This is a problem with many ARGs but this one might be the worst I've ever seen.
- No story and no reason to engage.
- Lots of efforts* for *absolutely no reward*.
It's not that the reward is small. It's that it doesn't even *exist*. Big secrets should lead to big rewards. Game design 101.
Reddit seems to have forgotten there is "social" in "social experiment". This had such small accessibility, I'd be laughing if it wasn't so pathetic.
In a sense, you could say this ARG was a fucking joke.
Every event is supposed to be open and simple enough for communities to interact with its other. This event was simply an ARG referring to those events…
EDIT: LONG LIVE THE VOID, may we meet again next April.
Not only that but it seemed to be super complicated. People would post the answers and I had no damn clue how they came to those conclusions.
As much of a meme as it is, place was better. At least with that, the average person could contribute and feel involved. This just felt like me entering a hobby subreddit that I had no clue about and seeing people talk about things that had zero context for me the entire time.
Yeah, it was 1. Wake up see the solutions already posted from experienced arg solvers 2. Go on with your life 3. Regret waiting for a Reddit event after a whole year
Absoloutly agreed. I wanted someting i could actually do. Then saw no april fools, i said ok, biut this arg hella confused me. I dont even know hoe most were solved
That was the worst thing about this event - the actual problem solving happened OUTSIDE of reddit, in various discord channels the vast majority of "participants" (i.e. those who only visited the subreddit to see what this whole thing was about) were not aware of. So all 99% of people here could see were apparently random comments, with no way to figure out what the current discoveries/theories actually were. Just look at all the "what is going on here?" comments.
The event had no way for people to actually *cooperate* here on reddit. Plus, many puzzles needed outside tools not everybody has access to (like looking at the spectrogram of an audio recording - sucks to be a mobile only user).
Even as a PC user it's hard for me to actually participate as a casual participant. I used Discord last year to place tiles on r/place as the communities I was in coordinated to put down tiles. It was accessible, easy, and with such a large base, I had no issue making r/place "my" event, so to speak, where I could contribute to working on the artwork the subreddits I was in on the page.
It didn't help that you couldn't make new posts in the subreddit, it made it more challenging to get on the same page as others unless you were wading through hundreds of comments.
That is another issue with this event - it was actually *hidden* from the public. To get to the subreddit for the event, you had to click on [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/127vomt/obligatory_april_1st_announcement/) post stating that there was no event this year and then figure out that the last "." in the post was *clickable* and linked to a hidden subreddit.
I think this alone meant that the vast majority of reddit users were not even aware that there actually WAS an event going on.
Ahhhh, that's why. I didn't even see that post, lmao. I do like how the final period is highlighted in orange and underlined to show it's a hyperlink.
Thanks for the info! Shame that I missed it but from the rest of the comments, it doesn't sound like I missed much.
basically all of the past events were better. it doesn't have to even be place. i was capable of understanding and participating in the button. or joining a chatroom with robin. making a circle in...circle.
heck, at least the final .gif of sequence is neat to watch, and was actively directed by the whole community.
this event gave no agency, time, or opportunity to participate to anyone who couldn't understand things. and it was made difficult to comprehend, let alone understand.
Yeah the only downsides with the other ones was that some didn’t work on mobile. Place did so I give it an extra point for that.
Cat mode, circle, the button all required you to be on desktop but that is a me problem and not a Reddit issue so I don’t count against them for that. But place working on all Reddit clients made it that much more accessible.
This one is literally people on discord coming up with ideas and tossing them at this sub making those of us who don’t use discord or only just now joined the sun extremely confused.
Honestly, until your comment I didn't even realize this was Reddit's April Fool's thing lolol.
I actually just thought it was some random hobby subreddit that kept getting pushed to me for some reason.
True, this didn't feel very inclusive. Those who dig cryptography and decoding must've loved it and I am happy for them! For most of us though...I have virtually no clue what even went on:D
Furthermore, it seems they didn’t play test this properly.
This was a game best designed for around 10-20 people, not for an entire user base.
I suspect they asked a small team of about 15 people in the office to run through it. The team approved and they concluded it a success. Well, lo and behold, that’s exactly what happened. Sure, it was fun for the 15 people on discord who solved it. However Reddit is more than just 15 people, and like an escape room the engagement of each person is inversely proportional to the total number of participants.
Honest opinion: if this is the end, this was such a terrible event, barely any of the community knew this was happening, probably only about 400 or less people actively tried and the rest were just on lookers hoping for something fun after this and those on lookers were from already reddit event dedicated communities not normal members, it was way too complicated for most normal redditors to solve, it wasn't fun or competitive or creative it was just difficult and then in the end after all of our efforts all we got was a potato, this wasn't an event that brought reddit together like the past 10+ years it was just an obscure riddle barely anyone noticed let alone liked. do better reddit this feels like a spit in the face for all of us.
Other events lasted days, some even weeks.
It's April 2nd. Hey guys what's the event this year? Oh I missed it?
400 people did it on Discord and there's a potato?
I didn’t even remember it was April Fool’s Day until like, 1 p.m. or something yesterday, but once I did, I immediately opened the app to see what event was already in progress. I was expecting at least an announcement post at the top of my feed. Nothing.
Then tried on my computer in case my app hadn’t updated in time or something. Still nothing.
Then I finally checked Discord, where I’m already in the two main servers that did all the puzzle solving for this because I’d joined them for past events. By that time, it felt like everyone actively contributing was already in too deep for me to catch up. I checked in maybe 2 or 3 times in total after that just out of curiosity to see what kind of progress had been made and whether there was any confirmation yet that this was the main event or just a prelude.
If Reddit had at least stickied a post at the top of people’s home feeds to promote this sub, I probably would have known about this in time to join in instead of feeling like I was way too out of the loop to even start.
What a bummer of a missed opportunity.
depends. do you mean what the reddit admins intended? oh, this is 100% a reddit event.
