I remember something similar when Dr. Joe "announced" he got the game of 2001 just a little bit before the 2001 kickoff, when he claimed that he found an e-mail from Dean to a sponsor explaining the game of 2001, and told us that he can't possibly keep it to himself.

We all had a good laugh, but some people got mad at Dr. Joe for it. I guess this is one of the not-the-best-thing-you-can-learn-from-Dr.Joe... ;) A bad tradition to pass on I suppose.

No need to ban anyone for the joke this time. I am sure the people involved won't be doing it again. Besides, we all got a good laugh at this when we found out its a hoax, and the Championship event is still happening.

For those of you who felt really strong about the "news" when it came out last night, you should be proud of how much you care about this competition. It wasn't about not going to disney anymore. It was about losing one of the greatest experience you can get in FIRST, and I salute you for caring about it so much.


Mean while, I shall wait and see who will be the next one to pull a joke this good in the future. ;)

Oh yeah, since the Championship event is "on" again, how about replying to my Question of the week for this week? ;-)

Joe, I commend thee on a job well done.

That was one of the greatest hoaxes posted on a board I read. (Most of my other boards are incredibly tech-savvy boards) I wonder how many people got emails that Nats was canceled and now don't know that it's a hoax :P As mean/cruel/sadistic as that was...I like it :) I wish I had thought of it!

Yes Joe, excellent work my friend. Brilliant Scheme. A friend of mine came into school today telling us about this hoax, but he nor anyone else [students] knew that it was a hoax yet. We didn't believe it at first, but as time went on that morning, we started to worry, "What if this is true?!!"



Commendable Work My Friend

-D.J.


I wonder how many emails FIRST has recieved about the cancellation of nationals :D

Let's see:

1070434604 becomes 63.205.137.44, which is registered to PacBell DSL coming from a DSL relay on 2nd street in SanFran. Quite odd, considering FIRST doesn't have anything in that area...


Nice work, though. I just hope FIRST doesn't have to do to much work answering angry emails...

Very well done.

Nationals is so awesome I think I might have been forced to leave the country.

What a great joke... think that it distracts from the overall role of FIRST....
that's so hilarious

------------------------------------------------------------
Oh, oh,... I think FIRST is going to be very, very busy.
:eek:

you got me... and i'm sure you got others too..

absolutely brilliant- just don't do it again.



p.s- where'd you get the idea to do that?

All of our team members got an e-mail, from me, saying that Nats was cancelled. I feel like kind of a naive jerk, believing the hoax and sending the e-mail without going deeper into the thread. Oh well. After I learned that it was a hoax, I re-emailed everyone telling them that Nats was not cancelled.

While it may have been intended a cruel (yet insanely well done and halarious) hoax, the potential validity of it is -- to me -- frightful. On Wed Oct 30 Dean visited Cornell university, and pressured Cornell administration to host a regional... scheduled in sync with realization that the nationals is in danger. Following the meeting he was involved in closed door meeting with Cornell administrators and certain engineering professors. What they discussed, I don't know but he might have been securing precisely what you describe, Joe.

"Now he has hope that he can persuade more universities to support FIRST and programs like it -- and he hinted that Cornell would be an ideal location for a FIRST regional championship." - Cornell Chronicle Article

With the support that BorgWarger Automotive (a major auto parts manufacturer) has shown to team 639 over the past couple years, and the support of Cornell administration AND interest in hosting a regional which we had been talking about for 2 years, it is not at all unreasonably that it may be coming together... Let's hope it isn't in place of nationals, tho personally I'd love to see nationals in a new location!

i was in the science lab after school when i first read it and i screamed out in horror. people across the room were giving me strange looks. i swear i was about ready to cry. i haven't been to nationals and i want to go (granted that we qualify). i clicked on the more info link and started yelling at the computer upon realization of the joke. that gained me some more strange looks. i nearly cried again for falling for that. lol.

that was just evil. evil i tell you! but it was great!

#$^(!%!@#!! %$&#$^%!!! DON'T TELL ME NOW THAT IT IS ALL A JOKE!!! I JUST FINISHED SPENDING 2-1/2 HOURS ON THE PHONE WITH THE TRAVEL AGENT MAKING ARRANGEMENTS TO GET TO ITHACA NEXT SPRING!!!!





















OK, well maybe not. :) Good one Joe!

-dave

p.s. I just hope your team never needs any more funding from NASA/JPL... :rolleyes:

Heh
 

Yep... and I got a couple of calls around 11:00 last night due to Kit's email. Joe... man... that was definitely a good one!!

Kit... it was a good hoax, we all were fooled for a bit.

Andy B.

what did i do?? /me is not smart enough to think of anything like that. You can always tell the oldest; they are the only ones cruel enough to try somethin like that

Whenever you see something shocking like Joe's post, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS check the forum name. If it's in the Rumor Mill you know not to take it seriously.

Unless it was posted by Ken L, sometimes he will post someting serious there, in which case he is off-topic.

I know it's easy to use the portal to just get caught up on the latest, but the forum name is right at the top of the message.

BTW Joe, there are a few BeachBots who are still wondering whether to be mad at you for involving us or not. Personally I take the position that there is no such thing as bad publicity, just be sure you spell the name right.

Artfully done!

beautiful! you really got me. i would have been on the horn...er, AIM ranting and mourning if there had been someone at their comuter that i could talk to :) a most excellent hoax!