In past years, there was a fun tradition on Rypn.org where people posted spoof posts for April Fool's day-some such as a running Big Boy are no longer considered spoofs.

Various complaintants caused the spoof posts to be considered verboten on RYPN.org.

Spoof posts, unless they are profane will be welcome here and I assume, reduce the annual indignity of the serious enthusiasts on RYPN. (You're welcome).

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1448563 ... 2/?fref=nf

Feel free to post early as Easter is April 1 this year.

I think they said the railfan forum was the place for it.

I miss seeing the April Fools spoofs here on the main forum. It was a great way of livening up the Interchange - where topics can get quite heated at times.

Yeah but the quality of the spoofs have gone downhill over the years. Plus researchers have come across old spoofs and mistook them to be serious.

A number of organizations have done some terrific spoofs in their newsletters over the years. Maybe they can post the best of them, sorta like a Hall Of Fame.

Some years back, Motor Trend's April issue did a spoof car test - of Strasburg 2-10-0 90.

This year, Model Railroad News has review of an HO Reading RS-3. The locomotive in the article is clearly an EMD GP-7. Only at the end of the article does the author note that, on the Reading, EMD GP-7's were class RS-3. (1600 HP Alco Road Switchers were RDG Class RS-1)

Phil Mulligan

I think you mean Road & Track.

R&T has had a long tradition of an offbeat satirical "road test" in each April issue. In 1966 they did LNER 4472 Flying Scotsman (see http://www.trainweb.org/lunarlight/Gresley/Gresley.htm ); the Strasburg 90 "test" was 2003; other subjects have included a "Mercedes GT" garbage truck, a London double-decker bus, the Cape Canaveral/Kennedy mobile launch pad, a Sopwith Camel biplane, the Goodyear Blimp, the fake Indiana Jones SUVs at a Disneyland ride, and a mechanical robot elephant.

Yeah, but we're not allowed to be humorous around here any more.

Sign up and see if you can outdo your bit about Linn Moedinger addressing a Train Orders users convention from some years back.

The grousers have won.

Not enough people expressed appreciation for satire, and too many folks instead complained and groused about their inability to read a calendar or understand satire.

This is why we can't have nice things.

I was a stand up comedian for a while and have been a published cartoonist off and on for much of my life.
I have an excellent sense of humor but I do not feel that's needed (or even wanted) here. April Fool posts here, frankly, were lame at best and confusing at worst.
I never saw any benefit of having them here and was very happy to hear they wouldn't be allowed.

These are excellent points.
People shouldn't have to make 100% sure this wasn't some lame April Fool's deal when they read something here.
People are always whining about how they feel this forum has declined, yet will also whine about how they can't do 'funny' fake posts here at the same time.

It appears that most of you missed the Original Poster's intent...

He has linked to a Facebook page, and if I'm reading him correctly, he's saying "Since April First spoofs are not welcome to RYPN, please post them on the Facebook Page that I've linked to instead".

There's no use beating the dead horse of spoofs on RYPN, the PTB have decreed no spoofs, and trying to change their mind has been exhaustively proven to be ineffective. Best let that sleeping dog lie. Instead, if you choose, use his FB page.

I thought this whole thread was satire and now I'm confused.

Well, if the resident expert on comedy and humor says no, then I’d say the jocularity is hereby secured.

I am reminded of an Army 2nd Lieutenant from the movie Good Morning Vietnam.

Precisely. You can argue endlessly, or do something else. There are times you stop pretending that if you hammer hard enough, you won't be a woodpecker in a petrified forest. I no longer argue with the humorless or the uniformed.

I had some fun posting this:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29166&hilit=514

One individual read it and the next time we met, called me an SOB for posting something he thought was real, which quite frankly, I think was why there was so much acrimony over the spoofs.

and this:

Of course some of the spoofs (operating Big Boy) have come to life

There was a poll here and 39% of the respondents said they enjoyed it. There have been several new requests for membership to the Interesting Railroad Stuff page in the past couple days.

If you want to have a little fun for AFD, even though it coincides with Easter stop by-we're going to to indulge a little silliness so seriousness doesn't become pretentiousness.

Actually, the best fools posts are the ones that people accept as reality. It's recently become so popular we filled our current government with ambulatory fools posts. The one caveat for this board should be that, unlike our elected officials, they be actually funny - that's where I think the problem developed. Perhaps there's need for some reconsideration, with only really funny ones qualifying for posting? I nominate Superheater for judge.

I spent a couple of days one year drafting up one; I failed to clearly state it was a joke at the end. I guess it was too good, because the webmaster of a well known facility that was part of the spoof sent a somewhat harsh PM, perhaps after spending a night answering dozen of foamer emails asking if it was true. He later apologized, but I have felt bad about over the years. But was fun to dream up and write up.

I later edited it with several mentions that it was a joke just so the historical searchers will know without a doubt.

Bob