Yeah, it’s been centered mainly on the ranking pipeline and to some extent, a lot of users are aware of what scheme this might be to the point of even deduce it early and spoil it in the comment section. For those of us that care to read comments and reactions, it’s not always difficult to catch it spot on as, someone would have exposed it already. However, the efforts that is put in on coding and configurations of these systems to the April Fool is usually something worth noting. Played poker and it wasn’t very easy with me!

The merit system went into effect in January 2018, so in some sense, I was hoping that some member would be willing to research into any April fool's day pranks that would have had happened prior to 2018.  I personally cannot remember, but I did not research into the matter, which truly looking at theymos's posts (thread starting) around April 1 of each year would give some clues.


Of course, the underlying idea of poker is changed when each of the players are sharing the cards in the middle and they ONLY have their 2 cards to attempt to differentiate them from the other players.  Some dynamics are similar in regards to that at the end of the game, ONLY 5 cards can be counted, so I suppose each of us just has to get used to what the odds might be for us to win the hand in those kinds of shared card circumstances as contrasted to the more traditional poker in which we hold all the cards ourself and privately.

There are quite a few varieties of poker in which the player might have to turn up cards but only privately look at two of them, but the other players may well get to see the cards, whether they are shared (in the middle) or a different dynamic where they are not shared but each person turns over cards and then bets at each point along the way. 

There are the variations of draw too where the cards might not be shown, but sometimes some of the cards are shown... 5 card stud, 5 card draw, 7 card stud, 7 card draw...  There are also some variations where players pass their cards to other players.. the player to their left.  The dynamics could get confusing and surely needs to remember what was passed.

The "pranks" are now more about engaging the entire community than actually pranking anyone and that has made it even more exciting.

We do not get very much new members relative to existing ones, meaning that the bulk of the users are already familiar with and expecting the April Fools prank, so surprise will no loner be effective for the majority. But pranks like these still manages to keep everyone engagaged and also excited as they look forward to the next one and what it possibly could be.

- Jay -

Alright the April fool. I missed the day. Nice idea thought, I wonder how many new users got tricked and found themselves in a position that shocked them.

If you were not expecting an April Fools Day joke/prank, then it would have caught your eye and made you think especially if you had just woken up

In your opinion, would it be better to have a random day every year for a prank or should it take place on 1st April but on alternating years?

Unfortunately, there were several members discussing the anticipated April Fools joke. They were discussing what might take place in the forum and with that they ended up bringing the matter to a wider audience (including myself) and it no doubt must have ruined the surprise for many members. If it takes place during a random day of a particular month, it will refresh the notion of a joke.

Well, April Fool's Day is a day when you can make jokes and have fun, and the other person won't mind when they know that you were playing an April Fool's joke on them. It has to be the 1st of April, and it can't be any random day. If it starts to happen, then anyone can do anything and later say that it was an April Fool (which is not good), not in the individual capacity but also in this forum.

The day is fixed as then you can prank anyone without accountability. If people forum start doing "April Fool" jokes randomly, it creates confusion and mistrust. Outside of this date it would be treated as deception rather than fun.  

Correct, the Bitcointalk April Fools tradition started three years prior, in 2015!
To my knowledge that was the first prank. It involved re-enabling avatars after being disabled for a long time for security reasons. The prank eventually became a feature (again?!) as avatars were re-enabled for good eventually. You can see the original thread here: https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/1008863

There's also a nifty thread made by @sheenshane (thank you!) documenting the Bitcointalk pranks: [Compilation] All pranks that was made by theymos in every April Fools Day come. ^{it only goes up to 2020 as of writing}


Well said!

Yes, I was considering continuing this thread of mine after April Fools' Day, but I have a problem.
The images didn't show up in the thread since Imgur isn't working here.  I'm trying to develop this thread for now.

I also found an up to date thread, A recap of Theymos April fool Jokes from 2015 till date but the April 2025 jokes haven't been added yet.

The new sounds add a much needed effect PG!

I'm not sure I've heard them all yet though, only had time for a few hands... I wonder if there is one added for an o_e_l_e_o?!