The Usenet Knee-Jerk Show

Rob Rosenberger, Vmyths co-founder
Tuesday, 29 February 2000 HAPPY Y2K LEAPDAY! This leap happens once every 400 or 2000 years, depending how you look at it. The White House reopened its Y2K crisis center to support relief efforts for the big computing catastrophe. They'll watch helplessly as Y2K leapday viruses wipe out the Internet at the rate of one time zone per hour...

"The Usenet Knee-Jerk Show is brought to you today by the folks who make alt.comp.virus.pro-virus a reality..."

In other news, Usenet chugs along with the same ol' same ol'. Credulous participants most recently bit into the Aureate DLLs myth. They bit into it pretty hard, too. You could almost hear people chewing with their mouths open. It takes a few days to do experiments and conduct interviews when a myth like this one surfaces — but Usenet's knee-jerkers don't need a few days. They immediately condemn the accused, launch boycotts, demand reparations, and call for class-action lawsuits. Others on Usenet tremble like drug addicts until they can choose from nine hastily written de-install utilities. When Usenet goes on a witch hunt, they do it at lightspeed. "Today's execution is brought to you by the folks who make alt.comp.virus.pro-virus a reality..." Legit research contradicted the Aureate DLLs hysteria a few days later. Again, we saw the same ol' same ol'. Usenet participants rationalized their knee-jerk reactions by pointing to "larger issues" raised after the fact. (No offense to Glen Harman.) The credulous embrace hysteria because it "raises awareness" for overarching issues like data privacy, computer ethics, truth in documentation, blah blah blah. "These are important concerns and they really needed airing, Rob." Yeah — Usenet aired them at Aureate's expense. Regardless whether they deserved it. I can't stand this "execute until proven innocent" tripe.