You mean the internet being actually lighthearted and fun (like it used to be) for 36 hours?

You sound like the kind of person who thinks saying "it's just a prank bro" makes a variety of awful behaviour ok.

AF is a day with a mix of corpos trying So Hard To Be Cool (remember this shit? https://www.theverge.com/2016/4/1/11344044/google-gmail-mic-...) and plainer-than-usual disinformation campaigns.

The only redeeming thing about that day is I get to have an excuse to not be reachable for a day and can be disconnected for a while. Hopefully my loved ones don't end up in the hospital on bad timing.

Google used to have some great jokes though. TiSP was great.

https://archive.google.com/tisp/index.html

As with any prank or joke there is a skill and art to telling a good one. But I don't think we should let bad pranks outlaw humour in general.

That’s full of subtle gold:

> #6 Insert the TiSP installation CD and run the setup utility to install the Google Toolbar (required) and the rest of the TiSP software, which will automatically configure your computer's network settings.

As well as some less subtle jokes as well :)

There is nothing funny or lighthearted about modern-day Internet April Fools. It is too ingrained in ‘social media marketing’ culture at this point. What used to be ‘people having fun’ is now a temporal dumping ground for a bunch of unfunny forced jokes pumped out by soulless marketing teams as some sort of brand awareness exercise.

Bring back Google TISP I say.

Bring back Slashdot, OMG Ponies!

BBC usually does a “stories which sound like april 1st jokes, but are actually true” compilation on that day. I always found it funnier than the real april 1st jokes. Also it kinda shows of their fact checking and news gathering muscles, that they are able to pull the crazy-but-true out of the sea of general crazyness.

Lee Valley tools traditionally “announces” a new fake tool on April first, but will sell it if there’s enough interest. Most have been discontinued by now, but one is still available for sale: a blank tape measure so you can make up your own dimensions.

https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/tools/hand-tools/markin...