April Fools! Although you already guessed!

[Roy Karrde]

I really got tired of waiting for this to be moved so I am going to go on and move it.

I would assume, after all of these years of TPM providing the best April Fools entertainment around. That everyone would make sure to avoid taking anything too personally over the period of days ranging from March 30th - April 2nd. Anyway yes all of the topics marked with *s were jokes. We have been creating them in the past month and used the *s to identify them as the April Fools topics.

To tell the truth our secret forum isn't a place where we go to pick on members as many of you seem to be assuming. It's nothing more than a board filled with discussion topics of various forums on here, in which we discuss future events. Such as the RPG Newsletter. We would not discuss and attack individual members like you have seen in the past day's topics for the very reason that they could become public by a disgruntled mod.

So just to reassure everyone. No I do not want to Mod Blade just so that he can be a scapegoat. No I do not want to use his idea with out him being the first to implement it. It was a joke. The entire Mod Staff did have fun posting like ass holes for the last month, but just like in a RPG or Fan Fic, those posts were characteractures, and not a realistic representation of the mod.

I hope everyone has had a Happy April Fools, we did try our hardest to provide some quality entertainment this year.

If anyone got hurt in this we apologize. It was created out of fun, and a bit of 2 am posting. NONE of these topics were ment to be taken seriously.

[Jeff]

I honestly didn't think so many people would fall for this. I figured that most of the people here would recognize it as an April Fool's prank and at least play along, enjoying the lulz. I guess we did a better job than I thought!

I should probably point out that this joke was supposed to go on well into the evening (Gabi's time), but because people were being offended, we decided to pull the plug early. I have thoroughly enjoyed helping with the prank, including spamming up the fake threads. I would have loved to see it go on longer but in the end what we decided to do was for the best. I hope that now those who were offended can just look back at this and laugh.

[Dark-San]

Blade if you are looking at this, I just like to say sorry if you are offended with any of the replies I made. It is just that we go with flow and has to pick someone with an outstanding 'personality'.

The bad thing is that we didn't expect you to be real upset about it. It's just a little joke we made and we hope you have a big heart to forgive us all. Come on, you know I wouldn't do anything that cruel to a friend of Faiz. =)

[Lady Vulpix]

I would like to apologize for all problems and concern my posts have caused. This got out of hand, I didn't really expect anyone to fall for it. As Roy said, the moved topics were fake and this was organized by the whole mod team. I was chosen as the catalyst this time, but upon seeing the results I'm really sorry about what happened.

I'm NOT leaving TPM, and I won't be stirring up fake drama anymore. My apologies to everyone, and if anyone wants to talk to me about this, I can be reached via IM or PM (although my MSN account isn't working very well).

[MeLoVeGhOsTs]

Although I get the humor of an april fools prank, I didn't get the humor in this one, but that's maybe 'cause it got out of hand.

Anyway, although it didn't really appeal to me, respect has to be given were it belongs. It was very thought-out april fools joke, although next time, you should watch it some more:)

[Chris 2.1]

Nice to see this is a prank, but it's clear a lot of people have been seriously offended and humiliated by it. Maybe not make it so personal next time?

[Rossymore]

FFFFFFFFFUUUUUUU.....

I'm seriously fine. Just don't call me a girl again.
God I hate April.

On another note: WTFH is a gimmick?

EDIT: I did get suspicious when I noticed that all the threads had been done in the past month.
I hate you lot so much...yet I love you all as well.

Just never do that again. Ever

[Roy Karrde]

I do want to explain that because of the well... distance that the two Editors of the Board "Chris and Kevin" are from us. We can no longer really create a "DigiMasters". Or as Andrew wanted "AndrewMasters". So we did try our best to work with the best tools we had available.

[Blademaster]

So let's see who you guys got a laugh out of:


-starjake


...OK, and who you pissed off:


-Me
-Rossymore
-Crystal Tears
-Mew Master
-Chris 2.1


...And who you confused:


-Mikachu
-MLG
-Asi


... and who you banned:


-firepokemon


...and who you failed to amuse:


-EVERYBODY.


L. O. L. Great work, TPM. I'm really proud.

[Heald]

http://www.b3tards.com/u/f94979c65cdf16050eb2/dramatpm.gif

In all seriousness, it did get out of hand, although I was forced to abstain from interfering, so no blame can be sent my way. However, for those who did get offended, that honestly was never the intention of this "prank", so it'd be a lot easier for everyone if people just sucked it up and put it behind us. Seriously, if you want to get pissed off by a stupid prank on a fairly inactive Pokemon forum, go right ahead. Just don't lose any sleep over it.

[Roy Karrde]

... and who you banned:


-firepokemon


I think Lady G can answer this one. I believe some one wanted to answer this problem in one of the discussion threads we had about this.

[Mew Master]

So we did try our best to work with the best tools we had available.

And you did a piss-poor job.

[Roy Karrde]

And you did a piss-poor job.

We can always try PolkaMasters or AndrewMasters next time.

[Lady Vulpix]

Firepokemon's banning was legitimate, it wasn't part of the prank. He was making posts with nothing but insults all over the forum, and our warnings only encouraged him to post more.

