How to be annoying on Usenet
by Alan Meiss, ameiss@indiana.edu
1. Post a message asking how to post messages.
2. Lead a tireless crusade for the creation of newsgroups with
silly names like alt.my.butt.is.hairy.
3. Put 4 addresses, 5 lines of "Geek Code", 6 ASCII-art bicycles, a
PGP key, and your home phone in your signature.
4. Reinvigorate a discussion by switching attributions in followups.
5. Post recipes on rec.pets.cats.
6. Post a compendium of old articles from a thread that died months ago
with a title such as "*** HAS JOE SMITH FORGOTTEN HIS LIES? ***"
7. Post a 56-part binary MPG file of your dog throwing up to
news.answers. Announce that you screwed it up and repeat.
8. On the MST3K groups, ask what happened to Joel.
9. Ask readers of rec.music.misc to post their favorite Zeppelin tune
"for a poll".
10. Reacquaint the readers of rec.humor with the "two-strings-go-in-a-bar"
joke.
11. Determine a perversion so bizarre or obscure that it doesn't yet
have its own sex group.
12. Post your new "War Heroes of India" FAQ to soc.culture.pakistan.
13. Start this week's new AOL virus rumor.
14. Format your posts for 90 columns (or 20).
15. Provide a valuable public service by notifying the eager readers of
roughly 1,200 newsgroups of your new "HOOTERAMA" phone sex
service or "PorqWhiffe" pheramone cologne.
16. Post elaborate conspiracy theories to talk.politics.misc detailing
how ATF agents under the control of Chelsea Clinton and Socks have
implanted invisible microchips in your genitals.
17. Fill that empty mailbox, make new friends, delight your postmaster,
and selflessly lead others to riches with a few "MAKE MONEY FAST" posts.
18. Attempt to sell your sweaty underwear in alt.clothing.lingerie.
19. Follow up a 200-line post to add only your signature.
20. Crosspost Amiga articles to the Mac and PC newsgroups for a valuable
interchange of provocative ideas.
21. Announce a mailing list for Bill Gates' VISA card number.
22. Inform the readers of alt.sex that your friend at a particular
address is taking a penis length survey, and the first 1000 people to
send him their measurements will receive free naked pictures of Cindy Crawford.
23. Correct every spelling mistake you encounter, but misspell the word
"imbecile" in your followup flames.
24. Flame yourself, and complain to your own postmaster.
25. Ask readers of the Star Trek groups when they last had dates.
26. Post personal ads on groups such as alt.sex.diapers listing your work
phone number.
27. Post under the name Dave Rhodes.
28. Followup every post in a newsgroup ranking them on a scale from 1 to 10.
29. Establish your own little Usenet niche by writing a Wink Martindale FAQ.
30. Advise other readers to ftp to 127.0.0.1 for "really cool nudie pics".
31. Post daily word searches to rec.puzzles.
32. Post your trig homework to sci.math and ask the readers to e-mail you
the answers, since you "don't read the group".
33. Provoke insightful and productive debates on fresh new topics such as
abortion, gun control, the existence of God, penile circumcision, and
the relative superiority of Mac or PC operating systems.
34. Pick a cutesy handle that inspires vicarious embarrassment in other
readers, such as "SoHot4U", "SokSnifer", or "WetNWild".
35. Maintain a high-level of constructive decorum by addressing someone
with whom you disagree as "monkey boy".
36. Inform the readers of the sex groups that they're "going straight to
hell", and then proceed to followup a variety of titillating posts.
37. Post to alt.folklore.urban that this guy that a friend of your
uncle's ex-girlfriend's boss knew received the donated heart of River
Phoenix.
38. Relentlessly inform the readers of groups such as rec.pets.iguanas
or sci.agriculture of your UFO, JFK, OJ, NRA, NSA, Nutrasweet, and
Azeri genocide theories. Relate them all to sunspot activity and
ancient astronauts.
39. Post instructions telling other readers how to put you in their killfile.
40. Post whining, misspelled, and vaguely creepy personal ads in wildly
inappropriate newsgroups, and followup to berate the readers for not
responding.
41. Announce that a particular site has opened up a new combination OJ
Jury Info/Homemade Bombs/Kiddie Porn/Scientology Documents/Computer
Subliminal Hypnosis ftp archive.
42. Construct a device that lets your pets post to Usenet by pawing or
pecking a feeder bar.
43. Post the Niemann Marcus cookie recipe to rec.food.recipes.
44. Eliminate nearly all meaningful traffic on a newsgroup for weeks by
challenging its readership to come up with as many synonyms as possible
for the word vomit.
45. Accuse other posters of being AI experiments, Perl scripts, or Emacs
macros.
46. Claim that you can see "hidden images" in another person's posting
when you cross your eyes.
