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From: PAPAI@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Jonathan Papai)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: AFU wiseguys, MOTTO!, and so on (was Re: Smilies)
Date: 3 Dec 1993 03:19:53 GMT

thf2@kimbark.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank) writes: >
> In article <2dljp0$lb2@charm.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> PAPAI@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Jonathan Papai) writes:
> >Alt. may be a sewer, but it doesn't have the commode that
> >society is being flushed down.
>
> Get it straight, Jon. The motto/inside joke is "Society is going to
> the toilet."

Good call. I'd hate to confuse any of the newer readers of the usenet newsgroup alt.folklore.urban by including an inaccurate usage of a classic event from the Golden Age of the newsgroup (note 1).

(1) The Golden Age would correspond to that time before Delphi and perhaps McGill got net access, Bob.

ObClassicEventFrom GoldenAge: Many newer readers of this newsgroup are probably somewhat confused by some of the in-jokes and references to net.personalities. I know even I am still not quite sure what to make of B1FF, McElwaine, or other such K00L manifestations from before my time, though I wouldn't THINK of CALLING someone names for NOT fully explaining him/it to me.

As a public service, an event from the Golden Age will be explained at such times when the newbies are restless and the discussions become particularly mean spirited. NOW is one such time.

The following is true, to the best of my recollection.

...................................................

TODAY'S TOPIC: Wayne McDougall

Wayne was a particularly sceptical participant on alt.folklore.urban. Wayne would not even accept the reasons given for the existance of crop circles, (two old guys British with rope and sticks knocking down wheat (corn) fields in circular patterns, and copy-cats in other places.) The one topic where he never showed scepticism, however, was the Bible.

One day in perhaps April, 1992, or somewhat before, a seemingly harmless ObUL showed up on the bottom of someones posting:

ObUL: The Bible.

Wayne took offense to this and posted a message asking just what about the Bible was legendary. Those with too much time, and too little sense, took up the challenge, and a massive thread erupted. Multiple calls were made to move the thread to another venue. Most had the wording:

Please take this interminable thread out of alt.folklore.urban to talk.religion.misc where it belongs.

Neither side would be dissuaded from their cause, and the ranting raged for what seemed like weeks. Finally, both sides quit from exhaustion.

Some time later, in late April, 1992, someone managed to re-post a bunch of old postings from Wayne on old tired topics that everyone didn't want to see again. Wayne did not post these, but someone managed to make it look as if he did. The perpetrator of this deed was never postively identified, although Joel Furr seems to have been blamed more than anyone else.

Joel Furr followed-up these articles, and set the newsgroup: lines to misc.test, misc.test and replyto: Wayne McDougall's mailbox.

Many people replied to Furr's articles, thinking they would send a reply to Furr to stop being such a weenerbrane. This did not happen. Instead, Wayne's mailbox was flooded with volume of mail even the dreaded bot would not send to BGJW or Ted Frank.

This might have been a harmless joke, except that Wayne posted from Code Works in Aukland, New Zealand, where he is system administrator. New Zealand apparently has one 1200 baud modem (note 2) connecting the country with the rest of the world, and most e-mail, both sent and received, from outside, has a per Kbyte charge for the user. Wayne's bill for this spoofing episode cost him over NZ$100.

This so hacked off Wayne, that he has only rarely been heard from since. A true loss to the study of urban legends.

Wayne had a .sig file that included the sentence: Ask me about the festival of Missions, [some dates], Aukland, New Zealand.

Apparently a reference to a Christian event of some type. Occasional references to this event still show up on alt.folklore.urban.

(2) The 1200 baud modem line is an exaggeration, to make a point in an intended humorous manner. However, some NZ email users _do_ have to pay to send and receive.

.......................................................

NOW! I'm sick of you newbies whining about people chopping off heads. I've gone to great length to share a bit of the lore of alt.folklore.urban, and I'd appreciate it if you people would quit complaining everytime you don't get an instantaneous public factual and friendly explanation for each and every banal request you make.... or no more Mr. nice guy.

ObUL: Sugar catches more flies than vinegar.

ObUL2: Mohammed Ali could catch flies from the air in his fists.

Jon "what's that buzzing?" Papai