[Dark-San]

He posted an obscene topic twice with warnings given to him. That would account for 2 spammings and also the multiple flames he included in some of his posts. 3 staffs, including Me, Gabi and Gavin, had given him sufficient warnings not to do that. But he chose to ignore them. Overall his ban is clearly well- deserved.

So his ban wasn't due to the April Fool Joke but rather his inability to listen to others.

[Mew Master]

We can always try PolkaMasters or AndrewMasters next time.

That would have more taste than this years debacle.

[MeLoVeGhOsTs]

I can understand your point of view Denny, but I can also relate to the mods who tried to do something to amuse us on a grand scale (although it turned out badly). The intent was good, but the action could've worked out better, so lets all just try and forget about it for now and wait until next year's prank can ban us all at the same time:)

[Magmar]

Aww, I'm going to miss firepokemon. Even though he's a bit obsessed with TPM I'm sure he'd loosen up if people would just stop yelling at him when he flips his lid (fueling his fire) and give him a lapdance or something.

I say we all give him a lapdance.

[Heald]

I say we all give him a lapdance.
That's your response to everything! Lapdance this! Lapdance that!

[MeLoVeGhOsTs]

Maybe that's a creative input for next years prank.

Lapdances shouldn't be offending. Unless I give them in my goat-uniform. Oh the times..

[Magmar]

That's your response to everything! Lapdance this! Lapdance that!

it's April Fool's day so I'm being nice, lol

[Houndoom_Lover]

Hmm, glad I blacked out yesterday and whatnot- Kind of a stupid idea from what I gathered. Usually, when people prank them, they avoid personally mentioning names.
Which, you know, is illegal and called Hazing, I'm pretty sure.

I could be wrong but that's usually not funny.

Then again, I wasn't here to see the trainwreck.

[Lune the Guardian]

It would have worked better if you'd let in on the secret those who would potentially have been offended, especially star players like Blademaster. I'd assumed from his actions that you had informed him beforehand of the joke, and that he was just playing along. I actually kind of admired the setup you guys had that required weeks of planning in advance, for that reason. But to see that Blade was not informed at all about this, well, that was a little bit of poor insight on your part.

When stuff shows up to frustrate people, they don't really keep track of the date. If I may make a suggestion for future pranks, you should tell the sacrificial lambs in question about the prank beforehand so that they can play along and not overreact. Not everyone is aware of April Fool's Day, especially not when something inflames him/her. When I quit my modding job and left the forum I posted my goodbye (accidentally) on April Fool's Day and nobody believed me - the converse is also true, if someone sees something personally offensive he/she is not going to think "Hey, it's April Fool's Day. That's probably a prank."

*shrug* I applaud the elaborate planning, but perhaps take people's feelings into consideration next time?

It's a pity though, I had to leave for school after I made that long post so I didn't get to see the results before you guys removed the threads. I was hoping to see some mods play along and argue a bit. :P It was rather unrealistic and difficult to believe that every single mod would turn on Gabi and not a single person would support her so I tried to add some balance to that =/ But I think you made the right decision to end the joke early, considering that Blademaster was seriously thinking about leaving. Really, it would have been a great prank if only you had told the people you used about it.

[Ultimate Charizard]

Yeah i kinda braced myself to ignore anything and everything posted around the 1st but this was a little harsh. Jokes are one thing but basically public humiliation (and im sure thats what Blade felt to think so many people hated him) for a joke is just not funny.

Some of you guys, (the mods) specifically the ones that came up with the idea and thought it was funny need to seriously take a look at yourselves and think what the people of this forum now think of you and your attitude/opinion of the rest of us.

I understand the nature of the stunt. An inter-mod war would have been 'interesting' but mostly harmless because obviously you would have all been in on it. Singling out a couple of normal posters by name and ridiculing them without having the decency to let them in on it is just out of order.

[Lady Vulpix]

Thanks for your thoughts, Karin, I think you're right. I'm sorry we didn't think about that.

And I offer my apologies to Rossymore, the only non-mod I mentioned in my fake posts. Although I was expecting him to either get the joke or assume I was dumb for calling him 'she' and 'gimmick' (fake account) when he obviously was neither, but if he thought I was insulting him, I'm sorry. That wasn't my intention.

[Andrew]

So...

Guys. What would you have done for April Fools instead?

[Lune the Guardian]

So...

Guys. What would you have done for April Fools instead?


As I mentioned in my post that you might not have read properly, this would've been an incredibly well-thought-out joke if certain non-Fight Club members had been informed about the joke beforehand. So, in simpler terms, I would have done this, except I would have told Blademaster and such about the joke. By the way, my post is not that long. :)

[Andrew]

If you were informed before hand, it wouldn't be April Fools now, wouldn't it.

[Roy Karrde]

As I mentioned in my post that you might not have read properly, this would've been an incredibly well-thought-out joke if certain non-Fight Club members had been informed about the joke beforehand. So, in simpler terms, I would have done this, except I would have told Blademaster and such about the joke. By the way, my post is not that long. :)

Problem because who you should and shouldn't tell. Blade was the most vocal but he wasn't the only one that we hit. You can check out the two "Who would you snog"/"Sexually inappropriate" topics for that. As well as "Who would you make a Mod" and "Which TPMer is pissing you off"

Is Dark Sage, Shuppet Master, Chobi Chibi, Rossymore or anyone else less important even though we mentioned them in a joking way in one form or the other?