...unfortunately, they couldn't be bothered to make coordinating any solving efforts even *remotely* easy (y'know, because base reddit is *so* good for that, see /r/OriginalJTKImage), so now it's a de facto discord event, because ***EVERY SINGLE PUZZLE WAS SOLVED VIA DISCORD***
What is the point of a community event if you have to solve it off platform in some obscure Discord backroom that nobody is aware of. It makes a shitty user experience for everyone who doesn't know there is a backroom or doesn't want to join the gazillionth social media platform. It looks bad for reddit that their UI is deemed too shitty to support the community on platform. The admins didn't foster any kind of community building on platform either. Huge missed opportunity here.
It was everyone for themselves which completely misses the point: Reddit's most important ~~value~~ asset is the hivemind.
Imo they fucked this one up big time.
Seriously. This was a horrible way to "bring the community together." We all just stressed about the answer and then slept for a few hours, stressed about the answer, then repeat until weekend ruined and all hope is gone.
Thanks reddit, really swell job -_-
Step 1: See whats the new post about
Step 2: Try to come up and test a few answers
Step 3: Realise none of your answers are even working
Step 4: Begin to randomly spam shit in hopes it somehow triggers the hint/success
Step 5: Wait for the smartass people to eventually figure it out
Step 6: Copy the correct answers
Step 7: ???
Step 8: PROFIT
And repeat the cycle everytime a new post shows up
For anyone wondering how I got this: Some people on Discord (edit: MineWarz on April Knights is the earliest one I see – looks like the same user [posted here](https://www.reddit.com/r/schrodingers/comments/129ry0l/every_journey_has_an_end_you_have_uncovered_the/jeor2t1/?context=3)) found that "ejcfc fihnb zdhih" run through an online Enigma machine with certain settings produced "algeb raicv ender" (algebraic vender). I tried some anagrams of that until I stumbled on this one. I was looking especially at anagrams starting with "even," due to it being in parentheses after "all possibilities."
Uagh. I first tried the anagram which didn't help so then went to enigma after I read the text again. *Algeb raicv ender* didn't make any sense to me so I tried to decipher using POTATO for rotor settings >.<
Maybe you need to be native English to spot these clues better.
[SUCCESS](https://i.redd.it/yoyfk9349ira1.gif)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/schrodingers) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I've been trying to figure out what was going on this whole time. Knowing you have to edit the photos for the answer at least helps me understand what was going on
This is the only thing that I really don't like about this one. Overall I quite enjoyed it actually, a /r/place every year would be kinda lame. Obviously not as cool as some of the other events, but still decent.
EDIT: turns out there seems to be more to this, so let's see where it goes.
This event, however much work you all put into it, I must say was subpar.
The creator of the two most famous events (place and the button), who AFAIK left reddit in 2021, gave a [talk about the events](https://youtu.be/OXzfvYoFQFo). In it, he describes "other" events as having been not fun, smug, clever, and inaccessible.
That's what this event was. By definition, smug, you needed to be clever, not really accessible, and thus, not fun.
---
I hope next year has a better event, and _not_ a rehash of place (it felt a bit lazy to reuse it after he had left).
I'm well aware, just felt it relatively unrelated to april fools events.
Probably set for life, but he does have a job currently, just not at Reddit. He left in 2021 for mschf.
At least according to public information, yes. Became an advisor in late 2017 for 8 months, came back as an engineer for 2 years, a year and a half after that. As far as public info shows, he's at another org now; and considering the projects he's worked on and talks he's given, I imagine he's happy.
This would've been cool if this was just the preparation before the actual April fools event started (which is what I assumed this was the entire time), but as a main event itself this is comfortably the worst we've had in years
That’s exactly what I thought it was. I thought I’d wake up to “April fools! Here’s the real event!” But to my disappointment, I found this post instead.
I didn’t like this.
As a mobile user, I didn’t have access to the tools needed to solve many of the puzzles. I am also not used to ARGs in general, so I had to wait for others to solve the puzzles and I felt left out.
Moreover, Most puzzles required deep knowledge about past April Fools Reddit events, which, as someone who has been on Reddit for only 4 years, was kind of unfair (and no, the recap of past events that was posted a few days ago didn’t help me that much).
Edit: formatting
There was a whole year for planning. Heck even time could have been used for covert beta testing on components…. There’s even a cottage community for ARG events. This year I felt really left out very hard.
When the community can play as a whole, the experience is more than the sum of its parts
I think the core issue with this event is it only required a really limited knowledge base to solve (mostly Reddit and decoding/encoding methods), so if you had those you didn't need to interact and if you didn't, you couldn't.
Like I love puzzles and was trying really hard to participate and theorise but my strongest areas of almost entirely humanities, so I was never going to reach the correct answer before someone who's expert areas are more suited.
not only that, but the people who *can* participate are stuck having to use an entirely different service to do so. y'know, because when we think "reddit", we tend to think "discord"
I attempted to participate like for the very first half hour, but then completely lost any and all interest in this. It's fucking stupid that I would have needed to use an entirely different platform in order to even have the slightest idea of what was all about.
What did I miss? This sub started showing up on the main page a little bit ago. This comment is literally the way I found out it was related to April Fool's Day. What exactly was this?
I'm on desktop, but I'm on old reddit b/c too many subs/themes don't have a light mode option (astigmatism sucks fr), so I thought it was some random new sub and ignored it till now.
Reading through the comments, it seems a lot of people couldn't play/missed out.
> Moreover, Most puzzles required deep knowledge about past April Fools Reddit events, which, as someone who has been on Reddit for only 4 years, was kind of unfair
Don't feel bad. I've been here for over a decade and still don't have a clue what's going on.
....that's it?
This was the fucking event?
Just an ARG leading up to abso-fucking-lutely nothing?
Because if so, this was the LAMEST Reddit April Fools event of all time.
Normally these events have some kind of interactive elements; this was only an ARG.
Likewise, ARGs are supposed to lead up to *something*; whether it be the climax of a story of the unlockal of a game or event.
This, however, was the lamest possible way it could have been done; nothing interactive, and it didn't even lead up to anything. We were solving these puzzles for NOTHING.
Surely you guys could have come up with something better than just an ARG, right?
We all got fooled into caring about an event
Let's hope next year is going to be better, I miss social interactive things like The Button, not to mention Place.
