# A serious question for Sam Stone on Factual Errors **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 11, 2021, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-serious-question-for-sam-stone-on-factual-errors/955881 "2021-12-11T12:32:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 110
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2024, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-serious-question-for-sam-stone-on-factual-errors/955881/2181 "2024-02-23T22:58:46Z")
Nobody I knew called it Teleconferencing then, you muppet. And explain how people could see you via BB chat ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2024, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-serious-question-for-sam-stone-on-factual-errors/955881/2182 "2024-02-23T23:05:19Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Nobody I knew called it Teleconferencing then, you muppet. OK, the right thing to do here is admit you were wrong - evidently some people called text chatting “teleconferencing” back in the day. Set an example for ol’ Sammy and show him how to actually admit a mistake. His explanation obviously makes no sense in the context of his original statement about “overhearing” something, but let’s not let facts get in the way of a good story. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2024, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-serious-question-for-sam-stone-on-factual-errors/955881/2183 "2024-02-23T23:06:01Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > His explanation obviously makes no sense in the context of his original statement about “overhearing” something, but let’s not let facts get in the way of a good story. And I’m still waiting for the lawyers, guns and money. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2024, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-serious-question-for-sam-stone-on-factual-errors/955881/2184 "2024-02-23T23:06:09Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > If you can commit to doing these things, an amazing thing will happen. He can’t. Let him keep his self ban. Please. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2024, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-serious-question-for-sam-stone-on-factual-errors/955881/2185 "2024-02-23T23:06:23Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > OK, the right thing to do here is admit you were wrong - evidently some people called text chatting “teleconferencing” back in the day. Set an example for ol’ Sammy and show him how to actually admit a mistake. Agreed, from Google Ngram: > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Teleconferencing&year_start=1960&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2024, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-serious-question-for-sam-stone-on-factual-errors/955881/2186 "2024-02-23T23:07:38Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Nobody I knew called it Teleconferencing then, you muppet. Oh? Based on your vast experience with online chat systems? Which ones exactly? I believe the MajorBBS may have had the first multi-user chat that was commercially available. It was called Teleconferencing. Chat became the common word after IRC appeared later. So I am curious how you got your information about what such things were called in the 1980’s. Better run to Google! You don’t know what you are talking about. I made my living from selling software and running such systems for almost a decade. The system my wife and I were on was mine. The modems alone cost me over $10,000 in 1987. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2024, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-serious-question-for-sam-stone-on-factual-errors/955881/2187 "2024-02-23T23:26:12Z")
Oh wait, he was serious? ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2024, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-serious-question-for-sam-stone-on-factual-errors/955881/2188 "2024-02-23T23:26:32Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > And my wife says that actually the first time she decided I was ‘the guy’ was when I took her flying for the first time. Am I misremembering, or were you guys engaged within 3 weeks of meeting? If so, that’s an eventful few weeks, given all the other stuff. Was it around Christmas? This screams _Hallmark Channel_ to me. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2024, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-serious-question-for-sam-stone-on-factual-errors/955881/2189 "2024-02-23T23:27:14Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > If so, that’s an eventful few weeks, given all the other stuff. Was it around Christmas? I don’t believe the Canadians play baseball around Christmas. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2024, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-serious-question-for-sam-stone-on-factual-errors/955881/2190 "2024-02-23T23:27:53Z")
Dammit! There goes a perfect script. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2024, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-serious-question-for-sam-stone-on-factual-errors/955881/2191 "2024-02-23T23:28:39Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > There goes a perfect script. Just move it to Texas. That’s probably more accurate anyway ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2024, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-serious-question-for-sam-stone-on-factual-errors/955881/2192 "2024-02-23T23:32:23Z")
“You can stop Googling!” shouts the man, waving a Wikipedia cite. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2024, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-serious-question-for-sam-stone-on-factual-errors/955881/2193 "2024-02-23T23:35:57Z")
