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Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO
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1993-05-01
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The Twit Filter: Reputation Leeches
by Dave Bealer
The purpose of public online communications is, well, communication.
There are those few who will forever lurk, who will never post a
message. Most users eventually get around to posting messages, for
better or worse. Messages in conferences range from the useful or
sublime to the inane or ridiculous. Among the most profane and
insidious of all online denizens is the reputation leech.
Reputation Leeches have no original ideas of their own. At least no
ideas that intelligent people would be interested in, or believe. To
gain attention for their sorry notions, reputation leeches claim
their ideas are really those of their friend and mentor. Said mentor
is always a person of some standing in the field being discussed.
Dead mentors make the best fodder for reputation leeches, since the
alleged mentor is no longer able to confirm or deny the "relation-
ship" with the leech. Fortunately, most reputation leeches are
easily exposed through normal technical discussion. They are
invariably incompetent in the field in question, hence their need to
leech off a competent person's reputation. When confronted with
their obvious lack of knowledge in the field, reputation leeches
scream about the questioner's lack of respect for God, mother,
country, and most of all their mentor and the art/science/profession
practiced by said mentor.
When detected, the best way of dealing with reputation leeches is to
place them in your twit filter. {RAH}