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Comment by Jiro | Hacker News Reader

This reads like a justification for trolling. "Nobody's hurt and it's all in good fun. My fun and my friends' fun, that is."

Putting up a fake sign is like dropping a single piece of litter. It's not going to do much by itself, it's just a tiny bit of pollution which makes signs a tiny bit less useful to the general public.

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FTA : "Mr Whitehead added "as a journalist, whatever you do, someone, somewhere, is going to get upset about it".
However, this particular joke has seemingly been popular among locals and tourists alike.
"In 20 years, I haven't had a single complaint about Llandegley International," he said.

"Loads of people love it, some people might not get it. But as far as I know, nobody is upset or angry about it. That's a first for me."

Guess, we found the one person upset...

If you live in a country where there are arbitrary signs almost everywhere, like the US, I could see the argument. In the UK, however, this sign very clearly stands out as unusual and a joke. We don't tend to have large, independent signs and billboards on 60mph roads, especially not on the Welsh borders, so the sign's mere presence is curious enough and unlikely to detract from any other signs in the area.

As long as Google doesn't mistakenly add the nonexistent airport to their maps, it is harmless to some and amusing to others.

I'm sure nobody will try to drive to an Airport to which they are unable to buy tickets.

Yeah, I'm trying to come up with a scenario in which someone will be harmed by this.

It's not like there's an airport and the sign is pointing to the wrong one. I don't arbitrarily visit airports.

The worst thing I can think of is to tell someone that I'd be landing at the Llandegley airport and that I need a ride. Then they ride out to a field and I'm not there. But that's just plain old lying. I can say I'd be landing at Heathrow and the effect is the same. Even worse because Heathrow is an actual airport and they'd probably spend a bit looking for me. At least with Llandegley, the bit is up as soon as they pull into the field.

You can spend many hours at Heathrow waiting for someone to show up. And that's if they are arriving on a flight.

FWIW, the UK is full of disused airports. Like if you search Google Maps for the nearest airport thinking "I'll have my jet pick me up there" it's probably now an industrial park built on top of a crumbling WWII airstrip. They built a lot of airstrips during the war, so the Luftwaffe couldn't bomb them all.

A chunk of the M8 motorway just west of Glasgow runs along what used to be the runway of the old Renfrew Airport. It was only open for 12 years and sat derelict after closing in 1966 for about another ten years.

A bit of a shame really because it really was a stunning building.

https://www.glasgowarchitecture.co.uk/renfrew-airport

Imagine having to justify a joke as anodyne as this.

> Putting up a fake sign is like dropping a single piece of litter. It's not going to do much by itself, it's just a tiny bit of pollution which makes signs a tiny bit less useful to the general public.

FWIW, this applies even better to advertising.

I do get your point related to litter, but there are times when - like with intentional misspellings or intentional wrong grammar - jokes can be made which are harmless to most but recognized as fun to a few.

I think the cost solves this issue. It would be annoying if there were lots of fake street signs. Many people must get the idea to put up a random sign for something that doesn't exist, and more would upon seeing such signs, but very few people are willing to pay a thousand dollars a year for the joke.

Much like stonehenge.

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