I'm curious to know exactly how the merge will effect the GOTM competitions, both future and the currently active ones.

This is assuming it is not an April Fools joke, since it is well past April 1st GMT

I'm convinced it's an april fool's joke, btw, it's still april 1st in the US

I realize that, as I am in the US...but it seems a bit too elaborate to be a joke.

Nothing is 'too elaborate' to be an April Fool's joke. That's precisely the point! :)

Nothing is 'too elaborate' to be an April Fool's joke. That's precisely the point! :) To big for a joke, its a full blown hoax if it is not real.

If it is a joke/hoax, I was in on it. :lol:

dV

Its outlined on www.civjunction.com homepage.

Holy cow! It isn't a joke! Are you guys seriously going to start charging money to play GOTM?

I assumed it had to be a joke, because even if that was your intent, it seemed ... really bad timing to be instituting that at the exact same time as a merger. People will be disgruntled enough, without you starting to charge them to use your site!

:(

Its outlined on www.civjunction.com homepage. The fact that "small entry fee" is left to the user's imagination is certainly fueling the concern in the GOTM community. The admin gods must have something in mind.

Say it is $5 per game per month. GOTM, WOTM, SGOTM, "SWOTM" makes it $20 a month for the set. Every two months that is a new game purchase. Boo hiss :rolleyes:

Maybe $5 per month for unlimited play? Maybe $1 per month per game? I don't love it, but it is more reasonable.

So why not put a number on the table so we can argue about something concrete?

dV

I wouldn't pay too much attention if I were you ;)

I'm surprised people are still buying it! :smug:

Just don't invest too much emotion in the issue! :cringe:

[/pun]

I don't know about USA time zones, but isn't it time (late 2nd April in Germany) to solve this?

Ainwood's post on April 2nd in this thread would make it an illegitimate April Fool.

Clarification - Thunderfall has announced elsewhere that this is indeed an April Fool. Controversy still reigns because some mods have continued to perpetrate it well into April 2, against the traditions of the April Fool (which is supposed to be before midday April 1).

Ainwood's post on April 2nd in this thread would make it an illegitimate April Fool.

Nonsense.
April Fool's Day is when a joke or prank or hoax is publicized. Some jokes require days of preparation beforehand, others may need days on the back end.

Ainwood's post on April 2nd in this thread would make it an illegitimate April Fool. Look at the time ... it posted at 11:59 PM on April 1 ... coincidence?

dV

Edit: D'oh, just for east coast USA! :hammer2: But for us, a tantalizing time for the post ... ;)

Look at the time ... it posted at 11:59 PM on April 1 ... coincidence?

dV

Ainwood's post in this thread was at Apr 02, 2007, 05:59 AM. That's UTC+1. But given that he's in New Zealand, it's really an awful lot later on April 2nd. April Fool's jokes are supposed to be conducted before midday on April 1.

Nonetheless, Thunderfall has announced that this is an April Fool albeit not very well conducted (given that all the controversy about it arose from it's still being announced and treated as real by the perps on April 2).

Nonetheless, Thunderfall has announced that this is an April Fool albeit not very well conducted (given that all the controversy about it arose from it's still being announced and treated as real by the perps on April 2). That was necessary to get the full, final impact of the Hoax.

dV

... albeit not very well conducted (given that all the controversy about it arose from it's still being announced and treated as real by the perps on April 2)

You're breaking my heart :rotfl: :D

I guess all the fuss shows how much we love it here ... and how much we are NOT willing to pay for it! :lol:

BTW, how did ainwood get elected to be one of the evil ones not moving to CPC?

dV

Type casting :p

hm...I kinda liked the idea of helping Alan run the C-IV forums and competitions lol

Is that a job application?

I'd say so... :mischief:

well I'm not entirely sure what I could do, but if there is something I'd definitely be interested :)

You're breaking my heart :rotfl: :D

Type casting :p

Is that a job application?

