From: roby@chopin.udel.edu (Scott W Roby)
Subject: Re: Who was "Dennis Hall"?
Organization: University of Delaware
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 21:55:06 GMT

In article <1992Aug13.154042.9507@s1.gov> lip@s1.gov (Loren I. Petrich) writes:

>	What did "Dennis Hall" say, and what's the full story?

>/Loren

You had to ask...  Ok...    [One more time.....]
Sorry for the exasperation, but I've told this tale a few times before.  :-)

This "Dennis Hall" character started posting, claiming to be a bright 
and cheery pro-choicer, but also doing and saying things that were 
sexist, arrogant,  and not in line with common sense etiquette (posting 
private email in the middle of a big discussion of whether posting private 
email was a good idea or not and under what circumstances).

I got curious and started conversing with the guy in Email.  He spent 
most of the time in Email talking about how he hated Steve Chaney, 
and yet also highly praised his debating skills.  Naturally, I got 
suspicious.

I fingered the account, found it was in a classroom directory where 
most of the adjacent accounts were seldom used.  I checked with 
enrollment and found that Steve Chaney was enrolled in that class, 
but there was no Dennis Hall enrolled in it.

I wrote Steve that I knew there was no Dennis Hall posting here 
and that if he didn't stop posting under a fake name, I'd get his 
sysadmin to confirm that the classroom account in question was 
issued to Steve Chaney.  Steve went nuclear and called my sysadmin 
and tried to get my account pulled.  I talked to Steve's sysadmin 
who confirmed that Chaney was using both accounts.   My sysadmin told me 
I was overzealous (I should have left the matter to him) and Steve's 
sysadmin thanked me for a job well done.  I was never punished, 
although Steve claimed I was for several weeks after and threatened 
similar punishment to anyone else who got him angry (like that's 
hard to do!).  As far as I can tell, Steve was also not punished, 
although I suspect he was told to stop using fake names.

I posted my findings to the net about Dennis Hall being a fake 
name (the first post did not identify Steve Chaney as the impostor).  
I decided to publicly identify Steve Chaney as the perpretrator of 
the Dennis Hall prank, after I heard that Steve (as Dennis) was 
threatening to punish other people's accounts in email.

The charade was so poor that most people easily saw through it and nobody 
(except for Steve and "Dennis") tried to support the idea that "Dennis 
Hall" and Steve Chaney might be two separate people.  Many other people 
pointed out indirect evidence of Chaney="Hall". They both spelled harass 
with the same mispelling and referred to Usenet as Unix, and other similar 
things.  During the next month, there'd be a week or two of flames from 
"Dennis Hall" and then a week of flames from Steve Chaney, both of nearly 
identical ill-mannered and threatening tones.  I never saw "them" 
posting in the same period of time -- I guess two simultaneous personas 
was too much for Steve.  

After awhile the whole Hall/Chaney discussion started getting tedious 
-- you could see it in Steve's posts and everybody else's posts.
There are times when I think it's about to die out... like last week.

I keep hoping the whole issue will die.  I could care less 
whether Chaney has the guts to apologize for his prank or not 
(he hasn't -- he's still pretending he never was "Dennis Hall", even 
though Dean K. has independently verified my statements).  I am totally 
satisfied with the result that he has stopped posting as 
"Dennis Hall - inept pro-choicer".

I'm ready to let it drop, once again.  But I will pipe up whenever 
Chaney refers to the event in an incorrect way.  It is too bad 
that Chaney will have to live with the nickname Hall/Chaney for 
a long time (I don't use it myself, since to me, his dual identity is 
an established fact.), but as his own sysadmin admitted telling Chaney, 
"You made your grave, now you get to lie in it."

Well, Loren, that's the true story of the fake "Dennis Hall" from my 
perspective.

We now return you to the abortion debate, already in progress.

-- 
Scott W. Roby           *This sentence no verb.*      "No Matter where you go..
Phys.& Astr.Dept.    ///// / /  /  *|*  \  \ \ \\\\\      there you are!"
Univ.of Delaware    ((((( ( (  (  * + *  )  ) ) )))))   -> Buckaroo Banzai
roby@brahms.udel.edu \\\\\ \ \  \  *|*  /  / / /////   *Standard Disclaimer*
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