April Fool Aftermath

[Griffin]

Hello APForumers!

I am really sorry about causing so much problem for April Fool's joke.

Before I resign from administrator's position, I want to thank you all for participating in APForums' "most memorable (for now)" April Fool's joke this year. I know I've done a little too much and it went a little too well, ended up making a lot of members worried and angry, as well as putting all the staff in uncomfortable positions. But… I believe it relieved some of the stress from daily modding job.

Anyway, here is what happened:

• April Fool's prank plan initiation - RoboBlue
• Creating dummy Admin idea - Carly
• Dummy admin naming - Ginny and her bird
• Griffin's intro post - SuNa
• Real spoiler calling fake - Carly
• Fake spoiler calling real - Carly
• Griffin's post before his time - many of APForums staff
• Banning idea - taboo
• Banning staff and some regular member idea - ocean
• Actually banning staff and members - ocean
• Trying to send every banned member the workaround to get back on forum - ocean
• Board removing idea - SuNa
• Griffin board idea - SuNa
• Griffin's avatar created by - Carly
• Griffin's sig created by - taboo?
• Griffin's post after his time reigns - ocean, SuNa, and maybe some others
• Griffin being gay - ocean
• That stupid "Ichigo" kid - ocean
• Wrapping up the mess - Cosmic Debris
• April Fool's chapter - taboo <3 <- MUST READ!!

Yes, I, Griffin, don't really exist - most of staff logged onto my account and had fun posting (while feeling guilty). So I guess for whoever believed that AF prank didn't end, that was the remainder of our AF prank.

We made GrIfFiN's PlAcE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! viewable to everyone. We'll probably leave it like that for a while, so please have a look if you missed our prank.

Again, thank you for participating in our AF prank, and we are really sorry for whoever got bothered by this. Erm… We'll do something better next year... ...

bows

• Griffin/ocean

p.s. Just for a note, if anyone does hack into the site, we can probably restore it in an hour or so after we get hold of the server guy. I also believe that we have daily backup of the site, so we won't lose too much of data, but I'm not 100% sure about that.

p.s.2 Thank you so much for our server guy, who sent me a PM asking if everything was okay after seeing I was banned. He also helped us with a lot of stuff - taking forum backup during Griffin's mess, fixing forum loading issue, forum updating, etc. You're really great :]!

p.s.3 "Grandline" theme was made by ocean with help of Jonas for color coordination, as well as many help from some of the senior members and APForums staff. Thank you so much!

p.s.4 For whoever banned and created the second account - maybe you can tell us who you are/were... D:

[Earthworm Zim]

You mean to tell me that when oceanizer said that Griffin had taken it too far he was lying and it was really, everybody going too far at the same time? All the mods went mad and destroyed everything? What kind of crazy-ass place is this!? (Turns into highlander and e-missiles all mods over internet…sorry)

[BlackGalleon1]

So er…..Griffin was just some made-up fall guy for you admins/mods??? And you are only teliing us this now??? How cowardly. Start to wish he wrote cousin's pm from this account. At least one could rely on Battle Franky and dythim.

[Buuhan1]

Had a feeling it was gonna be something like not an actual person. Good show guys, good show.

[oceanizer]

We were supposed to take this joke a lot slower than it really happened, but I guess there was some miscommunication/misunderstanding among staff including me, and… it all happened on the same day, a little too early for the prank. I think... member banning, forum deletion, and Griffin's place was supposed to happen on April 1 D:

Fall guy?

[joekido the Second]

Wow, Griffin is now a regular member, resigned due to the early April Fool prank. I still wished it was real and the leaders are really banned, I would be able to help stop the choas.

[BlackGalleon1]

@oceanizer:

Fall guy?

Scapegoat, guy that gets all the blame.

[Buuhan1]

So, was Carly the one who said that to herself? XD

[oceanizer]

@BlackGalleon1:

Scapegoat, guy that gets all the blame.

