User:Gfdgsgxgzgdrc/April Fools

From Homestar Runner Wiki

Continuing the legacy of April Fools' Jokes and Other Baleeted Nonsense...

Year	User Page	Signature	Talk Page
2012	Changed my user page so that the text was backwards, all image descriptions read "The Homsar", and every quote was a Homsar, Senor Cardgage, or Drive-Thru Whale quote.	Changed my signature to "some guy" written upside down, and other weird stuff.
2015	Changed my user page to celebrate various holidays, except April Fools' Day.
2016	Changed my user page to look like I was a new user.	Changed my signature to the entirety of the Mr. Shmallow toon page. Upon being reverted, changed it to a randomly chosen Homestar Runner quote, linking to a random page.	Added fake messages to my talk pages, leading up to a fake ban and deletion of my user page.
2017	Changed my user page to look glitchy, with a random username in the page title.	Changed my signature to be super huge and glitchy, linking to a random user page.	Changed my talk page to a mildly edited version of last year's prank.
2018	Changed my user page to look like Strong Bad hacked it.	Extended my signature.	Compressed all the messages on my talk page so that each message was only a few words.
2019	Changed my user page to look like an early website, borrowing elements of Strong Bad's and Homestar's websites.	Changed my signature to randomly choose from other users' signatures (with my username, linking to the original user) or my own signature (with other usernames, linking to my own page).	Couldn't think of anything for my talk page.
2020	Turned my user page into an entire functioning text adventure based around the Homestar Runner Wiki. More details below.
2021	Turned my user page into a sequel to the previous year's text adventure. More details below.
2022	Pretended to turn my user page into a third installment of the text adventure series, but instead instantly directing the player to an "APRIL FOOLS!" end screen.
2023	Acknowledged the lack of a userpage prank, secretly linking to a series of cryptic clues across various URLs that might lead to it, ending with the prank being the lack of a prank. More details below.	Changed to "There is no prank here.", referencing the edit to my userpage.
2024	Changed my userpage to an excessively detailed wiki article commemorating the prank itself.

[edit] 2020 (Thy Wikiuser)

Walkthrough (spoilers ahead)

Check the recent changes and you will be informed of a suspicious edit to the Robots article.
View the edit, then look at the page history and select a revision; you'll find that the edit somehow persists across the article's entire history.
At this point, you can do nothing but explore the rest of the wiki, only to find that it has been taken over by Homeschool Winner. In the recent changes, you'll find another suspicious series of edits to the Pie Factory article; check it out.
The article seems to be speaking to you. Edit the page to talk back. Keep asking questions; you'll find that every wiki user except for you is trapped within this article's code. Eventually, you'll be able to be ask about going back in time and stopping Homeschool, then agree to the plan.
You've now gone back in time via the WayBack Machine. Return to the Robots article and edit it; you will blank the page, cutting off Homeschool's access to all robots.
Of course, Homeschool won't make it that easy. He traps you in the wiki and fights you; you'll have to grab his laptop to prevent him from deleting you off the internet.
Homeschool then turns all of the robots against you. All you can do to escape their wrath is run to the "Main Menu" section of the Main Page, out of the robots' reach.
Access the Characters page, where you'll gather an army to fight against Homeschool's bots. But where's Trogdor?
Ask Rather Dashing; he'll recommend finding someone with powerful influence over the Burninator. After getting The Cheat to yank The Robot's plug... who else could help but Stonklar?
Stonklar will request an energy drink. After distracting the Greggos with The Thnikkaman and crushing them with The Moon, you might be able to get one from The Poopsmith.
The Poopsmith directs you to the King of Town, who's next to King Bubsgonzola Supreme. Use a Biztar against An Ice Machine, then run over to King Bubsgonzola.
The King of Town offers a can of Butter-da, but requests a food item in return. Surely you can get something from Marshie, right?
Wrong. He is one of the examples listed on the Robots article, thus he is also fighting against you! Ask D n' D Greg for strategy advice: Marshie is allergic to noodles, susceptible to germs, hates gunk, and can be melted by hot beverages.
Bozar offers noodles. Homestarmecium is a germ. Gunk Iller offers gunk. Stingy Relenque melts him with Hot Jones. Finally, get the King of Town to finish him off.
Once Marshie is defeated, Trogdor will awaken, burninating all the robots and saving the day. You did it!

