The Genesis of The Newsgroup `alt.adjective.noun.verb.verb.verb`

alt.obscure.joke.remembered.explained.enjoyed

1996.09.17

Last updated: 2021.11.26

Believe it or not, there's a USENET newsgroup called alt.adjective.noun.verb.verb.verb. And further believe it or not, I'm the guy who newgrouped it, back in April of 1993.

The impetus to do so came from some silliness that was unfolding on the alt groups at the time, which more or less started with the creation of the newsgroup alt.swedish.chef.bork.bork.bork. Before long, new groups were appearing following a similar lexical pattern -- sometimes as many as a dozen new such groups in a single day.

After watching this go on for several months, I could restrain myself no longer. Below is the actual newgroup message I sent out.

I thought it would be a one-and-done joke, and be quickly forgotten. To my surprise, the group seemed to take on a life of its own, and still sees the occasional non-spam post to this day, whose contents always try to follow the lexical pattern. I don't know that I'd say I'm exactly proud of this, but peeking in to the group nearly 30 years later still brings a smile to my face.

/*
 * Some of the recorded headers have been removed in the interests of
 * Net.preservation.
 */
From ewhac Fri Apr 16 23:41:50 PDT 1993
Subject: newgroup alt.adjective.noun.verb.verb.verb
Organization: Verbatim Corp.:  Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail?

[What line eater?]

	I'm sorry.  I'm really sorry, but I just couldn't resist anymore...

	I mean, we get about eight newgroups a day here, most of them with
silly names, and they never seem to get rmgroup'ed (which is probably a
good thing, since it would take about nine weeks for 'rn' to reconcile the
.newsrc file (anyone for alt.checking.newsrc.thrash.thrash.thrash?)).

	So I thought I'd create the "template" newsgroup for all those silly
newsgroup names, spawned those many moons ago by the Swedish Chef and, much
to the the amazement of just about everyone, achieved a life of their own.

	At the same time, since this is a breach of netiquette, I thought
I'd be above-board about this, and come right out and say, "Look, I hope you
can appreciate a bit of oblique humor, because I've just been *dying* to do
this for months.  I won't do it again; I promise..."

	The intent of this is to make you laugh.  I make the point
explicitly, as I imagine there are some people who spend many a dreary day
rmgroup'ing bogus groups created by would-be witty people (presumably an
attempt to impress their girlfriends or something), and whose eyes glaze
over every time a newgroup comes in that looks even the slightest bit
off-center, and start wishing for the Usenet Oracle's <ZOT> key.  This is
not intended to piss such overworked people off, or to consume their disk
space, or to increase network traffic, or to flaunt authority (well, maybe
just a teensy bit), or to bring about the Imminent Death of the Net.  It's
a joke.

	Yes, that's my real address up there.  If this pisses you off
beyond all belief, flame me.  Please do not flame someone else.  Flame me.
I did it.  Leave the sysadmins alone; they have enough to do (as if you
didn't).

	We now return you to our regularly scheduled anarchy...

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
Leo L. Schwab -- The Guy in The Cape                   ewhac@ntg.com
 \_ -_          Recumbent Bikes:               ..or..  ewhac@shell.portal.com
O----^o       The Only Way To Fly.                     (pronounced "EH-wack")
 "Work FOR?  I don't work FOR anybody!  I'm just having fun."  -- The Doctor

The Genesis of The Newsgroup alt.adjective.noun.verb.verb.verb

alt.obscure.joke.remembered.explained.enjoyed

The Genesis of The Newsgroup `alt.adjective.noun.verb.verb.verb`