Isn't it obvious that the April Fools day theme this year is to pretend to be digg?

slashdott with 2 t's, digg with 2 g's...

How am I supposed to slashdott down though? It seems like I can only add to the number of slashdotts and never subtract from it.

Also when are they going to announce a slashdottNation videocast?

Re:"slashdottit!"?

[GrumpySimon]

I'm looking forward to fanboy posts about what Kevin Rose had for breakfast, and the turning off of threaded comments mode. Yay!

Re:

[teslatug]

We're experimenting some techmonological differences

Re:

[omeomi]

Not to mention the TM and Copyright notices next to Slashrating and Slashdottit...it's not even possible to copyright a word, and Slashdot doesn't even mention a trademark on "Slashdot", let alone "Slashdottit"... ;-)

Re:

[hobo sapiens]

now all they need to do to make it like digg is make EVERY SINGLE LINK open in a NEW WINDOW!!! Man, digg sucks and bad.

Re:"slashdottit!"?

[Falladir]

Have you read the comments on digg? We don't want them here anyway. It's better that they leave.

Re:

[cyphercell]

I don't really care [google.com].

That's odd...

[camperdave]

Meanwhile, Slashdot continues on its slide to oblivion.

That's odd. It started to decline just after I joined. Hmm... I should check on those SCOX stocks that I bought in 2004.

Re:

[hobo sapiens]

Yeah, but notice in Cambridge more people read slashdot. So, you could say Brass Rats [wikipedia.org] read slashdot, and script kiddies read digg.

Besides, to echo another reply to your post...have to actually read the posts on digg? Man, what a bunch of tools post there. Less pollution here, I say.

Re:

[arodland]

What about Stainless Steel Rats?

Re:

[Dunbal]

Meanwhile, Slashdot continues on its slide to oblivion.

      Actually looking at those graphs slashdot is pretty constant, and not sliding anywhere. Digg is experiencing growth, but slashdot is not decreasing.

      Personally I hope most of the idiots leave us for Digg, and then this site might just go back to what it was before. Oh and they can take Roland Piquepaille with them!

Re:

[Score Whore]

When there are a million people a month joining the internet you are losing market share if your number of visitors remains fixed. Sort of like you get a paycut when you don't at least a 3% (or so, whatever is the current inflation rate) every year.

Re:

[Dunbal]

When there are a million people a month joining the internet you are losing market share

      Not if the million people joining are complete and utter morons. Do we WANT to be in that market? :)

Re:"slashdottit!"? -- April fool's joke?

[p_trekkie]

Maybe this is slashdot's April fool's joke?

I mean think about it... it's almost april 1st, the page it links to makes no sense... anyone else smell a prank here?

Re:

[fbjon]

Yes, there's something non-regular about it. However, I thought this text at the top of the main page was another joke since I hadn't seen it before: "Slashdot stories can be listened to in audio form via an RSS feed, as read by our own robotic overlord. [feedburner.com]"

To my surprise, it actually isn't a joke!

Re:

[kestasjk]

Maybe this is slashdot's April fool's joke?

I mean think about it... it's almost april 1st, the page it links to makes no sense... anyone else smell a prank here?

How long did it take you to figure that one out, Sherlock? (By the way it already is April 1st in more than half the world)

Re:

[fermion]

Since at this point is 2007 April 1 and 0230 GMT I too suspect the festivities has begun. Let us hope they can surpass OMG Ponies.

Re:

[KDingo]

I had to think a little while about that 'slashdottit' box. For a second I thought the time had come what this site has been aching for a long time: Modded articles. I'd figure the article would have a similar score range (-1 to +5) to the comment system, and with Firehose in development I really thought the time had indeed come.

I guess I was fooled.

Re:

[macdaddy]

So is /. turning into a porn site for AFD? Let the mammary-related jokes begin!

Mammaries? What are these mammaries that you speak of?

Remember, this is Slashdot. You're going to have to explain yourself a little better. Here, let me help you [google.com].

Re:

[daeg]

I'm not sure I want porn from a site that spends an entire day out of the year devoted to pink ponies and the other 364 days devoted to things ranging from angry tube-talking politicians, sharp pieces of plastic and metal hardware, giant, horrible and ever-looming bugs, and operating systems with kinkier names than half the devices found in your local sex shop.

Then again, maybe I do...

Are you listening, CmdrTaco?

Where are the ponies?

[leonbev]

Come on, Taco... Where are the Ponies? If I click that Slashdotit (tm) button enough times, can I at least get a pink background?

Buried It

[dduardo]

I buried this story because it doesn't contain any pink ponies.

Ponies

[jibjibjib]

Mod this comment Insightful, for no particular reason.

Re:Ponies

[Johnny_Law]

Mod this comment Insightful, for no particular reason.

Please, mod this comment Informative, also for no particular reason.

Re:Ponies

[David_W]

Mod this comment Insightful, for no particular reason.

Please, mod this comment Informative, also for no particular reason.

