runouw.com

Stop resisting. You will all bow down to the Great Leader sooner or later, and Razputin shall rule over all.



OOC: Yes, it's an April Fools' joke. We try to do something elaborate and fun every year, and often it goes on for multiple days. Last year we weren't able to do much iirc due to Suyo's absence, and I don't remember very much happening in 2013 either, so we've gone two or three years without anything on such a scale as this, which might be why this seems weird. 2012's event had AniLord (AniLo!) take over the forums; this year's is Raz taking over. We're just trying to have some fun with the community. Perhaps the joke went a little too far. You aren't obligated to participate. You could calmly voice your concerns to a staff member instead of complaining here, and we could deal with whatever offends or displeases you without having to do anything drastic like cutting a day off of the fun. Just hold on until the end of today, and the forums will go back to normal. Relax.

Honestly, if you guys want, you can start a real thread in Serious Discussion or something to talk about this more openly and maturely. If we're poking fun at anything, I think it's more at the idea of utopian/dystopian society. It may have involved some unnecessary references or jokes to certain things that probably shouldn't be joked about, but once again, I really want to stress that it's just for the sake of entertainment. You have to try to have a bit more of a sense of humour for April Fools'.

I think the problem is, it's harder for newer users to understand why we might have done something this elaborate.
In 2012 we had a huge April Fool's joke, but Suyo received hate for it through e-mail and since then refused to do anything big again. Since Suyo's demotion and Doram's promotion, we've been itching to do something as big and exciting again, really. And we were hoping that through experience of the last time we did this, people would go along with it more and just accept it while it lasts instead of giving hate and getting worked up about it again.

Of course the problem on our part is that the community has changed an awful lot since then, so we underestimated how much of a big deal it would be. Everybody overlooks things and makes mistakes sometimes, including staff, but we did this with your interests at heart. We just wanted to do something big and fun and exciting to get everyone buzzing and for everyone to get involved in if they wanted to.

I've found it hilarious and fun to do. It's nice to relish this opportunity and have a fake war.

Oh, and this IS prime fodder for after-event-discussion in Serious Discussion.

Supershroom wrote:All I wanted to say is that as a German, I have no tolerance for references to historical dictatures and that it extends common imaginations of an April Fools joke ... but Stalin pics and this forum layout still suck.

Of course there are some things you don't make jokes with, but it's all in context, really. Raz hasn't actually tortured anyone as far as I am concerned, and if he timed this on something other than april fools then of course the joke would go sour.

But this is april fools, so again, context. Of course we're supposed to have fun.

Well we took SK as hostage, using the chair of justice.

-BY wrote:Well we took SK as hostage, using the chair of justice.

Yeah right, that barely contained me for like 15 seconds