The Lawless Society issue 010

eZine lover (@eZine)

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The Lawless Society

 · 5 years ago

  

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           ==[ ÛÛIssue #10 - The Long Awa 
ited SHEEP File  ]==            Û ÛÛÝ 
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ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ 

 

     Yes, the header of this file IS in Ansi. Call me crazy, but ascii is 
getting boring. A lot of people have been asking me about this for a while 
now, so here it is; The long awaited Sheep file. This file discusses things 
that Fuzzball and I (with 10 years experience a piece) along with the rest 
of the group have been talking about for months now. ALL of the group have 
been on both sides of this fence at some time or another. We at least know 
whats going through the "Sheeps" minds. If you don't understand what the 
term SHEEP is, it will be explained in the next paragraph. Many of the 
things said here, will be observations made primarialy by Fuzzball and 
myself, dealing with Attitudes and experience. 

 
Sheep (1)  
- A medium size furry animal that does nothing but eat, sleep, leave its 
droppings along the countryside, and blindly follow the sheepherder. 

Sheep (2)  
- One, who doesn't think about their actions, who does nothing but try to 
be like the sheepherder but takes it well too far. Not only do they make 
themselves look like total fools, they drag the unknowing sheepherders down 
with them, and make CyberSpace uninhabitable by leaving their droppings of 
abuse along the cyber countryside! 

 
I think everyone understands definition 1, but I hope definition 2 clears 
it up for some who didn't understand. Most of the things we will discuss 
are  not new by any means. They are more like a stage people go through 
during a  certain stage in their telecommunications lifetime. But there has 
been a  strange phenominon (sp) that has happened, which makes us invent 
the term  SHEEP. Lets explain a bit. 

Under normal circumstances, this is the normal progression of modem users, 
from origination to their death. Now there are some differences of course 
depending on location and things desired, but we feel this is what happens 
with the majority of cases. 

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=* 

Day 0 - Person Gets modem. 

0-1 Months - Person discovers online services, such as Compu-Serve, 
Prodigy, and maybe even a private chat system or two. Some stay at this 
stage forever. Nothing is wrong with this. If that is what appeals to the 
user, that is fine, but in most cases, it changes to a different situation. 

3 months - Users decides they want to put up their own BBS (although they 
don't know the first thing about doing it). This is fine in my opinion. 
Being helped by others is a great way to learn AS LONG AS this person 
realizes they are not close to experienced yet. 

10-11 months - This user/sysop gets to be big-headed. Begins to get into a 
clique. i.e.-Textfiles, Hacking, Phreaking, Wares (leech!), creative 
anarchy, computer pornography, graphics etc.... THIS (in our opinion) is 
fine also. Everyone will eventually find something they like over the rest, 
and why not spend your time doing what you like? 

2-3 years - At this point, the user/sysop is fed up with the people not 
involved in their clique, and decides to claim eliteness TO that clique 
(discussed above.)  As for Fuzz and I, we deleted all the local users on 
our board and became importers for piracy organizations out of country 
(back in '83). We are all human, I don't look down on people who do this. 
It is a natural event. 

3-5 years - One of 3 things happen.  
1) The user/sysop gets NAILED by the feds. 
2) The user fears getting nailed by the feds and drops out of the sysop (or 
   entire BBS) scene.  
3) Person acknowledges his arrogance, and decides to join the rest of the 
   BBS society. 

7 years- Person decides to re-involve himself in the BBS society, and 
begins to attempt to change things for the better. Whether it be fighting 
for user rights, or puts a board back up, this time to simply share his 
feeling on what a board should be like, and what they believe in.  

 
Now, this is all fine and dandy, but we have noticed a strange phenominon 
occur. We have not nailed down the cause of it yet but we have our 
suspicions. What we have noticed, is at the 3 month point (Yes, 3 months) 
some users skip  the rest, and go right to the 2-3 year point. They decide 
they are the best,  and that THEY know what they are doing better than all, 
and they don't  remember coming up the chain, and being helped by others. 
They simply join a clique, or to be more exact, form their own clique. 
Unfortunately, what this  has done, is make them believe they are gods in 
User-Land without having any  knowledge, or experience to back them up. 
Inevitably (sp) they make total  fools of themselves, and piss people off 
(people who could crush them). Now,  no names will be mentioned as I said 
before, but I will use case numbers to  describe people. For this little 
ditty, we need a ficticious place for them  all to gather. Nothing better 
than a $20,000 32 line chat system. We shall  call it ChatLand from here on 
in. 

