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I love a good prank, but I hate long-distance April Fool's jokes.
They often have far-reaching consequences. A friend of mine is a
curator at a public aquarium and a well-known author of books about
fish-keeping. One of the aquarium hobby magazines had the stupid
tradition of publishing an April Fool's article each year, and he
took the assignment to write the one for that year. His article
stated ridiculous things as fact, as expected.<br>
<br>
My friend came to regret writing the article because he later found
the various pieces of baloney he wrote being quoted in scientific
articles, listing him as the source! This was even though he stated
at the end of the article that it was all an April Fool's joke. Many
of April Fool's articles in that magazine didn't even state that,
and left the reader to figure it out. Many did not. People aren't
always smart enough and they don't always read every word in an
article.<br>
<br>
In another incident, someone I know is a well-known collector of
aquarium literature. He has a huge collection of books, magazines,
manuscripts, including lots of rare and antique items. When there
was a large flood in his region, someone posted an April Fool's joke
that the guy's basement had flooded and destroyed nearly his entire
collection. (He had no flood and was unaware of the post.) People
from all over the world began sending condolences, offers of money,
and offers to send extra copies of books they had to rebuild his
collection. The poor guy got swamped with these offers and had no
idea why. A lot of people wasted time and energy on the matter.<br>
<br>
Just yesterday, I know of someone who was scheduled to travel to
speak in front of a group next week. He posted a public note in
their forum saying that something happened and he would not be able
to speak after all. The group was in a panic and had already started
scrambling to find a replacement speaker before the realization came
that it was an April Fool's prank.<br>
<br>
My advice is to never publish something in public print or online as
an April Fool's joke. April Fool's jokes should be reserved for
in-person situations, where you can let the victim know face-to-face
that they've been fooled, and all have a good laugh about it. When
you post it out to the world, you have no idea who will see it, who
will believe it, nor whether they will ever see the impending
retraction.<br>
<br>
Mike Wickham<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 4/1/2013 12:26 PM, John Garison
wrote:<br>
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