Ernie stated yesterday that new FoRKs are found by people
hitting the archive and being sucked in by one tidbit or the
other. This was certainly the case with me. A search for
information on XML brought me to Rohit's page, which led me to
Adam's page and the FoRK FAQ and then the archives. I joined to
improve my technical knowledge and now I stay for the social side ;-)
That being said, I was battling insomnia last night and
decided to kill some time online by playing with AltaVista.
I was slightly concerned (but not overly so) with the fact that
my playful attitude towards being jokingly called an ignorant
sl*t (note: I won't repeat the word here and have it traced back
to me again, thus *=u) could mark me for life if a future employer
ever did indeed conduct a search on my name. So, on to AltaVista
I went and here is what I discovered:
A search on +FoRK returns 5,059 hits [Rohit says the archives
are over 9,000 -- where are the other 4,000 posts? ]
A search on +sl*t returns 215,067 hits [a scan through the first
50 hits reveals that none of these come from FoRK]
A search on +FoRK +sl*t returns 9 matches [it seems that FoRK has a
long and varied history of using this word in a variety of contexts]
In no particular order, here are a few of the FoRK posts that have used the
word sl*t:
1) It would seem that Rohit himself has been known to refer to
himself in such a manner, but in a slightly different context. Yup,
xent.ics.uci.edu/FoRK-archive/jan98/0142.html reveals that RoRo is a
self-proclaimed "conference sl*t"
2) Waaaay back in August of 1996, Adam earned the distinction of being
the first person on FoRK to include sl*t in a post. He did this
by posting an obnoxiously long list of "Signs that you Might be a Child of
80's" (see: xent.ics.uci.edu/FoRK-archive/fall96/0036.html ) This list
contains many profound observations (NOT), amongst them:
You know you are a child of the 80's if:
You've ever conversationally used the phrase "Jane, You ignorant sl*t"
3) Since August of 96, other FoRks have used the "Jane, you ignorant
sl*t" phrase in their posts. See:
xent.ics.uci.edu/FoRK-archive/fall96/0278.html
xent.ics.uci.edu/FoRK-archive/fall96/0648.html
4) However, the "honour"(?) of the most appropriate -- and thus most
distasteful and vulgar -- use of the word sl*t goes to none other than
our own fine CobraBoy (is anyone surprised to find this out? I doubt it).
In a lengthy and offensive post detailing his adventures in Vegas,
CobraBoy truly outdid himself.
I shan't repeat any of the details, but they can be found at:
xent.ics.uci.edu/FoRK-archive/winter96/0539.html
After reading through Tim's Tale of Vegas, I thought back to CobraBoy's post of
yesterday where he stated:
>Are open archives really worth it for someone to find out...
>that CobraBoy thinks Canada has produced nothing of value...
Pul-eese Tim! This should be a relatively mild concern of yours
compared to some of the tales of lust and corruption that you
have posted for all the world to find. The fact that you have
an unsubstantiated prejudice against Canadians is nothing compared
to some of your more colourful posts!
Notice that my search of AltaVista did not reveal FoRK's most recent use
of the word sl*t -- the posts referring to me or written by me. But, no
doubt, in time they will be there alongside Tim's tale of Vegas (unless,
by luck, those particular posts become some of the thousands that
are missing from AltaVista...one can always hope).
As Always,
Diva (which, btw, is an online tongue-in-cheek personna -- just to make
it perfectly clear and avoid any confusion)