2013 admin April Fools prank planning thread

[Xorlof]

Hey everyone--

Some people have expressed interest in this, so here is the planning thread for the admin's April Fool's prank. Some messages have been edited to protect admin-y sorts of things, but we left everything we could in, including the boring parts. You'll notice that the final story emerged right on April Fool's day when things became much more elaborate, courtesy of BatmanIAm.

This thread is locked. Discussion about it should occur in the main thread for the prank.

The title of this thread was originally "The time has come to ban IAmBatman?" Here's my original post:

Originally Posted by Original post in this thread

Apologies in advance for the click bait in the title, but read on and you'll see it is relevant.

Elsewhere I mentioned that I was trying to think of an April Fools' prank. I think I remember a couple of years back a fake Inner Sanctum "accidentally" becoming public on April fools. I was too new to appreciate the in-jokes, but appreciated the idea as whole and got a laugh at it. Anyway, these sorts of things are good for community, so would love to see us come up with something. Frankly, my brainstorming has come up pretty dry.

Are either of these viable?

* My first thought was something to do with the return of Heroscape. The problem with this is that I don't want to get people's hopes up, so the best I came up with is the bastardization of Heroscape since nobody would look forward to that. I outlined a press release and beginnings of some art about Hasbro announcing the acquisition of the Squinkies brand (little pencil topper type toys that typically look like this or this, but also have some boys ones like this) and Hasbro's desire to enhance their collectibility, expanding the brand, by playing to Hasbro's strengths and introducing gameplay mechanics to the line. Heroscape wouldn't be mentioned, but the image would show Squinkies atop a modular hex board. Next to the board would be cards very reminiscent of the basic side of Heroscape cards done in bright colors. The modular hex board would be made of Puzzibits (see this image for an idea of what Puzzibits look like--the chits and Heroscape pieces in the picture have nothing to do with this idea) which are the perfect size to place Squinkies on top of as well as have that Squinkies vibe. We would get a confederate (someone who is well-respected and frequents the board games thread I suppose) to post the press release "he found on another site" on Heroscapers and asking the obvious questions about it relating to Heroscape.

* The other idea that didn't 100% suck is to ban IAmBatman. Well, maybe it does 100% suck, but here goes. Basically, one of us admins posts that after months and months of pleading with Bats to curb the number of posts he makes (for the good of the site), we are finally taking the the action of banning him. Along with the post would be charts showing his huge amount of posting activity (exaggerated from reality) and how it correlates with slow site response times, database errors, and the like for everyone else on Heroscapers.com. In other words, Bats was being a big 'ole jerk ruining the site experience for everyone else. Included in the charts would be a time period where Bats was on vacation and all of the site slowness and database problems went away--until he returned. There are lots of details that could be added to make this more believable. This one is very nutty, but seems like possible April's Fool fodder to see who falls for it. This would mean that we would actually have to ban Bats for the day! Could you handle that Bats?

Anyway those are two ideas. I'm not the creative type, so I'd love to hear yours.

[Jim]

Heh... I thought [REDACTED] ban Bats...

I like the banning one better than the Squinkies idea. Not that either one is necessarily a bad idea...

[LordRaidor]

I hate to say it, but I agree with option #2. I actually LIKE Bats as a person, but his disregard for the negative impact his out-of-control posting has on site performance has got to be dealt with. He needs to realize how serious this issue is, to EVERYONE.

I'm not in support of a permaban though. I think, especially in recognition of everything he DOES actually contribute here, that he should be given a CHANCE to reform. How about a temporary ban first - say 3 or 4 weeks? It'll let him know we're serious about this, and leave the decision up to HIM on whether he is banned permanently or not. If he comes back from the hiatus and keeps his posting under control, then we should let him stay. If he craps out the site speeds and glitches the database again after his return, THEN we would have no choice but to ban him for good, but at least we gave him the OPPORTUNITY to see the light and remain a part of our community...

^_~

[Really, this one is MUCH easier to implement than 'SquinkieScape' - no need for massive (and easily debunked) photoshop skills or anything. Plus, I'm kindof uneasy about messing with 'the brand' in public - might hit a few more nerves than we expect. Dunking Bats would still be a solid 'community' impact, without entangling the 'source material' - so I like that one more.]

^_^
-LordRaidor-

[IAmBatman]

Just now seeing this. I hate saying it, but the writing is on the wall. It's clearly time for me to go to return this site to its former glory.

Fun idea, Xorlof! Just let me know what I need to do to participate (not posting for a few days might drive me crazy, but I'm totally up for it if that's what's needed ).

