From: kibo@world.std.com (James “Kibo” Parry)
Subject: THE FUTURE OF THE NET IS AT HAND!
Distribution: world,alt,happynet,secretdistribution
Date: Sat, 2 Apr 1994 09:48:40 GMT
Approved: by all right-thinking persons everywhere!
P R O C L A M A T I O N & M A N I F E S T O
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WHEREAS, the computer network named USENET has insurmountable flaws:
=> It is cluttered with thousands of disorganized groups.
=> It is difficult to use due to the various software interfaces.
=> It is infected with viruses, especially in the .signatures.
=> There is no formal rulebook and no official administration.
=> Bozos abound.
=> Power-crazed maniacs frequently try to manipulate Usenet at their whim.
These problems are most important. THEREFORE, in an official and secret democratic vote, Kibo has been duly elected LEADER OF THE NET. To correct this heinous situation, LEADER KIBO has decided to take bold measures, a brave new initiative, detailed herein.
WAKE UP, IT’S 1994! THE FUTURE WILL NOT WAIT FOR A VOTE!
Here is what Leader Kibo has decided–what MUST be done–what WILL be done:
PHASE ONE. GLOBAL RMGROUPS FOR ALL USENET GROUPS WILL BE ISSUED ON 4/15/94, 06:00 GMT.
A Day Without Usenet shall pass, and it will be a time of rest for government employees. Many will discover life, or at least television. Desperate soc.singles readers will have nervous breakdowns. ClariNet will go bankrupt. UUNET’s modems will cool off. The world will rotate a full three hundred sixty degrees just the same.
Every Usenet group, and all its associated problems, will have been wiped off the face of the Earth forever by the might of the rmgroup. Of course, to prevent any power-crazed maniacs from putting the groups back, the newsgroup `control’ will be rmgrouped FIRST. Thus, the situation will be permanent. Nobody will undo the Pax Kibotica!
PHASE TWO. NEWGROUPS FOR THE GROUPS IN THE NEW HIERARCHY WILL BE ISSUED ON 4/16/43, 06:00 GMT.
The new network shall be named HAPPYNET, as it will be a Better Place. Usenet is dead. Long live HappyNet!
HAPPYNET: THE NET THAT’S HAPPIER THAN YOU!
UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE ALL-WISE LEADER KIBO, THE NEW NETWORK SHALL BE ORGANIZED THUSLY:
Three hierarchies encompassing ALL HUMAN DISCOURSE:
=> nonbozo.*
=> bozo.*
=> megabozo.*
All topics discussed on Usenet, and even deeper topics which COULD be discussed on Usenet but AREN’T, will fit nicely in those three– NO EXCEPTIONS. Extensive time and motion studies have been performed in the name of efficiency to maximize your pleasure! Existing groups will be moved into the new organization scheme, resulting in nonbozo.news.announce.newusers, bozo.rec.pets, megabozo.talk.bizarre, nonbozo.comp.virus, bozo.alt.sex, megabozo.alt.fan.lemurs, bozo.postmodern, megabozo.org.mensa, nonbozo.clari.news.urgent, megabozo.megabozo.megabozo.religion.kibology,etc., as determined by scientific measurements of the bozosity of the groups, measured by Leader Kibo’s Council On Scientific Bozosity and the faculty of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY), world leaders in bozosity assessment. These truly scientific procedures were developed and pre-tested by Drs. Todd M. McComb and Tim Gallagher and are patented to prove that they are good!
It is estimated that the statistical breakdown of HappyNet will be thus:
1.0000% nonbozo.*
90.0000% bozo.*
9.0000% megabozo.* (Computations courtesy of Bell Labs)
Bozo.* will, of course, be subdivided logically: bozo.nerd.*, bozo.tv.*, bozo.inane.*, bozo.boring.*, bozo.sex.*, bozo.argue.*.
