A tad (just a tad) harsh
In 2016, the amount of quality journalism around being less than ever means it's impossible to apply critical thinking to every story and work out if it's an April Fools or not.
There's absolutely no shame in being taken in by a nicely crafted April Fools' Day spoof, but one Reg reader will be spending the next year in the corner sporting the big pointy "D" hat after crying foul over Blighty's magnificent 12-sided pound coin. As we reported last Friday, the Royal Mint has started pumping out the retro …
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This post has been deleted by its author
In 2016, the amount of quality journalism around being less than ever means it's impossible to apply critical thinking to every story and work out if it's an April Fools or not.
Which would be an entirely relevant criticism had the article not contained relevant links to both the Royal Mint's press releases and Osborne's guff on gov.uk, as well as links to previous Reg stories on the matter, which demonstrate either that it's a real story, or those previous stories were long, pre-planned setups to a collaborative joke by the Royal Mint, George Osborne and El Reg.
Now which sounds more likely?
Being unable to work out if it was an April Fool's joke or not is fine and understandable despite the clues in the article itself.
Creating a commentard account just to complain, twice, that the article is still up which obviously offended their sensibilities in some as yet unknown way because there was no way that their initial assessment of the piece could possibly be wrong = Ridicule Magnet.
It is understandable that someone might suspect it was an April Fool article but that has to be set against others having already explained in the comments that it actually wasn't.
Sanwin had no real excuse to be so uniformed in their opinion and thereby made themselves fair game for a ribbing.
"The welcome awaiting a newbie depends on the manner of his or her entrance. What do you expect here - a big hug and an invitation for a pint?"
I must say that this sounds a bit anal, "the manner of his or her entrance" indeed.
Yes, I will have a pint and it would be a pleasure to buy the next round. Ohhh, my lace needs tying perhaps the chap behind me will buy it.
What do you expect here - a big hug and an invitation for a pint?
How about when you're no longer a newbie? Mind you, it's going to take more than a pint before I'm at all likely to hug you, Lester. No disrespect intended, but a bloke has to have certain standards ;-)
Not exactly welcoming to a newbie is it?
Why do you think that "sanwin" is a newbie, rather than a nonce-id coined by a long-standing commentard for the purpose of making a meta-joke comment?
It's a strange idea, though, removing an April Fool article just because April 1st has passed by. It's not like anyone has withdrawn RFC1149 in the last 26 years, is it?
You only need look at the BBC's article about ten things that might have been April Fools but weren't to realise that reality is rarely outdone by the comics.
1st April is the only day of the year when people critically evaluate what they read on the internet. the rest of the year it's obviously all true.
> 1st April is the only day of the year when people critically evaluate what they read on the internet. the rest of the year it's obviously all true.
With a little grammatical correction, that could become a 'meme'.
Actually, now I come to think about it, it would only truly be an internet 'meme' with the grammatical error intact.
As you were, therefore.
...at some point you will put your foot in it. If you have a particular knack for this it might be better to keep your foot in there so as not to say anything ever again. The alternative is to grow a thicker skin. If you chose the latter then there will be no end of helpful souls willing to aid you in acheiving this.