ChatLand was put up by someone who wanted to bring something new, 
interesting, fun, and powerful to the area. This person wanted people to be 
able to call anytime, and enjoy themselves. The money has been spent (Alot 
of  it I must say), and the time invested to make this the best around. 
Now, the  raw materials are there, but a board is only as good as its users 
make it. At  the same time ChatLand went up, another board, shall we call 
it TextLand,  started focusing on something we kindly refer to as "Derfs". 

The sysop of  TextLand is very good friends with the sysop of ChatLand. 
Originally, neither  thought their boards would conflict with each other, 
and definately not hurt  the other. But inevitably (sp) they did. If you 
dont understand what derf is,  read the earlier TLS or TANJ files. That 
should help. 

Now, one of the activities on TextLand was to make public people who HAVE 
the experience, but are still ignorant by logging on a BBS as someone 
different and basically fooling them into talking about things that are 
supposed to be private. They would buffer the conversation, and make it 
into a  file, and release it to the public, basically making the 
DERF-ELECTED person  look like a total idiot. Now, I thought it was funny, 
but I also felt bad for  the derf too. Its not cool to take things said in 
private, and spread them  around to everyone. Well, the majority of users 
felt the same as I did. 

Unfortunately, a small group of new users to ChatLand (all had less than 4 
months experience) thought this was hysterical, and really got involved in 
TextLand's activities. If TextLand continued doing things as they did 
before,  things would have been fine, but unfortunately, the small band of 
new users  started getting over-involved in the DERF activities. We will 
call this group  SHEEP, for this is the same group that the term was 
invented for. 

The sheeps activities got so bad, it spread over to ChatLand, and people 
were being made derfs on ChatLand. Eventually, ChatLand got a reputation as 
"Second home of the Derf-File", so this detrimented ChatLand. Now, The 
sysop of TextLand didn't realize his affects on ChatLand. After all, its 
not his  fault (it isn't). He did not recruit any of the sheep, he didn't 
ask them to  call ChatLand. He also believes in total freedom of speech (I 
also do, but I  think mature judgement should be used by the author) so 
when the sheep started  submitting file entries, he put them in his files. 
I nor anyone else blame the  sysop of TextLand for the sheeps activities. 

At this point, the published sheep begin to get swollen heads. The sheep 
often graze in ChatLand. Now ChatLand depends new people calling, and 
people  having a good time (for references) to support itself. Only problem 
is, the  sheep (who at this point) have only 5 odd months of experience. 
BUT, they are  published, so now when a new modem user logs on, and asks a 
question about  something the sheep are discussing, the sheep rebel, and 
abuse him, and he  hangs up. Who wants to call somewhere where they get 
abused. I sure don't. What the sheep don't realize is for every one of 
these people they do this  too, that could amount to over 30 people who 
won't call, because this new  person finds a new board and talks down about 
ChatLand. This has happend at  LEAST 25 times since June. A rough estimate 
is they eliminated 750 people from  calling. Thats alot of people to piss 
off. Because of this, the people who  call ChatLand just to meet others, 
get angry. Well, guess what? Instead of admitting their OWN ignorance, they 
start to abuse the people who feel this  way. And more people stop calling. 
It is a wonder ANYONE calls ChatLand  anymore. The Sysop of ChatLand has 
tried to control them, and is one step from  getting rid of them. But now 
he has to worry about THEM talking bad about ChatLand. At this point, he 
can't take anymore losses. So now you have a small  summary of what has 
transpired over the last few months with Chat/TextLand. 

Here are a few case examples of the sheep. I will catch hell for this, but 
none of them have the guts to confront me about it. I will probably have 
flat tires when I release this, but TRUST me, I will get the last laugh 
anyway. 

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-* 

Case Study - "Roach" 

Roach is not necessarily a bad sheep, but probably the most ignorant. He 
has written a few of the DERF files, and a few other nonsense files. *I* 
personally refuse to put anything of a nonsense nature in my TLS files. The 
others in the group may, but I feel we have a more important need among 
the users. 

