One reason I don't like the icon swap is because on top of not being that funny, it's something forced upon the user and possibly leaving them with an icon that represents something they hate. There are people who not only don't like Twilight, but are genuinely offended by the lessons it supposedly teaches young women. An icon swap for one day is ultimately not a big deal, but it's still a bit dickish to force someone of that viewpoint to use a Twilight icon for any period of time.
I'm repeating myself from Twitter, but It would have been fun and amusing if they changed up other graphics on the site, replacing their mascot with various funny images. It would give people something new and provide a fun meta-game treasure hunt for the site. The "haha your icon is co-opted and possibly something you hate" is less funny joke and more middle finger.
*shrug*
ReplyDeleteWoWinsider.com is doing the twilight thing, too. I dislike the series but it's not that big a deal.
I agree that it's not a big deal, but it annoys me that they could have done something interesting and fun with it, particularly given that it is a site that supports creativity, and instead opted for something unimaginative that is more likely to bug people than amuse them.
ReplyDeleteNah. It's just a silly joke. If anything, it's poking fun at those crazy Twilight fans. Nothing to do about forcing viewpoints. I lol'd.
ReplyDelete@Fever: I think the problem most people have with it is more "it overrides the icon that everybody recognizes me by and I had no say in it" than anything else. To wit: I'm the only deviant that uses a stuffed lion with an over-sized doughnut as their user image.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I believe the 'Team Seeker' icons are supposed to reference Legend of the Seeker, the television series based off of the Sword of Truth book series
ReplyDeleteI think the 404 page should've been replaced with a bright and cheerful "You've found gold!" image complete with rainbow and leprechaun, but with a "Your file, however, was not found" message at the bottom.
ReplyDeleteI like some of the webcomic's ones this year - XKCD and Sam and Fuzzy especially. Not been on a site which has done anything which interferes with user controls yet.
ReplyDeleteThe point most people miss about the Icon thing is that changing your ICON is like dumping paint on your head, as an artist you worked hard to distinguish yourself; Most artiest put a lot of time into figuring out what they want their Icon/avatar to say about them. Even if it is just a joke, it is in very poor taste, if they would have randomly used a piece of your own work, or something it would have been less of a slap in the face. But really I agree with Dan on this one “404 pages are funny, Logos banner markups are also funny, news of one day fake features like Google’s Snail mail service a couple years ago are funny, elaborate hoaxes like there Mars venture & Toilet net are funny. They had many good clean fun options to pick from, that wouldn’t force a bunch of random pop culture crap on people.
ReplyDeleteUgh. They replaced mine with a Twilight "Team Jacob" avatar. I'm one of those Twilight hater's you mentioned. Though, it would not be so bad if it wasn't a picture of Jacob shirtless, but it is. I think it's wrong. I don't want a 17 year old guy shirtless on my page, 'specially since I'm older than him.
ReplyDeleteThey changed the signatures on DA too.
ReplyDeleteThe mudkips gave me motion sickness. :/ All of them wagging their heads and the letters dancing in unison.... (shudders)
ReplyDeleteThe internet is just generally a scary place on April 1st. It's why I avoid most of it on that day. (and I'm with Rod, I'm one of those people who feels a bit violated by an icon change, no matter what it's changed to.)
Twilight doesn't exactly TEACH stupid things to young women, what it does is validate what a certain group of them are already thinking. And that's pretty damaging too. :P
Actually I found it quite amusing. But I am more amused by the reactions of people who did not find it amusing.
ReplyDeleteCould have been worse, the Sandra & Woo site nearly turned into a porn site because of their April fools joke backfiring.
ReplyDeletePersonally I hate the day, didn't even bother to log into EvE Online to avoid the usual jokes.
I think that, while we may not all agree on whether or not it's offensive (Twilight happens to be a source of more amusement than rage for me these days; thanks, Rifftrax!), they definitely could have picked other pictures that, while funny, couldn't be misconstrued, or something else entirely.
ReplyDeletePersonal opinion hour: I think the perfect April Fool's gag is one that could potentially be alarming, but only for a few seconds, and, upon realizing that he's been duped, the victim can laugh right along with the perpetrator. What the deuce is the point if the only person laughing is the one who pulled the prank? Didn't we get over this in grade school?
Ahh, the internets; it's the playground all over again.
I second the funny 404 page and altering images on site other than user options. Even for one day that kind of switch is irksome and lame.
ReplyDeleteAgree that the dA joke wasn't very funny, though the changed sigs was kinda okay.
ReplyDeleteWhat I loved was the April Fools joke on OCRemix.org. In case you don't know the site, it's a site where people can submit game music remixes. It's a pretty professional community, but for April Fools, they put up a message that new submissons were no longer accepted, and from now on, everyone should use the new program on the site, called the Remixinator. A program with a few samples of only 3 songs, which would REVOLUTIONIZE REMIXING AS WE KNOW IT! >:D
Some people really flipped out over it xD
I'm another of the twilight haters... maybe not for the leassons, but for the way the writer created her vampires... As a writer myself I try to make things as real or as commonly sensed as possible.
ReplyDeleteAlso the signature change was annoying since I'm not EMO and they put an EMO signature in my profile... And I second the "Change the display is like a bucket of paint in the head". I worked really hard (and keep working improving the character) to design my own avatar... and it annoys me to se a shirtless 17 year old pseudowerewolf instead of my cute little dragon/wolf with his mp3 player on paws
Yeah I found dA's prank to be entirely un-amusing as well. On the other hand, it did make the "friends" and "watchers" sections of my profile page unusually coordinated.
ReplyDeleteWhat the crap is a mudkip?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP5i5-G2f3c
ReplyDeleteI think you would have had a gas at the WoWwiki april fools day joke. They have an interesting Alt Text system that displays the same pop-ups of items, quests, and other in-game stuff as the game itself. For AFD, all those pop-ups and every other image rendered on the site rendered upside-down or backwards the first time it was displayed. Threw me for a loop.
ReplyDelete