Talk:Notable Usenet personalities

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This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Notable Usenet personalities article.
Article policies
Articles for deletion This article was nominated for deletion on 5 September 2007. The result of the discussion was no consensus.
Purpose

The goal of creating this article is to provide a place for a list of all the "notable" Usenet personalities. In some cases, these individuals are notable enough to warrant having their own WP article, in which case this page should contain links to those articles. In other cases, the individual is not notable enough to warrant his own biographical article, in which case this page may provide the only place to mention him.

Note that this article must abide by Wikipedia:Biography policy, and must not become a magnet for inflammatory attacks on Usenet users (or WP editors, for that matter). Tone must remain neutral and factual.

Each entry for a notable individual or user-ID should include a brief explanantion about why that person is notable. The entries are divided into "Eccentric" and "Other/unusual" categories. More categories may be added in the future (e.g., "Humorous", "Religious", etc.). For the archive of this talk page, click here.

Contents

[edit] Incoherent

The list at present seems incoherent. It includes Torkel Franzen and Joel Furr under the section for those with eccentric beliefs and theories. I cannot see how either of these are plausible — especially not Franzen. Phiwum 19:43, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

I copied the initial list from the Usenet article, which did not have the names categorized. So obviously this list needs some work. I added a third category for notable Usenet users that do not fall into the other "eccentric" or "unusual" categories. Based on your comment, Franzen and Furr belong there instead. — Loadmaster 22:55, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Where is UNCLE AL on this list216.16.54.119 15:19, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Cleanup

I've moved the {{cleanup-section}} tag to the Eccentric personalities section, since it's the only section having incomplete entries (which are marked with "INCOMPLETE" comments). Once these entries are expanded, the tag can be removed. — Loadmaster 16:38, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Quinn the Eskimo ?

There was a guy that ran a bot, everytime some posted his name with a question, he would be able to find it and respond (a bit like alerts today). People started hiding his name in anagrams but he would still find the post. Then they mashed up his name with "god" "daemon" etc. He would just adapt the bot. Back in the '80s it seemed like magic. :) Anyone have the information on him? I was sure it was Quinn but I can't find it. I think he might've hung out mostly on .mac groups. I seemed to remember he was from a Queensland Uni in Australia but that might've just been one of the main aussie nntp servers... thanks. Laurel Papworth 03:32, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

That was Kibo. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.200.74.102 (talk) 15:57, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Notability

If they're notable enough for an article okay, but if they're not notable enough for their own article, then there is no reason they should be on a list here. Notability is highly subjective and if the best we can do to source that is say "I remember that guy from usenet yeah he was really big" that does not make an article. If the individuals get their own article, they can be brought together with a category.--Crossmr 18:54, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

The existence of this article is a compromise for those on the one hand who think certain Usenet posters deserve their own articles, and those on the other hand who don't but who think they may deserve a minor mention within the context of a larger article. Hence this article. See the AfD discussion about Archimedes Plutonium. Also see the earlier revisions of the Usenet article (Usenet personalities section), which prompted me to create this page, and from which a lot of its initial content was taken. — Loadmaster 04:46, 20 June 2007 (UTC)
For persons listed here having their own separate article, if that article is little more than a single paragraph in length, I recommend that the article contents be moved to this page and the short article be removed. That way, WP has a summarization of that person but without the overhead of a separate but needlessly short article. — Loadmaster 22:13, 27 July 2007 (UTC)
Sounds good to me. Xihr 01:25, 28 July 2007 (UTC)
It's also a good idea to make a redirect page for each newly added name/pseudonym that points to this article. — Loadmaster 22:07, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Deleted alt.usenet.kooks awardees

I deleted these from the eccentrics:

  • Richard Bullis — Named as "Clueless Eternal Newbie" on alt.usenet.kooks.
  • Earl Curley — Named as "Kook of the Century" on alt.usenet.kooks.
  • Brad Jesness — Named as "Kook of the Decade" on alt.usenet.kooks.
  • Edmond Wollmann — Named as "Kook of the Millennium" on alt.usenet.kooks.

