Anyone fall for an April Fools?

[angus]

I was thinking this morning about the time I fell for a Sports Illustrated April Fools story, and how it turned out to be a good thing. Anyone else experienced the minor enlightenment of a hoax?

cheers,
Angus

[ilrein]

I didn't, but I have a sneaking suspicion the Conficker worm is an elaborate marketing scheme.

If you read what anti-virus websites says, they use very formal writing, as opposed to their total straight-2-business style. Also, apparently its been infecting computers since January, but "experts" say that basically "they don't know" what it does, but offer ambiguous suggestions as to the possibilities.

Even funnier, Microsoft put out a $250k reward, which if you do some research, has no follow up link at all. How am I supposed to report him/her?

But the best part is, a way to check if you have the virus or not, is to visit certain anti-virus websites, because although they don't know what the 3 month old worm can do, they do know that it prevents you from accessing websites that, for $30 a month, can protect you!

[StacyT]

The Universe just played an April Fools joke on me: I had 3 numbers come up in the CT Lottery and thought that meant I won $5,673.

I called my husband and my mom, and then looked at the results again. It turned out that *3 people* had won that amount, and I read it as you had to match *3 numbers*.

Turns out, I won $2. But the high I felt when I thought I won is still here - I'm surprised it wasn't a buzz-kill when I found out I didn't win! I still feel great!

[Cran]

Actually, I did fall for a joke on another forum, but no enlightment yet.

Someone posted she had found a product that made her lashes grow so long that they knotted together and had to be cut off.
A bunch of people asked for the product and although I didn't post, I was anticipating her answer - and her answer was: Too bad, it is the 1. April!

So I went and bought new mascara today.

[lost1]

i don't, but i had my friends in.
i told them that i had the upcoming exam questions and i told them to come earlier. and they really came 2 hours before the class started.

[codenamesmiley]

THANK GOODNESS my tenth grade daughter cracked under pressure and blabbed on time to prevent me from suffering mentally at the hands of her April Fool's joke.

She went into school and told her Parent/Child Development teacher and two friends that she was pregnant and scared to death to tell me. After a few minutes of hysterics, the teacher finally worked up the fortitude to offer to call me and help her present this to me...and she finally gave in and told the teacher it was a prank before anyone got SERIOUSLY HURT!!!

The enlightenment part? Well, I feel that as kids are dropping out of school like fleas off a chemically treated dog...my daughter is still innocent and not intending to sleep around. I feel like a parent that is on the right track. It made me think about the "what if", in the event that this may be true..and I realized that there is this angry Mom that would want to hurt a boy..if it were true..and that helped me to recognize a few changes that need to be made within myself...because in the future, if such a thing really happened...I would not want to react the way that I may have, lest that call come thru and I really thought that my daughter was pregnant.

It woke up a part of me that really needs to become a more patient and understanding individual. Now, for the work...I must do the work. While I have been striving to be a better person, I now see that patience and acceptance is still lacking in crucial areas.

i know...boring..but for me..it was enlightening.

[angus]

Awesome answers, especially Smiley's

cheers,
Angus

[Lauxa]

Originally Posted by angus

I was thinking this morning about the time I fell for a Sports Illustrated April Fools story, and how it turned out to be a good thing. Anyone else experienced the minor enlightenment of a hoax?

cheers,
Angus

Angus, I love your blog. I clicked over to read that April Fools story and kept reading more of your articles. I especially enjoyed the Pagan Idolotry article... and several of the others enticed me to click the "read more". I don't really like how "read more" takes me to a new page, I find it very distracting and a deterrent to finishing the article. I prefer the "collapsable" style or just having the whole article in-line; I can always page down if I want to skip the rest. But the layout and banner graphic are very nice and I love the large-font excerpts at the top that bait me to keep reading.

[angus]

Lauxa, thanks so much for the detailed feedback - it means a lot. I've gone back and forth on the 'read more' concept. I don't want to irritate people, but most usability studies suggest that getting people to click once means they'll click more. But, when the next version of Thesis, my WordPress template, comes out, I'll be able to implement a different version that may look better.

Thanks!

[David Cain]

Yes, I did.

On CBC radio they did a spot on frugality. They had a few guests describing their (increasingly extreme) efforts to save money.

They talked about a whole neighborhood sharing a public toilet that was flushed three times daily, then moved on to hunting urban animals like raccoons and squirrels for food. I thought they were a bit nuts, but I believed it.

But the clincher for me was when they had the Canadian Green Party leader Elizabeth May come on and tell the audience she was going to travel only by hitchhiking for her next campaign.

It all sounded very genuine, and I didn't realize it was a joke until the next day when they said so.

Of course, they received tons of feedback from people who really did hunt raccoons, and they interviewed a prominent raccoon-eater the next day.

[Chris Cade]

I got laid off on the day before April Fool's day and given 2 weeks notice. I sent out my goodbye/transition email on April Fool's Day and didn't even realize it until somebody told me at first they thought it was a joke until they realized I was serious!

Oh yeah, and supposedly I got married on April Fool's Day... but since we don't celebrate birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, etc, I actually forgot it was my anniversary this year (no joke!)