NEWS!

[azurelunatic]

news: LOOK AT ALL THIS COOL BLINKING SHIT!! We'll be 100% implemented and look exactly like MySpace by a year from today, on April 1, 2008!

burr86: "Thanks 4 t3h ADD!!1!!"
Eastern Users & Those Anticipating This: "Nice one. Happy April Fool's Day to you too!"
Users West of Chicago & Not Prepared Yet: "$#@*(!@#*(. ... Oh. Right. April frickin' Fool's Day."
Users Who Haven't Caught On: *freak out, rant, run around in circles screaming*
Ashamed to be Caught Out Users: *delete ranty comments after realizing what day it is*
burr86 and other helpful news denizens: *reply to ranty comments before they are deleted* "Check your calendar! ;) "
Ashamed to be Caught Out Users: "WTF. I DELETED that PDQ. How did you...?"
burr86: *hasn't turned off e-mail notifications*
Unamused Users: "Laa-aame. Wasn't LJ supposed to be cool and funny back in the day?"
Paranoid Users: "Laugh it up, but we'll see who's laughing when changes like this REALLY HAPPEN! This is a vision of dystopia here."
The NSFW-sensitive: "Big! Red! Finger! LJ-cut!! My eyes! My children's eyes! My boss's eyes!"
Vgift Addicts: "Please tell me the finger vgift is for reals, at least?"
/b/tards and other offsite buddies: *lovefest*
lj_dirtycache: *have a really scary style*
MySpace Mockers: *act like stereotypical MySpace users for the lolz*
Spammers: *spam*
Maintainers: *delete spam*
burr86's inbox: *catches fire*

Comments

*applause*

[lacey]

Spot-on, as usual!

Re: *applause*

[azurelunatic]

Thanks!

I'm expecting that there will be a second wave of complexity after morning hits properly, and a little more on Monday, but that's the bones of it.

Re: *applause*

[lacey]

Think you're right... you might have to amend this post or make another to reflect the fallout *g*

Re: *applause*

[ataniell93.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHAHAH, he had email notifications on?

I know you like him, but permit me my moment of schadenfreude.

That news post would have been a lot funnier five years ago--it's hitting too many sore points with too many people to be funny right now, and genuinely frightened several of my own good friends.

Re: *applause*

[azurelunatic]

I don't think it literally caught fire, but I don't envy him the task of clearing it out.

Re: *applause*

[azurelunatic]

And for some semblance of reassurance -- pretty much everything in that post is on an "over my dead body" level of DO NOT WANT with soooo many LJ geeks. There's a lot of attention being paid to what would work socially as far as bells and whistles go. It is a thing that new people being brought in from outside LJ have to get used to, and according to the rumors I hear, it's evidently a bit of a job to bring someone new up to speed to where they're no longer suggesting bad MySpace options that have to be shot down and shot down tactfully.

This prank was evidently a group effort about four months in the making (I heard that it was a group, though don't know who all besides the "band" members were in on it) incorporating as many as possible of the paranoia-points of the userbase-in-general that are massively unlikely to happen, at all, ever.

I am very sorry that people genuinely got frightened, and I do think that LJ core in general underestimates the amount of paranoia about this in the userbase. LJ core is feeling very secure that LJ-as-LJ will remain intact indefinitely, now that they have a handle on how the new people are thinking and likely to react, now that the new people are becoming more attuned with LJ's gestalt and really feeling like part of the team. From where I sit, it also looks like they are getting better at explaining to newcomers that while X feature is a thing of beauty, Y feature will never be accepted by the userbase, and why (though the "why" of it is always a little more elusive), even though Y feature is technically sound and works well on other sites.

I still don't know how to mend the rift between LJ staff and the userbase, in a way that would work for LJ staff and that the userbase would trust. I wish I did. I really wish I did.

Re: *applause*

[ataniell93.livejournal.com]

Really, imnsho, all that needs to go away is that "these are mysteries beyond your ken, youngling" attitude, particularly when the staff member thinks the other person's objections are funny for whatever godforsaken reason. We are perfectly capable of understanding why someone with a higher level of technical knowledge than ourselves thinks something is a good idea AND still disagreeing with it for reasons of our own which may not even be remotely bogus.

Re: *applause*

[azurelunatic]

So making sure that the people with that level of tech-support burn-out are kept far, far away from the userbase? That's probably a good plan.

Re: *applause*

[ataniell93.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it's always a function of burn-out; I see it in offices sometimes with brand spankin' new IT grads who don't think a 40+ year old administrative assistant could possibly understand WTF is going on with the network, until I tell them.

Re: *applause*

[azurelunatic]

I can see that happening, yeah. It's something I fight against myself on a regular basis. Each time I run into a new IT person, I have to establish my geek credibility with that person, especially if he's male.

Re: *applause*

[burr86.livejournal.com]

I left them on deliberately. :P

Re: *applause*

[azurelunatic]

*sigh, hold head in hands*

Plz not make my gerbil catch fire while I'm at work?

Re: *applause*

[burr86.livejournal.com]

APRIL FOOLS :D

Re: *applause*

[burr86.livejournal.com]

I mean, no worries. ;)

Re: *applause*

[ataniell93.livejournal.com]

that actually doesn't surprise me :P

[crisavec.livejournal.com]

I don't sub to news anymore...I just read your writeups.

[azurelunatic]

I'm flattered!

I don't do all of them these days, alas, because I just don't have the time/energy to wade through all the comments.

[crisavec.livejournal.com]

There's really no need to wade though ALL of them...if you do the first 50 comments you get the jist of it, and even then your review of what news says is usually as good or better than what they said to begin with.

[azurelunatic]

That's largely because I can afford to be irreverent and saucy in ways that they can't, because I'm doing the unofficial version. I can incorporate the behind-the-scenes perspective into the official release and put a far more human face on it all in a way that they just can't and still seem at least quasi-professional the way they need to be.