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posted by martyb on Tuesday April 05 2016, @06:13AM   Printer-friendly
from the mirth-gone-awry dept.

fossBytes reports

Just for a single day, Gmail users were able to choose 'drop the mic' during email conversations.

"Simply reply to any email using the new 'Send + Mic Drop' button. Everyone will get your message, but that's the last you'll ever hear about it. Yes, even if folks try to respond, you won't see it."

If you used this feature, you could find the [replies] in [the] 'all mail' tab, but they would remain absent from the typical notifications. As a result, many people easily missed their mails.

Google [thought up] this prank to give you some kind of relief. If you felt [you were] being unnecessarily [...] tagged in an email, [you could say] goodbye to that email thread forever.

But, according to the claims made by a writer called Allan Pashby, he ended up losing his job, as he sent an email with [the] mic drop GIF to his boss. Pushy wasn't so lucky and his boss took offence and fired him with an angry voice mail.

The placement of the button could be held responsible for this backlash, as it sat directly next to the default Send button.

"Accidentally hit this new 'mic drop' button halfway through composing a professional email. Dying to remove this thing", wrote one user on Google's product forum.

Another user wrote, "This is horrible--just sent an email to a client with this stupid icon on it. I can't afford these stupid pranks!"

Considering the fact that it was April Fool's Day, many of these claims could be fake. However, keeping in [...] mind the possibility of some outrage, Google has removed the feature from Gmail:

"Well, it looks like we pranked ourselves this year. ?? Due to a bug, the MicDrop feature inadvertently caused more headaches than laughs. We're truly sorry. The feature has been turned off. If you are still seeing it, please reload your Gmail page."

Previously: Google April Fool's Gmail Button Sparks Backlash.


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  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 05 2016, @06:34AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 05 2016, @06:34AM (#327451)

    I fail to see how this isn't a dupe. It's not really any different from the previous story, and I don't see why it needs to be discussed again. Also, Slashdot posted this four days ago. It sure seems like SoylentNews scours Slashdot (who is already behind on posting news) for stories, then posts them a day or two later.

    The real problem here is why anyone expects Google, who is known for pranks, constantly trying to be funny with logo changes, and frequently discontinuing widely used services, to produce products suitable for use in professional environments. Microsoft wouldn't play pranks in Office 365 and wouldn't do things that cause workers to lose their jobs. If you want something that's cute and funny, Google might be the way to go. If you want to get work done and be professional, you'll need to use Microsoft products. If there's any justice in this world, businesses and professionals will switch away from Google products and migrate to Microsoft software.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 05 2016, @06:39AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 05 2016, @06:39AM (#327453)

    use Microsoft products

    Dislike! Dislike! Mod down -1000

  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 05 2016, @07:03AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 05 2016, @07:03AM (#327460)

    It sure seems like SoylentNews scours Slashdot (who is already behind on posting news) for stories, then posts them a day or two later.

    SoylentNews news is greener than the green site's news. In fact, it's made with 100% recycled content. Every byte is good for the planet.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrv78nG9R04 [youtube.com]

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 05 2016, @07:09AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 05 2016, @07:09AM (#327462)

    "Microsoft wouldn't play pranks in Office 365 and wouldn't do things that cause workers to lose their jobs."

    vs.

    "Black Monday: Office 365 down and out in Europe"

    /article.pl?sid=16/02/23/0139240 [soylentnews.org]

    • (Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Tuesday April 05 2016, @07:16AM

      by c0lo (156) on Tuesday April 05 2016, @07:16AM (#327465) Journal

      "Microsoft wouldn't play pranks in Office 365 and wouldn't do things that cause workers to lose their jobs."

      vs.

      "Black Monday: Office 365 down and out in Europe"

      For sure millions were lost, but... nobody lost his job.
      Now... that's professionalism!

      (grin)

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
    • (Score: 2) by edIII on Tuesday April 05 2016, @09:38AM

      by edIII (791) on Tuesday April 05 2016, @09:38AM (#327507)

      My first thought was, "we need multiple burn units here". Second, no employer penalizes employees because a computer or information system breaks and work could not be performed. Unless, they're in IT, in which case it can go either way depending on how well they remember the Problem Solving Flowchart [buzzfeed.com].

      --
      Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday April 05 2016, @07:11AM

    by c0lo (156) on Tuesday April 05 2016, @07:11AM (#327463) Journal

    If you want to pretend you get work done and look professional, you'll need to use Microsoft products.

    FTFY - because nothing speaks better the bosses' language than a PowerPoint.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
    • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Tuesday April 05 2016, @05:25PM

      by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Tuesday April 05 2016, @05:25PM (#327715) Homepage Journal

      Have you ever actually tried to use Oo's or Lo's spreadsheet? It's nearly completely worthless. If you need a spreadsheet, you need Microsoft. But I agree, NOBODY needs PowerPoint. IMO the horrible open source spreadsheets are what keeps open source out of most offices.

      --
      Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday April 05 2016, @10:00PM

        by c0lo (156) on Tuesday April 05 2016, @10:00PM (#327802) Journal

        Have you ever actually tried to use Oo's or Lo's spreadsheet?

        Yes and was satisfied completely.

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
      • (Score: 2) by PocketSizeSUn on Wednesday April 06 2016, @06:49AM

        by PocketSizeSUn (5340) on Wednesday April 06 2016, @06:49AM (#327950)

        Boggle.
        What prey tell do you do with these spreadsheets that only Excel can do?

        For the record I don't use these Microsoft thingies so what I am missing out on?

        • (Score: 2) by DECbot on Wednesday April 06 2016, @07:39AM

          by DECbot (832) on Wednesday April 06 2016, @07:39AM (#327958) Journal

          Embedding them into PowerPoint.

          I wish I was joking.

          --
          cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
        • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Tuesday April 12 2016, @08:08PM

          by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Tuesday April 12 2016, @08:08PM (#330795) Homepage Journal

          Importing a text file as a delimited table, for one.

          --
          Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
          • (Score: 2) by PocketSizeSUn on Wednesday April 13 2016, @08:14PM

            by PocketSizeSUn (5340) on Wednesday April 13 2016, @08:14PM (#331280)

            Well now that is complete horse pucky. LibreOffice does an excellent job of dealing with CSV files. I use *that* feature all the time.

            • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday April 15 2016, @05:35PM

              by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Friday April 15 2016, @05:35PM (#332310) Homepage Journal

              Haven't tried Lo's spreadsheet, the word processor is almost identical to Oo. Does Lo understand other delimiters, like space, dash, or tab?

              --
              Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
  • (Score: 2) by tibman on Tuesday April 05 2016, @02:09PM

    by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday April 05 2016, @02:09PM (#327623)

    Yeah, "professional". Office 365 has more outages than the 10 year old server running in my closet. And my cat keeps sticking her paws into the fans and stopping them.

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