Not to mention you begin to widen the circle beyond mods, and you have a greater chance that something we have been putting together for over a month would get out.

[Lune the Guardian]

I did state it in the plural. I didn't know who the other people were that were hit off hand, so I just used Blade's name and added "and such" to pluralize it. No, the others are not any less important. I didn't say that they were. I said you should have told all of the sacrificial lambs.

How about using people who would not tell the secret? Or using people whose personalities you are sure would be able to handle the joke even without being told that it is a joke? If you can't find such people, perhaps personal pranks are not the best way to pull an April Fool's joke. I remember freaking out about the Digimasters thing a while back when I was like thirteen. It may not be what you think is the "funniest" option, but if you believe that keeping a joke a secret is more important than considering the feelings of others, I would be highly concerned about your priorities.

[Andrew]

But if we expanded out of the mod forum, there would be the problem compounded:

-Who would be trustworthy enough to tell?
-Who wouldn't?

You'd have a whole lot more people pissed off then knowing they weren't mods and other people who aren't mods are held in higher regard to know the truth.

[Roy Karrde]

I did state it in the plural. I didn't know who the other people were that were hit, so I just used Blade's name and added "and such" to pluralize it. No, the others are not any less important. I didn't say that they were. I said you should have told all of the sacrificial lambs.

Ahh yeah sorry about that I should have re read it ^^;;

Anyway your part about priorities, the truth is that we didn't know how anyone would act. I don't know about anyone else but I would figure the topics would be taken as a joke, and be viewed as such.

You brought up Digimasters, but you have to remember that ALL the TPM Jokes tend to piss people off originally. The 404 graphic pissed people off, the merger pissed people off, the Porn Hacker pissed people off. Usually with April Fools Jokes you get one of two reactions "Oh that was stupid" or "OMG ITS REAL I AM SO PISSED".

Anyway I dont wanna turn this into a debate, everyone has their own opinion on it. And it was ALOT of fun setting it up.

[Lune the Guardian]

Like I've been saying, if you are going to use certain people as a joke, then only tell those people. Nobody else needs to know. It's your job to figure out if your sacrificial lambs are trustworthy or not. If they are not, then don't use them as sacrificial lambs. If you really don't want to expand the information beyond the private forum, then pick sacrificial lambs that would not take things so seriously. If you are going to perform personal pranks, it's your responsibility to understand the personalities of the people that you are picking on.

[EDIT]: Sorry Roy Karrde, I was responding to Andrew and typed too slow. I understand that the intentions were good, and I really do admire the preparation and work that went into the prank. It was pretty clever to start the threads weeks in advance to make the thing look more genuine than a last-minute April Fool's thing. I am just making suggestions for the future pranks. As for the merger, HELL YES that pissed me off. That scared me to no end. But I still think that there's a difference between personal pranks, and pranks of that nature. There's nothing wrong with pissing everyone off as a unit, it's singling people out to piss off that steps across a dangerous line. When people are singled out, survival instincts kick in - and they don't necessarily remember that it's April Fool's day, so keep that in mind. I'm rather unobservant at times, and it took me quite a few years to remember to be wary of pranks on April Fool's day. If I was threatened, I might have reacted the same way, and become completely unaware of the date. When you're making personal pranks, you - cannot - assume that people will remember that it's April Fool's day.

[Andrew]

I still don't agree with your argument for the points I've outlined above.

It's an April Fools gag - Get over it.

[Roy Karrde]

There's nothing wrong with pissing everyone off as a unit, it's singling people out to piss off that steps across a dangerous line.

Yeah I can see that, I guess I kind of hoped that people would take the opposite reaction. That the mods thought enough of you to include you in what was/is a event on TPM that has tons of history behind it. That really speaks to the person's popularity and stature on the boards.

[Ultimate Charizard]

So hang on...Roy, your basically saying that Blade (i know he wasnt the only one but hes my example) shouldnt feel angry that he was publicly humiliated, but infact should feel flattered becasue it means he's popular and has good stature on the board?

Well of course when you put it like that its obvious....

[Lune the Guardian]

It's fine to say that after the gag has been revealed, Andrew, but have you thought about what could have happened before? What if a person that was pranked was having a horrible day and was an overall unstable person, and then took the joke too seriously? What if he/she did something awful like committing suicide? This is an unlikely thing to happen, but would you be so cold-hearted as to say that the person deserved to commit suicide for being a fool, because he/she should have just gotten over the "harmless" April Fool's joke?

Roy - I'm sure that different people would have reacted differently. It may be a compliment for some people to have been included. Maybe Blademaster and the others are happy about it now that they know, maybe they are not. However, to avoid a similar fiasco next year, maybe it would be better to really think about each person's personalities and consider their reactions before using them in a prank that they do not know about. I know that you guys did not intentionally want to hurt other people's feelings, and I commend such elaborate planning for the joke. But the things I've been saying about human nature are true, as far as I can tell. We are animals. We are. And when threatened, our survival instincts kick in, even if it takes just a moment to realize that we have been pranked. Some will laugh about it. Some won't realize that it's a prank. It doesn't matter that it's April Fool's day, it doesn't matter that this is a pokémon forum, humans will be what they are. And that's where the danger lies.