Is it me, or is this the best mood AlanH has been in since ... well ... since I started hanging out here last September? :lol:

Even his classic :p have been relatively friendly today! :D

Maybe he is just happy that after taking all our grief for so long, he got to give it back to us! ;) :goodjob:

dV

Maybe he is just happy that after taking all our grief for so long, he got to give it back to us! ;) :goodjob:

You Might Say That, I Couldn't Possibly Comment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Cards)

The late, lamented Ian Richardson in House of Cards, 1990

Thrallia, that sure sounded like a job application to me!

That was necessary to get the full, final impact of the Hoax.

dV

Seems to me it was carried over to April 2 because everybody picked it as an April Fool, so they kept persisting the next day to desperately try to convince people it wasn't. Which is just bizarre and childish.

(April 1)
A: plays prank
everybody: It's just an April Fool
A: no it isn't
everybody: of course it is
A: really it isn't

(April 2)

A: honestly it's real
A: swear on my Mum's grave this isn't an April Fool
everybody: ok, well if it's real we think you're being very foolish
A: Ha ha, April Fool!

:rolleyes:

I bet whb is going to be really mad on April 3, when it turns out that the April 2 hoax was the false retraction of the April 1 story. Now that really violates tradition! It didn't even happen on April Fools Day! (Hmm, check the Julian rather than Gregorian calendar?)

Thrallia, that sure sounded like a job application to me! I think he is looking for inside information to help Geezers in the SGOTM :eek:

dV

Which is just bizarre and childish.
... which is a definition of an April Fool joke.

We're talking about an exercise that spanned every time zone on the planet, and involved people all over the world. It went on for a small number of hours past midnight at the International Dateline. Is that such a big deal?

... which is a definition of an April Fool joke.

We're talking about an exercise that spanned every time zone on the planet, and involved people all over the world. It went on for a small number of hours past midnight at the International Dateline. Is that such a big deal?

It means you didn't do it right ... but never mind, I'll just go and reload my GOTM save from a few turns previously at the international date line...:p

Seriously, the reason for keeping these things to April 1 (before midday in many traditions) is because you wan't to get embarrassed people feeling gullible on April 1, not irritated people feeling confused on April 2 because time's up but no-one's willing to come clean despite being called on it.

It means you didn't do it right ... but never mind, I'll just go and reload my GOTM save from a few turns previously at the international date line...:p

Seriously, the reason for keeping these things to April 1 (before midday in many traditions) is because you wan't to get embarrassed people feeling gullible on April 1, not irritated people feeling confused on April 2 because time's up but no-one's willing to come clean despite being called on it.

That's what made it so good! They didn't consult you for the official April Fool's rulebook, so it kinda scared everyone when they didn't announce it until late April 2nd (or 3rd depending on your time zone). I thought it was a pretty good joke though, seriously, half of the people out there bought it...

It means you didn't do it right ... but never mind, I'll just go and reload my GOTM save from a few turns previously at the international date line...:p

The GOTM rules are written in words of few syllables for all who want to play the games, and enforced wherever that's practical. Can't say I've seen anything written down that says a practical joke has a deadline, and there seems to be no one other than you policing the AF process.

Most comment I have seen has been positive. There are bound to be a few "victims" of a practical joke who don't enjoy it, but did anyone actually get hurt?

The whole thing was brilliant. Anyone who thinks otherwise will probably come around eventually.

I thought it was funny and was pretty sure it was a joke until I saw people I respected insulting each other. Then it stopped being funny and when it wasn't revealed as a joke this morning I finally believed it.

I guess I should feel embarrassed that I fell for it but I'm still actually pretty sad about the insults even though they turned out to be fake. I'll get over it but I'll never have the same level of trust I had before. I know not to trust misc random online people but I did trust the mods here. Not so much now.

Well planned! and Well Played! Keep up the good work CFC!!

Wow, the things you miss when you don't pay much attention to the forums for a couple of days... :lol: :lol: Sounds like you all have been having fun ;)

Can't say I've seen anything written down that says a practical joke has a deadline

"In some countries (eg, Ireland and Cyprus) the tradition goes that after 12 noon you can no longer play tricks. In the afternoon, whoever does play a trick becomes the fool. This scenario may have been designed by adults to give themselves a bit of a rest.

