April Fool's Day
I don't like April Fool's Day.
I'm am perfectly willing to admit that a big chunk of my dislike stems from not enjoying being made to look like a fool. I don't enjoy being laughed at and I know I don't generally handle it well. In recent years I try not to be at work or generally accessible on the 1st as I simply don't want to deal with it. It was actually better when I was younger as I only had to deal with "local" pranks which were annoying, but pretty easy to figure out. Now, though, we have the joy that is email and LJ and all the other ways of communicating with people (many of which we don't see in person often, or at all in a lot of cases) all over the country and the world which makes April Fool's Day even more annoying.
I barely checked email at all yesterday and pretty much avoid LJ on the weekends anyway, so I didn't read any of the AFD posts/emails until this morning. After getting caught by this a couple years ago, I now am quite diligent about checking dates when I start reading anything this time of the year and read a number of things this morning that I looked at and immediately dismissed as being crap. And, they've all been announced as such since then. I've also read a number of those posts/emails where the person putting them forward has complained, some more nicely than others, about the reactions/comments they got because of it.
If you're going to pull a prank on a grand scale, via email, LJ, or a globally viewed website, how in the world do you expect everyone exposed is going to take it well? I mean honestly! Do you really think everyone is going to just laugh it off afterwords? Some people will catch on immediately and either ignore it or play along, but others aren't going to realize what's happening and are going to be hurt/upset/whatever by both the prank and the afterwords. It'd be nice to think they'd handle it well, but in the anonymity afforded by the internet don't hold your breath.
So, just to warn all you lovely people out there, if you decide to pull such pranks in the future I promise to try not to get pissed off at you for doing so, as it is your call, as long as you don't expect me to be happy with you for doing it. Also, because of what's come before, any of you who have anything real to talk about on April 1st might want to hold off until the 2nd if it's in the least bit important to you as I will 9 times out of 10 completely discount your posts/emails/etc. on that day. Sorry.
I'm am perfectly willing to admit that a big chunk of my dislike stems from not enjoying being made to look like a fool. I don't enjoy being laughed at and I know I don't generally handle it well. In recent years I try not to be at work or generally accessible on the 1st as I simply don't want to deal with it. It was actually better when I was younger as I only had to deal with "local" pranks which were annoying, but pretty easy to figure out. Now, though, we have the joy that is email and LJ and all the other ways of communicating with people (many of which we don't see in person often, or at all in a lot of cases) all over the country and the world which makes April Fool's Day even more annoying.
I barely checked email at all yesterday and pretty much avoid LJ on the weekends anyway, so I didn't read any of the AFD posts/emails until this morning. After getting caught by this a couple years ago, I now am quite diligent about checking dates when I start reading anything this time of the year and read a number of things this morning that I looked at and immediately dismissed as being crap. And, they've all been announced as such since then. I've also read a number of those posts/emails where the person putting them forward has complained, some more nicely than others, about the reactions/comments they got because of it.
If you're going to pull a prank on a grand scale, via email, LJ, or a globally viewed website, how in the world do you expect everyone exposed is going to take it well? I mean honestly! Do you really think everyone is going to just laugh it off afterwords? Some people will catch on immediately and either ignore it or play along, but others aren't going to realize what's happening and are going to be hurt/upset/whatever by both the prank and the afterwords. It'd be nice to think they'd handle it well, but in the anonymity afforded by the internet don't hold your breath.
So, just to warn all you lovely people out there, if you decide to pull such pranks in the future I promise to try not to get pissed off at you for doing so, as it is your call, as long as you don't expect me to be happy with you for doing it. Also, because of what's come before, any of you who have anything real to talk about on April 1st might want to hold off until the 2nd if it's in the least bit important to you as I will 9 times out of 10 completely discount your posts/emails/etc. on that day. Sorry.