[Thanksverymuch]

Yeah go get fucked. I asked several times was this an April Fools Joke because I was convinced it was. But no you then banned me. For what spamming? When it was April Fools? Yeah nice one. Useless fucking cunts. Perhaps you should have thought, tell me in the PM when Lady Vulpix, Dark-San or Gavin Luper all infracted me for spam. Because I did think it was an April Fools. But when you lot kept infracting and then ultimately banned you. I really couldn't figure out was this an April Fools or what. I still don't see how my spamming is anything worse than your April Fools Joke. The fact one of you couldn't get a fucking clue and warn me. Hell I actually thought I was playing into it by posting the spam in the first place. If anytime one could post spam you think it was April Fools.



And I still think its unfair I got banned.

[Andrew]

Lune - If someone's going to commit suicide over a Pokemon board....

Well.... Lols.

It's not our problem to worry about the mental health of each and every person on a Pokemon board. You should also be skeptical on April Fools of anything.

Edit - FP, I understand your POV. I think they took offense with the more explicitly sexual nature of your posts.

[Ultimate Charizard]

If im honest its just a case of poor judgement.

While your discussing and planning in Fight club it might have seemed hilarious and the funniest thing in the world but from the outside looking in there was no hint of a joke other than the date and it started before the first for half the board.

And on another note, some of the mods at least have the class to apologise. Im aware theres some that dont care and are amused to see the peasants panic but a little diplomacy goes a long way.

[Lune the Guardian]

Lune - If someone's going to commit suicide over a Pokemon board....

Well.... Lols.

It's not our problem to worry about the mental health of each and every person on a Pokemon board. You should also be skeptical on April Fools of anything.

I've been trying not to insult you, Andrew, but that is a rather shallow statement. Have you ever tried stepping into someone else's shoes? If your actions caused someone to commit suicide, are you saying that you were not responsible? Is it so difficult to just avoid doing hurtful things?

Also - have you really been reading what I've been saying? I've mentioned several times that some people will not realize that it's April Fool's day. It happens.

Not everyone is like you. Not everyone thinks like you. And it appalls me that you care so little about other people's happiness that you think that everything that amuses you, should amuse them too.

[Thanksverymuch]

You don't get it do you Andrew. The thing wasn't funny. It ultimately broke the rules of April Fools since they have to happen only on APRIL FOOLS and only in the morning of April Fools. So don't go using the excuses you and other mods have been using in this thread. Had you actually made it during those April Fools moment perhaps people would have got it.

The thing is I think many people did think it was an April Fools Joke. I honestly thought it was. But as I explained above when I get three mods infracting me, still not giving out that it was April Fools. Even though I said in a few posts this surely is an April Fools Joke. No one would even answer. April Fools is meant to be where you look at something and you get it. It certainly didn't work this time.

[Andrew]

I'm not amused people have taken this like DRAMAFEST '09 to be honest. I'm rolling my eyes.

But I agree with the mass apologies, but I refuse to go and throw myself at people for forgiveness.

[Roy Karrde]

You don't get it do you Andrew. The thing wasn't funny. It ultimately broke the rules of April Fools since they have to happen only on APRIL FOOLS and only in the morning of April Fools. So don't go using the excuses you and other mods have been using in this thread. Had you actually made it during those April Fools moment perhaps people would have got it.

The thing is I think many people did think it was an April Fools Joke. I honestly thought it was. But as I explained above when I get three mods infracting me, still not giving out that it was April Fools. Even though I said in a few posts this surely is an April Fools Joke. No one would even answer. April Fools is meant to be where you look at something and you get it. It certainly didn't work this time.

April 1st is relative, I believe the idea was to begin it at Midnight GMT, thus April 1st.

[Lune the Guardian]

The funny thing is, I'm not even telling the moderators to apologize. I'm not trying to create drama. I'm trying to suggest things to avoid future drama, and I've been trying to do so constructively. I even gave reasons and explanations as to why this joke might have gone over so poorly in the first place. I was not offended by the joke, but it is not difficult to view the perspective of others and understand why they might have been offended.

And Roy Karrde is correct, when I saw Gabi's Announcement it was not yet the 1st for me so I was confused for a bit, but I realized that the time zone was more advanced for some people.

[Thanksverymuch]

Yeah well any chance of me being unbanned? The ban is till the 9th April so it isn't long but still.

[Andrew]

Lune - I've just realized you're Charnumber.

Still, I don't think we'll do another April Fools like this.

However, your posts beg to differ, you seem to be wanting to get a massive sobstory "I'm SO SORRY FOR MY SINS" from us.

[Jeff]

I'd support unbanning. I think those who infracted you were just afraid of our cover being blown. I know I was, I just didn't go that far.

[Lune the Guardian]

Believe what you'd like, Andrew. I've only been posting suggestions and attempting to be helpful to avoid problems with future jokes. Nowhere in any of my posts have I asked the moderators to apologize. In fact, I mentioned to more courteous moderators like Roy Karrde that I understand that nobody had bad intentions when formulating this prank. I've also congratulated the moderators many times for thinking up such an elaborate prank and putting so much effort into it. If you'd bother to read my posts with more than a simple cursory glance, the only person I've really held a moral stance against is you, and only because you act as if everyone should behave in the way that you expect them to behave. Maybe it's not my place to have such a "holier-than-thou" attitude as you imply, but it really irks me to see someone who thinks so little of human feelings. It's your every right to be amused at your prank. It's not your right to force everyone else to be amused along with you. All I did was point out reasons why not everyone was amused. In order to explain to you, who have been unreceptive of the constructive criticism, why the changes I suggested might be useful in the future.

