When it comes to the time-honored tradition of April Fool's Day pranks, I'm a bit of a fuddy-duddy. I don't mind the really good, really funny, and really obvious pranks. I don't mind having a fast-one pulled on me as long as it's
clever, and funny, and not simply a dumb lie passed off as a joke with "April Fool's!" ("I'm really sorry, but I ran over your dog. He's dead.")
Every year I get suggestions from our site's staffers about what would make a funny April 1 prank. They'll tell you that I'm a very hard sell on them -- in fact, we've never done one to date. We've had some good and harmless ideas, like messing with people's post counts or user titles in the forum.
But among online news sites like GateWorld,
prank news stories have become something of a tradition for April Fool's Day. Whether it's William Shatner starring in a new
Star Trek spin-off or George W. Bush doing a guest spot as a file clerk on
The West Wing, each year sites march out their most outlandish fake news and try to pass it off on their readers as a real scoop -- just for a day. Sometimes they make it clear at the end that it's a prank; sometimes they just don't.
But you'll
never see prank news at GateWorld, as long as I'm alive. I consider your readership to be a trust, one that we've worked hard to build over the last six and a half years. It may be a victory to the writer to pull one over on his readership, but what does it do for the readers but embarrass and potentially anger them? Or, even worse, have them pass on the lies as real news for weeks to come, referencing the site as the dubious source?
I remember a genre magazine that posted a now infamous April Fool's joke a few years ago, after Michael Shanks (
"Daniel Jackson") had left
Stargate SG-1. They reported a "news" piece that Shanks was returning to guest star as Daniel's long-lost twin brother Michael (yes, put that together with the character's last name). It was just clever enough to be funny, but a bit too subtle for many fans of the show who didn't notice as the joke sailed high over their heads.
Fans who frequented message boards four years ago remember how many times they had to fight the rumor, so many months after the issue was published.
It's
funny not only to write and run a joke piece, but the real kicker is when you can get people to actually believe it. And the more crazy a notion you can convince them of, the greater the April Fool's victory. It's a shame when it's done by serious news outlets, whose editors spend the other 364 days out of the year trying to build credibility and convince people to turn to them for reliable news.
"Fool me once, shame on you." And then I'll go elsewhere to find news I know isn't a big fat lie.
Maybe I'm just a fuddy-duddy. But I hate what disinformation does to people, and the mess it makes that I have to clean up later when I get e-mail questions and news tips for the next six months about some bald-faced lie that another site posted. I'd rather keep GateWorld's reputation -- a place where
Stargate fans can find reliable news 365 days a year, not one where you have to be on your toes to figure out if we're trying to pull a fast one on you.
What do you think? Am I making too much of this? Do you like being fooled by sci-fi news sites on April 1? Are certain kinds of jokes more appropriate than others?
Born to be a Stargate fan, Darren started GateWorld in 1999. In addition to personal and freelance
Web work he is also a writer, a graduate student in theology, a husband and a father of two. He is a big fan
of genre hits like Star Trek, Babylon 5, Farscape, LOST, and Battlestar Galactica.
No, your right, I don't like april fools pranks either (especially when it comes to Stargate). I just read one a little while ago that claimed that Stargate The Alliance had been uncancelled. It got me excited up until I found out it was just another stupid april fool's joke...then I was angry. See, your not alone on this
Yes Darren, you are a fuddy duddy. :D
I actually agree with you. I'm not much of an April Fool person myself. Small little things are usually funny but the problem is that people keep trying to come up with something bigger and better and usually end up just digging themselves into a hole. I really agree that the news site should remain clear and free of any kind of pranks of that nature. The forum however...;)
hi there... i think that you are great for doing that!!! April Fool's joke and stargate fans dont go over well... we get very excited over the smallest thing, so i commend you for taking the stance against running a "Joke Article" and thank you!
Lexa
So Daniel isnt going to be replaced by his brother Michael? Damn, all that waiting for nothing... wait a minute, Michael... how could I be so stupid Michael SHANKS, *smacks head*
Nope I don't think you making too much of it. The backlash can far outlast the joke and thats the one thing people forget when trying to be funny. So Keeping teh news real and true is commendable......