Nah, I'll take the blame.

Not telling who Griffin is until today was… part of AF prank... ... kind of. I sort of wanted that way. Sorry...

[BlackGalleon1]

Nah, I'll take the blame

Thats all fine and dandy.

Now my question is: what staff member was misfortunate enough to open AWB's pm containing gay and tranny porn?

[oceanizer]

@Griffin:

• Griffin being gay - ocean

:/

I'm truly glad that I wasn't at work… ... -__-;

[joekido the Second]

@oceanizer:

Nah, I'll take the blame.

Not telling who Griffin is until today was… part of AF prank... ... kind of. I sort of wanted that way. Sorry...

Not to be rude, yet; would you resign like Griffin?

[Buuhan1]

@oceanizer:

:/

I'm truly glad that I wasn't at work… ... -__-;

Hahahahha, oooh man. I feel for you, but it's just so damn funny!

Joey-boy, are you still upset you lost editor?

[oceanizer]

@joekido:

I would be able to help stop the choas.

I wonder what you could've done… Do you have any hacking experience or something?

@joekido:

Not to be rude, yet; would you resign like Griffin?

I'm already making myself a slave of the forum - paying for the domain name, making the theme, and other background work. Do you wish more from me? (Or in this case, less from me?)

Maybe after next year's AF…?

[Buuhan1]

We realize we'd have no Arlong Park without you, ocean. Joey-boy is just being kinda childish…this IS cause he lost editor and has developed a grudge, right?

[oceanizer]

Nah, I'm sure APF can operate without me. I do less and less stuff lately, thanks to Cosmic and other staff members. Though, if I do resign, that'd be from some other reason (ie. real life).

Off to bed I go. Night~

[joekido the Second]

@oceanizer:

I wonder what you could've done… Do you have any hacking experience or something?

Actully, I don't know how to hack. I would be a like vocal supporter for the 'exiled' staff and I would be supporting in hacking with others but the site got restored before that happens. However, it never happened and it's was a prank so I don't care anymore.

I'm already making myself a slave of the forum - paying for the domain name, making the theme, and other background work. Do you wish more from me? (Or in this case, less from me?)

No, no, you don't need to be gone, I'm just asking a question and I already forgave you so I don't [really] need more or less from you. You can relax.

[Buuhan1]

But don't you pay a monthly or annually bill for hosting or something?

[BlackGalleon1]

@oceanizer:

I wonder what you could've done

Post a barrage of furious posts, each one containing the phrase "If only I could"

[oceanizer]

@Buuhan1:

But don't you pay a monthly or annually bill for hosting or something?

No, not any more. All I pay now is domain name registration.

[joekido the Second]

@Buuhan1:

We realize we'd have no Arlong Park without you, ocean. Joey-boy is just being kinda childish…this IS cause he lost editor and has developed a grudge, right?

You can call me all you you want but holding a grudge? That's childish and I'm the editor in the OP wikia and I'm not really fond of AP wikia so I don't care anymore. I was never satified with my editing rank. I'll reather be a senior member but that would be a long time to reach that goal.

[Buuhan1]

@oceanizer:

No, not any more. All I pay now is domain name registration.

Who does? A friend who is nice and/or owes you a favor?

[oceanizer]

Becoming senior rule #1

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, asking people how to become a senior member. (Thanks, Le.)

Becoming senior rule #2

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, show interest of becoming a senior member.

Becoming senior rule #3

Be smexy.

Becoming senior rule #4

Wire some money to ocean's Swiss bank account.

I think we should put that up along other forum rule…

@Buuhan1:

Who does? A friend who is nice and/or owes you a favor?

A friend who is nice - the current server guy.

gone

[joekido the Second]

Possibly paying a sever guy, right?

EDIT: Ha, I was right!

[mr_bushido]

Haha, kudos on the fake account, Ocean & Carly! The Griffin character was genius, and this whole fiasco proved decently entertaining. You guys rock!

