[EricH]

Originally Posted by Bill Moore

Adam,

Agreed, Joe has either pulled off (or has tried to pull off) a number of hoaxes on this website. He has reached the point where he needs collaborators to accomplish these.

First, it is posted in "Extra Discussion" rather than in a real forum. Joe knows better than to post his hoaxes in a real forum. Also, why of all people was Joe (a noted prankster) the very first to receive this misdelivery?

Second, all the initial collaborators seem suspiciously close to Joe or to his team. Perhaps a case of "You lie, and I'll swear to it." But the circle of folks claiming to receive the phantom FIRST Email Blast has grown beyond Joe's influence. Either the Blast is real, or we have folks jumping on a "Me Too!" bandwagon.

The PDF document appears to come from the FIRST website. I doubt that Joe would take a chance by spoofing the FIRST site, so he would need some inside help to upload the document. NOTE: The document author is not fully named, it only lists the name "kpilotte", which was assumed to be Kate Pilotte. It is not difficult to change the "author" of a document, and lack of a full name brings this document into question.

But, to further cloud the question, the board that Joe has photographed, and the board on the PDF document are not the same. (Or some Photoshopping has taken place.) The "quality mark" on Joe's board is positioned slightly different than the one in the PDF photo. You also have to wonder why three fonts are used on the circuit board; one for the URL, one for the component layout, but the final part of the copyright text (FIRST") is in a slightly larger font than the beginning part. It would seem that when putting a copyright symbol onto a board design they would know who holds the rights.

Finally, Dave loves to see these things mushroom, and he will gleefully post his most devilish laugh as he watches all the lemmings rush over the cliff!

As far as I know, Joe has only tried to post one hoax. That one succeeded. The reason it is in "Extra Discussion" is because it was posted as a picture. Picture threads open in "Extra Discussion".
"Initial collaborators": I was suspicious at first. Then I started taking a closer look. I also have not seen the actual board. Part of the reason I'm thinking this is real is because of the too-large circle of recipients.
Joe has been known to fake the FIRST site, but this is far too real.
When have you known an Inventor drawing, say, and a part come out exactly identical? Two pictures of the same person?

And Joe is smart. He knows that some of us know where he lives (or can easily find out), and thus would have to keep the evidence.