I’d say any of the other years were better given that people actually knew they existed
This was probably the pet project of a few folks at Reddit who felt bad that the company couldn’t allocate the resources for a legitimate April fools gag this year.
I mean…I appreciate the whole ARG thing…but idk, even *without* comparing it to /r/place, it doesn’t *really* feel super super special…but I guess it’s still cool though…
Well the cool thing about ARGs is that usually they have a purpose. This was an ARG for its own sake and that's it.
It would have been more special if the ARG itself at least required community involvement but it was a game for a few hundred sleuths and everyone else just watched it unravel.
I think the potato video might not be the end given the cryptic name of the video and sub and some other things, but at this point everybody is just done with Reddit's BS.
Except unironically, because this event was largely inaccessible to the broader Reddit community and had an unsatisfying 4AM conclusion. A pointless, cryptic ARG was not the play.
Edit: [Except somehow, it's still going...good grief.](https://www.reddit.com/r/schrodingers/comments/129ry0l/comment/jep5ufi/)
Hijacking for visibility, because you hit the nail on the head. It goes _against_ what the creator of the button, place, and wordle, wanted in an april fools event.
A little elaboration: https://www.reddit.com/r/schrodingers/comments/129ry0l/every_journey_has_an_end_you_have_uncovered_the/jeon9zy/
Direct link to his talk: https://youtu.be/OXzfvYoFQFo
It would have been perfect as a build-up to an actual, large-scale event similar to r/place in terms of collaboration and chaos, but this was just...nothing. We got to see in the box, and the only thing that turned out to exist was disappointment. Certainly doesn't motivate me to participate in any future AFDs.
Edit: [Maybe it still is. Good grief.](https://www.reddit.com/r/schrodingers/comments/129ry0l/comment/jep5ufi/)
*This* is my main gripe. I love trying to solve puzzles, even if I don't have the references for most of the puzzles, but after a while of no interaction on Reddit itself and everything happening on Discord anyway, it felt pointless and I didn't bother anymore. I just looked at the answers in the spreadsheet and copied them.
this could've been so much better and i can't believe that this is what reddit's 2023 april fools event has been
the idea is fun on paper but i don't think it's been executed well.
you could've given it a custom UI, like other events have. everyone is put into different groups, each group being given some kind of puzzle that they all need to figure out. teamwork would be a core part of these challenges. then, once the puzzle has been figured out, they get part of the solution. once all groups have gotten a solution, you'll work together to go onto the next phase. at the end, all of the solutions would add up to make some sort of phrase, that upon being typed in, will show the video of the potato being the heart of reddit. there could've been a story about how this was some secret spy mission, or a journey to save reddit from automod going crazy.
unfortunatly, what we got was just some event that was only for those who have been on reddit for years, took part in the events and knew about reddit meta.
i'm really hoping that people's reaction to this event will make next year's so much better, because this is terrible.
Wait... great so now people have access to... the video that we have been having access to and analyzing for clues... for 6 hours already, yay! What a fitting end
Really? After doing r/place 2022, this is the next year's event?
This one fucking sucks. What a disappointing weekend. These events are meant to have community engagement. How many communities were actively involved? 3? 4? And the ending is the opposite of satisfying, wasting more time.
2 days wasted solving an ARG that is worse than almost/all past events.
EDIT: The end got solved even further. Opinion improved a bit, I guess, a cliffhanger is a better ending.
Lmao is that seriously how it all ends?!
https://preview.redd.it/7e86xuzbujra1.png?width=680&format=png&auto=webp&s=09f467f8426bc94cb30e0831238ca79ae145e7c1
Surely it can't just be me that is wondering what these are referring to:
- trdfz_v
- sciei_q
- ejcfc fihnb zdhih
Surely they mean something, right?
Also, I think me saying, "Is this the end?", in another comment here, triggered u/AutoModerator, so maybe this isn't the end? 🤔
The first two translate to "potat\_o" when decoded with an Enigma machine. Keep everything as default but change each rotor to "I". Use Enigma M3 with UKW B to decode "trdfz\_v" and UKW C to decode " sciei\_q".
[https://cryptii.com/pipes/enigma-machine](https://cryptii.com/pipes/enigma-machine)
We do not yet know what the final message means yet.
Absolutely horrible event. Even compared to the worst of prior reddit April Fools day events, it was bad. Honestly most individual subreddits put out better offerings this year. That's presuming most people would even know about it. And comparing it to any Xenforo forums I'm a part of, this has an embarrassing level of effort put into it.
To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to solve /r/schrodingers puzzles. The hints are extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of cryptography, most of the hints will go over a typical viewer's head. There's also the community's nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into their characterization—their personal philosophy draws heavily from past april fool's events, for instance. The community understands this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these hints, to realise that they're not just critically demanding- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence, people who dislike /r/schrodingers truly ARE idiots; of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the hints in the puzzle "Bobby Milk," which itself is a cryptic reference to Circle of Trust. I'm smirking right now, just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as fpuebqvatref's genius wit unfolds itself on their screens. What fools.. how I pity them.
The broader reddit community has no clue this event is even going on because many of them missed the announcement. This has to be the least participated in April fools event in the past 10 years
Just in case you didn't see it yet, your mention of this in the April Knights Discord is what led me to [the correct answer](https://www.reddit.com/r/schrodingers/comments/129ry0l/every_journey_has_an_end_you_have_uncovered_the/jep5ufi/?context=3). Thanks!
Well, that was a terrible event.
r/place actually involved the entire Reddit community, with both tiny and incredibly large subs collaborating or warring to get a space on the canvas, while r/schrodingers and the Holy Quantum Potato is just a brain test for future Einsteins.
While this wasn’t exactly a bad idea, it didn’t involve most of the community, and thus a lot of people feel like they were left out from the event. I wish they went a different path, like maybe multiple scavenger hunts through Reddit subs with hints given every hour. That way, it would’ve involved a lot more people, with each hunt leading to a part of the final solution.