[BlackGalleon1]

This post is deleted!

[joekido the Second]

@oceanizer:

Becoming senior rule #1

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, asking people how to become a senior member. (Thanks, Le.)

Becoming senior rule #2

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, show interest of becoming a senior member.

Becoming senior rule #3

Be smexy.

Becoming senior rule #4

Wire some money to ocean's Swiss bank account.

I think we should put that up along other forum rule…

Okay

(16 characters)

[Aldrich]

So it wasn't an inexperienced admin getting carried away and starting the joke too soon. That's even more retarded than I thought, though Griffith's brand of humor isn't that different from what you'd expect from Ocean I guess. Good show guys, good show. Heeheehee.

Thank God this cursed day has ended and I have 1 year of tranquility now.

[Zephos]

And Griffin. was me!
Teehee!

Now my avatar is meaningles…

[gaara d. lucci]

I enjoyed the prank. It was fun seeing the pain and agony of some of the other members who fell for it.

On another note, how bout one more Paint comic for the road Zephos?

[GearSecond]

I've forgiven you guys.

So Griffin wasn't just one person?

Good idea in theory but….

Ocean, can I be the prank organizer next year or something? It's ok if you say no now and PM me later saying yes to fool everyone. Or maybe this is reverse psycology to make everyone think that!

Anyways, definatly could have gone much better. What you should have done was made a special rank that looks to everyone else like someone is banned, but they just arn't allowed to post, but can view the forums.

[Dahna]

@GearSecond:

Ocean, can I be the prank organizer next year or something? It's ok if you say no now and PM me later saying yes to fool everyone. Or maybe this is reverse psycology to make everyone think that!

Why do you want to do that so badly? Ô.o

Anyway, I began to feel sorry for Griffin because I thought he was kinda used by you guys, but now that I know it was you all along…. I don't feel sorry at all ^^

You deserved it :P

[Roz]

Double whammy joke.

You sly dogs, you.

[Buuhan1]

Griffin shall be the ultimate villain in my first comic.

He'll get massively owned in the end.

[Den Den]

i love you guys. now i really do:wub:

i thought that griffin was ocean himself because being in charge of such a site you can't easily trust anyone you only know through the internet. whatever whatever, my friend could have hacked the site. but he was too lazy at that day when i asked him to do so and i wasn't worried either. he told me that he would have tried to write a brudeforce which would have taken a lot of time though. i wonder if that would have worked?i wanted to pm ocean to find out if that really wasn't a joke and then ask for permission to hack

Ocean, can I be the prank organizer next year or something? It's ok if you say no now and PM me later saying yes to fool everyone. Or maybe this is reverse psycology to make everyone think that!

Becoming prank organizer rule #1

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, asking people to become a prank organizer.

again, thanks for the fun (i had) and farewell griffin, good job

[Cochise]

@oceanizer:

Becoming senior rule #1

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, asking people how to become a senior member. (Thanks, Le.)

Becoming senior rule #2

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, show interest of becoming a senior member.

gone

I guess its too late for me after that pm I feel a foo now.

[Saloma]

So there was no Griffin? How the hell did I not figure that out? I guess it's because that account posted before all this happened…

But whatever, you got me good. Whoever was in on this had better run, before the bitching starts.

[captain usopp]

ahhhh, congradulations guys, ya got me on that one. I should have guessed that Carly did the AVA though. epilepsy flashing background and all.

[BlackGalleon1]

My problem with this whole fiasco wasn't the joke itself. Far from it, because I initially enjoyed the 'no rules for a change' factor, though it's novelty disappeared relatively quickly.

MY problem with this was how the admins/mods handled the aftermath. As soon as the norm was restored, the staff (maybe because of fear of being hated by the general AP community or some other reason I don't know) promptly stated that it was meant as an AF joke but….wait for it.... Griffin accelerated and expanded on the original plan without consulting with the other staff members, thereby creating the perfect scapegoat for this mess, one at which members who were less than impressed could vilify and aim whatever negative feeling/thought/post? at; as witnessed by the number of people who readily forgave the other admins/mods but still harboured different levels of hate/dislike for Griffin (myself included).

