April Fools' Day != Excuse to SPAM | Hacker News Reader

April Fools' Day != Excuse to SPAM

17 pointssps_jp9 comments

I get it, it's April Fools' Day. I just received an email from RedBox about their "we now sell lunch meat" joke. Really... I appreciate the creativity and even chuckled a little, but I get enough crap in my inbox and don't want to unsubscribe from future emails just because the RedBox marketing department can't help themselves.

Sorry, had to vent. Rant is over now.

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I don't agree, it's just one day in a year and as long as they don't take it overboard I find it a great laugh. Besides if you're that annoyed by the email just send it to trash, it only takes a second.

You are re-stating the exact argument that spammers use for all spam.

Except for the one day restriction. If all spam was nicely confined to one day, I'd probably be ok with it.

Except for the one day a year bit, which is key. In fact, to all spammers: you can send me all the spam you want before noon on April 1, if you in turn agree to not send me any spam any other day of the year.

And now we get meta-spam, spam about the spam i.e. this rant. I haven't seen any April Fools jokes on the front page of HN, the mods must be prepared for it. I suspect this page will go away soon as well.

It's one thing to put a joke up on a blog page, another thing entirely for it to come via email. I think most companies have more sense than that.

I guess that's what annoyed me. At least with a blog or some other web-based joke, participation is optional and requires action from the audience. Email based jokes like this from a company I regularly receive "useful" emails from just doesn't seem like a good idea.

I was looking for this post. Well, more specifically one that was ranting against the April Fools influx on HN. Yup, we get it, today is the day we can all have a laugh and post hoaxes and jokes everywhere. Thankfully, it is just for one day. Tomorrow I do not need to read every piece of information with dubiety.

This is of a piece with all the articles on here talking about how spamming people is the best way to do business.

If I have subscribed to receive their email I wouldn't mind receiving an Aprils Fools Joke once a year.

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