There is a rhyme that children recite if anyone attempts an April Fool trick after 1 April:

April Fool is dead and gone,
You're a fool to carry it on."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A516791

I didn't find any other time limit rules in a quick internet search. Accordingly, only people from Ireland and Cyprus have the right to complain about it continuing past noon.

I didn't find any other time limit rules in a quick internet search. Accordingly, only people from Ireland and Cyprus have the right to complain about it continuing past noon.

It's also the tradition in the UK and Australia at least. A quick Google for "April Fool's Day midday" will find you lots of links. (I wasn't aware it goes on longer in the US.)

In any case, it turns out from another post that Ainwood wasn't in on the joke (I assumed all the mods were in on it), so my grumble about his post is somewhat moot -- he was a foolee not a fooler.

But don't worry about that tax demand on October 31st, it's just an April Fool being unconstrained by the rules :lol:

Given all the timezones involved, and the fact that people like DynamicSpirit still missed the whole thing, the joke could hardly have gone for any less time, because all that effort would have been wasted on a small group of people who are online 24x7. The joke doesn't work anywhere near as well when read about afterwards. You had to be there to experience it so I think they held on for the right amount of time.

Given all the timezones involved, and the fact that people like DynamicSpirit still missed the whole thing, the joke could hardly have gone for any less time, because all that effort would have been wasted on a small group of people who are online 24x7.

It was wasted on me and I read the whole thing. Frankly, the less time it would have lasted, the better. I have no sympathy for those who say, "You didn't follow the rules of April Fools." But plenty of sympathy for those who just say, "Boy, this was dumb."

This was silly and fun and not that hard to pick up on if you read it carefully (while the core idea still had potential to be true), just how an April Fools joke should be, imhso.
:goodjob: to both teams. I enjoyed it :cool:

This is classic. People even hassle the GOTM / admin staff over timing of an April fool's joke. C'mon people. It was a classic! I'm sure most people appreciate the humor and the further humor of the complaints.

And very well done civjunction site, btw.

I thought it was funny and was pretty sure it was a joke until I saw people I respected insulting each other. Then it stopped being funny and when it wasn't revealed as a joke this morning I finally believed it.That's the way I felt too, I saw it 4/1 and said (and posted), of course this is a joke! Look at the last line of the announcement!

It was literally when I read this thread on 4/2 and saw ainwood's post with the civjunction link, that I thought (and posted) "Holy cow, this isn't a joke!"

For what it's worth, if you notice I didn't get angry or anything. GOTM is a service I get value from and would pay a small amount for to help defray costs or whatever. My main concern was not that I would have to pay, but that lots of other people would quit playing because they didn't want to, and that would destroy the whole point of GOTM (not to mention sour the friendly atmosphere between admins and players).

The joke itself was a very good one. Like Jenarie, for me the humor of it was soured though by the extreme reaction some had to it, and that may have inadvertently done a little damage to the atmosphere here. But that was inflicted by the people who reacted that way, not be the people who pulled the joke.

"In some countries (eg, Ireland and Cyprus) the tradition goes that after 12 noon you can no longer play tricks. In the afternoon, whoever does play a trick becomes the fool. This scenario may have been designed by adults to give themselves a bit of a rest.

There is a rhyme that children recite if anyone attempts an April Fool trick after 1 April:

April Fool is dead and gone,
You're a fool to carry it on."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A516791

I didn't find any other time limit rules in a quick internet search. Accordingly, only people from Ireland and Cyprus have the right to complain about it continuing past noon.


I start to understand this 1 April thing now. In Spain, there is a day when everybody can make tricks and that is 28 December, the day of the innocents. If you are tricked you are called "innocent". It conmemorates the children slaughtered by Herod.

Was this trick funny? I don't know. Call me pricky, but I think it looks more like a trial balloon than like a trick.

Lamer than Christopher Reeves was in his last days.