This is beginning to sound like a Grandpa Simpson story. “I was logged into a chatroom, which in those days was cslled teleconferencing, when what should happen but J.P Morgan himself challenged me to a hot air balloon race around the world! Fortunately I had tied an onion to my belt…” ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2024, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-serious-question-for-sam-stone-on-factual-errors/955881/2194 "2024-02-23T23:46:24Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > Am I misremembering, or were you guys engaged within 3 weeks of meeting? ??? The first date I actually had with my wife was a few days after the baseball game. We went to see ‘The Abyss’. I think I took her flying the next weekend, but it night have been a couple of weeks. Also, we went to the Reno Air Races in September, which is actually where I proposed to her. The Air Races were in September 1989. We were married the following March. We went to Sun n’ Fun in Florida on our honeymoon. Feel free to check all those dates if you’d like. In the meantime, I’m not seeing any apologies from the people who mocked the ‘teleconference’ name, even though they felt free to attack a poster over something they had no actual clue about. But by all means, keep nitpicking what happened to me in the 1980’s, while ignoring your constant, large errors. I can’t believe I’m not being called out for being wrong about my own life story, by people who don’t know me. At this point, there can’t be much down that you’re just trying to troll me. I remember when the Pit was supposedly necessary to fight racism and sexism. Good times. Now it’s being used to attack fellow members over their own life story. It’s completely pathetic. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2024, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-serious-question-for-sam-stone-on-factual-errors/955881/2195 "2024-02-23T23:52:05Z")
Being in earshot of this teleconference, I couldn’t help but overhear Sammy is typing again. I wonder if you can all see me perk up and acting like we are old friends. Someone please post an ASCII art over at alt.binaries.sam.cant.get.it.through.his.head.that.you.cant.overhear.in.a.bbs.or.perk.up.you.stupid.muppet. for me. Thanks, maybe we can be engaged in three weeks if you take me flying for Christmas. > [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > I remember when the Pit was supposedly necessary to fight racism and sexism. Good times. Now it’s being used to attack fellow members over their own life story. It’s completely pathetic. You really think this level of delusion about what the pit used to be like back in the day is helping your case? ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2024, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-serious-question-for-sam-stone-on-factual-errors/955881/2196 "2024-02-23T23:55:56Z")
No, that was the case made for it when we were debating whether we needed a pit or not. It was deemed crucial in the fight against racism and sexism. Oh, if it helps you check my story, we saw Sinatra in Reno while we were there, and we tried to see a Space Shuttle flight. We drove from Orlando to the Cape, but the flight was cancelled with just seconds left on the clock. Big disappointment. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2024, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-serious-question-for-sam-stone-on-factual-errors/955881/2197 "2024-02-23T23:59:08Z")
A little tip for you, Sam: no one gives a shit about your life story and if it’s true or not. People are tired of you lying in places that actually matter, primarily political discussions. So yeah, now you catch a lot of grief over inane stuff like chatroom teleconferencing. You want to fix it? Quit trying to convince people that the story of your marriage is true. NO ONE CARES. Instead, quit lying elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2024, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-serious-question-for-sam-stone-on-factual-errors/955881/2198 "2024-02-24T00:00:08Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > > [@Stratocaster](#): > > > > meeting? > > ??? My bad then. I thought I read that, but my memory these days precludes a run for the White House. Anyway, apologies. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2024, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-serious-question-for-sam-stone-on-factual-errors/955881/2199 "2024-02-24T00:06:21Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > A little tip for you, Sam: no one gives a shit about your life story and if it’s true or not. Oh. So they’re just trolling? Or is there another explanation for these clowns spending all kinds of time researching everything I’ve said about meeting my wife? I don’t think it’s a big deal either. I’m sure other people here have talked about their families as much or more. But everyone needs a hobby, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2024, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-serious-question-for-sam-stone-on-factual-errors/955881/2200 "2024-02-24T00:12:29Z")
We all believe that some parts of the stories you told are true. Just not the parts that are convenient to your deranged narrative. Sharing out more details that could be shown to be possible does not negate the fact that you made up some other details. I could sit here and narrate my entire “courtship” with f my wife from 25 years ago. It would be totally unremarkable and uninteresting to everyone. Until I dropped in a nugget about how I saved her from the clutches of Russian hackers who I found were trying to frame Al Gore to protect the fossil fuel industry. With a very early version of deepfakes. They weren’t called deepfakes back then of course (Google furiously…). That’s when people would call BS on me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-serious-question-for-sam-stone-on-factual-errors/955881.md?page=109) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-serious-question-for-sam-stone-on-factual-errors/955881.md?page=111)