[Jim]

I think we should begin this early, possibly as early as very soon. Perhaps create a thread asking if anyone else has noticed the site slowing down and asking for people's experiences with that... Much stealthier way of slipping into an April Fool than dropping it on everyone on 4/1.

[IAmBatman]

All that I ask is that I have some way to still read things going on after my "ban" even if I can't comment for a bit (maybe a proxy screenname so folks don't notice my perusing things?). Just because I want to make sure I'm able to keep up with playtesting for C3G, etc. We have a big 2013 planned.

[Xorlof]

I was picturing it just being for the one day (April 1). You could even be the one to ban yourself!

So that you could read, we could use our admin testing account, [REDACTED], and give it full permissions to all of the forums, but keep it out of the administrators group so sharp eyes wouldn't see a new administrator for the day. If we turn on invisible mode for that account, you'd still be able to login and browse with that account without anyone other than the admins knowing that it is online.

I'm trying to think if there are other details we can manufacture leading up to the day. Perhaps a fake feud of Bats v. SomeOtherAdmin we can create in the days leading up to ban. If such a feud was a recent established thing, it could fuel speculation that that feud lead to the banning happening sooner rather than later. I don't know how to make that play out so it doesn't distract from the humor of the original idea or paint anyone in a bad light, so that may be a non-starter.

Since it sounds like this might be a "go," I'll start working on bogus graphs and such here and there.

[IAmBatman]

All good stuff! I'll trust you to handle the technical details for the [REDACTED] account (it sounds like it's already set up, but I mean the "invisible mode" part. Also, I'll need to know the password ....).

[Jim]

I'll start a thread asking about the occasional site slowness to start the back-story rolling...

edit: Aaaaand, done. It'll be interesting to see how many people actually have these problems...

[Xorlof]

Cool Jim!

In a couple of days, you may want to go to that thread, Bats, and note how the site is *always* slow for you. If you were the source of the problem, that would be true. We can later point to that admission in the ban announcement.

Some days later, I or Xotli should go into the thread and say that we've figured out the source of the problem, but that it is actually a "thorny non-technical issue" or some such thing, building the narrative.

[Xorlof]

brainstorming notes for april 1 announcement (mostly notes-to-self, this is just brainstorming, most of this won't make the cut, feel free to ignore these):

--we usually don't talk about banning, but will allow moderated discussion in this annoucement thread and because this involves an otherwise well-respected admin, we may field some questions

--require all posts to go through moderation in the announcement thread to avoid spoilers

--since this involved banning an admin, discussion about this happened outside of the normal channels and we included a few members in the discussion. "those in the know" can help us field questions. (i.e., clue-in those who get the joke to add to the joke rather than reveal it and allow those posts through moderation)

--additional ban reason involving his refusal to change his "distasteful title". might tip too many people off to the joke?

--who best to announce?

--temporary ban. will not return as an admin.

--looking into options of forcibly throttling his posting upon return. quote some ridiculous number? (only allowing 1 post per hour or something?)

--this is a long time coming. Don't know if we can incorporate these true facts: was made an admin by GB on Nov 7, 2010. Same day Malechi notes "Okay, I can see it now ... IAB goes looking around [the admin area] and takes down the site!" And the first discussion of removing IAB as an admin was Nov 8, again by Malechi, "I say we take the Admin status away at this point." We knew he wasn't the right fit as an admin almost immediately, but only now sucking it up and admitting our lapse in judgement?

--create an obvious sock puppet account for Bats, having the sock puppet firing back at us in the thread?

--any comment on impact to c3g?

--according to "admins on vacation" was actually away (and should be reflected in charts) about: aug 20-22, nov 21-25, jan 10-17

[Xorlof]

Bats, I have given [REDACTED] permissions to access all of the forums. I also turned on invisible mode for that account, and took a look through the most (not all, but good enough I think) of the usergroups we have on the site to make sure only the admins can see invisible users.

That means you should be able to login with [REDACTED] and browse the private forums with only the admins knowing you were ever there (as long as you don't hit any "reply" button, of course. Old habits die hard and all. )

I gave it a go and was able to browse the private forums just fine. Feel free to test it whenever you get the chance. This user does not have any special permissions beyond a regular user other than being able to browse everything. The password is [REDACTED] without the quotes of course.

[bats_hidden_mod]
Adding this new bbcode so we can append secret chat that is filtered out from Bats seeing was pure genius, Xotli. If only we had it in the past it would have make orchestrating this whole affair without him knowing it so much easier. Imagine when April 2 rolls around and he finds out he really *is* banned. Mwahaha! Totally worth all of the effort though. Seriously, the site is going to be *so* much faster once we get rid of that guy. Who will miss him anyway? Not like he ever contributes anything to the site or anything.
[/bats_hidden_mode]