What Happened Here Yesterday
Eric Turkewitz deconstructs what happened here and at various other blogs yesterday, regarding that possible punking of the New York Times.
This was Eric’s brainchild, so click the link to see the various blogs involved and how it unfolded. (If you click the link, you will see an actual explanation and not the beginning of a multi-link wild goose chase. I promise.)
He highlights the most amusing comments as being at Popehat, and specifically mentions Scott Jacobs as one of the funniest commenters. What he doesn’t realize is that Scott is a Patterico reader. But I agree that reading Scott’s comment was probably the most rewarding moment I had all day — one of those moments when “LOL” was not just an annoying acronym but was literally true.
To set up Scott’s comment: Scott followed a couple links from here to Ted Frank to Popehat and started to lose patience, demanding some proof from the Popehat people: “Since it’s them getting pranked, wouldn’t it be possible to cut and paste the entire article for all to read and use the defense of ‘self-parody’?” When someone mentioned the fact that it would not be good to get into a fight about intellectual property with the New York Times, Scott replied: “Would the fact that they apparently have no intelligence be a defense?” Then a commenter called jb said:
Lemon Gloria links to Randazza, who links to Eric Turkewitz, who links to Simple Justice, who links to Patterico, who links to Ted Frank, who links right back here, and none of them have any details or even a link to the paywalled article.
Prank publicizing fail.
At which point Scott wrote the laugh-out-loud funny comment. Because it’s Scott, it’s profane, so I am hiding it beneath the fold for the benefit of those who prefer to avoid profanity. Scott quotes jb, and then replicates his dawning realization in amusing fashion:
“Lemon Gloria links to Randazza, who links to Eric Turkewitz, who links to Simple Justice, who links to Patterico, who links to Ted Frank, who links right back here, and none of them have any details or even a link to the paywalled article.”
*blinks*
Mother fucker…
No, not prank fail… READER fail.
Fuck all y’all.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. That’s awesome.
We think of Scott as a Popehat reader, whom we share with you.
“Girls, girls! You’re ALL pretty!”
Patrick (60b146) — 4/2/2011 @ 10:52 amLeave Lemon Gloria out of the mix next time, ‘kay?
Dave (543057) — 4/2/2011 @ 10:58 amI think Scott artfully expressed what a number of us were thinking upon our 5th or 6th or 120th link clicking of gullibility.
(hm…Scott? …artfully?…)
Dana (9f3823) — 4/2/2011 @ 11:03 amI think I got through four links before I gave up. Guess I was had! Good one, I have to admit. Have to be doubly careful next year. Looks like you can’t trust anybody! 😎
Bill M (f7d54c) — 4/2/2011 @ 11:04 amBeing a skeptic has its perks… I smelled a rat from the beginning and didn’t even click the first link. Looking at the comments today, all I can say is:
Bwahahaha… ha. 😉
Stashiu3 (44da70) — 4/2/2011 @ 11:14 amIn my defense, Stashiu3, I tend to think the best of Patterico. Clearly, I need to reconsider that!
Dana (9f3823) — 4/2/2011 @ 11:32 amIn all truth, I saw the Popehat post in the string first, and followed it back around to Popehat and made the first post…
I hate being the first person to publicly admit to being taken in my an April Fools Day joke.
First gag that’s gotten me in YEARS.
And I’m not just a commenters, I technically POST here too (at The Jury, which you people don’t read enough).
Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 4/2/2011 @ 12:13 pmHaha! My thought process was similar. After many clicks, I was cursing all of the bloggers for not verifying the links, and more importantly, not understanding irony!
Well played…
prmetime (4e9c75) — 4/2/2011 @ 1:04 pmAgain, I was not able to enjoy this prank. I only clicked once and was clued in by Scott at Popehat. I like pranks! They give one a story to tell that (I think) increases in flavor if the teller is the one who is pranked in the story. For example:
In my freshman year at NTSU I shared a 3-bedroom house with 3 others, and, being an early riser would enjoy the first (and hottest) shower of the day. I must not have left enough hot water for the next person, much less three others.
