Arthur Posted July 26, 2018 Posted July 26, 2018 This might be a good way to get rid of cold-callers! www.newshub.co.nz/home/entertainment/2018/01/man-sets-up-rick-astley-hotline-to-rescue-people-from-annoying-salespeople.html A Melbourne-based man has devised the perfect plan to avoid repeated calls from salespeople and loyalty schemes - Rickrolling hotlines. Rickrolling is a bait-and-switch prank featuring the 1987 Rick Astley song 'Never Gonna Give You Up' popping up in an unexpected place. The joke was first made popular via internet memes in 2008. Developer Paul Fenwick created the hotline in 2016 as a fun joke while working out how to use VoIP software. He reminded Twitter of its existence on Friday, telling users to use them for "paperwork, loyalty schemes and general joy". There is a line for New Zealand (09) 886 0565, Australia +61 (03) 8652 1453, the United Kingdom +44 (11) 7325 7425 and the US +1 (760) 706 7425. Speaking to a developers conference in August 2017, Mr Fenwick said the hotline costs around US$200 (NZD$279) a year to run, but the cost is well worth it. Since being launched the lines have received thousands of calls a month, either from Astley fans or jokers giving out the phone number. Mr Fenwick said he set up the line as a public good but now bumps into people on the street who say they use the hotline for filling in forms or as a joke. He has uploaded the software he used to create the hotline to GitHub in the hopes other developers will create their own hotline. https://twitter.com/pjf/status/949454560128524288 If you want to setup your own hotline, the source code can be downloaded from GitHub... https://github.com/pjf/rickastley Technical details The National Rick Astley Hotline brings joy to thousands of people each year. It uses the following software stack: Twilio for the front-end numbers. Flask for running the microserver that handles requests from Twilio. Zappa for deploying the flask app to AWS/Lambda. 3
elsiegee40 Posted July 26, 2018 Posted July 26, 2018 This might be a good way to get rid of cold-callers! https://twitter.com/pjf/status/949454560128524288 If you want to setup your own hotline, the source code can be downloaded from GitHub... https://github.com/pjf/rickastleyAwaits this becoming the default phone number used by BETT attendees 2
Arthur Posted July 26, 2018 Author Posted July 26, 2018 Awaits this becoming the default phone number used by BETT attendees I think you might be right! 🤭 Btw, did you spot what the last eight digits spell on the telephone keypad? 😁 011 7325 7425 011 REAL RICK 1
ICTDirect_Dave Posted July 26, 2018 Posted July 26, 2018 I shall be using this as soon as possible! I get a number of repeat offenders begging me to book their hotel for bett.
hardtailstar Posted July 26, 2018 Posted July 26, 2018 I shall be using this as soon as possible! I get a number of repeat offenders begging me to book their hotel for bett. on hold music, jus sayin.... Who begs a company to book hotels!?
ICTDirect_Dave Posted July 26, 2018 Posted July 26, 2018 on hold music, jus sayin.... Who begs a company to book hotels!? Until we started to exhibit at BETT i had no idea! now i get 5-10 calls a week about our bett accommodation!! 2
Michael_Redstor Posted July 26, 2018 Posted July 26, 2018 I had to do a preemptive strike for salespeople around the world by giving this to my support team to call. Just waiting for my machine to be shut down now... 2
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