Boxcaching.com

[+Family O Foxes]

Has anyone else seen this???

 

http://www.letterboxing.org

 

now takes you to

 

http://boxcaching.com

 

NOW MERGING WITH GEOCACHING?!?!?!?

Edited April 1, 2004 by Family O Foxes

[Jeremy]

That's a lot of effort for an April fools joke.

[+Family O Foxes]

That's a lot of effort for an April fools joke.

That was my thought. They got hacked???

[Jeremy]

I doubt it. I think it is an elaborate joke by Randy Hall, the owner of letterboxing.org. I didn't appreciate being associated with his little joke.

[+Family O Foxes]

I saw your post to their e-group. Nice touch.

Edited April 1, 2004 by Family O Foxes

[+WaldenRun]

I saw your post to their e-group. Nice touch.

Yeah, for a minute there, I almost thought you were serious. Way to keep the gag going!

 

-WR

[+MarcB]

Flippin' Heck! That's a hell of a lot of effort to go to!

MarcB

[ju66l3r]

*That* is truly awesome.

 

For those of you who think it's too much effort, you don't appreciate an artist at work.

 

I've seen some really slap-dash things in my times that people later scream "April Fools" and think they've pulled the best stunt in history...

 

It's this and things like Taco Bell's full page ad about purchasing the "Taco Liberty Bell" that make April Fools one of the best "holidays" of the year.

 

It takes some effort to make it a great hoax. In our small world of geocaching/letterboxing/boxcaching, this is one of the good ones.

[Jeremy]

It's wasting my time, and I don't appreciate it. I assume that the artist will be happy to pay the invoice for the time it is costing us to debunk their lame prank.

[Jeremy]

Reaction to this announcement was decidedly mixed. Thousands of people called the National Historic Park in Philadelphia where the Liberty Bell is housed to angrily protest the decision to sell the bell.

 

You think the National Historic Park appreciated the prank?

[+carleenp]

The problem with April Fool's jokes are that while on the surface many can be very amusing, often somewhere they cause difficulties. Someone will believe something that they shouldn't and get upset. Others will get confused and bother other people seeking out the truth. Also, sometimes serious things come up on April Fool's Day and then people misinterpret it as a joke, or become confused because they don't know whether it is a joke or not. I hope people think carefully before playing April Fool's jokes today. I think the best Aprils Fool's Jokes are the ones that are blatently obvious jokes and that also involve the permission of anyone else that is involved.

[WH]

If you wanted too, could you make an issue of them using the Groundspeak logo without permission?

[CoyoteRed]

And I doubt anyone would get very far trying to enforce trademark issues on a parody site. It is April 1 after all.

[CoyoteRed]

I know. Let's just remove April 1 from our calendars and be done with it.

[Jeremy]

You should look up the definition of parody before using it as an argument. A parody is a rediculous imitation. In this case it looks real and no where does it say it is an April fools joke.

[+Sparky-Watts]

You should look up the definition of parody before using it as an argument. A parody is a rediculous imitation. In this case it looks real and no where does it say it is an April fools joke.

Exactly. I did some research on that awhile ago when talking with my attorney. She didn't seem to think it was at all legal to do that without any disclaimers somewhere, and felt like perhaps you do have a case of copyright infringement as a result. I didn't think about asking her about cost of damage control and possible loss of revenue. A good prank if it were planned out correctly with both parties in on it, but a legal nightmare the way it was actually perpetrated.

[+Markwell]

Anyone else a subscriber to AOL when they announced as their first headline of the day: Life Discovered on Jupiter

 

From The Museum of Hoaxes...

 

The internet-based service America Online grew rapidly throughout the 1990s, demonstrating the power of the internet to serve as a new basis for mass communication. By 1996 it had gained five million subscribers, all of whom were greeted with a news flash that read, "Government source reveals signs of life on Jupiter," when they logged onto the service on April 1. This headline was backed up by statements from a planetary biologist and an assertion by Ted Leonsis, AOL's president, that his company was in possession of documents that proved the government was hiding the existence of life on the massive planet. The story quickly generated over 1300 messages on AOL, and hundreds of people called the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California trying to obtain more details about the discovery. When it turned out to be a prank, many questioned whether the service had risked losing its credibility by perpetrating such a stunt, but AOL dismissed these concerns. A spokeswoman for the company later explained that the hoax had been intended as a tribute to Orson Welles' 1938 halloween broadcast of the "War of the Worlds."

