Mortiis558 Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 Hahaha, Great prank guys. I'm a new comer so i wasn't really concerned about it all but reading some of the other people's responses to it was quite entertaining. Now you know you have to one-up this next year...good luck! It also helps if you don't have incorrect grammar in a "Cease and Desist" order. "They" in the 3rd paragraph, second sentence should be "The" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stilly Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 And I guess I'll take my bow as well (well, aside from calling archangel a fucking dick). Some time last month, Nick came to me asking for a Hondo's Inc. logo...nothing fancy, just cold and heartless. Corporate takeover, you know? Anyway, I decided to go with a warmer "family-friendly" kind of feel. Actually, it wasn't until after I made the main logo that I noticed it was strikingly similar to the Flickr logo...and that's how that was born. One thing led to another, and April 1st we were throwing everything on the forum to see what would happen. In the hour or so before the prank went live, I helped Nick figure out how to get rid of the comments, and I whipped up the image that adorned the front page. I literally ripped off the flickr main page, but I figured it was fine for the joke. The joke went live and I sat there watching, laughing my ass of at how fast some people got banned and how certain people played by the rules (Logan, you fucking win for that night). Some people got mad, but whatever, fuck them if they can't take a joke. I didn't get worried until SM threatened legal action. I was panicking and looking up parody law just hoping we had a chance in hell if the hammer came down hard. I wanted to take it down right then...I felt ill...the works. Before I could voice these sentiments to Nick, I got an email from him informing me of the joke... ...and boy, did it get me. I should have seen it coming, but shit, I fell for it so fucking hard. SM came up with the idea for how to continue the prank, and (as mentioned) I loved it. I drew up the cease and desist right there...sent it to myself in an email, and then took a screenshot of said email to make it look legit. For anyone who thought it wasn't real "law speak", that one was a word for word replication of a standard DMCA "takedown" notice. Last night, I threw together the one from IPS...recreated the logo, did the same thing with emailing myself the message, redacting the "personal" information (the lawtype who "contacted" us is named Billy Madison, by the way), and sent it to Nick for Phase II. Here was the part that gave it away, I guess...I didn't do my research, I'll admit that. The damn thing was littered with typos and I had a hodgepodge of legal sounding words in there. Truth be told, I faked it, and in a total of about 5 minutes. I didn't mean to make you guys think that anyone involved thinks you guys are retards, and for that, I APOLOGIZE (arch, you listening?). I just figured that you guys would be all up-in-arms about the situation, and wouldn't pay so much attention to the letter itself, as to the pending disaster. I even redacted the email address in the letter so you guys wouldn't contact their main customer support lines thinking it was something like "abuse at whatever.com" and so forth. I underestimated the "sleuthiness" of you guys in the situation, and for that I ALSO APOLOGIZE. Anyway, I had fun, and I thought it was funny. The panic was funny on my end, because I knew it would be alright. I even wanted Nick to tell you guys that I'd host the whole thing on my server if need be, but we were both at work so that part was left out. I really am sorry to those who were offended, etc. My motto might be "fuck them if they can't take a joke", but I love you guys. And finally, April Fools everyone. Stay safe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpunkyMonkey Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 dude, you are so harsh... yeah, it was obvious, but it was fun! and when was i gonna get the chance to warn/ban people? even tulipO's union was a hoot. Ok fine, I'll credit your effort for creating the board, and that union thing was a hoot, I totally wanted to point out that hondonians were not workers instead customers, and so, customers can't unionize against a company! I was banned though. this is very much true, that was my first idea of how to run with it. god bless pedro for talking me out of that one, heh. looking at things a day later, that would've gone over like a lead balloon. I was more concerned for my safety than lead balloons and you thought you'd be the one vilified, didnt you? I was only 50/50 on that, sometimes I feel like half the people on here don't even know who I am. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stilly Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 OH! And I don't know if anyone noticed (besides Nick), but Hondoshare redirected here that night, too. Took it down and put up the front page that was on hondosbar.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The NZA Posted April 3, 2009 Author Share Posted April 3, 2009 aw man, i dont think Stilly has anything to apologize for at all, certainly not for letters that clearly fooled people (as was their intention). this very thread was my doing, and im only sorry for hurt feelings, specifically to those that spent part of their day trying to help out. anyway. i wont let this drama take away from the awesomeness of this prank. i honestly thought i coudlnt outdo the Return of Drunken Deities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TulipO Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 Best. Prank. Ever! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunsmithx Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 Best. Prank. Ever! I think you need to get out more. Oh wait it pissed off joel, this makes sense now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crimsonfire Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 I totally missed it but I've done my homework and I deem it awesome. I just hate it when I hear about the fallout from these things before I've even witnessed the event itself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishopcruz Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 Just noticing that most of the people who are all "HEY! Awesome Prank!" were the ones who were either in on it, or were posting about this crap after the joke had more or less come out. There had been at least enough doubt shown on the thread at the time that no one was going to get completely taken in on it after about 4:38, Eastern time. To be fair, I was pretty annoyed yesterday, in trying to help out a good friend that seemed to be having trouble I wasted a couple of hours trying to figure out the best way to try and to find a way to be able to convert the board to other software. I ended up being late to class, and thankfully I found out about it before I wasted any more time. I'm sure that some people are still gonna talk about crying over spilt milk or what have you, go right ahead. I don't think there was much wrong conceptually with the joke, it was what it was. My main issues with it were the timing of the whole damn thing. As Nick mentioned, when he gunsmith and I had originally come up with the Hondo's Corp idea a couple of months back, it was a different beast than what it became. The whole goal of it was to be a very subtle thing that ramped up in the week before the big payoff on April Fools. Nick changed it a bit since then, and I never got a chance to see too much of how it ended up because it was down in less than a day. It was WAY more obvious than I had envisioned it, mainly because of the Yahoo and FlickR stuff, especially right away. And just to be clear arch, no it was not all an attempted insult to you. I guess the main thing that I ended up taking umbrage to in this whole affair is the date, April Fools was over, it had already BEEN over when the Yahoo stuff was posted. It may not be much, but you get away with a lot more shit on April 1st than any other day, and that's kinda the point. You can pull shit on people on 4/1 that garner a laugh and an easy "you got me" that on April 2nd get you a kick to the nuts. Hell, you can build shit up for weeks or months ahead of time if you want, but the payoff is always supposed to be on that day. The reason the timing is so damned important is to try to minimize the instances of hard feelings for those who DID get punked. I mean if you look at the thread and shoutbox, to say nothing of personal conversations, it's not like this was so well executed that the possibility of it being a prank didn't enter anyone's mind. Hell, in the first conversation Angel and I had on it, we pretty much asked ourselves if it was a prank, and dismissed it because 1) It was Nick, and 2) It wasn't April Fools. So yeah, I think it was kinda cheap. Most people understand why some might be upset, some who were in on it are being incredibly arrogant pricks about it (Signal, I'm looking at you. WOW, you calling Joel a douche is really the epitome of 'takes one to know one.') and for the record, Arch shouldn't have taken it personally as that was clearly not the intent. The joke may have been all in good fun, but its execution was pretty damned awful. Is part of me sore for falling for it? Yeah, a bit. But the difference between a good practical joke and a bad one is that a good one tends to leave those who were taken in by it feeling a little dumb, but still laughing, while a bad one leaves the punker laughing, and the punkee pissed the fuck off. And of course, this also means I really couldn't be moved to give a fuck about the Hondo's share thing, assuming it was real in the first place, and not already taken care of. Oh and Pedro, if Invision liquidated all their shit tomorrow and the board vanished. It would suck we would move on. I also wouldn't wast time trying to find a bulletin board that we could convert all of our data to, or any of that shit. If the prank had been, we're gone in a day, and IPB is going to not let us backup our shit, everything is gone no matter what, then there is no time or need to worry, shit's gone. When there IS a chance to possibly help and salvage whatever one can, then I'll try to do something about it instead of cry about how much shit sucks. Apparently I'll have to avoid that in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunsmithx Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 I was only 50/50 on that, sometimes I feel like half the people on here don't even know who I am. who? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jumbie Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 But.. but... But, I just finished copying all of Blargh. All 1000 pages of it. I didn't sleep. I didn't eat. I didn't even look at other threads. Somewhere there's a fifth grade class in tears because I canceled the pizza party for my going away day. And this was a joke? A fucking joke? I can't tell you how glad I am for the easy gun laws in Miami, because the next time I go there, I'm taking a cab straight from the Airport to the sports shop on Bird Road and I'm coming for every one of you fuckers in on this. Now, Good day to you all, Ladies and Gentlemen. I'm off to fine-tune my marksmanship, because I want to make sure I don't hit something vital too early when I start shooting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the division of joy Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 Damn... No refund... The hondosinc thing was pretty funny in hindsight, but i smelled a rat pretty much instantly with the cease and desist things from yahoo and thusly invision. Either way, twas good. No dinosaur names though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The NZA Posted April 3, 2009 Author Share Posted April 3, 2009 i talked most of this out with bish already - again, those who've been around a while know we often do not stick closely to the actual date of april first. we often start up beforehand and keep things going well past the date - this happened with the return to DD, dino-names, a lot of our pranks play it loosely with the date. its been like a tradition since DD, i wanna say benny announced leaving the priesthood and i was supposedly engaged by the 2nd or so. what im saying is - and this wont help those really bothered here - this not nearly unprecedented, for those who've been around. i really saw it as a great extension of the original joke, and again, too good to pass on. if i could give you back your afternoon, i would. again, the only regret i got here is not having included you and gunsmith in the joke to prevent your soreness, and even then, i really wasnt expecting the reaction i got considering gun was only around during hondosinc for a small part of it, and you didnt even sign in - there are people who post here every day, and you two have been around a lot more often lately but you still go missing here & there, like most, so i i gambled my 8 hours or so of work wouldnt be enough time for anyone who happened to be around to do more than mild panic & back a thing or two up - it felt like a safe assumption, and i was wrong. i have since personally apologized on and offline to you for this error, though i still stand by the overall prank as being awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TulipO Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 Awesome. In the tradition of Hondos. NOT because it pissed arch off. Because it was a good prank. Most of us were fooled--and/or had fun with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alive she cried Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 It was extremely uncool. I gotta say I was pissed the fuck off, it really was in very bad taste Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terrance Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 I say, Phillip, This seems to have been a wonderful April fools' prank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phillip Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 Yes. There admin is surely a master humorist. Like us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The NZA Posted April 4, 2009 Author Share Posted April 4, 2009 It was extremely uncool. I gotta say I was pissed the fuck off, it really was in very bad taste wait...you? really? that was...unexpected. Personally, i thought you'd be in the peanut gallery with skeet on this one. *shrugs* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Bad Mama MILF Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 One time on the campaign trail, I locked McCain in his hotel room. I made sure I broke the phone and put the room key on the top of a high shelf where he couldn't reach it. (You know, because of his not being able to raise his arms after all the POW torture.) Practical jokes are the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alive she cried Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 wait...you? really? that was...unexpected. Personally, i thought you'd be in the peanut gallery with skeet on this one. *shrugs* Look, i'm not saying I think any less of you for doing it, it just...the feeling of horror when I saw that banner, it's like telling someone thier friend is dying and then just saying 2nd of april fools. It was cruel is all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the division of joy Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 wait...you? really? that was...unexpected. Personally, i thought you'd be in the peanut gallery with skeet on this one. *shrugs* I reckon its pretty callow of you to just expect someone to be cool with it on the basis of how much you favour them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The NZA Posted April 5, 2009 Author Share Posted April 5, 2009 Look, i'm not saying I think any less of you for doing it, it just...the feeling of horror when I saw that banner, it's like telling someone thier friend is dying and then just saying 2nd of april fools. It was cruel is all. you know, it was a short window of time and i did quantify the impact on some people (look at arch) as being worth it, as the nature of pranks being kinda mean and all. again, since we'd had this kinda thing happen before - granted, without notice - i clearly didnt think itd be as heartfelt to some. its obviously touching to find out otherwise, so again, my bad man. DoJ - shut yer yap. if we're going to even pretend to be something beyond digital friends here, its not unfair to think you know someone enough to second-guess their reaction, we do this all the time. why does skeet get all mad if you disagree on something in FC that he thought you'd be all up ons? we make these kind of character assumptions alla time, and obviously there's angles like this that we can be wrong on. ASC, i believe, would be one of the first to jump in on a prank, admit to being punked, laugh at himself etc but i didnt think about just how dear the community itself is to him even when its just a prank. i toyed with the dude's emotions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the division of joy Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 DoJ - shut yer yap. if we're going to even pretend to be something beyond digital friends here, its not unfair to think you know someone enough to second-guess their reaction, we do this all the time. why does skeet get all mad if you disagree on something in FC that he thought you'd be all up ons? we make these kind of character assumptions alla time, and obviously there's angles like this that we can be wrong on. ASC, i believe, would be one of the first to jump in on a prank, admit to being punked, laugh at himself etc but i didnt think about just how dear the community itself is to him even when its just a prank. i toyed with the dude's emotions. To you maybe, i don't really assume anything reactionary of the people on here i've not met. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archangel Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 you ass! It's ok to not do it to ASC but perfectly fine to do it to me, George and Angel, is that it? No, DoJ's first point was spot on: I reckon its pretty callow of you to just expect someone to be cool with it on the basis of how much you favour them. sorry, couldn't resist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the division of joy Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 Did arch just agree with me entirely? Surely this merits some sort of reward... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.