New groups will also be added for MAXIMUM ENJOYMENT. The network would be a very unfair place if only Leader Kibo were allowed to propose new groups. Instead, because Leader Kibo is benevolent and omnisagaciously father-like, he will create WHATEVER GROUP YOU WANT (even, say, megabozo.kibo.is.a.blenny!) provided that (a) you follow the Official Procedure, filing all five copies of your request in triplicate and then making seven carbons of each, and (b) you pay Leader Kibo $160 for each letter in the new group’s name, and $720 for each period. UNLIKE SOME ARCHAIC SYSTEMS, VOWELS DO NOT COST EXTRA. PAT SAJAK IS EVIL!
Of course, thanks to Leader Kibo’s awesome foresight, new groups will probably not be needed. A simple computer program will generate all groupnames from *.aaaaa.aaaaa.aaaaa.aaaaa to *.zzzzz.zzzzz.zzzzz.zzzzz. This will encompass ALL possibilities in a COMPLETELY LOGICAL FASHION, maximally efficient yet FUN! Prudence and foresight by LEADER KIBO!
There will even be a .d group for every regular group. In fact, the .d groups will even have their own .d.d groups for metadiscussion of whether or not the new .d.d.d and .d.d.d.d groups are needed at all!
The wealth of new groups will also cut down on those annoying egomaniacal posters who try to post the same article to EVERY group, because it will become physically impossible to post to ALL groups within a MORTAL LIFETIME!
But wait, there’s more–over six billion groups MORE will be added at HappyNet’s inception–free of charge!
HAPPYNET: EVERYONE IS EQUALLY EQUAL!
To promote EQUALITY and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS (the good kind), Leader Kibo has decided to correct the inequality of the distribution of “personal” groups. Some people, or groups of people, currently are popular enough to have groups named in their honor: alt.weemba, alt.fan.john-palmer, alt.fan.monty-python, alt.fan.dave-barry, alt.fan.mike-jittlov, alt.fan.naked-guy, alt.religion.kibology, alt.fan.alok-vijayvargia, alt.fan.harry-mandel. Because everyone is equal before the eyes of wise Leader Kibo, it was decided that EVERYONE WILL HAVE THEIR OWN GROUP on HappyNet. This will celebrate the global diversity of our users, demonstrating for once and for all that they are all unique, but unique in exactly the same way!
A scientific questionnaire developed specifically for the purpose will be mailed to everyone on the planet. It will read:
Dear Citizen Of The New Network,
You are being given your own HappyNet group. Its placement
will depend on your answer to this simple question.
ARE YOU A BOZO? (CHECK EXACTLY ONE) [] YES [] NO
I care,
Leader Kibo
People who answer “yes” will be given groups in bozo.personal.*, and people who answer “no” will be given groups in megabozo.personal.*. People who refuse to answer, or show contempt for the process, will be taken (by the Network Security Patrol Force) to the Citadel Of Judgment to appear before the Council Of Bozosity, who will examine the person and assign them either bozo.weenie.* or megabozo.weenie.*.
Of course, this would be POINTLESS if anyone in the world were DENIED ACCESS to HappyNet.
HAPPYNET: A NET IN EVERY POT!
Net access will be provided to EVERY SINGLE PERSON, LIVING, UNBORN, OR DEAD, thanks to the new TELESCREENS which will be installed in every room of every building on the planet. Not only will this encourage higher net communications volume, it will also help Leader Kibo be a good leader, as it will allow Leader Kibo to instantly broadcast to all his subjects, and to see how they are feeling and what they are doing.
But simple TELESCREENS in LIVING ROOMS, BEDROOMS, and BATHROOMS are not enough to ensure FREEDOM and EQUALITY. Neural transceivers will be implanted, FREE, at BIRTH in all newborns, allowing them to “jack in” to HappyNet, transmitting articles, sounds, and even GIF files at the speed of thought! They won’t even have to worry about spelling– they’ll just THINK and their EVERY THOUGHT will be broadcast into EVERYONE ELSE’S HEADS!
And because Leader Kibo CARES and values YOUR opinion, this will even allow Leader Kibo to know what his subjects are THINKING, thanks to the heroic actions of the NETWORK SECURITY PATROL FORCE.
HAPPYNET: WE KNOW WHAT YOU’RE THINKING
The Network Security Patrol Force, or NSPF, will be composed of volunteer system administrators who wish to enforce the continued accuracy, relevance, and acceptability of HappyNet postings. They will monitor, censor, and cancel bad postings, made by EVIL SUBVERSIVES who attempt to DEPRIVE you of your HAPPINESS. These SUPPRESSIVE PERSONS will be hunted down and suppressed!
