[rescue] Usenet, scotch & weapons

[Tom Manos]

Seeing Rich's post got me to thinking more about the olden days and the olden
net luminaries and denizens...

>From Gene Spafford:
Around 1987, I formulated my three axioms of Usenet, with corollaries:

Axiom #1:
The Usenet is not the real world. The Usenet usually does not even resemble
the real world.
Corollary #1:
Attempts to change the real world by altering the structure of the Usenet is
an attempt to work sympathetic magic -- electronic voodoo.
Corollary #2:
Arguing about the significance of newsgroup names and their relation to the
way people really think is equivalent to arguing whether it is better to read
tea leaves or chicken entrails to divine the future.

Axiom #2:
Ability to type on a computer terminal is no guarantee of sanity,
intelligence, or common sense.
Corollary #3:
An infinite number of monkeys at an infinite number of keyboards could produce
something like Usenet.
Corollary #4:
They could do a better job of it.

Axiom #3:
Sturgeon's Law (90% of everything is crap) applies to Usenet.
Corollary #5:
In an unmoderated newsgroup, no one can agree on what constitutes the 10%.
Corollary #6:
Nothing guarantees that the 10% isn't crap, too.

There were some really good, fun, funny, interesting, and thoughtful folks on
the net back then, and Spaff is near the top of the list.