[Andrew]

Oh Princess, you've always had it in for me :)

You were Lady G's number one lacky.

Bye now.

[Lune the Guardian]

If it makes you happy to think that, think as you please.

Anyway, back on topic - A summary since my previous posts may have been filled with extraneous material. Good preparations. Really. It's impressive how much thought and time was put into setting up this joke. Just be sure that if people are being personally pranked, they have a warning, or they are the type that won't be bothered by that kind of thing. This kind of joke really had potential, and it's a pity that this year's failure might scare you guys off from pulling this kind of thing in the future. But if you ever do formulate such a prank again, please remember that different people react differently to situations.

[Andrew]

The only way people could've really caught on is if they perhaps looked at the date.

Posting a day before going "OMG April Fools is tomm, but don't fall for anything!" is extremely daft.

That would have been the only fair way to warn everyone. Which would've ruined the entire thing.

[Ultimate Charizard]

See the thing im seeing Andrew is that your 'joke' was intended to upset and piss people off and then expect them to go 'Oh you....look at the date' and forget the whole thing. Did you never once factor in the fact that some people dont pay attention to April fools?

Hell i know personally im barely even awake before midday lol.

[Jeff]

Oh yeah, we've definitely learned our lesson, and I won't allow this to discourage us from doing something better next year.

Also, I hope people keep in mind that in retrospect, those of us who planned this prank now see it as a bad idea just as much as those who criticized us for it see it as a bad idea. You guys have to keep in mind though, if you were in the private forum planning this with us, you'd probably think nothing of it as well until the reaction came. Hindsight is 20/20 after all. Not that I'm justifying what we did, but you need to understand that we're not all evil pricks either.

[Lune the Guardian]

I guess that's the problem I've been trying to bring up. I've been fooled in the past, so now I make sure that I remember when April Fool's day is. But since I've been fooled before, it's not unreasonable to think that there will be people like me who will get fooled as well. (I've even forgotten my birthday before because I don't pay a lot of attention to dates. The only reason I remembered was all my friends/family called my phone wishing me Happy Birthday.) My point is that there will always be some people who didn't notice the date. And if the first thing the person does is log on in the morning to check the forums, and he/she isn't quite alert yet, but notices some nasty things being said about him/her, the whole fact that the day is April Fool's might just fly right past and that person could overrreact. (Which is possibly what happened here.)

I'm not sure of a good way to warn people if you guys want to keep the secret within the mod forum. I guess the safest thing to do is to pick on personal friends or something? I know it's a message board but surely some people are close enough to regular members to know how they would react, even if they're just internet friends.

[EDIT]: Jeff - I totally understand. It's unreasonable to expect you guys to see this coming. Especially because it was meant to be done in good fun, and you wanted it to be a great joke, and you put so much effort into planning it. I actually feel sorry that it went over so horribly. And I really hope that things can be worked out now so that future jokes will work better. (Which is part of the reason I'm being so terribly annoying and stalking this thread; I want to see this kind of joke succeed in the future.) I have a very deep respect for how elaborately this was planned. It's incredible how many weeks in advance the posts were carefully made and spaced apart to make it more believable.

Oh wait, one more suggestion that I forgot to stress - This year's joke lost a *little* bit of believability because it was comprised of very unbalanced sides: 1) Gabi 2) everyone else. Maybe put in a few supporters for the scapegoat to make it more realistic. Or make the scapegoat say something truly inflammatory that nobody in their right mind would support. I'm sure this isn't the format you'll use next year, but just saying, the "sides" probably need to be spread out a bit, if you have sides. Otherwise people could immediately spot your red herring.

[Thanksverymuch]

I usually always get April Fooled. Digimasters - I was so retarded I couldn't work that out at first. The Spp-TPM merger thing I even fell for like an idiot. I don't remember others but undoubtedly I was fooled by them. This is why I'm pissed off cause I did think this was April Fools but then stuff happened thus it seemed to me it wasn't an April Fools and ultimately I was fooled. :(

[Lune the Guardian]

The exact same thing happened to me. I freaked out about the Digimasters thing, then someone said "look at the date", and I was clueless for a bit until someone else said it was April Fool's day. I even went trying to find people with hacking skills who could "unhack" the forums. And I also fell for the merger... so badly... I think that joke scared me the most out of the times that I was fooled.

[Jeff]

Yup, I remember that one. For a little while I seriously thought that TPM had switched over to a Digimon format! I nearly freaked out until I saw stuff like "Hey you Patamon", then I was just confused (the thought of hacking never crossed my mind because I wasn't that Internet-literate back then). Yeah, good times.

[Asilynne]

Firepokemon's banning was legitimate, it wasn't part of the prank. He was making posts with nothing but insults all over the forum, and our warnings only encouraged him to post more.

Oh, kinda like what you all were doing then? >.>
Joke was in poor taste, its obvious that reguardless of what day it was, saying hurtful things about another person even in the context of a "joke" isnt funny to said people. And the whole drama route of the April fools thing was kinda lame too. It seemed built on the assumption that "anything a mod says or does is of interest" when really whats the big deal?

