Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!hoptoad!amdcad!decwrl!ucbvax!jade!aurora!barry From: barry@aurora.UUCP Newsgroups: alt.flame Subject: Re: There IS a hoax at UCB Message-ID: <1311@aurora.UUCP> Date: Wed, 18-Nov-87 18:09:30 EST Article-I.D.: aurora.1311 Posted: Wed Nov 18 18:09:30 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 21-Nov-87 16:19:29 EST References: <5909@jade.BERKELEY.EDU> <1842@chinet.UUCP> <5944@jade.BERKELEY.EDU> <1851@chinet.UUCP> Reply-To: barry@aurora.UUCP (Kenn Barry) Organization: QQQCLC Lines: 91 [] Whee! This stuff is getting interesting. Can I play detective, too? Here we go... Rhonda notes that that a letter she misaddressed to Mark Ethan Smith, and cc'd (correctly) to Matthew Wiener, was answered by MES. Skyler, Mike Robinson, and Roger Klorese all note that this proves nothing, since Matthew could have forwarded the note to MES for her. Rhonda responds: In article <1851@chinet.UUCP> rhonda@chinet.UUCP (Rhonda Scribner) writes: >Well, Roger, Skyler, and Mike, that's the whole point. For Matthew to pass up >an opportunity to send me a note calling me a "moron twit" (one of his >favorite expressions) for messing up the e-mail header (hee hee) instead of >just forwarding the mail over to era1987 is as likely as a monkey passing >up bananas. You conspiracy theorists out there should appreciate that one. Real indisputable logic :-). But wait, there's more: >>Then give some evidence that Mark does not exist. Your bluff is being >>called. Prove _you_ exist. I have met Mark. So has Mike. > >No, skyler, it's YOUR bluff that's being called. The information that Larry >Lippman posted about the actual Mark Ethan Smith court case (the one about >which you and "Mike" were so angry at Larry for posting) provided information >that enabled people to contact the real Mark Ethan Smith described in that >court docket. (Which is why you flamed so much about it!) Luckily, friends >of mine managed to contact her. Guess what? She has NEVER heard of the net. >She is not an "old Jewish woman on social security" (a cloying plea added to >the hoax by its perpetrators). And she's NEVER heard of you or Mike Robinson! >So, come off it, you lying sons of bitches. Remember you DEMANDED that I >offer proof. Now you've got it. When the real Mark Ethan Smith confronts >YOUR Mark Ethan Smith (whatever shill you come up with to play the part), your >bullshit will be broken. You haven't met Mark Ethan Smith any more than I've >met the pope. At this point it starts to look like somebody's out-and-out lying. Unless Rhonda's friends found the wrong MES, it seems either that: 1) Those who claim to have met MES are lying. 2) Rhonda is lying. 3) MES is lying. Either he lied to Rhonda's friends about knowing about Usenet, or someone claiming to be MES is lying to everyone in sight about who he really is. Frankly, I find possibility 1) unlikely. Besides Rhonda's current targets, at least one other person (sorry, forgot your name) has posted that they've met MES; I also know another netter who told me he's talked to MES on the phone. Moreover, MES has been around the net quite a while, and run conferences on systems like the WELL and chinet. Let's consider 2). Who, after all, is Rhonda Scribner? Anyone know? She's relatively new to the net. She posts from a public access system, which means she isn't physically located at a site where others with net access can say, yes, I know Rhonda, she sits at the next desk. Her terminal, presumably, is at her home. Has ANYONE met Rhonda Scribner? Randy Seuss runs a relaxed system at chinet, and there are no big-deal verification procedures for getting an account. Couldn't she be anyone, or no one? Is it unreasonable to suggest that she, herself, is a pseudo? Even these "friends" she mentions as checking up on MES for her are anonymous. Is there a shred of evidence she doesn't make all this stuff up as she goes? If so, it hasn't been posted. Rhonda seems to enjoy throwing around accusations. Well, it's a principle in American justice that one gets to confront one's accusers. Where/who is Rhonda? Any of the Chicago netters ever meet her? Does anyone have ANY information suggesting she's not just a made-up identity of someone that enjoys making waves? I admit I have no evidence one way or the other, but I'm starting to wonder more and more. Possibility 3) seems unlikely. Everyone agrees there is a real MES. Rhonda's suggestion that someone on the net is impersonating the real MES is prima facie absurd. Who impersonates someone no one has ever heard of? How would the impersonater(s) have found out about Mark's case? It was never mentioned on the net until MES became a known personality hereabouts. Anyway, it's all very interesting. In one corner, we have at *least* 4 people who claim to have met Mark, plus one more who has talked to Mark on the phone. In the other, we have someone whose name may or may not be Rhonda Scribner, who may or may not even be serious about her charges, claiming Mark is fictional. No one has, as yet, come forth to claim knowledge of Rhonda. It's all very inconclusive, I admit, but it will be interesting to see if anyone else comes forward claiming to have met Mark, and if anyone at all will claim to have met Rhonda. I eagerly await the next act of this comedy. Maybe we should have a poll in the meantime? Everybody votes on who's real, and who isn't? - From the Crow's Nest - Kenn Barry - QQQCLC - NASA-Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ELECTRIC AVENUE: {hplabs,seismo,dual,ihnp4}!ames!aurora!barry