Birth of the Neverending September (was: Re: Netiquette)
gr...@apple2.com
ni...@webthing.com (Nick Kew) wrote:
>gr...@apple2.com writes:
>> In 1993, the net went public.
> Eh??? What net was that?
Since the September phenomenon was a phenomenon of Usenet, I guess it
would be Usenet.
I'd argue it started when Al Gore coined the term "The Information
Superhighway"[0], but as you'll see below, it refers to a specific event
on Usenet.
> Many of the various networks that now comprise the Internet were public
> long before that (I've been connected from work since '83 and from home
> since '88 myself). OK, it wasn't always called the Internet, but
> todays protocols and nomenclature certainly predate '93.
Well certainly the net's existence predates 1993[1], even business
presence on the net. I'm talking about the general public. The unwashed
masses. The constant daily tsunami of newbies that put the September
bubble to shame, which began The Neverending September, well over 2000
days long and still counting.
It has even made its way into The Jargon File.
At <http://www.jargon.org/html/entry/September-that-never-ended.html>
it is written:
| September that never ended
|
| All time since September 1993. One of the seasonal rhythms of the Usenet
| used to be the annual September influx of clueless newbies who, lacking
| any sense of netiquette[2], made a general nuisance of themselves. This
| coincided with people starting college, getting their first internet
| accounts, and plunging in without bothering to learn what was acceptable.
| These relatively small drafts of newbies could be assimilated within a
| few months. But in September 1993, AOL users became able to post to
| Usenet, nearly overwhelming the old-timers' capacity to acculturate them;
| to those who nostalgically recall the period before hand, this triggered
| an inexorable decline in the quality of discussions on newsgroups. See
| also AOL![3].
Okay, so the event is narrowed down further to the time when AOL first
offered Usenet access[4]. But I'd argue that the opening of the Internet
(and thus Usenet) to the general public was what has caused September to
endure.
It's a pity Deja.com's archive only dates back to March 16, 1995. (I'm
discounting the articles with bad dates going back to 1902, though there
seems to be an unretrievable article in alt.chinese.text dated March 24,
1897, and one to z-netz.alt.support.xpoint.allgemeines on January 4th,
0190. :-)
I'm adding alt.folklore.computers to the discussion. I'm sure they can
clarify the phenomenon if the Jargon File entry is still insufficient an
explanation for you. (Perhaps the Jargon File should also mention the
variant form, "The Neverending September", backformed from the Michael
Ende book and Disney movie title, "The Neverending Story".)
[0] Al Gore did not found the Internet; he found the Internet.
[1] This close to 2000 and people are still writing years with only two
digits? That sure gives me confidence in Y2K!
[2] <http://www.jargon.org/html/entry/netiquette.html>
[3] <http://www.jargon.org/html/entry/AOL!.html>
[4] Six years, and AOL users still cannot even crosspost, not even when
following up to a posting already crossposted.
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Jonesy
<--Big Snip->
> [1] This close to 2000 and people are still writing years with only two
> digits? That sure gives me confidence in Y2K!
What? Your credit card with 02/01 on it leaves you confused?
I should think folks were writing with 2-digit dates in the
1800-1899 era.
We find ourselves writing dates with two digits now-a-days.
I predict folks will be writing dates with 2 digits in the
2000-2099 era...
Jonesy
--
Marvin L. Jones jonz<AT>rmi.net
Gunnison, Colorado
46 days to go until the Year 2000 -- So what!
412 days to go until the 3rd Millennium of the C.E.
Alan J. Flavell
> What? Your credit card with 02/01 on it leaves you confused?
Well, my cash card says it expires 01/02. But the only way I know that
_doesn't_ mean Feb. 2001 is that it says it was issued in 12/98, so by
analogy I can deduce that it's mm/yy and not the more logical yy/mm.
> I should think folks were writing with 2-digit dates in the
> 1800-1899 era.
And spelling the names of the month out, in the examples that I've seen.
Rijk
>In alt.folklore.computers gr...@apple2.com wrote:
>
><--Big Snip->
>
>> [1] This close to 2000 and people are still writing years with only two
>> digits? That sure gives me confidence in Y2K!
>
>What? Your credit card with 02/01 on it leaves you confused?
It sure does. February 2001 or January 2002?
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Anyone who isn't using a CSS-supporting | Rijk van Geijtenbeek |
browser by now is clearly more interested | mailto:ri...@iname.com |
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appearance. - Alan J. Flavell +-------------------------+
Geoff Lane
> 1800-1899 era.
Would that be feb 2001 or jan 2002 then :-)
--
Geoff. Lane. Manchester Computing
Today's Excuse:
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Ian Stirling
>In article <Up%X3.607$P4.9...@den-news1.rmi.net>,
> Jonesy <jo...@rmi.nospam.net> writes:
>> What? Your credit card with 02/01 on it leaves you confused?
>> I should think folks were writing with 2-digit dates in the
>> 1800-1899 era.
>Would that be feb 2001 or jan 2002 then :-)
They should have made all the cards expire in 2013, to avoid confusion :)
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