NSPF officers have really spiffy uniforms, especially the shiny gas masks, well-balanced batons, six-inch-thick shoulder pads and twelve-inch cleats.
And, of course, they will punish evildoers, night or day. HappyNet never sleeps.
HAPPYNET: SLEEP TIGHT WITH ALL THE SECURITY IN THE WORLD!
But what of those EVIL organizations that simply want to SPY on you? Well, the NSPF won’t have to even TRY to prevent that, because the LOGICAL PLAN of HAPPYNET will defeat that automatically! If some three-letter government agency wants to SCAN all articles for WORDS LIKE “NUCLEAR BOMB” or “WHITEWATER”, it will be IMPOSSIBLE because not even the fastest computer in the WORLD–the CRAY-9000–could search ALL THOSE GROUPS, EVER!!!
HAPPYNET: ACCURACY IS EVERYTHING ON HAPPYNET!
Here are examples of infractions against the unwritten rules of HappyNet, and the punishments the NSPF will bring against the villains.
Sending a newgroup message without permission of Leader Kibo: Poster is forced to adopt twelve wacky sitcom children.
Posting flames outside of a *.flame group: Poster is allowed to read only groups about fluffy puppies.
Posting “Please send e-mail, since I don’t read this group”: Poster is rendered illiterate by a simple trepanation.
*Plonk*ing outside talk.bizarre: Poster is *plonked*–LITERALLY.
Posting to aus.* from the USA: Poster is deported to Australia after having a “Kick Me, Mate” sign glued to their forehead.
Posting an article with a malformed address so that mail bounces when people reply: Poster and/or their admin are sent back to kindergarten.
Excess CAPITALIZATION & PUNCTUATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!: Poster is issued a new keyboard without capitals or punctuation. The space bar will be clearly labelled.
Articles quoted in followup, but no new semantic content appended: Poster is forced to watch a “Small Wonder” marathon on cable TV.
Advertising on the net: Poster is forced to pay Leader Kibo for the advertising time.
Asking help for some program but not saying what sort of computer you’re using: Poster’s computer is reduced to 1K RAM.
Arguing over whose computer is better: Being introduced to Leader Kibo, whose custom Turbissimo MoNDO Zeugma 6866688786/XA/sxe/IV computer is far better than theirs and will make them cry in humiliation.
Giving away the secret of “The Crying Game”: No punishment.
Making fools of people in rec.org.mensa with pranks: No punishment necessary for something that simple. After all, some people could even do it by accident.
Referring to the NSPF as “The Thought Police”: Execution.
Humor impairment: Execution.
Saying “Imminent death of the net predicted!”: Imminent execution of poster predicted.
Mentioning Star Trek outside of the Star Trek groups: “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” is cancelled, and all tapes of the original series are burned. William Shatner will direct all future movies.
There are other helpful rules and regulations, but they are double secret.
Of course, various branches of the NSPF will specialize in various enforcements: the Spelling Squad, the Grammar Goons, the Definition Draconians, the Typo Tyrants, the Capitalization Captains, the Pedantic Patriots, the Cross-Post Crushers, the Cascade Commandos, and the .signature .specialforce. There will even be a special detail to track down, and burn, copies of the Green Golfball Joke.
HAPPYNET: MODERATION IN ALL THINGS!
The concept of moderated groups will be retained for a few groups, with minor changes.
Alt.flame (renamed megabozo.alt.flame) will be moderated by Dave Lawrence, as his news.announce.newgroups duties have been assumed by Leader Kibo. Dick Depew will be assigned the task of making up an imaginative Message-ID for every article in the world. (He will also unleash random daemons onto the net to destroy the unpleasant signal to noise ratio completely.)
A program that determines how funny an article is by measuring the frequency of the “k” sound (an elementary comedic principle discovered in Kukamonga, Arkansas) will replace rec.humor.funny moderator Maddi Hausmann, allowing her to devote full time to assisting Brad Templeton’s nonbozo.clarinet.* duties.