[edit] 2021 (Thy Wikiuser 2)

Walkthrough (spoilers ahead)

Like in the last text adventure, you'll once again find yourself trapped within the Internet by Homeschool Winner: this time, on homestarrunner.com. Respond to his voice; he seeks revenge for your actions from last year, and is attempting to wreak havoc on the internet with a computer virus.
Wait a few times; characters will pop in on the side of the index page, as per usual. Once Homsar peeks in, click on him and he'll say some interesting things... "Assemble your artifacts", "Eggs are ripe this season", "Meet me four times"...
Come on in. The virus has affected nearly all of the pages. Thus, all you can do is click the "1" in "copyright 2021" to access the Homsar Main Page.
With the first Homsartifact found, you're able to access the Character Videos. Click "Eject" and... that's strange, Homsar's Character Video isn't there.
Ask Bubs for help; he'll de-sauerkraut the VCR, and you can now access Homsar's Character Video. The second Easter egg, and the second Homsartifact.
You can now access the Downloads menu. Just like on the real menu, check your current balance, click "0.00", then click the upper left corner of the card that pops up. Remember the PIN: 5675.
Drag the card into the machine, then type the PIN, and you'll access the Homsar Quotes Pack. One of these quotes is not like the others; "I have the third great one!" Click it and receive the third Homsartifact.
Go to the TV Time Toons Menu. Due to the virus, you'll only have access to a few toons from the Holiday menu. Only two of these toons have a Homsar-related Easter egg: The House That Gave Sucky Treats and Pumpkin Carve-nival.
Try visiting the former toon. It doesn't matter what candy you give until Pom Pom and The Poopsmith arrive, at which point you must click the word "pumpkin". The virus will cause the ensuing Easter egg to glitch, swapping the pumpkin for a spoon-taped eggplant. What if you could swap it back...?
In the latter toon, click "the Poopsmith's" to access Homsar's Easter egg and swipe his spoon-taped eggplant.
Try the former toon again; this time, use the eggplant when Pom Pom and The Poopsmith arrive. It will be swapped for a pumpkin, allowing the Easter egg to play out normally.
With the four Homsartifacts assembled, you can now understand Homsar. He tells you to destroy Homeschool's invention, Mecha-Trogador 2.0; this can be found in the Games menu.
You start level 10 of Stinkoman 20X6. Shoot the Denholms. If you need it, go to the right to grab a capsule, then go up the ladder. Wait once, then jump down.
You've finally reached Mecha-Trogador. Wait for the platform to descend, then jump over Trogador's toe claw projecile, wait a bit, and jump to the next platform. Shoot him twice.
Homsar gives you a Mecha-Trogador of your own. The context usually hints at what action you're supposed to take. In this order: punch twice, then dodge, then fly, then burninate, punch, and burninate again.
Homeschool kills you, and no helpful Easter eggs can prevent that... right? Click on "helpful Easter eggs" and win the battle.

[edit] 2023 (There Is No Prank Here)

On April 1, 2023, I changed my userpage to the following text:

What are you doing here? You're looking for the annual userpage prank, aren't you?

Well, you won't find it on this page. Perhaps you ought to look... elsewhere.

Clicking the word "elsewhere" leads to a Pastebin link with the first clue.

[edit] Clue #1

If it's the userpage prank you seek,
heed my advice and you may take a peek.
On the only girl's page look for a word,
and make note of the eighteenth you've heard.
That object may have bovine overlaid;
add on the hour its article was made.
When you've combined both clues and feel swell,
type them after tinyurl.

The eighteenth word on The Only Girl page (not Marzipan — this misdirection is intentional) is "lampshade". A lampshade with "bovine overlaid" refers to the Cow Lamp, the article for which was created at 22:47. "Combining both clues" (the word and the hour) and "typing them after tinyurl" gives the link to the next page, https://tinyurl.com/lampshade22.

[edit] Clue #2

And so the prank hunt has begun;
don't leave yet, for it's not quite done.
Search the wiki's pool of grains
and there you may find someone's brains.
The numerical label of this Flash object
is part of the URL you should've checked,
preceeded by what you can glean
within image number sixteen.

At the time, the Sandbox ("the wiki's pool of grains") contained a selection of random Homestar Runner assets. One of them was the brain from Homestarloween Party, found within the Flash file as "382". The sixteenth image on the page was a chair. The URL https://tinyurl.com/chair382 leads to the next clue.

[edit] Clue #3

How many syllables are in the song?
One side of this talk page debate must be wrong.
An image was uploaded of musical notation;
count the number of pixels in its creation.
On a page with that number of bytes plus one,
remove all but consonants from its lede. Have fun!

The talk page debate in question is whether Feed the Childrens says "doo doot doo" or "doot doo". This image was linked in the discussion. Multiplying the dimensions of the image reveals a size of 34553 pixels. Special:LongPages reveals that the page "with that number of bytes plus one" (34554) is Store Front Page News 2008. The lede, "2008 news updates from the Yahoo Store." becomes "nwspdtsfrmthYhStr" when all but consonants are removed. The URL https://tinyurl.com/nwspdtsfrmthYhStr leads to the next clue.

[edit] Clue #4

The next clue was an image of a page history, with some letters highlighted and some blurred out. This page history is for F-Sack, where the letters can be seen unblurred. Following the arrow and entering the highlighted letters from the bottom up into the next URL, https://tinyurl.com/T1DDL2JRJ, leads to the next clue.

[edit] Clue #5

Ignore disambiguation templates and then
click the first internal link again and again.
From almost all pages this will end in a loop
between the pages of one man and a small group.
Type the template name on the page of this man,
then the number of orphans a month before M.Z. Pan.

