I-494 and I-694 to be renumbered into one route

[Max Rockatansky]

Is this really going to happen? If not, LOCK THE THREAD! No more April Fools Day jokes.

I'm surprised that so many people missed the April Fool's aspect of this. I guess that explains the success of so many conspiracy theories these days.

Since I was in on the joke I threw in a "conspiracy"  reference from California that a lot of people actually believe (CA 58 becoming I-40).  This thread was definitely the best April Fools this year because it was well written and semi-plausible at first glance.  RGT screwed up early on with the "Modest Proposal"  thread having zero subtly.

What about the Baltimore one (that even linked to a video of a song called Highway Star) and mine that was a different topic altogether (not a news article)?

I don't think that I saw that one.

[hotdogPi]

Is this really going to happen? If not, LOCK THE THREAD! No more April Fools Day jokes.

I'm surprised that so many people missed the April Fool's aspect of this. I guess that explains the success of so many conspiracy theories these days.

Since I was in on the joke I threw in a "conspiracy"  reference from California that a lot of people actually believe (CA 58 becoming I-40).  This thread was definitely the best April Fools this year because it was well written and semi-plausible at first glance.  RGT screwed up early on with the "Modest Proposal"  thread having zero subtly.

What about the Baltimore one (that even linked to a video of a song called Highway Star) and mine that was a different topic altogether (not a news article)?

I don't think that I saw that one.

This is the Baltimore one:
https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=31289.0

Mine was the NFT thread; it's been deleted.

[KCRoadFan]

In an attempt to turn this April Fool's thread into a more substantive discussion, let me say this: I think making 494/694 one number would make sense all along, given the common set of exit numbers. It may have been posted as a joke, but I believe MNDOT should make it real.

[Papa Emeritus]

Never believe anything you see on April 1st, or at least don't believe it on face value.  The jokes are so prevalent on the 1st that I had to put a disclaimer on Gribblenation that the CA 47/Vincent Thomas Bridge article was authentic.

Jokes are very prevalent on April 1 on any community, regardless of the topic the community focuses on.

Someone on an airline industry group I'm a member of posted that American Airlines would begin flying from Miami to Ocho Rios, Jamaica; the flight would be the first international flight from Ocho Rios. Although the post was factual, because it was posted on April 1, people automatically (incorrectly) assumed it was a joke.

[skluth]

Never believe anything you see on April 1st, or at least don't believe it on face value.  The jokes are so prevalent on the 1st that I had to put a disclaimer on Gribblenation that the CA 47/Vincent Thomas Bridge article was authentic.

Jokes are very prevalent on April 1 on any community, regardless of the topic the community focuses on.

Someone on an airline industry group I'm a member of posted that American Airlines would begin flying from Miami to Ocho Rios, Jamaica; the flight would be the first international flight from Ocho Rios. Although the post was factual, because it was posted on April 1, people automatically (incorrectly) assumed it was a joke.

Considering the financial and other woes of American Airlines, I can understand the story not being believed.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I thought about including a nod to Beltway, who criticized 494/694 multiple times as being bad for I-35 traffic. I was going to write a Minnesota-esque quip from MnDOT that "we won't get any more angry emails from this guy in Virginia", but I decided to scrap some elements I felt weren't working like claiming the FHWA was involved in the decision.

[Henry]

April Fool's Day was five days ago, so time to lock it!

[kphoger]

Why does everyone have a case of moderator complex?

[jmacswimmer]

Why does everyone have a case of moderator complex?

I'm befuddled in general by the polarized reaction to April Fool's threads this year...I don't recall that happening last year.

(Also FWIW, the 2 threads that were locked were done by a regional mod within his designated region, and not by an admin or global mod.)

[SEWIGuy]

Why does everyone have a case of moderator complex?

And why don't they use the "Report to Moderator" function instead of posting publicly?  Public "lock it up" comments are 100x more annoying than slightly off topic postings.

[kphoger]

Why does everyone have a case of moderator complex?

I'm befuddled in general by the polarized reaction to April Fool's threads this year...I don't recall that happening last year.

I think it's because, in the past, there were one or two April Fools threads.  This year, there were several hundred.

[hotdogPi]

I didn't notice that much of an increase this year compared to previous ones.

[Max Rockatansky]

Almost every road page on the internet is doing them now.  It really got over saturated this year. 

[vdeane]

I didn't notice much of an increase this year - if anything, it looked like there were fewer than in prior years.  Were more deleted beyond just the NFT thread?  I was driving to a roadmeet that day, so I didn't get to sign on until the evening after that one was already killed.

Of course, it seems like the holiday was practically dead outside this forum, so maybe that made it seem worse?

[hotdogPi]

No others were outright deleted.

[webny99]

  Public "lock it up" comments ...

All I could think of:

https://twitter.com/DanHanzus/status/804759543007674368