Incident #1 : 
Roach is on ChatLand, Babbling about stupid things. The Sysop of ChatLand 
logs on as an alias, to see how roach will abuse him. The sysop mentions 
something he refers to call a "Radio Modem". Roach (being the  ignorant 
one he is) decides there is no such thing (sadly its been around  since 
probably around '84) and decides to bash the sysops alias account. I  think 
to this day, he still refuses to admit he qualifies for DERF in his own 
derf files. 

Habbits  : 
Continually changes handles. Has had at least 5 since he started. Thats 
averages to one a month. He often abuses new callers, and tries  to pass 
himself off as GOD to the others. Simply hasn't been around long  enough to 
brag. 

 
Case Study - "Einstein" 

Einstein is probably the most intellegent NON-THINKING person I know. 
He's probably around 16, very small, and doesn't realize ignorance has 
nothing  to do with intellegence. 

Incidents  : 
Has the NERVE to submit a nonsense story of "101 Uses for the American 
Flag" file for TLS publication. I dont THINK so pal! It would be 
interesting to a sheep, but not for anyone who wants intellegence in their 
life. 

Habbits   : 
Has this annoying habbit of annoying me by threatening older  people (once 
a Vietnam Vet) with physical violence when he doesn't weigh but a  Buck O 
5. Granted he has been a good sheep lately, but he ruined it for a few 
people, by abusing others and getting them to bad-talk ChatLand. 

 
Case Study - "Caidoz" 

Caidoz is a very soft spoken in person. In person he knows his limitations, 
but on the boards, he often tries to provoke others, simply so he  can be 
accepted into the SHEEP organization. He too is new, and quiet ignorant. 

Incidents  : 
Has been witnessed SEVERAL times abusing others. Unlike the  rest, he does 
not pick on the young user crowd, he picks on the older users,  trying to 
get them to get pissed off so he can be a Derf author. MANY people  have 
stopped calling because of his actions, and he has no idea about it. Him, 
and Einstein usually work as a team when together. When I confront him 
about it on ChatLand, and express my thoughts on his actions, I think he 
feels I am  taking it too seriously. To me, ChatLand is almost useless to 
call anymore. There are like no new users anymore. I know all the ones on 
there, and I dont  like many of them, so why call? I do it to try to make 
ChatLand a better  place. 

Habbits   : 
Just VERY annoying, and abusive in general. 

 
Case Study - "Veg" 

I wouldn't clasify veg as a sheep, but all in all, he has contributed to 
the problem of abuse. Veg feels that BBS's are public, and total freedom of 
speech is the law. If I put up a BBS, and I dont like the way someone acts 
towards others on it, I will delete him, as he would also. I like Veg in 
person. He is a very good person, but I dont think he realizes the damage 
he does. BTW-Veg is NOT ignorant. He DOES have a few years experience. Out 
of all discussed in this file, I hope VEG takes this as simply  MY opinion. 
It is not a suggestion, just an expression. 

 
Case Study - "12 O'Clock" 
This person also has a lot of years experience. Unfortunately, the sheep 
have grasped on to him as a sheepherder. He knows it, and he is a good 
person. He is trying to teach them things. He has a vast knowledge about 
alot of  things, but I wish he would teach them how to treat other users 
first. 

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-* 

Hopefully, this will spread light to the sheep, and make them realize what 
they are actually doing. There are MANY more people that are on the border 
of SHEEPDOM. Maybe this will sway your decision a bit. If you sit back, 
and remove yourself from the situation, you will realize that our 
observations  are pretty real, and honest. Its time to grow the hell up 
people. To "Veg" and  "12 O'Clock", I DO NOT nor anyone else hold you 
accountable for thier actions  at ALL. Please, take my critisism 
constructively, and do as mentioned  before...step out of the situation, 
and take a look at THEM. 

As said before, the herders are not to blame. They have done nothing to 
deserve the reputation the sheep are giving them. I hope they eventually 
(if not already) realize THEY are also being hurt in this.  

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-* 

To the people not in this area (like our new friends in Ohio) take this as 
a story that COULD happen to you. Learn from ours and others mistakes. 
Don't let them take over. Hey, if anything, you get a new nifty term to use 
for users like this - Sheep! 

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-* 

                               Till Next Time! 

                                           -Powerslave 

 

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                          =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 
                          The Lawless Society 
                          =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 
                               11/29/92