Woohoo, free karma! But funny mods don't earn karma, do they...

Re:

[ZachPruckowski]

BECAUSE I SAID SO

That's what she said...

Re:

[Firehed]

After a one-year hiatus, I'm back with my karma whoring. Let yourself be known as one of the lucky few to help kick off Karma Whoring 2.0!

Re:

[iabervon]

Fortunately for them, they were rescued by a quick-thinking, emacs-using paramedic, who restored them all unharmed with a control-y.

Re:

[zippthorne]

Emacs and Vi are too bloated. If you must use a utility to compose text files in unix, there is a perfectly usable and full featured word processor right there in /bin on every POSIX compliant system.

I speak of the Computer Aided Text processor

It has a few command line options depending on whether you want your lines numbered, reduce unnecessary whitespace, and other conveniences. Each line is fully editable until you commit it by hitting the enter key. If something happens while you're typing it, not to

Slashdottit!

[DaveM753]

Come on guys/gals...let's not make fun of Slashdottit! It's "scientifically perfect".

It may also be magically delicious, but that remains to be seen.

Ahem...

[Bob Cat - NYMPHS]

http://reddit.com/goto?id=1edx1 [reddit.com]

Re:

[Opportunist]

Come on guys/gals...let's not make fun of Slashdottit! It's "scientifically perfect".

Actually true. It evolved. From bad to worse.

Brace yourselves everyone...

[jbrader]

It begins.

Re:

[Dun Malg]

Yep. Might as well turn off the computer and read a book. The next 24 hours will be nothing but childishly obvious, not-particularly-funny "joke" posts. Hah, yes. "Microsoft to Release Vista Under GPLv3". Hilarious.

Best I've heard around me

[kaufmanmoore]

A radio station near me, Greensboro, NC (NASCAR country) announced the April fools right after Dale Earnhardt's death that the Postal Service was issuing a stamp in his memory. Apparently alot of people flooded the post offices asking for the stamp. By the end of the show someone from Washington called the station and threatened legal action if they didn't stop.

Re:

[Opportunist]

Is it me or does the world lose its sense of humor? I mean, imagine the "War of the worlds" being broadcasted today, can you imagine people actually suing the radio station for creating a panic (and actually winning)?

Re:Best I've heard around me

[gmack]

A few years back I registered apfbiolectronics.com (APril fools bioelectronics. Made up a name and had a friend design a website about affordable medical devices for the masses

I took an arm crash dump at random from google and then posted a complaint to linux-kernel and linux-arm [helsinki.fi] about how linux crashed and killed my test monkey and could they hurry up and fix it so we could move on with human trials.

The result:

• 2 offers for help
• 1 plea to scrap the project immediately in the name of all things good in this world (man I wish I still had that email).
• A thread debating the validity of my post [google.ca]
• Someone telling me that he hopes I used a scratch monkey [helsinki.fi]
• Someone used my post to back up his bug report [iu.edu]
• 12 days later someone posted a report on their lug's mailing list. [linux.ie]
• Two YEARS later someone referenced it on the linux advocacy newsgroup [google.ca]

The sad thing is I'm never ever going to top that prank

Oh yeah...

[Speare]

Thanks for reminding me a bit early that the entire techno-hip tragically-leet intarweb will be a steaming pile of uselessness for the next 30 hours or so. I can just skip the inanity and catch up on anything interesting later.

And by the way, on Safari, the new voting doohickey completely and unavoidably obscures the left chunk of the story's blurb.

Re:

[DaveM753]

"...in Safari, the new voting doohickey completely and unavoidably obscures the left chunk of the story's blurb."

It doesn't on my Safari... Hmmm... are you, perchance, using the Safari that comes with Vista?

(I kid...)

Re:

[iabervon]

The internet's going to be shut down for spring cleaning for most of that time anyway, so it's just as well.

Re:

[Lloyd_Bryant]

And by the way, on Safari, the new voting doohickey completely and unavoidably obscures the left chunk of the story's blurb

I'm seeing the same thing on Firefox (2.0.0.2, Ubuntu Edgy).

Re:

[gardyloo]

And by the way, on Safari, the new voting doohickey completely and unavoidably obscures the left chunk of the story's blurb.

That's a feature!

Re:

[Firehed]

If it renders the same as it does in Firefox latest, it doesn't. It's just floated left with no right-side margin or padding. It appears to cover part of the summary, but in reality the text is just butting up right against it. Regardless, still crappy coding.

I have no response to that

[Bender Unit 22]

so happy April fools

April Fool's 2.0 at TechCrunch

[miller60]

TechCrunch has an April Fool's Day post that it has bought FuckedCompany.com [techcrunch.com], with Pud at FC and perhaps even Valleywag [valleywag.com] aiding and abetting the joke. Based on the comments and posts elsewhere in the blogosphere, many appear to have not caught on at first.

It seems that the April Fool's 2.0 strategy is to launch the joke a day early.