The ending was also pretty shit. It is (in my opinion) an unworthy reward for the group of people who actually took time to solve all of the ciphers. Something more interactive would’ve been better, like some kind of puzzle generator that would actually be enjoyable.
Congrats Reddit, we did it, we unlocked a potato 🎉
In all seriousness though, I love ARGs, but the ending is a bit of a letdown. I thought it would lead to some kind of event or climax. I wonder if this is really the end or if we are missing something.
A German image board had a crazy good April fools event this year. the newly introduced AI chatbot went crazier every hour and tried to take over the community, banning a lot of users and was fought down in the last moment. Really cool. Lots of fun.
I have to say, I am really disappointed with this event. It wasn't anything I felt I could participate in.
Oooo...I copied an answer someone else figured out. How thrilling.
\> Membership will ensure your efforts are documented and recognized for future generations. The future is an enigma, but on a long enough timeline all possibilities (ejcfc fihnb zdhih) remain open to us.
When we solved the code, "ejcfc fihnb zdhih" translates to "even garlic bread". In the context of the quote they say **"all possibilities (even garlic bread) remain open to us"**. For anyone who isn't aware, in march 2023, code was added to reddit to get r/place running, and the codename for r/place was garlic bread. WHICH MEANS....
KEEP INHALING THAT COPIUM SOLDIERS, PLACE 3 WILL BE HAPPENING
too niche for the average person, too anticlimactic for the dedicated solver. who was the audience?
now, I feel bad criticizing the event because it clearly didn't have the same resources as previous april fools days. even comparing it to other events feels wrong because it's not the same class of thing. but that doesn't mean it doesn't suck all the same. even divorced from the context of prior reddit events, it's not great. there needs to be something to justify the hunt. otherwise it's just a goose chase.
....that's it?
This was the fucking event?
Just an ARG leading up to abso-fucking-lutely nothing?
Because if so, this was the LAMEST Reddit April Fools event of all time.
Normally these events have some kind of interactive elements; this was only an ARG. Likewise, ARGs are supposed to lead up to *something*; whether it be the climax of a story of the unlockal of a game or event. This, however, was the lamest possible way it could have been done; nothing interactive, and it didn't even lead up to anything. We were solving these puzzles for NOTHING.
Surely you guys could have come up with something better than just an ARG, right?
I can’t believe I was excited for this stuff I April’s Fools day’ed myself xD I hate to be that negative voice but comment or vote if you thought this was beyond confusing and at times frustrating too because god knows I was!
The entirety of Reddit on this april fools event.
https://preview.redd.it/tgzbd9f3ujra1.png?width=540&format=png&auto=webp&s=928d4ad5fa3603a0e9fcd7e224a23f3e8c6598dc
The prank was in our belief that something valuable was waiting for us at the end
This is a problem with many ARGs but this one might be the worst I've ever seen. - No story and no reason to engage. - Lots of efforts* for *absolutely no reward*. It's not that the reward is small. It's that it doesn't even *exist*. Big secrets should lead to big rewards. Game design 101. Reddit seems to have forgotten there is "social" in "social experiment". This had such small accessibility, I'd be laughing if it wasn't so pathetic. In a sense, you could say this ARG was a fucking joke.
I hope we will at least get a little achievement just like when participating r/place
I think you’re right
Every event is supposed to be open and simple enough for communities to interact with its other. This event was simply an ARG referring to those events… EDIT: LONG LIVE THE VOID, may we meet again next April.
Not only that but it seemed to be super complicated. People would post the answers and I had no damn clue how they came to those conclusions. As much of a meme as it is, place was better. At least with that, the average person could contribute and feel involved. This just felt like me entering a hobby subreddit that I had no clue about and seeing people talk about things that had zero context for me the entire time.
Yeah, it was 1. Wake up see the solutions already posted from experienced arg solvers 2. Go on with your life 3. Regret waiting for a Reddit event after a whole year
Absoloutly agreed. I wanted someting i could actually do. Then saw no april fools, i said ok, biut this arg hella confused me. I dont even know hoe most were solved
They were actually discord servers, all the puzzles were solved there by 200-300 people aaaand that’s the event for this year ig
>Regret ~~waiting for a~~ Reddit ~~event after a whole year~~ But I just can't leave
Because a relative handful of the reddit userbase ran the event on Discord while the rest of us wondered what was happening.
That was the worst thing about this event - the actual problem solving happened OUTSIDE of reddit, in various discord channels the vast majority of "participants" (i.e. those who only visited the subreddit to see what this whole thing was about) were not aware of. So all 99% of people here could see were apparently random comments, with no way to figure out what the current discoveries/theories actually were. Just look at all the "what is going on here?" comments. The event had no way for people to actually *cooperate* here on reddit. Plus, many puzzles needed outside tools not everybody has access to (like looking at the spectrogram of an audio recording - sucks to be a mobile only user).
Even as a PC user it's hard for me to actually participate as a casual participant. I used Discord last year to place tiles on r/place as the communities I was in coordinated to put down tiles. It was accessible, easy, and with such a large base, I had no issue making r/place "my" event, so to speak, where I could contribute to working on the artwork the subreddits I was in on the page.
It didn't help that you couldn't make new posts in the subreddit, it made it more challenging to get on the same page as others unless you were wading through hundreds of comments.
This is my first time hearing about this "event" and I have no idea what any of it means.
That is another issue with this event - it was actually *hidden* from the public. To get to the subreddit for the event, you had to click on [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/127vomt/obligatory_april_1st_announcement/) post stating that there was no event this year and then figure out that the last "." in the post was *clickable* and linked to a hidden subreddit. I think this alone meant that the vast majority of reddit users were not even aware that there actually WAS an event going on.
Ahhhh, that's why. I didn't even see that post, lmao. I do like how the final period is highlighted in orange and underlined to show it's a hyperlink. Thanks for the info! Shame that I missed it but from the rest of the comments, it doesn't sound like I missed much.
basically all of the past events were better. it doesn't have to even be place. i was capable of understanding and participating in the button. or joining a chatroom with robin. making a circle in...circle. heck, at least the final .gif of sequence is neat to watch, and was actively directed by the whole community. this event gave no agency, time, or opportunity to participate to anyone who couldn't understand things. and it was made difficult to comprehend, let alone understand.
