TEN YEARS AGO ON AOL/INSTAPUNDIT.COM:

OKAY, THIS IS GETTING OUT OF HAND: I thought the whole AOL acquisition routine was pretty obviously an April Fool joke, but I just got an inquiry from a Big Media guy who seemed very excited about the whole thing and wanted to do a story on it, so I guess I need to be clear here: It’s not real. It was an April Fool’s story in The Register, which I just picked up on because it mentioned me. I’m still independent, and I have, yet again (the first time was in ’88 or ’89, and I think AOL was still called Quantum or something like that) missed out on my chance for big AOL bucks. . . .

Er, that also means that you shouldn’t ignore the “tip jar” to the left on the presumption that I’m now filthy rich because of the new acquisition. Sadly, my financial status remains unaltered.

Oh, and at the risk of spoiling things, I don’t think Bjorn Staerk has suddenly become a Stalin (and Chomsky)-worshipping communist, either. But, interestingly, his April Fool posting is more coherent and persuasive than most of the folks he’s parodying.

A lot of people fell for the Staerk thing.

UPDATE: How things have changed in 10 years: From joking about AOL buying InstaPundit to joking about InstaPundit buying AOL.