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- Archive-name: joel-furr/faq
- Alt-fan-joel-furr-archive-name: faq
- Alt-bonehead-joel-furr-archive-name: faq
- Last-modified: 1994/12/11
- Version: 1.0
-
- ---------------
-
- This is the Joel Furr FAQ. As it covers only the Frequently Asked
- Questions about Joel Furr, and does not attempt to provide exhaustive
- answers about Furr, his life, his hobbies, or the size of his personal
- lemur collection, you may wish to also consult the Joel Furr home page via
- the World Wide Web at http://www.best.com/~jfurr/index.html.
-
- Note: there are really only two frequently asked questions, so this thing
- is short. And yes, Joel wrote it and refers to himself in the third
- person. Take this as a sign of megalomania of you want -- use of the
- first person seemed out of place in a FAQ. The following questions do get
- asked rather frequently, so with any luck, this FAQ will head them off.
-
- ---------------
-
- Frequently Asked Questions
-
- ---------------
-
-
- 1. Who is Joel Furr and why does he have two newsgroups named after him?
-
- Joel Furr is a writer who lives in Durham, North Carolina. His birthdate
- is September 20, 1967. He is 6 feet, 2 inches tall, has brown hair, brown
- eyes, fair skin, and weighs between 190 and 200 pounds. He is well known
- on the Internet for his activities on behalf of lemurs, for his activism
- in alt.config and news.groups, for occasionally being an astounding jerk,
- for his choice of enemies (to wit, getting threatened with legal action by
- Canter and Siegel, the Green Card Lawyers), for producing amusing and
- interesting net-related t-shirts and various other colllectibles, and for
- occasionally being amusing himself. Whether you find him worthwhile or
- amusing is entirely up to you.
-
- He has two newsgroups (alt.fan.joel-furr and alt.bonehead.joel-furr)
- named after him because of fits of pique thrown by others in response to
- fits of pique he threw.
-
- Alt.fan.joel-furr exists because Joel Furr once newgrouped
- alt.fan.serdar-argic, to "honor" Serdar Argic, the infamous Turkish
- robo-poster and spammer of newsgroups. Argic immediately newgrouped
- alt.fan.joel-furr by way of response.
-
- Alt.bonehead.joel-furr exists because Joel Furr once newgrouped
- alt.bonehead.paul-hendry to "honor" Paul Hendry, a bozo who'd attempted
- (with some help) to convince the alt.config apparatchiks that there was a
- dire need for a newsgroup about lampreys (yes, those jawless sucking
- fish). Hendry was out to try to trick alt.config into creating an
- absolutely pointless newsgroup; while he failed to convince anyone of
- this, he did result in alt.bonehead.paul-hendry being created and he did
- then turn around and create alt.bonehead.joel-furr, alt.animals.lampreys,
- and alt.animals.paul-hendry. None of the these got carried much of
- anywhere and no one posts to them (except occasionally some complaints
- posted to alt.bonehead.joel-furr). It was a fairly forgettable incident,
- but there you go. That's why alt.bonehead.joel-furr exists.
-
-
- ---------------
-
-
- 2. Who appointed him ruler of alt.*?
-
- No one.
-
- In fact, Joel is still known by some as one of the worst despoilers of the
- alt.* namespace, having created over a hundred newsgroups (most, it should
- be noted, getting lots of traffic).
-
- However, in recent time, he's grown exasperated with the idiots who show
- up in alt.config asking for completely pointless newsgroups and has taken
- on a role more or less diametrically opposed to the one he once held,
- acting to stamp out wasteful alt.* groups and keep others from being
- created. If you'd like to see what groups he's created, consult the list
- at http://www.best.com/~jfurr/alt.html.
-
- But in any case, whether your site pays any attention at all to what he
- does is entirely up to the people who run it.
-
- The bit about Joel being King of alt.config was a joke, but a joke that's
- kept on going for some time, in some ways reflecting the fact that some
- people genuinely do value Joel's "work" on behalf of alt.*.
-
- Your mileage may vary.
-
-
- ---------------
-
- If you have other questions about Joel Furr which were not addressed in
- this FAQ, please consult http://www.best.com/~jfurr/index.html
-