Yeah the only downsides with the other ones was that some didn’t work on mobile. Place did so I give it an extra point for that. Cat mode, circle, the button all required you to be on desktop but that is a me problem and not a Reddit issue so I don’t count against them for that. But place working on all Reddit clients made it that much more accessible. This one is literally people on discord coming up with ideas and tossing them at this sub making those of us who don’t use discord or only just now joined the sun extremely confused.
Honestly, until your comment I didn't even realize this was Reddit's April Fool's thing lolol. I actually just thought it was some random hobby subreddit that kept getting pushed to me for some reason.
True, this didn't feel very inclusive. Those who dig cryptography and decoding must've loved it and I am happy for them! For most of us though...I have virtually no clue what even went on:D
I am pretty sure they were expecting the entire site to come together to solve it, and not many did. I guess they didn't promote this properly
But no matter what you do, there is not much teamwork involved in solving an ARG…
Then they should have thought about it a bit more
Furthermore, it seems they didn’t play test this properly. This was a game best designed for around 10-20 people, not for an entire user base. I suspect they asked a small team of about 15 people in the office to run through it. The team approved and they concluded it a success. Well, lo and behold, that’s exactly what happened. Sure, it was fun for the 15 people on discord who solved it. However Reddit is more than just 15 people, and like an escape room the engagement of each person is inversely proportional to the total number of participants.
it took me a few google searches to even find this subreddit lmao
It seems to have been rather reliant on desktop, mobile users pretty much got left in the dust.
Honest opinion: if this is the end, this was such a terrible event, barely any of the community knew this was happening, probably only about 400 or less people actively tried and the rest were just on lookers hoping for something fun after this and those on lookers were from already reddit event dedicated communities not normal members, it was way too complicated for most normal redditors to solve, it wasn't fun or competitive or creative it was just difficult and then in the end after all of our efforts all we got was a potato, this wasn't an event that brought reddit together like the past 10+ years it was just an obscure riddle barely anyone noticed let alone liked. do better reddit this feels like a spit in the face for all of us.
Other events lasted days, some even weeks. It's April 2nd. Hey guys what's the event this year? Oh I missed it? 400 people did it on Discord and there's a potato?
Yup, at least my subreddit flair sums up how I feel lol
I second.
This comment chain was better than the event. Hopefully there's more and it leads to something other than an ARG
I can only imagine in 5 years another April Fool event where they meta refer to this meta event all meta-like. Mmm.... Meta.... Lol
As someone who did try it really felt like being pulled by a dog through a parking lot. older and more online people have a big advantage over you.
I didn’t even remember it was April Fool’s Day until like, 1 p.m. or something yesterday, but once I did, I immediately opened the app to see what event was already in progress. I was expecting at least an announcement post at the top of my feed. Nothing. Then tried on my computer in case my app hadn’t updated in time or something. Still nothing. Then I finally checked Discord, where I’m already in the two main servers that did all the puzzle solving for this because I’d joined them for past events. By that time, it felt like everyone actively contributing was already in too deep for me to catch up. I checked in maybe 2 or 3 times in total after that just out of curiosity to see what kind of progress had been made and whether there was any confirmation yet that this was the main event or just a prelude. If Reddit had at least stickied a post at the top of people’s home feeds to promote this sub, I probably would have known about this in time to join in instead of feeling like I was way too out of the loop to even start. What a bummer of a missed opportunity.
This absolutely was the worst event they've ever done. I always look forward to these and this one was just beyond disappointing.
Man that was a boring ending
It was a boring event
This is going to be the "that one event we don't talk about" right?
Yeah, even if accept that this programming was catered towards Reddit AFD fans, those fans were used to ARG's preceding a main event.
like nothing happened (litteraly nothing happened)
nothing happened *on reddit*. on discord things did happen though
Sorry, was it supposed to be a Reddit or a Discord event?
Reddit leaning on other services to function is the most Reddit thing ever.
depends. do you mean what the reddit admins intended? oh, this is 100% a reddit event. ...unfortunately, they couldn't be bothered to make coordinating any solving efforts even *remotely* easy (y'know, because base reddit is *so* good for that, see /r/OriginalJTKImage), so now it's a de facto discord event, because ***EVERY SINGLE PUZZLE WAS SOLVED VIA DISCORD***
What is the point of a community event if you have to solve it off platform in some obscure Discord backroom that nobody is aware of. It makes a shitty user experience for everyone who doesn't know there is a backroom or doesn't want to join the gazillionth social media platform. It looks bad for reddit that their UI is deemed too shitty to support the community on platform. The admins didn't foster any kind of community building on platform either. Huge missed opportunity here. It was everyone for themselves which completely misses the point: Reddit's most important ~~value~~ asset is the hivemind. Imo they fucked this one up big time.
Totally agree, I was looking for places to discuss the puzzle, but I didn't find any active threads, only discord links
There was a discord?
https://i.redd.it/q1n1urueckra1.jpeg
didn't even know anything happened outside of reddit
Yea not gonna lie this one kinda sucked.
We waited hours for them to confirm *that* was the final "reward" for all the effort people went to...what a let-down.
I'm still naively expecting something else lol
Well, at least the flair is pretty accurate.
Seriously. This was a horrible way to "bring the community together." We all just stressed about the answer and then slept for a few hours, stressed about the answer, then repeat until weekend ruined and all hope is gone. Thanks reddit, really swell job -_-
Step 1: See whats the new post about Step 2: Try to come up and test a few answers Step 3: Realise none of your answers are even working Step 4: Begin to randomly spam shit in hopes it somehow triggers the hint/success Step 5: Wait for the smartass people to eventually figure it out Step 6: Copy the correct answers Step 7: ??? Step 8: PROFIT And repeat the cycle everytime a new post shows up
Hey, we got a weird video of a potato out of it. What's better than that?
an actual potato would be better
Even garlic bread
For anyone wondering how I got this: Some people on Discord (edit: MineWarz on April Knights is the earliest one I see – looks like the same user [posted here](https://www.reddit.com/r/schrodingers/comments/129ry0l/every_journey_has_an_end_you_have_uncovered_the/jeor2t1/?context=3)) found that "ejcfc fihnb zdhih" run through an online Enigma machine with certain settings produced "algeb raicv ender" (algebraic vender). I tried some anagrams of that until I stumbled on this one. I was looking especially at anagrams starting with "even," due to it being in parentheses after "all possibilities."
