Microsoft leads the way in banning April Fools' Day pranks
Everyone hates April Fools' Day, and Microsoft is taking a stand against its own corporate pranks. Microsoft's marketing chief Chris Capossela has warned all employees to not participate in the process of annoying hoaxes on Monday. In an internal memo, obtained and verified by The Verge, Capossela explains that "data tells us these stunts have limited positive impact and can actually result in unwanted news cycles." He encourages all teams inside Microsoft not to do any public-facing April Fools' Day stunts.
"I appreciate that people may have devoted time and resources to these activities, but I believe we have more to lose than gain by attempting to be funny on this one day," says Capossela. That's probably a safe bet, as we've seen some April Fools' Day pranks backfire spectacularly in the past. Google was forced to apologize for adding Despicable Me minions into emails and muting threads a few years ago, causing email havoc for Gmail users. Microsoft has also participated in many April Fools' Day pranks over the years, including an MS-DOS mobile for Windows Phone and Google insults.
#FakeNews?
Also at BGR.
See also: Everyone Should Follow Microsoft's Lead in Banning April Fools' Day Pranks
(Score: 3, Disagree) by c0lo on Monday April 01 2019, @02:36AM (5 children)
Thanks $deity for that.
Maybe you manage to transform this into a tradition... it's not that hard, you only need to try.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday April 01 2019, @02:50AM (4 children)
Laziness is my second favorite tradition but being a wiseass is still in the lead. Fear not though, I plan on putting an "Okay, I've seen it. Now stop doing it." button on any future site pranks. The Geocities-looking theme even annoyed me after a while and I'm the one who made it.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Monday April 01 2019, @05:08AM (3 children)
OReilly? then why is my Soylent Blue?
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday April 01 2019, @06:10AM (2 children)
Go to preferences, select the Homepage tab, on "Select Theme" choose "Chillax", click "Save".
Actually that's my default theme because I like the blue more than the standard red.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Monday April 01 2019, @06:21AM (1 child)
Sorry! Fake News and false alarm! There actually is no emergency on the Southern Boarder! It was just an incomplete page load, a brain fart due to old age and pomposity. I should have known, since, if SN were to go April Prime, it would be, "OMG! Green New Deal!"
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday April 01 2019, @10:31AM
We did green last year, didn't we?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.