Technically Philly April Fools’ Day 2011: the stories we ran and those we didn’t

After a couple years of resisting, we at Technically Philly went ahead with a bit of some April Fools’ Day fun.

Yes, we, the Technically Philly crew, announced we were moving to New York, and then followed that up with hourly news items that were a bit less than real. We put them in an ‘April Fools’ category, colored the post background pink and avoided too negative posts, all in the interest of combating annual newsroom concerns about breaking news trust. We’re also deleting the posts next week, so they don’t get caught in search for the future.

Posts we ran:

  1. Technically Philly to relocate, rebrand as Technically New York
  2. First Round Capital invests in cheesesteak, Rocky references
  3. Port Richmond still has no Fortune 500 company
  4. Ignite Philly changes to stodgy 20-minute, 5-slide format
  5. Regional video game business leader Mike Werth “still stuck on Level 5-3 of Super Mario Brothers”
  6. Google to pit cities in epic cage match for Gigabit access
  7. Azavea to release GIS tool to map all Philadelphians who know what GIS is
  8. Comcast to host NBC acquisition parade down Broad Street

The reactions were great. Some were surprised, some weren’t. There was a lot of love from many people, including the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and Councilman Bill Green.

Below are some headlines I suggested that didn’t make the cut.

  1. Company moves to Center City, ‘taxes actually pretty sweet,” CEO says
  2. ‘New city sustainability czar admits not knowing what ‘LEED’ actually means’
  3. ‘BREAKING: Inquirer reports on new co-working phenomenon’
  4. Penn Professor completes ENIAC defrag
  5. Duck Duck Go Founder: “When it comes down to it, Ask Jeeves remains the web’s best search experience”
  6. Mayor Nutter: “Wordpress is for pussies”
  7. Geekadelphia to turn editorial focus to pharmaceutical, biotech — “Ever since Sean Blanda whooped on me in Starcraft, I knew we needed a new niche,” Mikey Il said.
  8. With new website, BRT shares more bullshit tax info faster
  9. Mayor Nutter announces 811 to reduce call stress on 311
  10. City Controller: city needs new oversight group to oversee other oversight groups
  11. Census: Philly population actually closer to 2,500
  12. Philly Startup Leaders new residency requirements encourages entrepreneurs ‘to get the hell out of this town’
  13. Josh Kopelman: ‘What I really want to be is a dancer’
  14. Nat Mechanics to become Long John Silvers
  15. Philly Cocoa Heads challenges Philly CHI to Jell-o wrestling contest
  16. Safeguard Scientifics: Wait, who are all of you?
  17. Entrepreneur slyly changes his LinkedIn location to NYC — “Philly is so much cheaper, but I really really want my friends to think I live in New York.”
  18. Pew: “78% of poor people don’t know Pew”
  19. John Street still on line for new iPad [Sean had iPhone idea]
  20. City Council President Anna Verna “has an idea for a pretty sweet Facebook app”

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