If you click the first link on a page, then click the first link on the next page, and repeat this process while ignoring the disambiguation templates at the top of some pages, this will almost always lead to a loop between Mike Chapman ("one man") and The Brothers Chaps ("a small group"). The template name on Mike Chapman's page is {{sectionstub}}. Using the WayBack Machine on Special:LonelyPages reveals that in March 2010 ("a month before M.Z. Pan"), there were nine orphaned pages. The URL https://tinyurl.com/sectionstub9 leads to...

[edit] Clue #6

The next clue was an image of the page for File:homestar and marzipan dancing.png, with the linked pages and original filesize blacked out. This image is linked to on Women and Men and had an original filesize of 150 KB. The URL https://tinyurl.com/womenandmen150 leads to...

[edit] Clue #7

Here is where the paths diverge,
but after this, they all shall merge.
It doesn't matter with which you engage,
for they all lead to the same next page.
Choose the one most easy to have guessed;
after that will come the final test.

https://tinyurl.com/pathtotheend1
https://tinyurl.com/pathtotheend2
https://tinyurl.com/pathtotheend3
https://tinyurl.com/pathtotheend4

The seventh clue leads to four more clues, all of which lead to the same destination when solved.

[edit] Clue #7a

The first optional path leads to an image of holiday toons listed, followed by "Obvious exits:", which are cut off. Two bits of text are circled and blurred. The image is from my April Fools' userpage thing from two years prior, Thy Wikiuser 2, where the blurred text is revealed to be "Rotten Eggs" and "in July". Putting this together into https://tinyurl.com/rotteneggsinjuly leads to clue #8.

[edit] Clue #7b

The second optional path leads to an image of Stinkoman Level 1 sheet music from the Decemberweenvent Calendar. The lead and bass synth names for the original song are shown and partially highlighted, though the bass is blanked out. Some research will reveal the name to be "Arena Run". Putting the highlighted words together into https://tinyurl.com/cheerfularenarun will lead to clue #8.

[edit] Clue #7c

The third optional path leads to an image of a wiki page with the text mostly blacked out, only "in", "It is not known", "Appearances", and "Debut:" being shown. A search will turn up The Strongs' Capsela, where the highlighted words are revealed to be "capsela" and "2004". The URL https://tinyurl.com/capsela2004 leads to clue #8.

[edit] Clue #7d

The fourth optional path leads to a dark image that, when brightened, reveals a grid where black spaces are labeled "1" and white spaces are labeled "0". Putting the grid into binary and decoding it reveals the text:

Count how many times the word "beans" is used on the wiki. Then go to tinyurl.com/secretstyles256 (the beans thing is just for fun)

[edit] Clue #8

You've done very well to make it this far.
You must know your way around this wiki of Homestar.
Only one challenge remains before the prank appears;
all I require is that you lend me your ears.
Use the key from where the hunt began
to decipher the ending of my plan.

aaxua://giyqnva.vvq/yprtcmxyhxytforpcsgo

The key was found in an invisible comment on the userpage (). Using it in a Vigenère cipher decoder reveals the final URL, https://tinyurl.com/thetrueuserpageprank, which redirects to the following image:

[edit] The clue solvers

The day the prank was posted, DEIDATVM posted a message on the wiki Discord server:

This was a pretty good lack of a userpage prank. There were many points where the answer wasn't what i expected it'd be. I thought "the only girl" would be referring to Marzipan's page and wasn't sure which would count as the 18th word. Also took a while to figure out "wiki's pool of grains" and didn't expect to have to decompile the toon the object came from. Or to have to delve into the wayback machine. Also was expecting the hidden userpage text to be another tinyurl URL and thought that the word on the page it redirected to was the cipher key. With the four diverging paths, I found the redacted article easiest, and I figured one of the others was a previous Gfd April Fools goings-on. I tried doing the binary but it came out as garblemesh, and is the other one supposed to be the GarageBand instrument that was used in the Level 1 music?? All in all, a really,
really,
good one.

TMBGLOVER asked for help on Gfd's talk page, prompting HoveringSombrero and an anonymous contributor to give advice. The discussion continued on TMBGLOVER's talk page.

Anonny helped solve the first clue, which was ultimately solved by HoveringSombrero. Anonny also helped solve the second clue, though needed a hint from Gfd regarding what the "numerical label" was, and where to find it. TMBGLOVER decompiled the Flash file, helping Anonny solve the third clue. Another hint from Gfd, as well as The Knights Who Say Ni who was much further along, helped Anonny solve the fourth clue. Anonny also solved the fifth clue without assistance. HoveringSombrero figured out the first part of the sixth clue, which was ultimately solved by Anonny through brute force. Anonny also solved the sixth independently, followed by clue #7a through educated guesses. Meanwhile, Knights had solved the binary on clue #7d. TMBGLOVER recognized the Vigenère cipher in the final clue, helping everyone reach the end by May 8th.

They were all rewarded with a userbox:

This user found the lack of April Fools' pranks on Gfdgsgxgzgdrc's userpage in 2023.