Comments on: April 2nd - The Day After http://www.linkedintelligence.com/april-2nd-the-day-after/ The unofficial source for all things LinkedIn™. Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:49:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: Christian Larsen http://www.linkedintelligence.com/april-2nd-the-day-after/#comment-681 Christian Larsen Fri, 04 Apr 2008 02:42:17 +0000 http://linkedintelligence.com/?p=493#comment-681 Hi Scott, you say the three Google April's fool pranks, "Virgle", "Gmail Custom Time" and "gDay with MATE" do not have disclaimers when in fact they have ... if you look at more than the front page. Let us start the tour "down under": gDay™ with MATE™ On the front page scroll down, click on "Try gDay" and you end up on a page that clearly states "Welcome to Google Australia’s April Fool’s Day joke". Incidently if you click on either "Terms of Use" or "Privacy Policy" you end up on the same page. Gmail Custom Time On the front page scroll down, click on any of "Terms", "Privacy Policy" or "Program Policies" and you will end up on a page stating "Welcome to Gmail's April Fool's Day joke". Virgle To get to the disclaimer for this one you will need an extra click compared to the two others. Click on "FAQs" in the menu on the left, then scroll to the bottom to the answer of the question "Okay, c'mon, seriously -- is this Virgle thing for real?". Click the link "Virgle is real" and you are treated with a fake "404 Page Not Found" stating that "Virgle isn't real". That out of the way... A prank is usually fun to some extent but there can easily be unexpected consequences. Here is an example: A tech news site here in Denmark published a story stating that a danish ISP together with Apple Inc. was giving away downloads from iTunes to the ISPs customers and all they had to do was go to the iTunes Store and enter their ISP customer number. This resulted in a storm of phone calls to the ISP from people who could not get it to work. This disrupted their business to such a degree that the legal machinery was put to work. The news site quickly pulled the story. It started as a prank but ... Regards, Christian Hi Scott,

you say the three Google April’s fool pranks, “Virgle”, “Gmail Custom Time” and “gDay with MATE” do not have disclaimers when in fact they have … if you look at more than the front page.

Let us start the tour “down under”:

gDay™ with MATE™
On the front page scroll down, click on “Try gDay” and you end up on a page that clearly states “Welcome to Google Australia’s April Fool’s Day joke”. Incidently if you click on either “Terms of Use” or “Privacy Policy” you end up on the same page.

Gmail Custom Time
On the front page scroll down, click on any of “Terms”, “Privacy Policy” or “Program Policies” and you will end up on a page stating “Welcome to Gmail’s April Fool’s Day joke”.

Virgle
To get to the disclaimer for this one you will need an extra click compared to the two others. Click on “FAQs” in the menu on the left, then scroll to the bottom to the answer of the question “Okay, c’mon, seriously — is this Virgle thing for real?”. Click the link “Virgle is real” and you are treated with a fake “404 Page Not Found” stating that “Virgle isn’t real”.

That out of the way…

A prank is usually fun to some extent but there can easily be unexpected consequences.

Here is an example: A tech news site here in Denmark published a story stating that a danish ISP together with Apple Inc. was giving away downloads from iTunes to the ISPs customers and all they had to do was go to the iTunes Store and enter their ISP customer number. This resulted in a storm of phone calls to the ISP from people who could not get it to work. This disrupted their business to such a degree that the legal machinery was put to work. The news site quickly pulled the story.

It started as a prank but …

Regards,

Christian

]]> By: Christopher Rollyson http://www.linkedintelligence.com/april-2nd-the-day-after/#comment-682 Christopher Rollyson Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:02:19 +0000 http://linkedintelligence.com/?p=493#comment-682 Scott, well done! (I got some concerned emails, and you were totally believable). As usual, you bring up excellent points that reflect deep questions about the meaning of "Web 2.0," namely, the convergence of business and personal lives. Pranks are clearly in the personal arena and have the context of intimacy, and traditionally, work is on the other side of the aisle. According to Boomer or Traditionalist thinking, companies have no place playing pranks anywhere, except maybe at an employee function, which is hyperlocal, while Xers and Millennials are, like, "Get a life." Now that work and personal elements of life are merging, we have to figure that out. For my 2 cents, I think it's perfectly okay for bloggers to say anything, but official company communications, especially for public companies, that's dicey. Companies should remember that investors are global and that not everyone in the world recognizes April Fool's Day. True, anyone on the Web should realize that s/he has to vet information from anywhere. I think Google is taking a huge risk for little upside. More generally, I can also see why people don't want to put on disclaimers (kinda sucks the air out of the joke when you have to explain it ,^). But I think people and companies should realize that jokes and pranks depend on a certain intimacy. I think a good test for whether you should prank or not in a venue is, how much of your probable audience will get it? If it's a fairly high percentage, you probably have enough intimacy to pull it off. Or maybe you say, "The Web is global; who gets it gets it, and for the others, so what?" That's a logical point of view, but it disregards the people who don't get it. How much do they matter to you? Bloggers have a higher level of intimacy than companies like Google, so jokes will probably more likely to come off in that milieu rather than official communications. Cheers- Chris Scott, well done! (I got some concerned emails, and you were totally believable). As usual, you bring up excellent points that reflect deep questions about the meaning of “Web 2.0,” namely, the convergence of business and personal lives. Pranks are clearly in the personal arena and have the context of intimacy, and traditionally, work is on the other side of the aisle. According to Boomer or Traditionalist thinking, companies have no place playing pranks anywhere, except maybe at an employee function, which is hyperlocal, while Xers and Millennials are, like, “Get a life.” Now that work and personal elements of life are merging, we have to figure that out.

