Hello fellow Stack Overflow users! Our April Fools’ gag for 2022 has come and gone, and we’ve had some time to analyze how people responded to

An unfiltered look back at April Fools’ 2022

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2022-05-13 02:00:07

Hello fellow Stack Overflow users! Our April Fools’ gag for 2022 has come and gone, and we’ve had some time to analyze how people responded to it. Unlike last year, we aren’t going to make a real product out of it (The Key V2 now available, BTW sold out!). At the moment, we have no plans to add filters back as permanent options, though you are always welcome to create your own userscripts. Still, the way users interact with our site, even as part of a joke, can teach us a lot.

April Fools’ is usually a popular time for us, and this year was no different. Compared to an average Friday, we saw 6% more unique visitors to Stack Overflow. Plenty of you have been asking what the most popular filters were. Well, we’re here with answers. We’ve also got some extra data around the prank, so let’s dive in!

For those who missed it, a quick recap of this year’s prank: Users coming to the site during the prank window were subjected to one of eight themes randomly. Instagram has them, so we wanted to get hip to what the kids are into. The themes ranged from tech favorites (Windows 3.1 and Terminal) to nostalgic (Frisa Lank and MariOverflow) to illegible (Top Secret and 3D Glasses). Users could change the themes with a selector at the bottom.