April Fools Pranks
The 95 Degrees Staff have played many pranks on the community for April Fools Day each year.
April Fools' 2017
For April Fools Day 2017, Nath announced the server was shutting down, and rotated the server icon by 95 degrees:
@everyone Since I began the server in July 2016, 95 Degrees has grown to be a place where over 200 people can chat, play video games and meet new people around the world. We've introduced social media, Christmas events and even a Podcast - but unfortunately today I will be shutting down 95 Degrees.
Thank you all for this amazing journey, I've loved every minute. Now the server is just too popular and busy to handle, so it's time to say goodbye. The server will be deleted permanently at some point today. Thanks again to everyone who participated.
To celebrate the server before we shut down, I have rotated the server icon by 95 Degrees.
April Fools' 2018
On 1st April 2018, a new rule was added to the server - no swearing allowed.
At 12:42 on April Fool's Day in 2018, Nath posted the following to the #updates channel:
Hi @everyone. Due to the Internet and Discord becoming more and more widespread and is now becoming popular with older adults (and even elders in some cases), we've decided that we'd like to become more and more family friendly.
The fact that YouTube has undergone a similar operation (dubbed the 'Adpocalypse') was also a large factor in making this decision.
So, in order to make 95 Degrees more suitable for a wider audience, we have strictly removed ALL bad words from the entire server, and changed the channel order to better suit a mature and older audience. Thank you for understanding.
April Fools' 2019
Multiple people were involved in 2019's April Fools prank.
- VoidInVoid announced the decision to "remove all music containing potentially offensive lyrics from the radio playlists", and replacing them with Kidz Bop music.
- Nath posted a link to a YouTube live stream titled "95 Degrees Announcement", showing only a countdown timer - and starting the timer again when it reached zero.
- Jaetpa posted a YouTube video titled "95 Degrees Podcast Lite" - a 23-second video of the Podcast intro music, Josh reading the intro script, and a gnome meme.
April Fools' 2020
For 2020's April Fools prank, Nath posted a heartfelt message in the #updates channel announcing his resignation:
Hey @everyone. Today marks a big day personally for me. Most of you should know that I've had some personal problems in the last month or so, with me taking a break from Discord and social media - and after a lot of consideration, today I am resigning as Manager of 95 Degrees and handing server ownership to the Baristas. It's been a good run, but I believe now is a good time for me to depart and focus on my career.
I believe 95 Degrees is in a good state right now, with a positive and closely bonded community as always. I'll miss joining a voice chat and walking right into a conversation about toilets. I'll miss streaming Jackbox to you all. And I'll miss hosting the 95 Degrees Podcast - but from now on @TagmanBeesley will host it each month. I've spoken to him about this beforehand and he says he's excited to take over.
This was a bit of an impulse decision, as I was working on a project for the server just a few days ago - but I want to put 95 Degrees behind me and dedicate my time toward PixelTail Games and Tower Unite. Thanks to everyone that's supported me over the last 3 and a half years.
-Nath
April Fools' 2021
Microsoft Paint
On 1st April 2021, bot developer VoidInVoid announced that Microsoft's purchase of Discord was completed (relevant at the time, but never actually ended up happening), and that Bill Gates personally asked for a Microsoft Paint application to be implemented into Guardian.
/paint commands were added to Guardian, allowing users to 'paint' images on a canvas using Discord's newly-implemented slash commands. These commands are still available in Guardian to this day.
When using the commands, members were given a 100x100 canvas where they were able to draw on with the tools available, including:
/paint pixelto draw pixels at a specific X and Y coordinate./paint rectangleto create rectangles between two coordinates./paint textto write text onto the canvas./paint imageto place a linked image onto the canvas.
Members could see what other people had created on their canvases with /paint collage which would show a giant collage of everyone's creations.
Originally implemented but later removed, /paint seticon would allow anyone to spend 3000 Degreecoins to replace Guardian's regular icon with their canvas art.
Office WordArt-style join messages
For the day, the join banner was also updated by Saku to feature Microsoft Office-style tiled backgrounds and WordArt.
April Fools' 2022
| Introducing the 95 Degrees Server Mascot |
As an impromptu and rushed hoax, Nath scheduled a YouTube Premiere announcing Hatsune Miku would be the server's new mascot, appearing in most branding art - including the server logo and banner, Twitter profile picture and the join banner.
According to staff chat logs, the trailer was completed at around 23:20 the night before April Fool's Day, and 40 minutes before the YouTube Premiere was due to go live.
April Fools' 2023
In 2023, Nath created a fake 95 Degrees minimalist rebrand, which was applied to the server icon, join banner and server banner - citing "less is more" as the reasoning for the rebrand.
The new logo featured two arcs, representing the curves in the numbers 9 and 5. The logo was met with mixed reception, with some saying they liked the arcs concept.
All branding was made black and white, and the server banner was replaced with the black and white logo banner.
Some refer to this rebrand as "the two macaronis".
An announcement was posted to the updates channel with the title "a cleaner look for 95 degrees - introducing 95 degrees v5":
All the way back in 2021, we refreshed every aspect of the 95 Degrees branding to a colourful blue gradient, with the idea that it would be more vibrant and clear.
Putting it clearly, we regret it. Really - it was a total mistake. I failed to understand the ongoing trends of UI design, graphic design and colour science - less is more, and minimalism is the clear, simple way forward. Looking back, all those white, blue, purple and green gradients clashed way too much.
Fortunately, starting today, we're going back to our roots, to the longest-standing colour scheme in our history - black and white, as seen in our v2 and v3 branding eras.
On top of that, we have removed the word "degrees" from our branding entirely - we haven't been using the cafe theme for years. Originally, we wanted to use the cafe theme - but from now on, as some of us already do, we will be calling the community simply "95".
Lastly, and most importantly, our logo has changed - two arcs resembling a 9 and a 5, showcasing every angle of our community - or if you look at them from a 90-degree angle, they appear as bridges, representing the connections we help create between people around the world.
So, we're really excited about this change. Lots of work was put into this project, and we hope it has been worth it. Obviously, you'll see the "95" arcs rolling out across our icons, banners and pages soon. Life is full of surprises - go ahead and read the first letter of each sentence.