For my 2 cents, I think it’s perfectly okay for bloggers to say anything, but official company communications, especially for public companies, that’s dicey. Companies should remember that investors are global and that not everyone in the world recognizes April Fool’s Day. True, anyone on the Web should realize that s/he has to vet information from anywhere. I think Google is taking a huge risk for little upside.

More generally, I can also see why people don’t want to put on disclaimers (kinda sucks the air out of the joke when you have to explain it ,^). But I think people and companies should realize that jokes and pranks depend on a certain intimacy. I think a good test for whether you should prank or not in a venue is, how much of your probable audience will get it? If it’s a fairly high percentage, you probably have enough intimacy to pull it off. Or maybe you say, “The Web is global; who gets it gets it, and for the others, so what?” That’s a logical point of view, but it disregards the people who don’t get it. How much do they matter to you?

Bloggers have a higher level of intimacy than companies like Google, so jokes will probably more likely to come off in that milieu rather than official communications.

Cheers- Chris

]]> By: The Virtual Handshake Blog | » The End of Free at LinkedIn? April Fool’s! http://www.linkedintelligence.com/april-2nd-the-day-after/#comment-683 The Virtual Handshake Blog | » The End of Free at LinkedIn? April Fool’s! Wed, 02 Apr 2008 23:30:13 +0000 http://linkedintelligence.com/?p=493#comment-683 [...] Every April Fool’s Day has a day after, when we all clean up the mess we made. Posted by Scott Allen   () in [...] [...] Every April Fool’s Day has a day after, when we all clean up the mess we made. Posted by Scott Allen   () in [...]

]]> By: Mark Schmulen http://www.linkedintelligence.com/april-2nd-the-day-after/#comment-687 Mark Schmulen Wed, 02 Apr 2008 18:18:40 +0000 http://linkedintelligence.com/?p=493#comment-687 I love a good April Fool's prank and pranks on any other of the 364 days of the year for that matter. However, i agree that if the prank has the potential to harm people or businesses, placing a disclaimer is the responsible thing to do. However, if a humorous post is written correctly, the reader should immediately be able to identify it for what it is. That being said, anyone who buys a stock after reading a post on a single site, should probably not be investing in the first place. If a law suite is filed, it will no doubt be thrown out and labeled frivolous. The real question is do you think people are willing to admit their own gullibility (ie: stupidity)? I love a good April Fool’s prank and pranks on any other of the 364 days of the year for that matter. However, i agree that if the prank has the potential to harm people or businesses, placing a disclaimer is the responsible thing to do. However, if a humorous post is written correctly, the reader should immediately be able to identify it for what it is. That being said, anyone who buys a stock after reading a post on a single site, should probably not be investing in the first place. If a law suite is filed, it will no doubt be thrown out and labeled frivolous. The real question is do you think people are willing to admit their own gullibility (ie: stupidity)?

]]> By: Scott Allen http://www.linkedintelligence.com/april-2nd-the-day-after/#comment-685 Scott Allen Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:59:24 +0000 http://linkedintelligence.com/?p=493#comment-685 @Wendy I got a lot of people, apparently. Don't feel bad. :-) @Lance LOL! Good one, but you do highlight something I think I was thinking subconsciously but hadn't really articulated. It's not just an issue if the public companies pull the prank themselves -- what if a normally credible news outlet does so, like the InfoWorld MSFT/YHOO deal? Or if a major competitor of a public company does it? I'm thinking next year I may just submit something to The Onion. @Wendy I got a lot of people, apparently. Don’t feel bad. :-)
@Lance LOL! Good one, but you do highlight something I think I was thinking subconsciously but hadn’t really articulated. It’s not just an issue if the public companies pull the prank themselves — what if a normally credible news outlet does so, like the InfoWorld MSFT/YHOO deal? Or if a major competitor of a public company does it?

I’m thinking next year I may just submit something to The Onion.

]]> By: Lance Holtman http://www.linkedintelligence.com/april-2nd-the-day-after/#comment-684 Lance Holtman Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:44:54 +0000 http://linkedintelligence.com/?p=493#comment-684 Are you telling me I should not have rushed to buy plaxo & xing 'calls' yesterday based on the insider info you shared? Are you telling me I should not have rushed to buy plaxo & xing ‘calls’ yesterday based on the insider info you shared?

]]> By: Wendy Piersall http://www.linkedintelligence.com/april-2nd-the-day-after/#comment-686 Wendy Piersall Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:54:40 +0000 http://linkedintelligence.com/?p=493#comment-686 I don't know about pranks in general, but I have to admit you totally punk'd me with your post. I saw it the night before and was caught off of my April Fools guard. :P I don’t know about pranks in general, but I have to admit you totally punk’d me with your post. I saw it the night before and was caught off of my April Fools guard.
:P

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