Friday, April 2nd 2010

Gotcha!

April's Fool!

Guess we really got you guys this time. I will not be leaving the site, nor will there by any of the announced changes. It was all an elaborate April's Fools Joke that we played on you.



Read on for the details...

As most of you remember, NVIDIA's Fermi launch was at midnight my local time, so I posted the review after countless hours of work, watched how our traffic spiked quickly and went to bed smiling and reliefed that everything went well. After I woke up I grabbed my notebook to check if the site might be crashed or something - no everything was fine, I started reading the comments and was shocked to see all the drama about Catalyst 9.12 being used. While I was aware that 9.12 weren't the latest drivers, I was pretty sure that the performance gains were not significant enough to retest all ATI cards and instead not have something like the Metro & Heaven tests (time is limited). After sifting through hundreds of posts all stating the same I did feel quite some anger towards the userbase in general: I was pissed. But as countless people stated in the comments for the "I am going away thread" the comments are just a tiny subset of what people think; happy people don't post comments.
Still with some anger I made my first posts in the comment thread: I think I'm done, I'm quitting and a couple more ... after a while I went away from the PC and started thinking a bit about it. "Let's just prove those idiots wrong". So I started benchmarking the 5870 on 10.3 and posted the results several hours later. As expected the difference was only 2%.
As we moved closer to April 1st I thought "hey, why not use those posts to create an epic April's Fools Joke", talked to my good buddy btarunr about it and he also thought it might be worthwile doing. Bta was the only person to know, not even the TPU staff knew. So the post was made and the story unfolded...

While I had originally planned to come clean some time next week, I realized it would be cruel to let you guys suffer that long.



Thank you all for your amazing comments. I had no idea how appreciated my work is. I am also sorry if you were hurt by it - I didn't mean it. Thanks again guys! and again, don't worry, nothing big will change here. Feel free to express your anger toward me in the comments, the mods are instructed to give you even more leeway as usually.
Add your own comment

407 Comments on Gotcha!

#276
entropy13
hateh?
KantasticDon't ever pull something like that again or I'll have Black Panther tie you up & do stuff to you.
;)
Posted on Reply
#277
Kantastic
entropy13;)
I swear I didn't write that.







I typed it. :D
Posted on Reply
#278
Wile E
Power User
Black PantherWhaaaaaaaaaa??????????

You made me cry twice! first out of sadness and then out of happiness! I believed it was an april fools but as time went by and 2nd april came I lost hope.....

Awww I love you W1zzard! www.myemoticons.com/emoticon-critic/images/hug-and-kiss/blow-a-heart.gif


This was EPIC! Lol I think you might get into the Guinness Book of records for making the one single april fools joke which the largest number of people believed! It's not just the TPU members, doing a google on "W1zzard leaving Techpowerup" brings up all the major tech forums having a thread dedicated to the topic!
And to celebrate, you must now drink lots of alcohol, and make sure you have your camera easily available. :D
Posted on Reply
#279
EarlZ
Well in where I was the post was already made during April fools day, so didnt do much of a dramatic impact ;)
Posted on Reply
#280
zAAm
"I'm glad you're staying" - is what I'm feeling beneath all these layers of hatred and homicidal feelings... :rolleyes:
Posted on Reply
#281
laszlo
no comment....

anyway the original thread is kind a tpu review for me;it can help to improve the site
Posted on Reply
#282
Baum
i've got some "oster eier" just let me know where you live, but you have to catch them ^^

no honestly thanks for that
Posted on Reply
#283
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
TheMailMan78I think this thread is a fraud also. I exposed W1zz killing Dan in the last thread and now I know Bta was some how involved. Maybe they lured Dan into thinking there was a beer in a snake tamers basket.

img.techpowerup.org/100402/snake_charmer_9sfw.jpg
I missed this one.

Nah Dan won't fall for Heineken, it's piss.
Posted on Reply
#284
HalfAHertz
100% fooled here too :)
Tho as was said earlier glad you're sticking around and thanks God for TPU!
Posted on Reply
#285
spud107
maybe w1z should have this as an avatar . . .
Posted on Reply
#286
H82LUZ73
You evil sick twisted person .....


I LOVE IT !!! :toast:
Posted on Reply
#287
LAN_deRf_HA
I suspect people will still bitch when he does his 6870 or w/e review.
Posted on Reply
#288
FreedomEclipse
~Technological Technocrat~
I think the prank went beyond a joke. it caused a major uproar within the forums as well as causing members start up a petition to try get you to stay & even went as far as to consider/talk about leaving TPU as well.

TPU is not TPU without W1zzard. I would say that if you do ever decide to leave then at least take the forum down so it doesnt fall into the hands of the wrong people (who could use it for evil?) I would very much like the site to retain its honor as something that has bought thousands of us all over the world together.

& everyone one knows a castle/army/kingdom is nothing without its king. blah blah blah im not sure if thats the right phrase.

-----


Im glad your staying.
Posted on Reply
#289
Regeneration
NGOHQ.COM
Can't believe people actually bought it. It was pretty obvious... the owner leaves his site because a few trolls? come on! That's why they invented the banhammer[tm].
Posted on Reply
#290
Triprift
Wile EAnd to celebrate, you must now drink lots of alcohol, and make sure you have your camera easily available. :D
yes and then dont forget to post at Gn glad ya happy BP. :D
Posted on Reply
#291
Morgoth
Fueled by Sapphire
I allready knew it was a joke.
Posted on Reply
#292
Dwarden
that was wise fool posting it just minutes before 1st lol ...

1:0 for wiz
Posted on Reply
#293
D007
You sonofa.......... :laugh:
Well done...
Well done...
Posted on Reply
#294
TheMailMan78
Big Member
btarunrI missed this one.

Nah Dan won't fall for Heineken, it's piss.
Thats an artist rendering. Whatever beer you used is long gone. You killed Dan.

I will avenge you Dan. I WILL AVENGE!
Posted on Reply
#295
Unregistered
TheMailMan78Thats an artist rendering. Whatever beer you used is long gone. You killed Dan.

I will avenge you Dan. I WILL AVENGE!
maybe all of this was conspiracy theory to distract the masses and no one never know that Dan is missing
#296
SK-1
Is Clark Kent to superman like Dan is to W1zz???^
Posted on Reply
#297
DaveK
I was kinda skeptical to whether it was true or not, but man thankfully it's not, I didn't want to use other tech sites :)
Posted on Reply
#298
Solaris17
Super Dainty Moderator
Wile EAnd to celebrate, you must now drink lots of alcohol, and make sure you have your camera easily available. :D
this is legit i was their and what was seen can not be unseen
Posted on Reply
#299
DonInKansas
Sooooo.....this means no epic W1zzard retirement For Sale thread?

Bummer.

:laugh:
Posted on Reply
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