Miningco.com, July 1998: Stuff A Sock In It
David Gerard
[I don't have the original URL to hand - just found this in an in-tray
folder on my hard disk - but you should be able to find the original on
miningco.com . The Prignillius article referenced is
http://www.suburbia.net/~fun/scn/fun/970606-prig.txt
but Mr Del Rosario doesn't seem to have realised Prignillius was exercising
wit. Oh well :-) ]
Stuff a Sock In It
Frisco Del Rosario - usenet...@miningco.com
Dateline: 10/7/98
Even though the estimated number of newsgroups has reached 50,000, I am
still subject to the whims of the Usenet community when it comes time to
take part in a Mining Co. Multi-Guide Special. For instance, there was a
multi-guide special about air conditioning -- do you think there's a
newsgroup about air conditioning? Nope. The rec.arts.books newsgroup gave
me nothin' to work with for the Banned Books Week special. OK, so the
Halloween special lurks just around the corner, and there is, in fact, a
Halloween newsgroup: alt.halloween.boo. However, the offbeat characters who
roam Usenet wear costumes and disguises year round, posting under assumed
identities known as sock puppets.
According to one sockpuppet FAQ, a "sock puppet" is more than a multiple
identity, it "is something that is made to interact with or refer to, the
person running it." Sock puppets can be used as a staunch supporter of
one's ideas, or even as a critic, enabling the puppeteer to convincingly
rebut the "criticism".
The king of Usenet sock puppeteers has to be one Brad Jesness, who inhabits
sci.psychology.psychotherapy and other psychology newsgroups under, at last
count, 399 Internet identities. Naturally, Jesness has taken great
advantage of America Online's five-screennames-per-account policy, and the
old anonymous remailer anon.penet.fi. He explains, "I just change servers
to keep you all guessing and to defeat the killfiles of the closed-minded."
According to the Brad FAQ, "while claiming to be an internationally
renowned and respected ethologist and behavioral scientist, Brad has no
published research in any peer-reviewed journal." The Brad FAQ also reports
that Jesness has garnered 11 kook awards from alt.usenet.kooks and other
sources.
The term "sock puppet" was first used in the Usenet context when
lazz...@aol.com posted to sci.skeptic about the intolerance of the late,
legendary Earl Curley:
Why does the image of a person infinitely uglier and more awkward than
Mr. Bean come to mind, sitting in a room strewn with crumpled
printouts, empty cola cans, smashed beer bottles, and greasy pizza
boxes? The chairs are arranged in a circle, with Earl in one of them,
wearing 3 day old boxer shorts. On each of the other chairs is a sock
puppet, with those silly googly eyes and a name tag scotch-taped on
them. One of the sock puppets has a gay chat line ad from a sleazy
weekly paper scotch taped to the back of its' chair. Wow, Earl, you
sure are "with" the 90's with your tolerance!
It almost seems a prerequisite that a sock puppeteer be involved in some
form of arcanery, like psychotherapy (Jesness), psychic phenomena (Curley),
astrology (Edmond Wollman), or Scientology. In Re: "I'm a cult veteran --
and I'm one tough son of a bitch", "Prignillius" sharply rebukes and
killfiles a Scientologist sock puppeteer. However, even down-to-earth
hobbyists like mountain bikers attract kooks -- the alt.mountain-bike
community deals with Mike Vandeman and his aliases as Vandeman attempts to
squash biking, and build more golf courses.
Finally, in an item completely unrelated to Usenet, Scott Adams of
"Dilbert" fame requests photos of you sitting at your computer while
wearing a sock puppet for inclusion in his Sock Puppets Gallery. Tell him I
sent you.
--
http://xenu.netizen.com.au/ http://www.caube.org.au/
"I long for the day I can look out my car window and see that fateful billboard
that reads, 'SOYLENT GREEN IS STUPID PEOPLE'." (Dr K. "Cortez" Legume)