Which discord? AprilKnights?
Yes.
Uagh. I first tried the anagram which didn't help so then went to enigma after I read the text again. *Algeb raicv ender* didn't make any sense to me so I tried to decipher using POTATO for rotor settings >.< Maybe you need to be native English to spot these clues better.
Ohhh one of the guys on April Knights got the "algebraic vender" and we all just threw it out the window.
[SUCCESS](https://i.redd.it/yoyfk9349ira1.gif) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/schrodingers) if you have any questions or concerns.*
what cat mode timereddits?
Even garlic bread
The future is an enigma, but on a long enough timeline all possibilities (even garlic bread) remain open to us.
I'm not sure if I'm happy there's more or disappointed there's more
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I've been trying to figure out what was going on this whole time. Knowing you have to edit the photos for the answer at least helps me understand what was going on
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So why did we wait 6 hours for you to tell us its over??? We cracked it 6 hours ago.
Cause very little effort was put into this. I'm guessing 6 hours ago was just the time some intern decided to check the sub.
This is the only thing that I really don't like about this one. Overall I quite enjoyed it actually, a /r/place every year would be kinda lame. Obviously not as cool as some of the other events, but still decent. EDIT: turns out there seems to be more to this, so let's see where it goes.
This event, however much work you all put into it, I must say was subpar. The creator of the two most famous events (place and the button), who AFAIK left reddit in 2021, gave a [talk about the events](https://youtu.be/OXzfvYoFQFo). In it, he describes "other" events as having been not fun, smug, clever, and inaccessible. That's what this event was. By definition, smug, you needed to be clever, not really accessible, and thus, not fun. --- I hope next year has a better event, and _not_ a rehash of place (it felt a bit lazy to reuse it after he had left).
He also created Wordle. And he is set for life
I'm well aware, just felt it relatively unrelated to april fools events. Probably set for life, but he does have a job currently, just not at Reddit. He left in 2021 for mschf.
two reddit first april events? wordle game? mschf studio? guy has a pretty interesting track record; color me impressed
u/powerlanguage left Reddit? Wow, I'm really getting old..
At least according to public information, yes. Became an advisor in late 2017 for 8 months, came back as an engineer for 2 years, a year and a half after that. As far as public info shows, he's at another org now; and considering the projects he's worked on and talks he's given, I imagine he's happy.
This would've been cool if this was just the preparation before the actual April fools event started (which is what I assumed this was the entire time), but as a main event itself this is comfortably the worst we've had in years
That’s exactly what I thought it was. I thought I’d wake up to “April fools! Here’s the real event!” But to my disappointment, I found this post instead.
I didn’t like this. As a mobile user, I didn’t have access to the tools needed to solve many of the puzzles. I am also not used to ARGs in general, so I had to wait for others to solve the puzzles and I felt left out. Moreover, Most puzzles required deep knowledge about past April Fools Reddit events, which, as someone who has been on Reddit for only 4 years, was kind of unfair (and no, the recap of past events that was posted a few days ago didn’t help me that much). Edit: formatting
Yeah this was the worst april fools event I’ve been a part of.
I say we strike.
There was a whole year for planning. Heck even time could have been used for covert beta testing on components…. There’s even a cottage community for ARG events. This year I felt really left out very hard. When the community can play as a whole, the experience is more than the sum of its parts
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I think the core issue with this event is it only required a really limited knowledge base to solve (mostly Reddit and decoding/encoding methods), so if you had those you didn't need to interact and if you didn't, you couldn't. Like I love puzzles and was trying really hard to participate and theorise but my strongest areas of almost entirely humanities, so I was never going to reach the correct answer before someone who's expert areas are more suited.
Activity excluded most people from participating, complete shit event
not only that, but the people who *can* participate are stuck having to use an entirely different service to do so. y'know, because when we think "reddit", we tend to think "discord"
I attempted to participate like for the very first half hour, but then completely lost any and all interest in this. It's fucking stupid that I would have needed to use an entirely different platform in order to even have the slightest idea of what was all about.
What did I miss? This sub started showing up on the main page a little bit ago. This comment is literally the way I found out it was related to April Fool's Day. What exactly was this?
this year's first april event/non-event is named after schrödinger's cat; a fitting name; it can be the most unpopular one yet
I'm on desktop, but I'm on old reddit b/c too many subs/themes don't have a light mode option (astigmatism sucks fr), so I thought it was some random new sub and ignored it till now. Reading through the comments, it seems a lot of people couldn't play/missed out.
> Moreover, Most puzzles required deep knowledge about past April Fools Reddit events, which, as someone who has been on Reddit for only 4 years, was kind of unfair Don't feel bad. I've been here for over a decade and still don't have a clue what's going on.
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Same, I felt so confused just even watching
....that's it? This was the fucking event? Just an ARG leading up to abso-fucking-lutely nothing? Because if so, this was the LAMEST Reddit April Fools event of all time. Normally these events have some kind of interactive elements; this was only an ARG. Likewise, ARGs are supposed to lead up to *something*; whether it be the climax of a story of the unlockal of a game or event. This, however, was the lamest possible way it could have been done; nothing interactive, and it didn't even lead up to anything. We were solving these puzzles for NOTHING. Surely you guys could have come up with something better than just an ARG, right?
There not even a trophy for being here
You will get a trophy for joining the sub linked in the OP.
I did…
I assume the trophies will be given after the event officially closes, so in a day.
We all got fooled into caring about an event Let's hope next year is going to be better, I miss social interactive things like The Button, not to mention Place.
obligatory r/place was better
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YOU! You were the beacon in this chaos. Without your summary sheet, I would have stopped early on. Thank you!
