This morning I was checking my usual RSS feeds and was happy to see that many popular websites were rickrolling users in honor of April Fools Day. If you are unfamiliar with the prank of ‘rickrolling‘, it’s when someone mischievously provides a supposedly relevant link that ends up being Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up music video from the 80s. Example IM conversation with a rickroll:
Bob: Hey, have you ever been to Mystery Pier Books up on Sunset Blvd? They have a terrific selection of true first editions.
Joe: No, but I’d like to check it out.
Bob: You can find more information here: http://www.some site.com/
And of course, the link would land you on a page where Never Gonna Give You Up starts playing. If you think
that’s hilarious, grow up. Needless to say, I agree that it’s hilarious. So, I came up with an idea to rickroll my old high school classmates on Facebook and Myspace.
I crafted a message entitled “MRHS Class of 2000 – 8 year reunion” with the following body:
Hey everybody,
Myself and a bunch of other folks are organizing an 8 year reunion for the Mainland Regional High School class of 2000.
Please go to this site I set up for more information and to RSVP:
http://www.politivi.com/mrhs_reunion/I HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL THERE!
Best wishes,
Chris
Then I posted it as a MySpace bulletin, and rifled it off on Facebook to all the folks from my class. The responses have been awesome, and I’m glad its given me an opportunity to reconnect with old friends.
By the way, if you find yourself caught in a SERIOUS rickroll, John Chow has posted how to get out of one.
