From: Anonymous <nobody@replay.com>
Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1998 01:00:05 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Larry Gilbert, AOLers, and the Hyper-real flamer
Message-ID: <199809160556.HAA04756@replay.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



On Tue, 15 Sep 1998 AIMSX@aol.com wrote:

> 
> Obviously you have a very high opinion of yourself and a low opinion of people
> who use AOL.  Contrary to popular belief, there are a few intelligent people
> on AOL, but it looks as if you are too egotistical to realize that.

You're right.

We have very high opinions of ourselves. We have low opinions of people
who use AOL because they're typically scum, spammers, or idiots. You even
admit this by saying "there are a FEW intelligent people on AOL." They're
also paying $20/month for a shitty service with a bad reputation.

If you don't like the stereotype, get your fellow AOLers to get a
clue and reverse it which will probably take years if it's possible at
all, or if you're actually an intelligent AOLer, go get an ISP which
isn't synonymous with manure.

Personally, I'm figuring very, very few AOL users who publish actively to
the Internet have a clue. The traffic on this list just over the last
month backs that up. The reputation AOL has is deserved, and there is a
definate pattern of stupidity from AOL.

In the future quote so we know what you're talking about, and don't use
the "flick off the Internet" quoting style, either.

> Have you ever thought to look at your own mistakes before you publicize
> everyone else's to the world?  

I'm not sending requests for band stickers to cryptography lists. I'm not
sending messages to cryptography lists which read "how u do that" with no
punctuation. I'm not asking members of cryptography lists to sign me up to
receive the news by email every morning. I'm not replying to things while
not quoting, or by using some quoting system which was designed by AOL for
the purpose of pissing off non-AOLers.

I'm not publishing web pages which are unreadable without the latest
shovelware from Microsoft or Netscape, and which shoots the finger
otherwise. 

I'm not saying "AOL is the Internet," and I'm not signing up with a
service because they send me a free mirror or coaster or because I'm too
lazy to learn to do anything other than point and click.

> Are you just suffering from some sort of
> dillusion of grandeur - thinking you are better than everyone else. 

Not everyone else, but infinitely better than the average kool d00d,
AOLer, or webber, and infinitely better than the president who the
"average" American elected.

By the way, the sentence I quoted above is what is known as a question. In
English, you use a question mark for those.

> Things
> like this are what many wars were started over, I am so happy the internet
> (hopefully) won't start a war in the real world.

I won't have anything to do with it, but I'm fully expecting for some new
Unabomber to appear within the next few years. Instead of targeting
technology centers like the Unabomber did, this guy will mail bombs to
spammers, people who send "how u do that" to lists, etc. I, thankfully, am
morally constrained enough to never do anything like that, but I would bet
that there is somebody out there who isn't. 

>From what AOL users send to the Internet from their service, one can
easily conclude that AOL is a haven for wannabes, lamers, and k00l D00dz
\/\/h0 tiPE l1|<E Th1s, but since AOL _is_ the Internet and is so filled
with intelligent people, I suggest you go back there and leave all of us
who are just deluded into thinking we're using the Internet and who only
think we know about our professions and hobbies.

Yet another AnonMonger. (How many are there now? Man.)