But are you sure we couldn't just mess with the Forum members just a bit..next year...LOL *wink* maybe toothpaste in their shoes or something...LOL
Ok, I get the no fake news thing, but you could change the mainpage to be al pink or something. ;)
You know I was looking at digg and I found and interesting thing on wikipedia about all the april Fool's jokes that were played others yesterday (Like a site reported Christopher Walken had died yesterday), pretty funny stuff actually. Here's the link to that page:
April 1, 2006 (Complete List)
I think the trick is to make it so outrageous it couldn't possibly be true. Baterista9 sent me a link to a story about some convention group that had puchrased the Battlestar Galactica and was going to be using it as convention space. But yeah, it can be hard to find a line where "too outrageous" begins and there'll always be some who will believe it no matter what (Poochinski 2063 a real show??). I've also seen some cruel ones- like the person who posted on the Surface board that the series had been renewed when chances are pretty good it's going to be cancelled. It builds up false hope in fans and that, in my opinion, isn't very nice.
Pranks, if you're going to do them, should be funny, not hurtful. The hurting is what happens to the pranksters after the audience figures out the truth. ;)
Messing around with the forum side of things could be fun, though. Change the layout, change the folder names, stuff like that. You could turn Gateworld into a Veggie Tales forum for a day. ;) I'm sure that probably requires some extensive work behind-the-scenes, though, so I can see being reluctant to go through all that just for a one-day joke.
Or you could have Gateworld go retro. Dig up the old Starguide layout, maybe even have old news items. That way you're still reporting real stories, they're just a bit out of date. You'll have people madly trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with their cache/cookies. lol!
Well, I can see Darren's point of view. What we might see as harmless fun - putting all the Character threads into Off Topic for example, and making everyone's post counts radically drop - might be amusing for some, but horrible for others!
Still, funny to think about it... :-)
I say go for shadow's idea, something like when the first news of daniel's death came up back in S5 (was is Gateworld by then or still Starguide?)change the titles a little, from "Meridian" to the 11th season opener or something. Either that or twiddle with the rep system, giving every new member 12 blocks while guys like Qasim get bumped down to 20 posts and 1 rep block.
But your not being a "Fuddy-duddy" (love that phrase)some people dont like the pranks (someone on the net was VERY annoyed that Christopher Eccleston wasnt going to be in Smallville as Zod)so, I suppose at the end of the day, its your choice 'cus you are the one thats gonna get the consequences
After I posted that I started to wonder if Darren had used that trick before, 'cause it seems really familiar. Still, might be worth trying again. ;)
Or alternately, you could come up with info for season 15 or 20 (season 11 being too close). You could come off with some really off-kilter things, then. But again, you'd have to trust in the readers to observe the nuances enough to know it's for season 15... and that 15 isn't the ucrrent season. ;)
But posting OLD stories and leaving them as old stories... the info will look familiar and no one can say that they aren't true, it's just a question of WHEN they were relevant. ;)
Darren,
I appreciate your concern for the folks who are reading GW articles. While jokes can be fun, of course, it seems you are more interested in keeping GW on a higher level and maintaining trust with your readers. It's good to have a sense of humor, and especially to be able to laugh at ourselves, but just because "everyone's doing it" (sort of), doesn't mean it must be done. Thanks for taking the higher road!
agree. I don't think April Fool's jokes in the news are good. Especially on a scifi site. Scifi fans tend to be rather intense people (me included) and don't really appreciate being messed with in regards to their favorite shows.
Keep being a fuddy-duddy. It's worked so far, and when something's not broke, you don't need to fix it. 8)
A fuddy duddy you are not Darren. I agree April fools joke in the news are never a good idea. Playing around with things in the forum - well if you really want to create the work for yourself that could be funny.
I can definatly see where your comming from. But i look forward to seeing April fool's stories. i think it would have been great to see a story of Teal'c hooking up with a Furling in season 12 or something. Or start one crazy story by a non-existant writer and every year have that one writer return and do a follow up to the previous years story.
No offence i completely understand why you dont wanna ruin the GW cred. the biggest reason i come to the site is cause i can trust what you post. but if you make it obvious that its an April fools joke then that doesnt ruin your cred. does it?
oh well. maybe next year.
There is no time for posting jokes when you are busy putting spoilers all over your news.
Hi Darren,
I fell for an April Fools joke published in a major science magazine. I remember telling my boss and several fellow employees about this weird new animal that had been found at the South Pole.
When the May issue came, the magazine revealed the joke. I never had the nerve to tell my boss.
They got me good.
When Stargate Director Martin Wood and Executive Director John Smith told me about the North Pole trip, I thought it was a practical joke. Then John Smith talked about it at the convention...
OK. I still think it's a practical joke.
Hats
No, I completely agree. I rely on GW for my up-to-date, reliable news and spoilers for all things SG-1 and I wouldn't want it any other way! Keep up the excellent work! :D
- AmberLM
It is only April Fools. Joke articles should be things that don't really effect anyone, and the date should probally made a little bigger, I can think of an April Fools day joke for Gateworld