 

Didn't think it was funny then. Not so sure Letterboxing people will think this is funny now...

[CoyoteRed]

In this case it looks real ...

It looked real to you?

 

Only those who didn't know the history between gc.com and LbNA would think this is real.

 

I'd say even if it didn't happen on April 1 many boxers would still think it a joke.

 

You know, it's not as if they came over here and started copying cache descriptions to their site without the owners' permission.

[Jeremy]

It looked real to you?

 

Only those who didn't know the history between gc.com and LbNA would think this is real.

How many geocaching historians are there?

 

Come on. Come up with a better argument.

[+The Cheeseheads]

The problem with April Fool's jokes are that while on the surface many can be very amusing, often somewhere they cause difficulties. Someone will believe something that they shouldn't and get upset. Others will get confused and bother other people seeking out the truth. Also, sometimes serious things come up on April Fool's Day and then people misinterpret it as a joke, or become confused because they don't know whether it is a joke or not. I hope people think carefully before playing April Fool's jokes today. I think the best Aprils Fool's Jokes are the ones that are blatently obvious jokes and that also involve the permission of anyone else that is involved.

Take Slashdot for example. I've given up trying to read it today as they've completely overdone the jokes. If they tried to slip some real news in there, nobody would believe it.

 

The best ones are the clever, but obvious jokes, like what ThinkGeek does every year with their front page.

[+tirediron]

It looked real to you?

 

Only those who didn't know the history between gc.com and LbNA would think this is real.

How many geocaching historians are there?

 

Come on. Come up with a better argument.

Can any of us be really sure that you aren't part of it?

[+WaldenRun]

I assume that the artist will be happy to pay the invoice for the time it is costing us to debunk their lame prank.

I for one am willing to subsidize April Fool's Day. Divide the invoice amount by the number of paying GC.com members and send me a bill. Anyone else want to help Jeremy out?

 

-WR

[ju66l3r]

It's wasting my time, and I don't appreciate it. I assume that the artist will be happy to pay the invoice for the time it is costing us to debunk their lame prank.

If you don't like it,

...tough nuts.

 

 

It doesn't cost much to make a form response and send auto-followups to every contact@Groundspeak.com e-mail for a day that says "If you're writing about boxcaching...If not, we'll write back with a full response in a day." So, I'm not buying the so-pissed-off-I-could-kill act.

 

Besides, it's hardly lame. I particularly liked the need for a super-increased membership fee.

 

EDIT: To get quote tag corrected...

Edited April 1, 2004 by ju66l3r

[Jeremy]

[+flask]

wow. you know, i thought i might like to take up letterboxing, bt the tone of the 'prank" is kind of insulting to geocaching, and i don't think i'm amused. i will not be taking up letterboxing, but will instead be incorporating my letterbox-style ideas into GPS related activities.

 

i particularly did not like the implication that letterbox clues are cleverer than geocache clues.

 

(deleted vitriolic attacks and examples of current letterboxes that do not appear to nees any cleverness at all)

 

i thought i had a sense of humor. maybe i don't.

[+welch]

I thought it was amusing , but a 'Happy April Fool's' at the bottom would have been good.

[ju66l3r]

...but a 'Happy April Fool's' at the bottom would have been good.

Yeah, because evidently we've degraded culturally into requiring monosyllabic (oh...sorry...one syllable at a time) explanations for every comedic effort. A quality prank (which is what this day is good for) should rope in *some* people (mainly the gullible). Most people roped into a prank will recognize the quality, time, and effort into making it believable to them. If you just disclaimer your prank with a line that says "this is a prank", then all you have is a funny idea.

 

The execution of a good flim-flam is to play it as straight as possible. See www.bonsaikitten.com or www.petsorfood.com or www.thedogisland.com or www.atlantictunnel.com .

 

None of these say "haha, we got you" and they are some of the longest lasting and highest quality hoax sites on the net.

