From: malcolm@wrs.com (Malcolm Humes)
Subject: Re: alt.netgod FAQ repost (was ignore Lazlo Nibble's kibble)
Keywords: Lazlo Nibble outburst knee-jerk
Organization: Wind River Systems, Inc.
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 23:35:20 GMT


                          THE LORE OF THE NETGODS
                      alt.fan.netgods.of.rec.music FAQ
                               revision 23.07
            
                     
This FAQ will be automatically posted to rec.music.info and rec.music.misc
every other week, or until someone aknowledges that this has been added to the 
808 State discography. 

Welcome to alt.fan.netgods! For those of you new to the net and the concept
of netgodhood, this FAQ is designed to help explain what and who the netgods
are. 

Originally, back when the net was just a LAN, netgods were believed to just
be mythical figures designed to fill some net need to believe in some being
with greater net-powers than oneself. It's believed that the early netgod
myths evolved form the guru concept into some sort of idealized superuser. 
At the time net cults were common, but usually only as isolated LANs with
ruthless dictators for sysadmins. Eventually as the net grew into the interzone
the smaller cults got absorbed into larger ones, and out of this the rec.music
heirachy was born. It wasn't long until the flame wars started, and then the
Usenet polls, and the anonymous ftp sites for lyrics and discographies were
popping up all over the net. Out of the ashes of the early flame wars the 
first netgods sprung. But all of the original netgods have long since lost
net-access or have been crippled by carpal tunnel syndrome. A few of them
were lost to alt.rock-n-roll, alt.drugs, and alt.sex.bondage and they 
never came back. And some got into net.religion and haven't been heard from 
since. 

Netgods are typically shy, humble folks who only speak out for truth
and justice when it's needed. It's not uncommon for a netgod to deny that
he is in fact a god amongst us, and it's said that a true netgod would never
admit his status unless greeted with the special hex handshake code on
the subject header of any email to them. Real netgods rarely reply to 
unsolicited email and you can almost never finger them. Proper respect
for netgods is shown by ignoring them and silently worshipping their efforts
to keep the net clean from Top Ten lists and lyrics request postings. 

Many netgods may not even realize they've achieved netgod status at first.
The existing netgods meet and share archived postings of potential inductees. 
Each netgod typically nominates a potential netgod and if that nominee is 
seconded then the nominee becomes a net-disciple. But if the disciple is on
uunet he may not receive notification for some months after induction. The 
disciple eventually teams with his net-mentor for a probabtionary period and 
attends the netpolice classes. Once they they get certified as a netcop then 
they either have to wait for an existing netgod to lose his netaccess or for 
a new newsgroup to be created which can become his/her stomping grouds. 

Netgod nominations take into consideration contributions to the net, which 
may consist of:

}ability to act in graceful and noble godlike manner
}ability to detect and displace whiners
}ability to take shit and to dish it out
}ability to inspire and provoke hatred and hero worship via a single posting
}rewriting existing charters to better police the current needs of a newsgroup
}namedropping
}humor


alt.fan.netgods.of.rec.music FAQ
Revision 23.07, last revised  10/1/92     maintained by postmeister@internet.com
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Newsgroups: alt.rave