Anyway Im drunk so Im not going to be long winded but seriously, banning/scolding people for spam on april fools is very hypocritical considering the stunt you guys pulled. And such disrespect and thoughtlessness in the construction of the "joke" has pretty much discredited any kind of authorative prescence you could possibly have. A lot of you guys have lost my respect, not like youll care or anything XD

[shazza]

http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/slowpoke.gif

Hey guys, what was the April Fools joke that caused so many of you to shitbricks?

[Mew Master]

http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/slowpoke.gif

Hey guys, what was the April Fools joke that caused so many of you to shitbricks?

The "joke" was basically to make it seem like an Admin Dispute where one Admin (Lady V) would post fake topics where it would show the Mods talking down about some of the members. These topics said some hurtful things to some unstable individuals and caused the drama. However when they realized how everyone was reacting to this distasteful "joke" they were asked to apologize to the offended ppl.

I have all them saved as Word Documents.

[Roy Karrde]

The "joke" was basically to make it seem like an Admin Dispute where one Admin (Lady V) would post fake topics where it would show the Mods talking down about some of the members. These topics said some hurtful things to some unstable individuals and caused the drama. However when they realized how everyone was reacting to this distasteful "joke" they were asked to apologize to the offended ppl.

I have all them saved as Word Documents.

That isn't exactly the whole truth, as many of the threads weren't about the members, infact one was a "Self Hate Mod Attack". Here is a list of the joke topics.

"It's all wrong" by Lady Vulpix, a Fake Dispute Topic that started everything

"Blade's idea" By myself, a Fake topic about the drama Blade's idea had created among some people when he posted his Mod Application. As well as poking fun at the old drama about the belief that I stole ASBRPG from Tony

"Which TPM Member is pissing you off and WHY?!" by Andrew. Pretty much a global hit talking about everyone. Mosts of the posts were jokes like being mad that Yi isnt here all the time.

"Which Gimmick Did You Most Enjoy Doing?" by Andrew, talking about the various "gimmicks" TPM has had in the past like Bajari and playing it off like the mods were in on it.

"New mods" by Andrew talking about who we should mod next

"The Shipping Revival Thread." by Gavin Luper talking about bringing back the Shipping Fourms of old

"True love" by Myself, talking about the stupid sig I now have to wear because of a bet.

"Which TPM Member would you totally snog?" by Andrew, a joke topic created for the previous April Fools day, pretty self explanitory

"Attacking Spp" by Andrew, making it out as if TPM was behind spamming raids on Serebii

"The Sexually Inappropriate Thread" by Weasel, same thing as the Snog thread

"Mods Who Suck" By Mr Pikachu, basically the "What TPM Member is pissing you off" thread but attacking the mods.

"A realistic daring proposal by April 2009 [Immediate Attention]" By Dark San, talking about creating a Hentai Translating club.

So out of all of those we have.

2 Sex Threads
1 Attack Mods thread
1 Attack Members Thread
2 Attack Current Events ( Blade's Sign Up and My new sig)
5 About TPM/SPP Stuff

Everyone is kind of focusing on the Blade and Hate topic. And forgetting that we did have 9 others, many of which had nothing to do with members.

[Lune the Guardian]

Weird, I only saw five of those threads (the "it's all wrong", the "which members annoy you", "mods that suck", Andrew's gimmick thread, and the "blade's idea" threads). Were the rest in Misc too? I think I'm blind =/ Although the mods that suck one was obviously a joke because mr_pikachu started it.

I totally missed the spp spam joke, the sig bet, and the sex threads. XD I read about Dark San's hentai thing in the "it's all wrong" thread but I never saw the thread.

[Gavin Luper]

The threads were posted in waves.

Also, those which hadn't had any replies for a week or so appeared much further down the page, so that might be why you didn't notice them.

[Roy Karrde]

Weird, I only saw five of those threads (the "it's all wrong", the "which members annoy you", "mods that suck", Andrew's gimmick thread, and the "blade's idea" threads). Were the rest in Misc too? I think I'm blind =/ Although the mods that suck one was obviously a joke because mr_pikachu started it.

I totally missed the spp spam joke, the sig bet, and the sex threads. XD I read about Dark San's hentai thing in the "it's all wrong" thread but I never saw the thread.

Yeah they were all in Misc, we really needed to have some one bump them when they appeared on the page. There was some greatness in the sex threads.

[Lune the Guardian]

Oh, yes, that would be why. I didn't think to check the following pages. Gabi said something about revealing the second wave but I never saw it because those threads showed up on later pages. I'd totally forgotten about the mechanics of moving threads, I assumed that they would all pop up on the first page.

Now I'm sad that I missed those :<

[EDIT]: Maybe other people made the same mistake I did, not seeing the other topics? Maybe that's why people were focusing on the hate threads and didn't get the joke. Maybe cause the "funny" stuff was bumped too far behind so nobody made the connection?

[Gavin Luper]

I'm sad they were missed too. Hours of energy were happily wasted on making those threads, and nobody read them?! They were the best ones/showed how not-very-busy we all are.

