The worst tradition of the net is the April Fools news article.

I have something to announce. I'm quitting. No I'm not. Fooled you!

My competitor is a jerk. Haha. You're a fool.

None of it is funny, and while sometimes you are surprised, the surprise almost never feels good, or right.

It's bad enough that the people who indulge in this idiocy hurt their own reps, but it also makes it hard to do any communication on April 1. North Korea is threatening nuclear war. Haha. April Fools. Cyprus is having a run on the banks. No they're not. But what if they are? What if there really is astounding news on April 1? Are you prepared to believe it?

It would be good if we were all more circumspect about what we read.

But journalists joking about inaccuracy in their reporting is like a surgeon leaving his or her lunch in your chest. Or a programmer deliberately putting a virus on your hard disk. Lies are the stuff we're supposed to be fighting against, not actively inviting in.

If I come across something totally awful, I'll put a pointer here. Feel free to do the same in a comment.

1. TechCrunch wins the award for the first inane April Idiocy post.

2. Scott Radcliffe says he can't wait for Google's announcement tomorrow. So I ask him what they're going to announce and he says he was saying he hates 4/1 in a roundabout way. Oh. Ouch.

3. Seth Godin's is noteworthy because he's the last person I'd expect to partake in the idiocy. Peer pressure? The idea of a $0 Kindle is interesting. Since when does Godin have leaks of product announcements, esp for one of his biggest customers (if not his biggest). It was misleading for a fraction of a second, and then made me want to throw up.

Yours truly,

Dave Winer, 3/31/13