[frodetb]

For the past decade there has here in Norway been a recurring news sensation surrounding the mountain Mannen[1] (literally "the man") located in Romsdal in the northernmost part of Western Norway. Geologists have found Mannen to be at high risk of a sudden and large-scale landslide, placing the local population at the base of the mountain at great peril. There have been several abrupt evacuations of the place over the years, whenever measurements indicate a sudden increase in risk, with great media exposure and public interest. However, The Man has still yet to fall as predicted.

A website was soon set up: "HarMannenFalt.no"[2] (Has the Man fallen?), displaying no more than the word "NEI" (No). The sentiment of the joke was felt by all, as many had grown tired of all this attention being directed at what was essentially, on its surface, just a mountain, standing there, doing nothing.

I was a student at the time, and remember many idle screens around campus set to this page, reeking of that sarcastic mock-worry only a student body could put on. But I suspect a lot of us were secretly waiting for the moment when the text would change into "JA".

And soon enough, something did in fact happen. A neighbouring mountain, Veslemannen (The Little Man), saw a considerable increase in daily movement in 2018, before finally there was a minor landslide in 2019. But this was not the landslide we had been promised and waited for, as The Man himself was still standing tall as ever. A "JA" was not really in order, but then perhaps neither was really a "NEI".

Instead, the website was updated to show "TJA", a Norwegian word somewhere between yes and no, with meaning closer to "Well, perhaps".

As an aside: A second website with identical design was also created: "HarDovreFalt.no"[3]. A play on the concept with allusion to the vow of our founding fathers: "Enige og tro inntil Dovre faller" (Agreeing and true until Dovre falls)[4]. The "NO" on this second site, I think, is far less likely to change any time soon.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mannen

[2] https://harmannenfalt.no

[3] https://hardovrefalt.no

[4] https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enige_og_tro_inntil_Dovre_fall...

[marcosdumay]

The format is quite old.

There was a has the LHC destroyed the planet yet site created when the media kept that sensationalist lying campaign against turning it on (at the early 2000's), but I think the funniest one was the "how many days since the last Java 0-day" around the time Oracle brought Sun (around 2010, wasn't it?), just because of the sheer absurdity of keeping it static for almost an year and being correct every day.

I remember before those there was a famous "how to destroy the Earth" site, with a status page answering "has anybody done any of this yet?".