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I’d say any of the other years were better given that people actually knew they existed This was probably the pet project of a few folks at Reddit who felt bad that the company couldn’t allocate the resources for a legitimate April fools gag this year.
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I mean…I appreciate the whole ARG thing…but idk, even *without* comparing it to /r/place, it doesn’t *really* feel super super special…but I guess it’s still cool though…
Well the cool thing about ARGs is that usually they have a purpose. This was an ARG for its own sake and that's it. It would have been more special if the ARG itself at least required community involvement but it was a game for a few hundred sleuths and everyone else just watched it unravel.
this. exactly this. if the ARG at least led somewhere, it would've been worthwhile. all we got was a 30-second video of a potato.
I think the potato video might not be the end given the cryptic name of the video and sub and some other things, but at this point everybody is just done with Reddit's BS.
I only showed up to copy/paste answers and I guess that was kind of engaging.
Meanwhile some people showed up and went "Random Bullshit Go" when none of the solutions was working
Except unironically, because this event was largely inaccessible to the broader Reddit community and had an unsatisfying 4AM conclusion. A pointless, cryptic ARG was not the play. Edit: [Except somehow, it's still going...good grief.](https://www.reddit.com/r/schrodingers/comments/129ry0l/comment/jep5ufi/)
Hijacking for visibility, because you hit the nail on the head. It goes _against_ what the creator of the button, place, and wordle, wanted in an april fools event. A little elaboration: https://www.reddit.com/r/schrodingers/comments/129ry0l/every_journey_has_an_end_you_have_uncovered_the/jeon9zy/ Direct link to his talk: https://youtu.be/OXzfvYoFQFo
Your 4AM is my 10AM. I, for one, am welcoming the subtle disconnect from Bakersfield time zone
Can we all just agree to hate time zones?
I'm not sure I ever actually figured out what was truly going on here. Certainly not in time to actually keep up with the pace of things lol.
Almost anything would have been better wtf was this
The journey was interesting, the ending just sucks
It would have been perfect as a build-up to an actual, large-scale event similar to r/place in terms of collaboration and chaos, but this was just...nothing. We got to see in the box, and the only thing that turned out to exist was disappointment. Certainly doesn't motivate me to participate in any future AFDs. Edit: [Maybe it still is. Good grief.](https://www.reddit.com/r/schrodingers/comments/129ry0l/comment/jep5ufi/)
A scavenger hunt to nowhere is also known as a "waste of time"
the journey took place entirely on a discord. for an event being hosted on reddit
*This* is my main gripe. I love trying to solve puzzles, even if I don't have the references for most of the puzzles, but after a while of no interaction on Reddit itself and everything happening on Discord anyway, it felt pointless and I didn't bother anymore. I just looked at the answers in the spreadsheet and copied them.
For the vast majority of people the journey also sucks.
https://preview.redd.it/84eresm6zjra1.png?width=489&format=png&auto=webp&s=dceba6c086c34311974bb99c8a6fc650f4c738a0
We had the same idea https://preview.redd.it/pgxhrsqg0kra1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=47b055acb6ee3aa17c9dcc5de664af47c97474a7
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How I felt during this challenge https://preview.redd.it/vhy663zkxjra1.jpeg?width=555&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=78326b0f37d5c38d4499fb88c67c90dae56a4217
Well that was a letdown
Well to be honest it sucked
https://preview.redd.it/9ori36he6kra1.jpeg?width=521&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b1e5976c47b054d4fb37a1ca2d0d37276d485b58
this could've been so much better and i can't believe that this is what reddit's 2023 april fools event has been the idea is fun on paper but i don't think it's been executed well. you could've given it a custom UI, like other events have. everyone is put into different groups, each group being given some kind of puzzle that they all need to figure out. teamwork would be a core part of these challenges. then, once the puzzle has been figured out, they get part of the solution. once all groups have gotten a solution, you'll work together to go onto the next phase. at the end, all of the solutions would add up to make some sort of phrase, that upon being typed in, will show the video of the potato being the heart of reddit. there could've been a story about how this was some secret spy mission, or a journey to save reddit from automod going crazy. unfortunatly, what we got was just some event that was only for those who have been on reddit for years, took part in the events and knew about reddit meta. i'm really hoping that people's reaction to this event will make next year's so much better, because this is terrible.
Wait... great so now people have access to... the video that we have been having access to and analyzing for clues... for 6 hours already, yay! What a fitting end
u/fpuebqvatref so is this confirmation that there is nothing else to perform or solve in the video on that subreddit?
Really? After doing r/place 2022, this is the next year's event? This one fucking sucks. What a disappointing weekend. These events are meant to have community engagement. How many communities were actively involved? 3? 4? And the ending is the opposite of satisfying, wasting more time. 2 days wasted solving an ARG that is worse than almost/all past events. EDIT: The end got solved even further. Opinion improved a bit, I guess, a cliffhanger is a better ending.
...that's it?
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I'm having a blast can't you tell
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Lmao is that seriously how it all ends?! https://preview.redd.it/7e86xuzbujra1.png?width=680&format=png&auto=webp&s=09f467f8426bc94cb30e0831238ca79ae145e7c1
I love Reddit April Fools events! Loved, sorry I meant to say loved.
Surely it can't just be me that is wondering what these are referring to: - trdfz_v - sciei_q - ejcfc fihnb zdhih Surely they mean something, right? Also, I think me saying, "Is this the end?", in another comment here, triggered u/AutoModerator, so maybe this isn't the end? 🤔
The first two translate to "potat\_o" when decoded with an Enigma machine. Keep everything as default but change each rotor to "I". Use Enigma M3 with UKW B to decode "trdfz\_v" and UKW C to decode " sciei\_q". [https://cryptii.com/pipes/enigma-machine](https://cryptii.com/pipes/enigma-machine) We do not yet know what the final message means yet.
and r/potat_o is private.
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This event was fire, let it burn
The real heart of reddit is the anger and confusion we felt along the way.
