From: michael.wojcik@merant.com (Michael Wojcik) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Legendary trolls (was Re: Retro computer stuff, sinclair, husky hunter...) Date: 1 May 2000 21:12:55 GMT Organization: MERANT Inc. Lines: 53 Message-ID: <8eks0n09f8@news2.newsguy.com> References: <80JN4.5325$rR2.592623@nnrp3.clara.net> <8eeoob$ami$7@bob.news.rcn.net> <8ei23p$pfu$1@hawkins.cba.uni.edu> <8ejq1v$53q$7@bob.news.rcn.net> <8ekdfc$t77$1@hawkins.cba.uni.edu> Reply-To: michael.wojcik@merant.com NNTP-Posting-Host: p-199.newsdawg.com Keywords: Hey! Actual folklore! X-Newsreader: xrn 9.00 Originator: mww@lorelei-n Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!diablo.theplanet.net!news-lond.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!newsfeedZ.netscum.dQ!netscum.int!newsfeed.stanford.edu!pln-w!spln!extra.newsguy.com!newsp.newsguy.com!mww Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:55197 In article <8ekdfc$t77$1@hawkins.cba.uni.edu>, hawk@hawkins.cba.uni.edu writes: > In article <8ejq1v$53q$7@bob.news.rcn.net>, wrote: > >Oh, what a wonderful troll. :-))) Short on entertainment > >these days, are we? > Trolling is another lost art. Actually, the skills for a *really* > good flame and for a good troll or similar. I don't remember the > last time I saw a good one; today it's usually the low-grade stuff > of cross-posting to antagonistic news groups, or recipes to alt.cats, > etc. On a really good troll, those hooked should be amused once it > all fits together (at least if they have a sense of humor). This looks like a call to gather round the a.f.c campfire and in suitably hushed tones recall the legendary trolls of the dim past... I recall a couple of sparking ones by David Mikkleson aka snopes, a net.personality of alt.folklore.urban and several other groups: - Many years ago (circa 1990), before Eternal September and indeed before many knew the art of trolling, someone on a.f.u started a "posting from the most remote geographic location" thread. ("most remote" was not clearly defined - this *is* Usenet, after all.) If memory serves it was a tangent from some posting by Cindy Kandolf, who lives in Trondheim, Norway, which in those days seemed fairly remote by Usenet standards. After several folks in reasonably trippery places like Italy had thrown their hats in, snopes posted the claim that he was stationed at a scientific research station in Antartica. This ur-troll reeled in quite a few fish before they caught on, and obscure references to it occasionally appear even today. - I'm sure many remember one of the great trolls of the early 90's, when snopes cross-posted to a couple of the Star Trek groups and a.f.u a complaint about an episode of Star Trek in which the shadow of a shuttlecraft passed across the Enterprise. It read in part: "I know zip about physics, but even I know you can't cast a shadow in a vacuum!" Beautiful. Eventually split into something like two-dozen sub- threads and went on for months. -- Michael Wojcik michael.wojcik@merant.com AAI Development, MERANT (block capitals are a company mandate) Department of English, Miami University Be sure to push the button of the bottom, and push the button of the settlement page indicated next only once, there is fear of the bottom rhinoceros multiplex lesson money. -- Sukebe Net ###### From: ab528@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Heinz W. Wiggeshoff) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Legendary trolls (was Re: Retro computer stuff, sinclair, husky hunter...) Date: 2 May 2000 00:39:54 GMT Organization: The National Capital FreeNet Lines: 21 Message-ID: <8el84q$lu5$1@freenet9.carleton.ca> References: <80JN4.5325$rR2.592623@nnrp3.clara.net> <8eeoob$ami$7@bob.news.rcn.net> <8ei23p$pfu$1@hawkins.cba.uni.edu> <8ejq1v$53q$7@bob.news.rcn.net> <8ekdfc$t77$1@hawkins.cba.uni.edu> <8eks0n09f8@news2.newsguy.com> Reply-To: ab528@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Heinz W. Wiggeshoff) NNTP-Posting-Host: freenet10 X-Trace: freenet9.carleton.ca 957227994 22469 134.117.136.30 (2 May 2000 00:39:54 GMT) X-Complaints-To: complaints@ncf.ca NNTP-Posting-Date: 2 May 2000 00:39:54 GMT X-Given-Sender: ab528@freenet10.carleton.ca (Heinz W. Wiggeshoff) Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!unlisys!news.snafu.de!diablo.theplanet.net!newsfeed.icl.net!netnews.com!feeder.qis.net!nntp.frontiernet.net!nntp.gctr.net!xcski.com!freenet-news!FreeNet.Carleton.CA!ab528 Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:55222 Michael Wojcik (michael.wojcik@merant.com) writes: > ... > - I'm sure many remember one of the great trolls of the early 90's, > when snopes cross-posted to a couple of the Star Trek groups and > a.f.u a complaint about an episode of Star Trek in which the shadow > of a shuttlecraft passed across the Enterprise. It read in part: > > "I know zip about physics, but even I know you can't cast a > shadow in a vacuum!" Was there a black hole twixt the shuttle and the ship, perhaps? One must consider all the possibilities. In the 50s, Superman was reading a newspaper under water. A keen follower wrote that paper would mush in that environment. The comic book writers replied that Superman gets a special plastic issue of the newspaper. Of course, today, Superman would go to the Windsor Library and check out one of their four new (as of now) electronic books.