Serdar Argic will be the official underliner of HappyNet. Every time the word “turkey” is mentioned, he will post a followup underlining and circling it. This will be a tremendous help to people looking for low-fat recipes.
Jay O’Connell has volunteered to personally deliver an envelope labelled THESE ARE ALL THE TOPLESS PICTURES OF MARINA SIRTIS THERE ARE to all users to prevent them from asking for them over and over. This should reduce the bandwidth by an estimated 90%.
Iain Sinclair will ensure that the link between Australia and the rest of the world is down on a regular schedule, instead of an irregular one. He has also been commissioned to design the NSPF uniforms, with the blessings of the Florida Citrus Council and the California Leather Council.
And, of course, a world-class anonymous-posting server will be established. Not only will it remove your name from your postings (so that you don’t have to worry about defending your opinions) but it will also eliminate the opinions themselves. Thus, don’t be surprised to see a lot of anonymous postings in bozo.alt.sex.stories saying simply “I have no opinion on homosexuality.” HappyNet will help us all to get along, even the people with no names.
But what about those disclaimers that state that your opinion is not that of IBM, McDonalds, MIT, Scientology, etc.?
Disclaimers are NOT required on articles, therefore you MUST include the following:
DISCLAIMER: THIS DISCLAIMER IS NOT REQUIRED BY LEADER KIBO. THIS ARTICLE DOES NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT THE OPINIONS OF LEADER KIBO. THIS ARTICLE DOES NOT NECESSARILY DISAGREE WITH LEADER KIBO EITHER. HAVE A NICE DAY!
Also, for your protection, Leader Kibo has filed a copyright claim on HappyNet. Thus, any postings without a copyright notice become the intellectual property of Kibo. This will keep random people from commercially exploiting your ideas, because they won’t be YOUR ideas any more! It’s THAT SIMPLE. STREAMLINE EVERYTHING!
HAPPYNET: A BLAST TO LIGHT OUR GLOWING FUTURE!
HappyNet as currently implemented is just one communications medium. But this will blast our way into the foundation of the future: Eventually, HappyNet will be expanded to replace the other `conventional’ media, such as newspapers, television, radio, standup comedy, and sex. .signatures will be sixty-second commercials. Alt.sex (bozo.alt.sex) will be interactive and finally worth reading.
A PBS series, “Great RFCs, Past and Present” will be filmed to replace the boring old text RFCs. A Fox series, hosted by Dr. Ruth Westheimer, will replace “Emily Postnews”.
The Sony Walkman will become obsolete thanks to the Sony rnman. The instructions will be on a separate device, the Sony manman.
Once everyone in the world is hooked into the giant HappyNet neural network and their brains merge into one gigantic community of mind (with an IQ well over THREE HUNDRED!), local events will be instantly communicated everywhere in the world. For example, people in Sri Lanka will be able to INSTANTLY receive dozens of “Hey, we’re having a minor earthquake here in San Francisco RIGHT NOW!” postings INSTANTLY, instead of having to wait weeks. Rumors of such important events as DeForest Kelley’s death will also propagate instantly, but this is not really a drawback: it enables the NSPF to detect them and snuff them out faster!
HappyNet is an important part of this well-balanced future. In fact, it is the ONLY part. Without HappyNet, there could be no future. Usenet paves the road to misery and ruin with its cascades, cross-posts, flame wars, forgeries, and .signature viruses. HappyNet does not pave this road–where it’s going, we don’t NEED roads! HappyNet bravely journeys into an unknown, but not unpleasant future. Everyone WILL be happy, happier than human beings can possibly be.
Although it will take HappyNet months, maybe years, to improve all areas of daily existence in all possible ways, it will be obvious to the most casual reader that HappyNet is better than Usenet. Those who aren’t casual readers–well, they will come to agree. In time, they will even love me. In fact, soon they will beg to love me! But I, Leader Kibo, want only the best for everyone. After all, I am one of the readers of Usenet, so I can make the readers of Usenet happy by making me happy FIRST. DEATH TO USENET! LONG LIVE HAPPYNET! TO THE MOON!
**** HAPPYNET: YOU CONTROL HOW IT CONTROLS YOU ****