One early morn, I drew back the shower curtain and rotated the hot water valve to let some water run through and get at the hot water, when I noticed that even though the pipe was making the correct sound, no water was exiting the faucet. Still half-asleep, I noted a filament of dental floss connecting some kind of metal doo-hickey on the faucet, running verticaly to the shower head – my eyes following the path slowly. As I gazed at the shower head which was pointed directly at me instead of down into the tub, water suddenly sprayed out, soaking me from head-to-toe.
Profanity exploded from my lips and I became aware that my three housemates were all laughing from their bedrooms. It was a full day before I could laugh about it, but the memory has gotten sweeter over time. I consider it the best prank ever perpetrated on me.
Felipe (d37996) — 4/2/2011 @ 1:16 pmCorrection: I was clued in by Erlenmeyer316 at the first link. Scotts comment was fresh in my mind when I commented last.
Felipe (d37996) — 4/2/2011 @ 1:20 pmHuh. I guess I didn’t realize Scott was also a Popehat reader.
Which is a good choice. It’s a good blog.
Patterico (619197) — 4/2/2011 @ 1:53 pmIf I’m not mistaken, I found it through here.
Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 4/2/2011 @ 2:07 pmBut I really like it there.
I’m allowed to swear. 🙂
Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 4/2/2011 @ 2:08 pmWasting my time is Goddamn important.
Never do it again.
Seriously, never do it again.
It isn’t shits and giggles when
some one wastes my time.
It causes me to stop visiting a
Jack (f9fe53) — 4/2/2011 @ 3:24 pmsite. And it causes me deep
resentment.
Notice Patrick does not claim me.
SPQR (26be8b) — 4/2/2011 @ 4:43 pmJack might consider staying inside and off the Internet on future April Fool’s Days.
Patterico (c361e2) — 4/2/2011 @ 5:05 pmAnd for the record, I continue to hate all of you.
Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 4/2/2011 @ 5:44 pmGetting messaged on facebook about being the only person someone knew that was famous for being a blog commenter was worrisome on so many levels…
Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 4/2/2011 @ 5:45 pmHmmm. Must be a guy thing.
elissa (8f28a0) — 4/2/2011 @ 5:51 pmJust so you don’t get too proud of yourself–I didn’t even pay attention to your post yesterday. “Oh, he’s found something else wrong at the LA/NY Times. Nothing new here.” and so onward to more interesting reading.
‘Tis wise to be foolish and foolish to be wise…
So congratulations on a prank that was very well executed.
BTW, were you the one fixing the URL from the courthouse steps?
kishnevi (ede414) — 4/2/2011 @ 7:29 pmThere actually was an April Fools story on the NYT today. However, being the Times, they actually took it seriously. The actual joke is that the UN may take it seriously as well.
Sabba Hillel (73a5e0) — 4/2/2011 @ 7:55 pmAlso just figured out how to multiply my Angry Birds…What an awesome April Fool’s weekend this has been!
prmetime (4e9c75) — 4/2/2011 @ 9:03 pmkishnevi,
I was not.
Nor was I one of the Texans who got the time wrong.
My link to Ted Frank was wrong, though, for the first 3+ hours. Which I still don’t understand, because I thought I copied it straight from his e-mail. It was quickly fixed in any event.
Patterico (c361e2) — 4/2/2011 @ 9:12 pmI ran the entire loop before getting the joke. It would not have worked, however, if bloggers and others did not routinely commit the laziness of linking to a blogpost about some item of interest rather than to the actual item. Seen that a hundred times.
On the subject of AFJs, these two posts by Eric S. Raymond are very interesting.
The Smartphone Wars: Microsoft may win after all
and
The Four Levels of AFJ Mastery”.
ESR is a major figure in the “Open Source” software community – a “tribal elder” who helped establish the culture and practices through which Linux, Firefox, MySQL, Android, and many other important programs have been developed. If you understand that, you may get the first post.
The second post is an explanation of how AFJs work, and what makes a good AFJ.
Rich Rostrom (988b43) — 4/2/2011 @ 10:00 pm