47. Ask Austrian readers about kangaroos.
48. Ask Australian readers about alpine skiing.
49. Include Rush lyrics or Rush quotes in all your posts.
50. Accuse female posters of being male.
51. Make an anonymous posting accusing others of cowardice.
52. Accuse a fellow AOL or Prodigy subscriber of being a "newbie" because
their 3 months on the net are dwarfed by your own span of 4.
53. Insist that anyone objecting to your compulsive fascination with
consuming the flesh of strangled disabled minors is "judgemental".
54. If you've grown tired of typing, effectively end a thread by accusing
others of being Nazis.
55. Ask readers of soc.culture.nordic whether the Swedish Chef has a Sampo.
56. Write and regularly post a FAQ about yourself.
57. Post graphic descriptions of your bowel movements, genital sores,
and various suppurating wounds to alt.tasteless.
58. Ask readers of sci.med for urgent, step-by-step instructions on
removing arrows, or inquire why all your extremities have turned dark purple.
59. Insist that there's no such state in the U.S. as "New Mexico".
60. Post only in Esperanto.
61. Claim a copyright on the word "Usenet", and followup with a bill all
posts you encounter that contain it.
62. Sell "posting permits" in news.announce.newusers.
63. Post single-part text messages in MIME format.
64. Ask the readers of rec.sewing whether any of them want to be the
drummer for your new band, "Death Monkeys".
65. Claim to be an amorous highschool cheerleader while posting under a
name such as "Robert Bradley Smith, Jr."
66. In the spirit of purest optimism, ask other readers to followup with
their account passwords and credit card numbers.
67. Why use a single question mark or exclamation point when you can use
at least thirty?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
68. List a cute organization name in your header, such as "Canadians for
Global Warming".
69. Insult a poster from another nation based on his country's performance
in World War II.
70. Post vitriolic, frothing, hair-trigger flames in polite newsgroups, as
if you were a testosterone-crazed adolescent debating which shotgun is
superior in alt.games.doom.
71. Followup spam posts in the belief that the originator, who probably
follows the group closely and is desperately curious about receiving
feedback, will see your impassioned plea and be so moved by your
lengthy, point-by-point indictment of their conduct that they pledge
to desist from such activity for all time.
72. Regardless of its accuracy, followup another post with the line
"BZZZT! Wrong answer!" or "Hello! McFly!"
73. Use a 120-line ASCII graphic of Spock as your signature.
74. Post to soc.culture.women asking "what's your favorite brand of oven
mitt, little ladies?"
75. Post to news.annnounce.newusers asking if there are any nurses in
Portland willing to spank you. Followup with an apology. Followup again
with the original article.
76. Post with a newsreader that replaces punctuation marks with strange,
non-ASCII characters.
77. Steer all debates to your own pet subjects of expertise, regardless of
their relevance.
78. Make it clear from your postings that you've a profound inability to
distinguish "The X Files" as fiction.
79. Insist that another poster is really Serdar Argic or Kibo.
80. Post 20-part encoded image files from NASA ftp archives that you claim
show clear evidence of alien settlements.
81. Insinuate vague conspiracies in all your posts.
82. Spam post alarming ten-year-old files about Congressional bills to tax
modem usage "in the name of freedom".
83. Claim that unidentified government agencies are censoring your posts.
84. Ask readers to collect aluminum pop-tops on behalf of Craig Shergold.
85. Ask readers of comp.sci.algorithms how to get Super Mario to the castle.
86. POST IN ALL CAPS
87. omit all punctuation
88. omitallspaces
89. DOALLTHREEOFTHEABOVE
90. Ask the readers of alt.current-events.net-abuse where to purchase
Cantor and Siegel's book.
91. Post the phone number of the Michigan Militia to alt.conspiracy as the
"Classified ATF Secret Hotline".
92. Compose an exhaustively researched 15-part FAQ detailing the favorite
movie musicals of relatives of the Deep Space Nine cast. Post it weekly
in its entirety.
93. Strive to ensure that no two consecutive words in your posts are
correctly spelled.
94. Enrich the lives of thousands with a thoughtful and impassioned debate
on the topic "AOL users suck".
95. Dispense essential and priceless financial advice, such as the
assertion that no one is legally required to pay taxes.
96. Demand that others cease using the letter e, as you find it "dply offnsiv".
97. Post to rec.music.misc insisting that "Curt Kobain should leave Pearl
Jam since they'll never tour again."
98. Assume that the entire Usenet hierarchy shares your interest in
helping lonely Ukrainian lasses find love.
99. Followup another person's posts every twelve minutes to accuse them of
"obsessing".
100. Followup two dozen of another person's posts to accuse them of
harassing you. Send copious e-mail if you're ignored.
101. Start pointless debates over topics such as whether Whoopi Goldberg
has eyebrows, what happens when you cross the International Dateline,
and whether the bad guy in Popeye cartoons was named "Bluto" or
"Brutus".