:(

[Lune the Guardian]

I totally would have wanted to read those. I'm sure they would have invoked the spirit of April Fool's and given a bigger laugh and put the other threads into perspective. I'm half thinking that the fact that those threads were missed is part of the reason why the joke went over so badly. Those threads would have provided clues that everything was a joke right? I mean, all of the moved threads were marked conspiciously with a *.

Ugh, what a waste, I feel so bad for you guys :<

[Roy Karrde]

I totally would have wanted to read those. I'm sure they would have invoked the spirit of April Fool's and given a bigger laugh and put the other threads into perspective. I'm half thinking that the fact that those threads were missed is part of the reason why the joke went over so badly. Those threads would have provided clues that everything was a joke right? I mean, all of the moved threads were marked conspiciously with a *.

Ugh, what a waste, I feel so bad for you guys :<

Well you know its okay what is past is past, don't worry about it mkay?

[Mew Master]

I totally would have wanted to read those. I'm sure they would have invoked the spirit of April Fool's and given a bigger laugh and put the other threads into perspective. I'm half thinking that the fact that those threads were missed is part of the reason why the joke went over so badly. Those threads would have provided clues that everything was a joke right? I mean, all of the moved threads were marked conspiciously with a *.

Ugh, what a waste, I feel so bad for you guys :<

Not really. I read most of those and found nothing funny.

[The_Missing_Link]

Not really. I read most of those and found nothing funny.

I would really like to know what your style of humor is. And none of that, "certainly not yours" or "not like the crap you guys just pulled"

Not saying I personally find everything going on in the private forum amusing but the sex threads were pretty funny

[Gavin Luper]

They were mostly light-hearted and downright teenage lines of discussions, it was very fun to make. And yeah, I think they would have definitely put the other threads into perspective a little bit more.

I found them funny.

[Dark-San]

Maybe your funny bone just got dislocated somewhere and we tickled you the wrong way. =(

Hah well, my genius topic went unnoticed. You said most of it, I bet you didn't catch mine.

[The_Missing_Link]

Maybe your funny bone just got dislocated somewhere and we tickled you the wrong way. =(

Hah well, my genius topic went unnoticed. You said most of it, I bet you didn't catch mine.

I got a tl;dr vibe from it

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Muhaahahahaaha I knew it all along, I was just playing with you, hahahhaha


...And who you confused:


-Mikachu

Actually ture, and I'm glad to notice I can become even more confused than I am normally. And my mind was so occupied that it was hard to focus on other things yesterday, I had to clean up places and I went shopping as well. And I also went to sauna and played some Red Alert III on my Playstation 3. Curse I haven't got an internet connection of my own, if I had, I could have read this here topic before going to sleep, Roy posted this on 10:38 PM Finland Daylight Saving time.

Now I think I should have been mentioned more often! Nobody notices me!

And I feel kinda bad for firepokemon getting banned.

*Takes The L posture*

If Thanksverymuch is firepokemon he does assume us to know he is and I don't assume he doesn't think I don't assume that I assume I think none of us is The L or Kira but we don't know about the Death Note and Thanksverymuch is firepokemon and it's obvious and I assume you notice that the rest of this post makes no. sense. at. all.

[Asilynne]

*Takes The L posture*

If Thanksverymuch is firepokemon he does assume us to know he is and I don't assume he doesn't think I don't assume that I assume I think none of us is The L or Kira but we don't know about the Death Note and Thanksverymuch is firepokemon and it's obvious and I assume you notice that the rest of this post makes no. sense. at. all.

This post wins!

[shazza]

So they were posted in Team Meeting then moved to Misc or something?

Mew Master, hook me up!

[Thanksverymuch]

When a forum allows gmail accounts and the use of ip proxies etc it isn't very hard to evade a ban. Thankfully, we're small so me evading or someone else won't do that much harm. Also its hilarious how I get banned for spam and yet those posts all contained spam.

But that is besides the point. The mods still have a bad attitude. The idea you lot still give out infractions to any regular member here seems completely stupid. And the funniest thing is those threads you made in Teammeeting and then shifted into Misc are the type of posts some of us here at TPM have been asking for years. Yet when we do anything like them. They're either deleted, we get infracted or some other crap happens.

[Roy Karrde]

Not that I am on one side or the other on the whole thing as I was a bit busy trying to put out other fires while you were going on your er.... "Posting Spree" but I really cannot see the comparison between what we did and some of the stuff you posted after I just did a read through of it. From what I hear you are banned until the 9th of April, and technically you are breaking the rules by having a second account. Why not just use this account until the 9th and then switch back over. It's really just what 8 days?

[Thanksverymuch]

Well of course I could wait till the 9th of April. My point is the sheer hypocrisy that exists here.

I replied seven times to other threads. What is most hilarious is I got infracted by Dark-San for this? http://www.pokemasters.net/forums/showpost.php?p=393485&postcount=11 - It that post I directly said I'm sure this is all an Aprils Fools Joke yet still no one addressed the damn subject.

I made one new thread that was spam. I don't deny that. Infact 1
I then replied to the Cellphone topic and two other posts.

But the Infraction from Dark-San? Hilarious.

I also made replies to Lady Vulix's thread which in itself was spam and got infracted for that and my posts deleted? Such hypocrisy there.