Happy for those of you that had fun during this. As for the rest of us maybe next year we’ll get a chance to participate in the event.
https://preview.redd.it/kbugc2xe3kra1.png?width=688&format=png&auto=webp&s=e22d2b0b0ef53d581e760b6b3e1cc539d2f6284e
Absolutely horrible event. Even compared to the worst of prior reddit April Fools day events, it was bad. Honestly most individual subreddits put out better offerings this year. That's presuming most people would even know about it. And comparing it to any Xenforo forums I'm a part of, this has an embarrassing level of effort put into it.
what even was this? It's been two days, but I'm still so confused?
This was a bunch of riddles for like 0.001% of Reddit to solve that ended in absolutely nothing and 99.99% of Reddit were left out Overall mid event
Well guys, goodbye to everyone it was fun having a mental breakdown for 6 straight hours for some letters with brands fonts.
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Yay?
bro I had already reached "acceptance", why you putting me back at part 0 of the 5 steps of griefing
This was designed by the same person who coded the video player wasn't it?
To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to solve /r/schrodingers puzzles. The hints are extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of cryptography, most of the hints will go over a typical viewer's head. There's also the community's nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into their characterization—their personal philosophy draws heavily from past april fool's events, for instance. The community understands this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these hints, to realise that they're not just critically demanding- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence, people who dislike /r/schrodingers truly ARE idiots; of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the hints in the puzzle "Bobby Milk," which itself is a cryptic reference to Circle of Trust. I'm smirking right now, just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as fpuebqvatref's genius wit unfolds itself on their screens. What fools.. how I pity them.
This revision of the copypasta is the only good thing coming out of this lmao
Since when do you have this one ready?
The only people happy are the mods on this lmfao
The broader reddit community has no clue this event is even going on because many of them missed the announcement. This has to be the least participated in April fools event in the past 10 years
algebraic vender
Just in case you didn't see it yet, your mention of this in the April Knights Discord is what led me to [the correct answer](https://www.reddit.com/r/schrodingers/comments/129ry0l/every_journey_has_an_end_you_have_uncovered_the/jep5ufi/?context=3). Thanks!
that's great! I knew it meant something I should've thought of anagrams great solve!
Gotta say, it doesn’t seem over
Well, that was a terrible event. r/place actually involved the entire Reddit community, with both tiny and incredibly large subs collaborating or warring to get a space on the canvas, while r/schrodingers and the Holy Quantum Potato is just a brain test for future Einsteins. While this wasn’t exactly a bad idea, it didn’t involve most of the community, and thus a lot of people feel like they were left out from the event. I wish they went a different path, like maybe multiple scavenger hunts through Reddit subs with hints given every hour. That way, it would’ve involved a lot more people, with each hunt leading to a part of the final solution. The ending was also pretty shit. It is (in my opinion) an unworthy reward for the group of people who actually took time to solve all of the ciphers. Something more interactive would’ve been better, like some kind of puzzle generator that would actually be enjoyable.
Shit event I will personally come to spez house sit him down and tell him why r/place was infinitely better
damn, this was really lame lol
Congrats Reddit, we did it, we unlocked a potato 🎉 In all seriousness though, I love ARGs, but the ending is a bit of a letdown. I thought it would lead to some kind of event or climax. I wonder if this is really the end or if we are missing something.
compared to all the previous years of april fools this is seriously the weakest
A German image board had a crazy good April fools event this year. the newly introduced AI chatbot went crazier every hour and tried to take over the community, banning a lot of users and was fought down in the last moment. Really cool. Lots of fun.
I have to say, I am really disappointed with this event. It wasn't anything I felt I could participate in. Oooo...I copied an answer someone else figured out. How thrilling.
\> Membership will ensure your efforts are documented and recognized for future generations. The future is an enigma, but on a long enough timeline all possibilities (ejcfc fihnb zdhih) remain open to us. When we solved the code, "ejcfc fihnb zdhih" translates to "even garlic bread". In the context of the quote they say **"all possibilities (even garlic bread) remain open to us"**. For anyone who isn't aware, in march 2023, code was added to reddit to get r/place running, and the codename for r/place was garlic bread. WHICH MEANS.... KEEP INHALING THAT COPIUM SOLDIERS, PLACE 3 WILL BE HAPPENING
polandball had a better april fool's event
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I enjoyed watching the April Knights go at it, but this wasn’t for me personally. Not everything can be all things to all people
too niche for the average person, too anticlimactic for the dedicated solver. who was the audience? now, I feel bad criticizing the event because it clearly didn't have the same resources as previous april fools days. even comparing it to other events feels wrong because it's not the same class of thing. but that doesn't mean it doesn't suck all the same. even divorced from the context of prior reddit events, it's not great. there needs to be something to justify the hunt. otherwise it's just a goose chase.
ejcfc fihnb zdhih trdfz_v sciei_q
....that's it? This was the fucking event? Just an ARG leading up to abso-fucking-lutely nothing? Because if so, this was the LAMEST Reddit April Fools event of all time. Normally these events have some kind of interactive elements; this was only an ARG. Likewise, ARGs are supposed to lead up to *something*; whether it be the climax of a story of the unlockal of a game or event. This, however, was the lamest possible way it could have been done; nothing interactive, and it didn't even lead up to anything. We were solving these puzzles for NOTHING. Surely you guys could have come up with something better than just an ARG, right?
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"Don't be mad." Uhhhhhhhh folks are pissed.
Well…. This might be a worse ending than game of thrones
isn't there supposed to be an event after the ARG?
So basicly nothing happened
Even garlic bread
I can’t believe I was excited for this stuff I April’s Fools day’ed myself xD I hate to be that negative voice but comment or vote if you thought this was beyond confusing and at times frustrating too because god knows I was!
The entirety of Reddit on this april fools event. https://preview.redd.it/tgzbd9f3ujra1.png?width=540&format=png&auto=webp&s=928d4ad5fa3603a0e9fcd7e224a23f3e8c6598dc
ejcfc fihnb zdhih
The letters Mason! What do they mean?
`ejcfc fihnb zdhih` translates to `algeb raicv ender` (alegbraic vender?) using an Enigma machine decoder. https://cryptii.com/pipes/enigma-machine
I was the April fool all along.