I seem to recall, when I used Usenet in the late 1990s, there was some man who had his named attached to like every other newsgroup. Well not really “every other” but a lot of them.
It was like Alt.fan.Joe.Smith, Alt.Madonna.Joe.Smith, Alt.Computer.Joe.Smith, Alt.Crime.Joe.Smith and so on and so on.
I know I’m being vague, but that is all I can seem to remember. I seem to remember it was confined to the alt groups, but I could be mistaken there, it may have been other.
Does anyone know the mans actual name? And what was the story, on why so many people created Usenet groups with his name attached.
Sorry for not being able to give any more info but if you have any ideas it’ll be appreciated.
James “Kibo” Parry? Joel Furr?
I was thinking “Kibo” myself. The fact that invoking his nym on Usenet (or even including it accidentally, even as part of another word) would summon him was kind of freaky back in the early '90s.
I think only the [del]NSA[/del] Google could do that now, on the sprawling Intarwebz.
I was thinking Kibo, myself.
Did Joel Furr infect much further than rec.humor.oracle.d and anything having to do with lemurs (no matter how remotely)?
No, those aren’t it. Virtually any Usenet group with his name in it, had no real posts, just spam, that was crossposted to other Usenet group. Thanks for the replies, I’ll keep looking and report back if I can google something up.
Although it isn’t who the OP was looking for, it still blows my mind that Kibo is an internet legend. I went to college with him, before his legendary status. He was always an interesting person.
I found it…
I had to find a list of alt groups and go through them…LOL
It is “Dean Stark”
Here is just a short list of some of the Usenet groups with his name attached
From Giganews
Now as a follow up
Who is Dean Stark? And why is his name on so many groups?
… and I knew Joel Furr back in college. You and I, there’s some name for the relationship we share, but I don’t know what it is.
From what I can gather he was a real person and usenet poster who was involved in some epic flame wars and became a usenet meme.
Some sort of Usenet version of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.