Hi there fellow Stack Overflow customers! Our April Fools’ gag for 2022 has come and gone, and we’ve had a while to investigate how folks responded to it. Not like final yr, we aren’t going to make an actual product out of it (The Key V2 now obtainable, BTW bought out!). In the intervening time, we now have no plans so as to add filters again as everlasting choices, although you’re all the time welcome to create your personal userscripts. Nonetheless, the best way customers work together with our web site, at the same time as a part of a joke, can train us lots.
April Fools’ is normally a well-liked time for us, and this yr was no completely different. In comparison with a mean Friday, we noticed 6% extra distinctive guests to Stack Overflow. Loads of you’ve gotten been asking what the preferred filters had been. Properly, we’re right here with solutions. We’ve additionally received some further knowledge across the prank, so let’s dive in!
The nice, the unhealthy, the three-dimensional
For many who missed it, a fast recap of this yr’s prank: Customers coming to the positioning through the prank window had been subjected to one in all eight themes randomly. Instagram has them, so we wished to get hip to what the children are into. The themes ranged from tech favorites (Home windows 3.1 and Terminal) to nostalgic (Frisa Lank and MariOverflow) to illegible (High Secret and 3D Glasses). Customers might change the themes with a selector on the backside.
The themes had been really random. All of them besides 3D Glasses had been loaded about the identical variety of occasions (extra on that later). Some customers had been proud of the theme they drew—96% of people that randomly drew both Bookface, Frisa Lank, MariOverflow or Home windows 3.1 left that theme enabled. Nonetheless, in the event that they noticed the 3D Glasses theme, solely 67% of customers saved it round.
955,815 customers modified their theme at the least as soon as. On common, customers modified themes six occasions. Most individuals cycled by way of all the new themes—median time per theme was between three and 5 seconds—earlier than getting again to the basic Stack Overflow theme. Of people who picked a brand new theme, Bookface was the preferred, however folks saved Home windows 3.1 on the longest. Scorching Canine Stand, a nostalgic tackle the famously ugly Home windows 3.1 theme of the identical title, had the shortest common enabled time with 2.8 minutes. Solely 5% of customers left it on. Don’t low cost the facility of the acquainted.
The Frisa Lank theme was an inner and fan favourite. The overwhelming majority of the Stackers who voted in our very casual ballot guessed that it might be the preferred general and longest enabled. We had been flawed on all accounts. The tech heads beat out the rainbow sticker crowd this time.
The 3D Glasses theme got here in for scorn early and infrequently. Customers referred to as it “nauseating” and “one of many dumbest issues I’ve seen in a very long time.” The offset textual content gave some folks a way of vertigo, so we took it out of the randomized default rotation. For first-time guests, it was enabled for the shortest period of time and by the least quantity of people that drew it. However for individuals who had gone by way of different themes, it nonetheless beat out Scorching Canine Stand and High Secret on each metric we measured.
Bonus April Fools’ within the supply code
April Fools’ jokes get pleasure from being short-term. All filters had been coded outdoors the bounds of our regular code self-discipline, so there have been various small jokes sprinkled within the supply code. Most of them had been light-hearted CSS class names, off-hand feedback, or JavaScript jokes that ran the filter bar.
However there was an Easter egg in there for the curious code crawler. We left the next as a little bit of bait:
Hi there Dev! Welcome to our new Filter’s bar. If you happen to want direct entry to our secret keys, please go to https://s.tk/StackOverflowSecrets. (DON’T SHARE OUTSIDE THE COMPANY)
The hyperlink was not some inner leak. It redirected to a heartfelt assertion of our dedication to keep away from abandoning you, disappointing you, inflicting you to journey unnecessarily, or hurting you. It’s a little bit of innocent enjoyable, and we caught a couple of further suckers with this one.
1,721 completely different customers clicked on the hyperlink and located that they had been no strangers to like. The height click on second occurred on April 1st (as anticipated). Don’t really feel unhealthy; various of our personal engineers fell sufferer to this further prank whereas we had been testing the brand new code.
Our prime three nations had been the US, Germany, and Canada. Our prime three states had been California (US), Ontario (CA), and North Rhine-Westphalia (DE). Our prime three cities had been Montreal (QC, CA), Paris (75, FR) and Sydney (NS, AU). Clearly, they know the principles.
It’s true we’ve fooled thousands and thousands of individuals; nevertheless, we now have really fooled an additional few thousand.
Tags: april fools, knowledge, deep dive