Their articles all redirect here, and there's no substantial information about why they are eccentric, so I'm thinking there are substantial BLP issues involved. BenB4 01:07, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

That looks fine, since there does not seem to be any further info about these guys other than that they were named by alt.usenet.kooks. If any more details do emerge, that article is the appropriate place for them to be. — Loadmaster 15:36, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] uffnet inclusion

Several anon editors have repeatedly added it here (to various other wikipedia pages as well), several registered editors have removed it (every time, on every page to which it's added). Let's consense...I vote non-notable self-promoting spam and not useful per WP:EL even if not. DMacks 05:40, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

It's pretty clear it's linkspam, or at the very least violates WP:EL to me. I've reverted it several times, but it keeps getting added by anonymous IPs without comment. Xihr 06:55, 12 July 2007 (UTC)
The anonymous IP is still going strong. This is now gone way past WP:3RR. Xihr 03:12, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the semiprotection, Stephen. Xihr 06:06, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

He's back again. IP 221.140.39.78 added a link to UFFNet again (2007-07-27), but then removed it about a minute later (12:40:16 UTC). — Loadmaster 22:00, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Citations

Correct me if I'm wrong, but citations are only needed for the entries that do not link to separate articles (which presumably contain the necessary citations), right? — Loadmaster 17:22, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

Yes (unless this article has information that's not in the other articles - which probably shouldn't be happening). --Cheeser1 17:42, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Incoherent

Where is UNCLE AL from sci.chem on this list of notables?? 216.16.54.119 15:26, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] uffnet linkspam

I hear you, Cheeser1. This persistent linkspam is really tiring. Xihr 06:48, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Please request (another round of) semiprotection while other avenues are explored DMacks 12:35, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Usenet versus Internet postings

I assume that, due to its title, that this article should include only people who posted on Usenet, right? (Unless, of course, this article was renamed to Notable Internet personalities.) So I would assume that people such as John Titor, who apparently only posted on bulletin boards, would be excluded? — Loadmaster 18:29, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Snopes

Snopes was a notable Usenet personality. The Albino Alligator 17:27, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Snopes appears to be a website - what Snopes are you talking about? ---- Cheeser1 (talk) 18:39, 16 November 2007 (UTC)
David Mikkelson and Barbara Hamel were valued contributors to alt.folklore.urban from about 1991-1995, when they got married and went off to found their commercial site. They were very important to AFU, but weren't such personalities as Serdar Argic and B1FF. Most of the people here contributed just style; they contributed content. PhGustaf (talk) 00:08, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Stephen Boursy

I can't edit the original post as I don't have an account, but if John Grubor is listed, Steve Boursy probably should be listed too. Boursy was very well known as an eccentric individual. 68.45.106.216 (talk) 09:00, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Mi-5

The Mike Corley entry is biased, as I found out when I copied it to start a MI-5 Persecution page. He's annoying, but we can say it in a nice, objective way. MMetro (talk) 21:08, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

In what way is it biased? I can't see a single issue here that isn't accurate, and distinctly mild (relative to his immense annoyance value, particularly via Google Groups). Andy Dingley (talk) 02:12, 5 January 2008 (UTC)


How did the name "Mike Corely" become associated with this personality? I looked at his own Web site, and he has copies of letters written to him by various authorities, and they are addressed to B. T. Szocik. this would seem to be an essential fact in his bio. Cpacker666 (talk) 11:31, 12 January 2008 (UTC)cpacker666

[edit] Unreferenced material

I deleted all of the list items that didn't either include in-line references or a link to the subject's article (which I presume has the necessary references, although I didn't check). Please do not re-insert without including references. Conversely, please feel free to re-insert with appropriate references. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 05:09, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Topmind

Should Jacob Bryce, aka Tablizer, aka Topmind count ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.66.238.27 (talk) 18:40, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Michael Tyler?

The article on the Gastric-brooding frog refers to the Australian zoologist Dr. Michael Tyler, but the page links to here. His name doesn't appear anywhere on this page. As far as I know, he's not a Usenet Personality. Wocky (talk) 05:20, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Big Bertha Thing (Tony Lance)

I'd like to add an item on Tony Lance, who posts his semifrequent "Big Bertha Thing" posts (which contain incoherent ramblings about physics, astronomy, and chemistry), but I don't have any solid info about him. I've located his website at www.tonylance.talktalk.net, but not much else. Anyone know of any reliable biographical information to use? — Loadmaster (talk) 02:03, 6 April 2008 (UTC) Try link as follows;-

www.tonylance.talktalk.net/mayor.html —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.149.153.5 (talk) 15:43, 6 April 2008 (UTC)
Um, I meant a third-party source that refers to Tony's posts as notable. His website alone is not enough (obviously). — Loadmaster (talk) 01:25, 8 April 2008 (UTC)