Joke: It's time for another Internet 'Spring Cleaning.'
Examples:
[Collected on the Internet, 1999] Internet Cleaning DO NOT CONNECT TO THE INTERNET FROM *** Attention *** It's that time again! As many of you know, each year the Internet must be shut down for 24 hours in order to allow us to clean it. The cleaning process, which eliminates dead email and inactive ftp, www and gopher sites, allows for a better-working and faster Internet. This year, the cleaning process will take place from 23:59 pm (GMT) on In order to protect your valuable data from deletion we ask that you do the following:
We understand the inconvenience that this may cause some Internet users, and we apologize. However, we are certain that any inconveniences will be more than made up for by the increased speed and efficiency of the Internet, once it has been cleared of electronic flotsam and jetsam. We thank you for your cooperation. Interconnected Network Maintenance Staff Sysops and others: Since the last Internet cleaning, the number of Internet users has grown dramatically. Please assist us in alerting the public of the upcoming Internet cleaning by posting this message where your users will be able to read it. Please pass this message on to other sysops and Internet users as well. [Collected via e-mail, 2006] From: Department of Homeland Security Subject: World Wide Web cleanup It is necessary to inform all internet dependent facilities that the internet will be shut down for cleaning for twenty-four hours from midnight on Thank you for your cooperation in this matter. U.S. Assistant Secretary for Homeland Security Randy Beardsworth |
Origins: This
perennial April Fool's joke has been sprung successfully on credulous victims for decades. Where it once used to be told about the phone system and was spread by photocopies and faxes, now the target of the "Spring Cleaning" is the Internet, and the message is disseminated by
Prior to its "Internet cleaning" version, the premise of the jape was to convince the gullible that phone lines had become dirty, requiring the phone company to force air through them to clear the debris. Users were cautioned to place plastic bags over handsets, lest the dust being blown through the lines settle on everything in the house.
A 1974 version of this prank substituted "frozen" phone lines for "dirty" ones:
So many people took their phones off the hook that the central office was in a "no tone" condition for four minutes.
A radio announcer told his audience that, since the community had experienced several nights of unusual below-zero temperature, the telephone company, at a specified time, would put "heat-a-lators" on all the telephone lines to thaw them out. The disk jockey told his listeners to put their phone receivers in an empty bucket so that, as the lines thawed out, water wouldn't run out and ruin their rugs.
Last updated: 30 March 2006
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