At this point the admins/mods made no effort to associate themselves with Griffin besides stating that he also is a member of staff, leading us to believe he was a totally separate entity that screwed up. However, several days later, when people had calmed down and most started to see the funny side of this, the staff come with the "oh btw, we kinda forgot to tell you one other thing. Griffin wasn't some separate person that screwed up the plan and pissed so many people off, but was some account all us staff members used for the joke. Sorry looolzzz". This in my opinion was a really cowardly move by the staff. I know I don't speak for anyone else but if they had come out and said yes, it was us to blame/hate/whatever, then I would have taken this on the chin and would've just let the whole thing fly (like I had already done, before this new info came to light). Because of this, admin/mods (in particular ocean) that I had held in such high esteem, have totally lost my confidence, trust and respect. Again, I don't speak for anyone else, just myself.

Anyway.....[/end of rant].

[Seta Ginny]

Oh, Griffin is real all right….

"All hail me."

"Since I can't actually type, I think I'll eat Ginny's laptop keys instead."

Unfortunately because of my new job, I wasn't around as much for the planning. But I was laughing my ass off watching, I wish it had lasted longer (and had been better organized/timed. I do understand people's concerns and frustrations about it.) ocean, the funny thing is, if my bird could actually take over an internet forum, that is exactly how I think he would have done it.

Luckily for teh_intarwebz, he doesn't have opposable thumbs.

[AWB]

@BlackGalleon1:

Now my question is: what staff member was misfortunate enough to open AWB's pm containing gay and tranny porn?

Yeah, who?

Normally, I'd be angry that you guys decided to lie in order to cover up a mistake, which is something I dislike to the extreme, but I appreciate the fact that you decided to tell us the truth though a bit late.

As for my accounts, Cindry-chan and Dark Complexity.

[Dahna]

I kinda agree with BlackGalleon1. It was a good idea for a joke and all but to ban members without telling them anything about your plan goes way too far.
AF is known in the whole world and has a really good reputation so I don't think that that part of your plan was appropriate and I also lost my faith in the staff. April Fool's day is a nice holiday and all but I can't understand why you went so far for that.

That's also why I don't feel sorry for the things I said and did, because I would do it again if you ever pull such a stand again :P

@BlackGalleon1: I think to say that everything went out of control was intended to be the real joke so Griffin wasn't a scapegoat but the joke itself.

[Thrior]

I didn't even once believe that whole fiasco would have been real. It was pretty clear to me it was a prank cause I would never believe that some of the staff would be that stupid to promote some guy just like that.
It was a pretty good prank tough but it went too far and started to only annoy.

[AWB]

The only thing I haven't gotten over is that it was supposed to be an April's Fools prank, yet it didn't happen on April Fool's Day. I think a lot of people would be less angry if you had waited.

[taboo]

Oh yeah, I was the one who posted the Ronald McDonald pictures. :p

[myogatheflea]

Best April Fool's joke ever! Good job AP, it was a load of fun.

[oceanizer]

@Pass:

Yeah, who?

@oceanizer:

@Griffin:

• Griffin being gay - ocean

:/

I'm truly glad that I wasn't at work… ... -__-;

but I appreciate the fact that you decided to tell us the truth though a bit late.

That was the plan from the beginning to tell what was going on on April 2… Griffin's identity was part of AF :x

[Carly]

@Buuhan1:

So, was Carly the one who said that to herself? XD

Yep. So you see the other half of why I wasn't miserably offended.

[Taleran]

interesting oh well was only here once that day neway so meh

[BlackGalleon1]

@Carly:

So, was Carly the one who said that to herself? XD

Yep. So you see the other half of why I wasn't miserably offended.

That is just….........sad :sad:.