Happy April Fool’s Day!
posted by Jon Cruz on April 1st, 2009
NEW YORK, N.Y. — Happy April Fool’s Day from Victory Briefs Daily!
Many thanks to Chris Blay for his assistance in making my little prank work as planned. And many thanks to the literally hundreds of readers who contacted me throughout the day to express their enjoyment — or confusion!
Interested in reading about the history of LDDebate.org? Here’s an interview I conducted with founder Mike West just over five years ago. (Check for the Mark Webber comment!)
Also, check out the celebration of Gary “bigjohnson” Johnson’s eight thousandth LDDebate.org post in May of 2005.
Popularity: 3% [?]
test
Posted from: 128.220.57.137
April 1st, 2009 00:49
this is excellent.
Posted from: 24.27.38.35
April 1st, 2009 00:50
Superb, even though this was pretty much before my time.
Posted from: 72.80.227.74
April 1st, 2009 00:50
Fantastic
Posted from: 69.120.236.168
April 1st, 2009 00:54
Well played
Posted from: 71.9.100.171
April 1st, 2009 00:56
THIS IS AMAZING. AMAZING.
Westman was the absolute best. It was such a good way to network and meet people and form a sense of community.
These young whipper-snappers born in the 90′s have no idea what the good old days were like!
I LOVE THIS.
Posted from: 76.31.244.169
April 1st, 2009 01:00
Truly a work of art Jon. But please never actually bring back the .org. I think it’s best we let Debater1984, Dagii,BigJohnson and Dubyhata just remain part of debate trivia.
Posted from: 70.116.19.103
April 1st, 2009 01:01
it is hard to describe how happy this joke made me–yet sad that it is still just a prank, and that the archives don’t exist any longer. debate was so different back then. amazing.
Posted from: 72.177.194.67
April 1st, 2009 01:06
yeah, i pretty much echo what john feels
i remember watching the fireworks in some pretty epic threads.
its also pretty funny to laugh at things like “LD theory” being relegated to flex negs (i din’t think anybody born after 1989 knows what they are, i certainly didn’t remember until now) and the burden of proof (though that debate still occurs today, but dramatically more advanced
good work jon, you’ve made a ton of people really happy today lol
Posted from: 70.112.226.2
April 1st, 2009 01:11
I don’t get it. I was mostly just excited to see the old format.
Posted from: 98.145.119.168
April 1st, 2009 01:23
Ah, what a bittersweet thing!
Posted from: 128.36.155.167
April 1st, 2009 01:25
i miss westman.
Posted from: 141.161.124.49
April 1st, 2009 01:25
BigJohnson will return. I still believe.
Posted from: 128.12.119.57
April 1st, 2009 01:31
haha, this brings back a lot of memories. it really is too bad the archives don’t exist anymore; there was a lot of LD history and mythology documented on those boards.
Posted from: 97.65.61.9
April 1st, 2009 01:32
i laughed
Posted from: 63.237.57.179
April 1st, 2009 01:38
Thank you so much for this. I loved those forums, and wish our community had something similar now. Looking back, I wonder how much different debate would be if not for the opportunity to get together and discuss issues facing our community in that way. On a more personal level, I know that the people I met and the opportunities that came my way thru participation on that board were literally life-changing.
Posted from: 24.219.187.36
April 1st, 2009 02:48
Yeah, I got sent this link too.
Lots of memories…
Posted from: 151.200.161.79
April 1st, 2009 03:07
Now there’s a blast from the past – well done sir.
Posted from: 213.61.179.63
April 1st, 2009 04:46
You made me smile this morning, Jon. Very nicely done indeed. :)
Posted from: 64.75.117.1
April 1st, 2009 08:25
got me!
Posted from: 67.159.44.138
April 1st, 2009 09:43
This reminded me how much I miss having a forum. Join the Circuit Debater message board, which is located at:
http://www.circuitdebater.forumotion.com
If we get 30 members and people are posting, I will move it to its own domain address for easier access.
Kudos to VBD on this joke. It was pretty awesome.
Posted from: 99.28.96.30
April 1st, 2009 10:38
Man, haven’t seen the ol’ CDavis BTW name in a while. Well done, VictoryBriefs.
Posted from: 70.211.151.169
April 1st, 2009 11:12
I can’t believe I got pranked on my own website. I just texted Bietz saying WHAT HAPPENED TO VBD? Well played Jon.
Posted from: 71.195.59.62
April 1st, 2009 11:38
I remember excitedly waiting for westman to load on my dial-up modem when participating in some (I’m sure now antiquated) discussion. Always worth the wait… : ) Excellent throw-back for the debate trivia king. Well done, Jon.
Posted from: 75.57.225.165
April 1st, 2009 12:04
My two years debating overlapped the tragic decline of Westman, but I credit it more than anything else for getting me interested in debate and motivating me to dabble in the circuit my senior year. The Mountain forum was actually making a difference in the quality of Colorado debate and, with no real oral tradition in CO like in the circuit, it was pretty much the only link to history for my entire state. Cool to see it back, even if unfortunately fleetingly.