 

If you were gotten (or in Jeremy's case, roped in as a bystander) and you can't step back and admit that it was a quality hoax for April Fool's Day, then you need a funny bone transplant.

[+Sparky-Watts]

...but a 'Happy April Fool's' at the bottom would have been good.

Yeah, because evidently we've degraded culturally into requiring monosyllabic (oh...sorry...one syllable at a time) explanations for every comedic effort. A quality prank (which is what this day is good for) should rope in *some* people (mainly the gullible). Most people roped into a prank will recognize the quality, time, and effort into making it believable to them. If you just disclaimer your prank with a line that says "this is a prank", then all you have is a funny idea.

 

The execution of a good flim-flam is to play it as straight as possible. See www.bonsaikitten.com or www.petsorfood.com or www.thedogisland.com or www.atlantictunnel.com .

 

None of these say "haha, we got you" and they are some of the longest lasting and highest quality hoax sites on the net.

 

If you were gotten (or in Jeremy's case, roped in as a bystander) and you can't step back and admit that it was a quality hoax for April Fool's Day, then you need a funny bone transplant.

Well, I think the key word here would be "quality". From what I can see, there ain't much quality to it. I've seen better pranks in junior high.

[+yumitori]

If you were gotten (or in Jeremy's case, roped in as a bystander) and you can't step back and admit that it was a quality hoax for April Fool's Day, then you need a funny bone transplant.

 

Fair enough, but if your joke costs me money, I'd hope you would forgive my lack of humor.

 

If I were Jeremy, I probably would have just rolled my eyes and stayed mum. But if possible, I would have also filtered all mail coming to geocaching.com address asking about boxcaching or letterboxing and forward it to the Letterboxing North America site.

 

Let them handle their own mess.

[ju66l3r]

Agreed (on the second part, yumi). But is the stream of irate letters from the poor sods that were taken in by the site *really* costing all that much?

 

Like I mentioned, a simple auto-reply with a small explanation would solve everything and would take about 30 seconds to setup (don't they already have a "your concern # is XYZ, use it for reference later" e-mail? For one day, can't it say "your concern # is XYZ...boxcaching is a hoax...contact letterboxing for more info...if your concern is about GC.com, we'll be right with you"?).

 

I think mountains are being made here in the forum and molehills are the result of further inspection.

 

I'd love to see, as per WR's post, an accurate accouting of all of GC.com's time/money lost on this one-day hoax (other than the time spent grumping here in this thread this morning). I don't even subscribe as a member, but I'd kick in my 7.4333 cents to cover letterboxing's fun.

[+Trekks]

And it will all be gone tomorrow.

[Dosido]

Nah. Already gone by 8pm EST

[+welch]

I thought it was amusing , but a 'Happy April Fool's' at the bottom would have been good.

Oh here, take this fork and stick it in that wall socket....

[+flask]

for the record, i thought the concept was funny. what i didn't like was the negative attitude about geocaching. it seemed unkind and i wasn't amused.

 

which is a shame, because i was hoping to see something funny.

[CoyoteRed]

You shouldn't judge letterboxing by an April Fool's joke.

 

Check it out. You just might see why they might think letterboxing is superior to caching.

 

Not saying all box clues are more clever than some caching clues. Not saying there aren't any lame boxes out there, either.

 

Letterboxing is less of an "instant gratification" RASH than geocaching. It's inherently more of a thinking person's game with a bit of artistry thrown in. There is a completely different feel to it.

[Jeremy]

Naw. Most of them are like this one. It's more like driving directions for the trail.

 

Letterboxing, like geocaching, have harder puzzles but for the most part it's all about direction and location.

 

For the record, I have no negative opinion of letterboxing. What I don't appreciate is snobbery coming from either group that their activity is any better than the other. Letteboxing or geocaching snobs should get a grip on reality - both games have the ultimate goal to get outdoors and do something, not stay indoors in front of artificial lighting. And that's a good thing.

[CoyoteRed]

The kind I like are the ones like this.

 

Or anything in the spirit of Poe's The Goldbug are great.

 

Tis true about the hold-your-hand, walk-through clues, but there are plenty in metered text or riddles, as well.