My new word I've been using

[CrazyJim1]

Some people say Pwned. Others say Powned. I say: Pownied. Simply because its easy to say, but I think Slashdot last year brought me the inspiration to pioneer in the field of l33t sp3@k.

Oh yeah, new feature

[istartedi]

Like we're really going to believe that "slashdot it" is going to be a new feature, and that /. is taking leads from Digg now. Stories, yeah, but leads? No. Never.

A joke?

[TapeCutter]

I am not so sure it is a joke, sometime during the last couple of weeks I saw a "slashdot it" link alongside a "digg it" link on some site I was visiting. Not knowing or caring much about digg I thought both logo's were peculiar to the site. When I saw the same/similar logo on the summary I thought to myself "oh, so it is slashdot's logo after all", yet I read the comments and find people implying the logo is a dig at digg (so to speak).

So basically I'm confused, is "slashdot it" a genuine logo? I have t

ph3ar teh p0ni3s

[MrNonchalant]

Oh god. It's April 1st again. On Slashdot. Prepare for a full day of agony.

Re:

[Dunbal]

April 1st again. On Slashdot. Prepare for a full day of agony.

      So long as they don't bring back that ghastly purple and pink - my eyes have barely had time to recover - we should be fine. It's not like we read the articles anyway...

Hah.

[FunWithKnives]

Does anyone else get the joke? Click on the "slashdotit! (tm)" link and read the explanation for the new system. It's a not-so-subtle "dig" *ahem* at a few other sites.

Our stories will be hyper-accurate and scientifically perfect!

Subject

[Legion303]

I tell you, I never tire of seeing the exact same "news" every single year. It's a tradition!

The actual Museum of Hoaxes link

[hey hey hey]

Yes, there really is such a site (lord only knows if there is actually a museum), and you get 100 hoaxes instead of just a paltry 10 for the price of a click...

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/ [museumofhoaxes.com]

Obvious April Joke

[edwardpickman]

Cowboy Neal runs for President. Geek community rallies behind the first Geek cannidate.

Or is it a joke......

oh heck with it

[Anonymous Coward]

In soviet russia, April fools YOU......err, um

In YOU, russia fools soviets with cheese sauce....

oh screw it.

they left out cartoon network

[Pyrex5000]

Cartoon Network [toonzone.net] pulled a hilarious April Fool's joke a few years back.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

I always enjoy the 1st

[kahrytan]

  The first thing I do on April 1st is visit Google.com. Those people come up with the funniest jokes. Anyone like this years joke? If anyone falls for it. They get a complimentary swirlie on me.

Water Tables

[Macka]

I remember when I was at school there was an episode of the BBC show "Tomorrows World" where for an April Fools day prank they reported on the breakthrough invention of de-hydrated water tablets. You expose them to sunlight and they turned back into water. There was one particularly slow boy in class who had an argument with the chemistry teacher the next day, insisting that these things existed cos he'd seen it on TV.

     

The BBC seems to have the best ones

[John Jorsett]

In 1980 the BBC reported that Big Ben, in order to keep up with the times, was going to be given a digital readout. It received a huge response from listeners protesting the change. The BBC Japanese service also announced that the clock hands would be sold to the first four listeners to contact them, and one Japanese seaman in the mid-Atlantic immediately radioed in a bid.

- Museum of Hoaxes #35 [72.14.253.104] (Google cache. Real site seems to be down today. One guess as to why.)

Re:

[Cheapy]

Nope. Only you.

Re:

[tadmas]

... but when does April 1 really start? To discount the effect of time zones, it's best to go by a common time zone (like how TV shows are always listed in EST/EDT in the US even though they're also seen in other time zones at other times). For a website with an international audience, the only time zone that makes sense is GMT... and it's already been a couple of hours into April 1 GMT.

(Do we really have to remind people about this every year? Sigh.)

Re:

[Opportunist]

Since the world is round and you US guys are sitting somewhere at the (quite literal) end of the world, let me inform you that in some corners of this planet (well, pretty much everything between New York and Sidney by now) it actually is already April 1st.

I consider this a fortune. It means it's gonna be over here in 19 hours.

Re:

[Dunbal]

Isn't there some rule about no April Fool's jokes until the actual goddamn day?

      In Europe (and Soviet Russia) it already IS april fool's day... not my fault the US is always lagging behind...

Re:

[gardyloo]

Goddamned Canadians. ;-)

Re:

[vivaoporto]

Of course there are only two countries in the World, if it is not U.S. it must be Canada, right?

I live in an European country, you insensitive clod!

Re:

[jimmydevice]

Goddemmed Newfies!

Re:

[KillerBob]

this being slashdot, it's only a matter of time before somebody answers "porn"....

Re:

[Dunbal]

this being slashdot, it's only a matter of time before somebody answers "porn"....

      I believe you just did...

Re:

[Duhavid]

Output device(s).

You (well, not *you*) usually kneed a matched set.

Part numbers 717R and 717L.
Pick up the catalog, there are attachments.