Posted from: 208.220.136.66
April 1st, 2009 13:14
I don’t understand why we don’t have something like this now. It would be really helpful…
Posted from: 70.138.99.19
April 1st, 2009 13:39
in high school, i learned pretty much all i knew about debate from reading those threads. a forum is a valuable resource for people who don’t go to camp or have teams or coaches.
Posted from: 207.118.196.193
April 1st, 2009 14:45
Of course, there’s always http://www.forensicsonline.net/, the social network for all forensic events, where you can blog, post tournament invitations, create a team space/group and of course, participate in discussion forums! We’d love to see more activity in the Lincoln-Douglas forum.
Posted from: 69.149.24.221
April 1st, 2009 18:12
Jon and Bietz, thanks for the nostalgic moment. For those of who are old as shit, the boards bring back (at least some) very fond memories of discussing debate and making friends across states and circuits. All that to say, it was cool to see the boards resurrected, even if it was only for a joke.
Now, there are a few quick burns that need to be made before I can return to writing my paper:
a) I’m not sure what Duby’s talking about: Debater1984 has never been some mere artifact of a time long ago, discussed only in debate trivia games. I’ve been tracking the monster for a while and as far as I can tell, it continued its assault on decency, intelligence, and non-sports jersey based wardrobes way beyond the death of westman.
b) I’m not sure how gary can attribute his debate knowledge in high school to the boards. If you tally up the (embarrassingly) awesome number of posts he made over those years, attribute a reasonable estimate for how much time each one took, you’d realize that gary johnson would not have been left with time to sleep and shit, let alone read the posts that others made. All of this did and continues to fuel my firm belief that gary johnson is really some made up character. I think it’s some ongoing prank that the entire houston circuit is playing on the rest of us. There’s got to be a gary-suit that they all take turns dressing up in somewhere in paul tyger’s closet. It’s the only way to accurately explain the legend of bigjohnson.
c) Bryce: of course you don’t get it . . . can someone please get Katie or Justin Joseph to break it down for him? Don’t worry about it, buddy. I’ll explain it in simple words to you the next time we meet up for beers.
Posted from: 71.247.171.210
April 1st, 2009 19:19
Incredible. Some of those screen names really made me laugh
Posted from: 129.7.111.207
April 1st, 2009 20:15
THE NEWEST TEX POST
Posted from: 12.216.167.34
April 1st, 2009 20:16
Am I the only one who caught the THX 1138 reference? (Check the number of “users online.”)
Jon, you are a super-mega-nerd. (And this of course means that so am I.)
Posted from: 207.237.2.69
April 1st, 2009 22:10
Actually, as a student of the Cruz, I caught the 1138 as well.
Posted from: 98.14.255.196
April 1st, 2009 22:56
I’m glad everyone enjoyed my little prank today! As I noted in the article above, many thanks to Chris Blay for helping me implement it.
This is a nice opportunity to remember and celebrate Mike West’s tremendous contribution to the Lincoln-Douglas debate community. I remember LDDebate.org before it was even at its proper domain. Like Gary, so much of what I knew about debate — I debated for a small team that competed locally on Long Island — came from resources online like Westman (the really old, black-colored bulletin board!) and TogaLD and Leslie’s Debate Page and whatnot. And like Gary, I was always excited to hit post-count milestones, though I never got close to the 8,000 enlightening messages that the King wrote.
Seeing Mike post here on VBD was pretty exciting, as were the cameo appearances from some of Westman’s legendary personalities.
If the world needed any more proof, comments 31 and 32 should do the trick: Max Weinreich and Dave McGinnis are true nerds. :o)
Again, happy April Fool’s Day!
Posted from: 75.36.147.211
April 1st, 2009 22:57
Did anyone save the archives? I know it got hacked or something, but I had the second highest post count and wanted to see the genius that was SMumps.
Posted from: 67.150.58.60
April 1st, 2009 23:01
Oh God Jon… I think I just literally experienced a heart arrhythmia. I feel like a dinosaur because I “get” every one of the jokes… but I also feel honored to be included in the tribute!
The really sad thing, of course, is that I remember the format of the boards BEFORE the iteration you resurrected. In fact, I remember back in spring of ’01 when the only people I knew on the boards were you (Jon), Matt Scarola, Charles Nerko, and maybe one or two ’01 and’02 Chaminade debaters. Talk about my “bad old days”…
I could put in a few sentences here about how the boards changed my life, but the bottom line is that they represent, in a way, the essence of my youthful stupidity. I’m sure that’s true for others, too.. which is what makes it a most excellent prank!
Posted from: 67.150.58.60
April 1st, 2009 23:08
PS, Concerned Judge says it’s cute, clever, and “a blast from the past” which he is honored to be a part of. And he adds, “don’t worry, I won’t be posting anything tonight.” ;-)
Posted from: 98.185.218.66
April 6th, 2009 20:07
Do ya’ll remember that fool Poisonicnuke. That fool was whack. Most decadent weapon, because a nuclear bomb isn’t enough. It also needs to give survivors a nice dose bubonic plague and salt the earth.