![\"Wanda](\"\/wiki\/File:Wanda_the_Fish_on_April_Fools%27_Day.png\" "\\"Wanda")
<\/a>Wanda the Fish was one of the first casualties of the holiday<\/p><\/div>\n
Please note that this isn’t supposed to be an exhaustive list of every<\/em> prank pulled this year. \u00a0It’s instead a list of those I personally noticed and\/or found particularly of note.<\/strong><\/p>\n First of all, it’s worth noting that this is the first year I’ve made my own website “April Fools’ Compliant”, which essentially involved putting this GIF<\/a> all over the page backgrounds on an infinite repeat, as well as a fake deletion tag on the Main Page, which contained a disguised link that would load a Rickroll in an iFrame.<\/p>\n LizardWiki's Main Page on April Fools' Day 2011<\/p><\/div>\n In addition, this is the first year I participated in the English Wikipedia’s April Fools’ Day celebrations. \u00a0Aside from participating in some of the fake Article for Deletion (AfD) debates, I also nominated the Universe<\/a> for deletion per Plato’s Cave<\/a> (here’s a link to the last revision of the AfD debate<\/a>).<\/p>\n The English Wikipedia has also had a tradition since 2004 to put up an April Fools’ Main Page. \u00a0How it works now is that strange articles and facts are selected for inclusion on the Main Page, and the entire page gets reworded in such a way that entries sound like they’re fake when they are actually factually true. \u00a0You can see the general information page about the April Fools’ Main Pages here<\/a>, and you can see the three versions of this year’s April Fools’ Main Page here: version 1<\/a>, version 2<\/a>, and version 3<\/a> (version 1 is shown at the start of the day, version 2 towards midday, and version 3 at the end of the day).<\/p>\n Finally, a summary of everything else that happened on Wikipedia on April Fools’ Day 2011 can be found here<\/a>. \u00a0Highlights include User:TenPoundHammer’s transformation into an otter, a Hummer, a hummingbird, a spider, and a swatted spider, the article on recursion’s redirection to recursion, the deletion debate over the deletion debate over the deletion debate (…) over the Articles for Deletion process (as one user put it, A F D C E P T I O N!<\/em><\/strong>), and the nomination of Google for deletion for being a hoax.<\/p>\n Elsewhere on the Internet, YouTube’s annual April Fools’ Prank was to time travel all the way back to the year 1911, rebranding itself as YouTube 1911. \u00a0In addition to putting up the purported viral videos of 1911, a new “1911-ify” feature was introduced that, when activated, made the YouTube video being watched appear as if it was recorded with an ancient film camera (like those used to record the first silent films), and the audio replaced with a silent film piano soundtrack. \u00a0Here’s YouTube’s blog post on the matter<\/a>.<\/p>\n The xkcd webcomic also introduced xk3d on April Fools’ Day, which allows any xkcd comic to be displayed in 3D. \u00a0Mouse movements caused the perspective of the comic to shift. \u00a0The feature can still be accessed post-April Fools’ Day here<\/a>, and you can contribute to the effort to make every comic 3D here<\/a>.<\/p>\n On the subject of 3D, ThinkGeek has released\u00a0De-3D Cinema Glasses<\/a>, perfect for removing the annoying 3D from modern movies shown in theaters!<\/p>\n Wikitroid's Main Page, April Fools' Day 2011<\/p><\/div>\n Wikitroid, the Metroid Wikia that I am an admin on, also did its first April Fools’ prank this year, although this is one I didn’t have much of a part in. \u00a0The primary prank was to turn the webite into Goosepedia, a wiki dedicated to geese. \u00a0The prank was inspired by my lolgoose<\/a>, which in turn was also featured in the background of the new Goosepedia’s webpages. \u00a0In addition, a pair of<\/a> April Fools’ RfCs<\/a> was created.<\/p>\n On the subject of RFCs, the IETF released three RFCs this April Fools’:<\/p>\n The April Fools’ RFCs<\/a> have been a tradition by the IETF ever since 1989, with the first April Fools’ Day RFC appearing in 1978.<\/p>\n Google’s April Fools’ prank this year was Gmail Motion<\/a>, which would allow Gmail users to use body language and gestures to control their email inbox. \u00a0Alas, it’s not an actual feature… at least not yet. \u00a0Google also ran some additional pranks this year, which you can find in Wikipedia’s handy list<\/a>.<\/p>\n Shinesparkers, April Fools' 2011<\/p><\/div>\n And, to close out this post, here’s a list of\u00a0honorable\u00a0mentions: (Note that I may add things to this list as time goes on)<\/em><\/p>\n That’s it for this year! \u00a0So, until next year….<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>\n
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