Ah,
April 1, 2001! The first day of the new millennium dedicated to full-scale
tomfoolery! How could we
not commemorate it?
After queries went out among the
editors and gods, suggestions for a few
pranks started filtering in.
N-Wing came up with some great ideas for
reversing the text in writeups and converting them to
1337-speek, but I must take full
blame for the concept of the now-infamous
April Trolls episode: editors and gods created new
troll accounts and on April 1, server time, began indulging in the worst possible
newbie/
troll behavior. I myself made several appearances as
sloppyjoe, a high school kid who thought he was a
genius and yet couldn't manage to figure out
hardlinking,
private messages, or proper
spelling.
Numerous
poorly written and
inflammatory nodes quickly filled up the New Writeups box as the Chatterbox was flooded with the best and most
mindless inanity we could dream up -- everything from
1337 speak to
AOL speak to... some kinds of speak I didn't even recognize. A new noder named "
I_OWnz_yEW" mysteriously shot to the top of the Other Users nodelet.
Chaos reigned...
Rumors circulated that E2 had been
hacked by
nefarious enemies, bent on destroying the database once and for all. Sensing a new dimension to the prank, we editors suddenly "
discovered" that our powers didn't work and that the
EDB had gotten off its leash... Many noders bought into the scam
lock, stock and barrel -- some even started talking about calling the
FBI to track down the
crackers. Other noders sensed a prank was going on, but couldn't be sure...
Inspired by the antics of another
god, I even slapped together a
webpage for sloppyjoe -- an
enthusiastic and
contentless page extolling the glories of himself,
geniuses, and
Star Trek. Later, E2 was treated to the
spectacle of
Jet-Poop and
sloppyjoe engaging in a furious
argument in the Chatterbox -- a feat I don't recommend for everyone, 'cause it made me feel a bit
schizophrenic...
I received a number of /msg's from concerned and frustrated noders, including
ephealy,
Seven_,
Wigs,
Tauress,
TrbleClef,
Jurph,
wukong888, and
anemotis. Even with a newbie as clueless and as utterly without content as I was, they worked hard to try to direct me to the
FAQ and to teach me how to use the Chatterbox correctly. Seriously, they're a
credit to E2, and I'm
blessing them with a few dozen
XP as soon as I get this noded.
Kudos, gang. In fact, kudos to all of you -- I've never seen so much
concern for the database and such
thoughtful musing about the future of E2. Youse guys are great. :)
In the end, we ended the prank a bit early, due to a combination of concern for the noders who were really very
angry that E2 had been h4xx0red and concern for our own
frazzled nerves -- at times, it was like someone had dosed us with really
bad acid. The work of the
troll noders is being
deleted as we speak -- never let it be said that we don't clean up our own
messes. Some of you are
angry, and we understand, but we'd like to make sure you realize that we were just trying to have some
fun and that nothing like this is ever going to happen again...
And if we think of doing any pranks next year --
kick us.
Hard.