April Fools' Day 09: Second Life users pull the other one
April Fools' Day is quite the hodge-podge in Second Life. Linden Lab doesn't generally pull pranks on the user-population (some may disagree with us on that) but there are hordes of different groups and communities, and even a relatively low percentage of hoaxers lead to literally hundreds of hoaxes, almost all of which are spread by word-of-mouth.
We'll quickly round up some of the most common gags that are going around this year (a few of which are perennials).
Linden Lab is going back to charging for teleportation (the sum of L$1 per teleport). This one's formatted as a press-release, though the grammar is quirky enough to be a tip-off. Besides, this one came around the last two years as well.
Linden Lab has been purchased outright by [Microsoft/Activision-Blizzard/Electric Sheep/7-11/NCsoft/AOL/Worlds.com/IBM].
Linden Lab sells Second Life, to any of the aforementioned candidates, or to some unnamed group. Variation: Second Life is sold to Disney, but they will have to expand the allowable content in PG sims, because it is too strict for many of their children's titles.
All free accounts that do not upgrade to premium will be canceled.
Cory Ondrejka returns to Linden Lab (sort of) by marrying Philip Rosedale, in a tasteful, private handfasting. Cory's departure from the company was to bypass company policy on dating co-workers. Nobody seems clear on what Philip's wife and kids would think about this, let alone Cory's, but then, nobody seriously believes this one.
Former US president George W Bush has been appointed the new CFO of Linden Lab. Not many people believe this one either.
Prokofy Neva is appointed to the Linden Lab governance team as Prokofy Linden (another one that rolls around every year). Nobody wants to believe this one.
A new virus will [eat your pet|cause your star to go nova|melt your PC|email your porn collection to your boss/grandma/local police] if you [do some thing], and you should tell everyone you know and everyone you meet! Too many people believe this one.
All scripted dance objects will force you to do the macarena.
Linden Lab and Blizzard are collaborating on Second Life of Warcraft (AKA SLoW).
Third-party server software, Opensim wasn't left out either, when someone snuck in a patch that distorted avatars, possibly causing some injury to the code-base's reputation as a Second Life alternative.
There are dozens of variations on some of these. As always at this time of year, keep your heads down, and be cautious of surprising news. If it's really important, you'll be hearing more about it in the coming weeks anyway.
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