I then made a second thread which said I was pissed, stated my reasons. But instead of keeping it there and actually saying this was an Aprils Fools Joke. It was deleted then I was banned? What a bloody contradiction. I even specifically said at the top of that thread I half-feel this is all an April Fools Joke. But no you didn't even address that but deleted it and then banned me.

That is what I call hypocrisy. That is what I call stupid. And the fact you all sit there and defend your sorry asses is what I find most pathetic.

[Roy Karrde]

I can understand how you would be angry, but I think this is something better settled for PM, than having a long drawn out argument in the middle of the topic. I know you like to be public, but that isn't helping your case any.

[Dark-San]

... The mods still have a bad attitude.

Your posts doesn't justify it. You doubled post an obscene topic twice that filled with cunts and fucks. If it is mere chatting cases, I would have closed an eye at that time. Whatever it is, you should understand at that time, what is over the line and what is not. If I have a bad attitude, I wouldn't be bothered to pm you at all, firepokemon. ~.~;

As for ban uplifting, it is not a moderator's say actually. Tell that to the administrators or the super moderators.

[Thanksverymuch]

OMG you're seriously talking about me saying cunt and dick with some of the posts you lot sent over to Misc? Hilarious.

And that isn't the point Dark-San you infracted me for that comment in the Happy April Fools thread.

[mistysakura]

I'm sorry.

[shazza]

:079: :(

[Heald]

I've honestly had enough of this drama. If you have any personal issues with mods, please take it to the PM system instead of voicing your angst out here. It was an April Fool's Joke: get over it. Yes, it turned out worse than we anticipated in retrospect, but these things happen. Grow a pair and move on. I've heard enough whining for one day. Even Blade, who you've all made out to be this martyr for the cause, has manned up and grown a pair, so the rest of you can stop it. April Fool's has passed, so this topic is more or less defunct. If anyone tries to make any more unnecessary drama, this will be locked.

It was a shame no one took notice of the other threads we made and instead concentrated on the two threads that attacked members, but maybe that was to be expected. Still, at least you were only being fake-insulted. There's tonnes of posts referring to me in the Mod Forum archives from years ago that would make some of the insults you guys received look very tame. I didn't get upset, I just laughed that some mods and ex-mods used to have so much hate aimed at me, and then didn't have the balls to confront me about it.

[Blademaster]

There's too much in this topic that I could reply to, but I still respect at least a couple of the Mods here, so I'll keep it brief.

No. I am NOT happy now that I know it was all a joke. As I've said in IM's, that just pissed me off more that you guys decided for April Fool's, "Hey, let's talk shit about Blade for a month behind his back, and then show him and say it was a joke.". And yes, I'm focusing on ME. I'm being selfish. I'm the one that had SIXTEEN HOURS to mull over the fact that my so-called friends had stuck a "KICK ME" sign to my back. With a knife.

And lastly, I don't buy that all the insults were jokes. I know at least a few of the Mods don't like me and used this little prank as a medium to openly talk shit about me and get away with it.



I've honestly had enough of this drama. If you have any personal issues with mods, please take it to the PM system instead of voicing your angst out here. It was an April Fool's Joke: get over it. Yes, it turned out worse than we anticipated in retrospect, but these things happen. Grow a pair and move on. I've heard enough whining for one day. Even Blade, who you've all made out to be this martyr for the cause, has manned up and grown a pair, so the rest of you can stop it.

Sorry Heald, but I can't exactly PM the entire Mod force about this. Besides, you guys got your publicity. Now it's my turn. After all, it's still April Fool's Day somewhere in the world, right?

And no, I haven't "manned up." I'm pissed, and I will be for awhile yet. I can recover from my balls being broken pretty fast; my trust is a lot harder to rebuild. And some of you still have a long way to go.


There. I'm done. NOW you ca-... Wait. One last thing.


I agree with the mass apologies

I never thought I'd get an apology from YOU, Andrew.

...Thanks.


OK, NOW I'm done. Lock the topic. Happy April Fool's Day.

[PancaKe]

Hi guys what did I miss?

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Hey PancaKe, welcome back. Here's what kinda sums it up.


The "joke" was basically to make it seem like an Admin Dispute where one Admin (Lady V) would post fake topics where it would show the Mods talking down about some of the members. These topics said some hurtful things to some unstable individuals and caused the drama. However when they realized how everyone was reacting to this distasteful "joke" they were asked to apologize to the offended ppl.

I have all them saved as Word Documents.

I saved some threads too but consider deleting them. This whole thing has been like stabbing someone and then tucking the knife in the wound (I suck at these expressions).

[Dark-San]

OMG you're seriously talking about me saying cunt and dick with some of the posts you lot sent over to Misc? Hilarious.

And that isn't the point Dark-San you infracted me for that comment in the Happy April Fools thread.

Good ahead and laugh if you think that is a joke. I have a copy of that post you made and that topic deservingly needs to be deleted and you infracted for it. I just plain lazy to search for both topics which Gabi promptly deleted. I am not going to comment it any further on this topic, if you had problems with it, I will be more than welcome to entertain you via private message.

[Lady Vulpix]

OK, too much drama here. If anyone has a problem with me, you can PM me or IM me and we'll sort it out privately. If anyone wants to see the non-hate threads, contact me and we can arrange a way for you to take a look at them. The 2 threads that made fun of active members won't see the light again if I have a say in it.