ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ ÛÛÛÛ ÚÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ ÛÛÝ ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ Û ÛÛ Û==[ÛThe Lawl ess Society ]==ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ  ÛÛÝ ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß ÛÛÛÛ ÚÄÄÄ ÚÄÄÄ ÚÄÄÄ ÚÄÄÄ ÚÄÄÄ ÚÄÄÄ ÚÄÄÄ ÚÄÄÄ ÚÄÄÄ ÚÄÄÄ  ÚÄÄÄ ÚÄÄÄ ÛÛÛÛ³ÛÛÛÛÛ ³ÛÛÛÛÛ³ ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß  ßßßßßß ³ ßßßßßßß ßß ³ ³ ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛßß ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßÛßßßßßßÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛßß ßßßßÛßßßßßÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ  ÛÛÛÛÚÄÄÄÛÛÚÄÄÄÛ ÚÄÄ Ä ÚßßßßßßÄÄÄ Úßßßß ßßÄÄÄ ÚÄÄßßßßßßÄ ÚÄÄÄ ÚÄÄÄ Ú ÄÄÄ ÛÛÛÛ³ÛÛÛÛÛ³ ÛÛÛÛÛ³ÛÛÛÛÛßßßßßß³  ßßßßßß³ ³ ßßßßßß ßß ³ ³ ÛÛ ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛßßßßßßÛÛÛÛÛÛßßßßßßÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ ÛÛÛÛÛÛßßßßßßßÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ ÛÛÛÛ ÚÄÄÄ ÚÄÄÄÛÛÚÄÄÄßßßßßß  ÚÄÄÄßßßßßß ÚÄÄÄ ÚÄÄÄ ÚÄÄ ßßßßßßÛ ÚÄÄÄÛÛ ÚÄÄÄÛÛ ÛÛÛÛ³ ÛÛÛÛ ³ÛÛÛÛÛ³ÛÛßßßßßßÛÛÛ ³ÛÛßßßßßßÛÛÛ³ÛÛÛÛÛ ³ÛÛ ÛÛ³ÛÛÛßßßßßß Û ³ÛÛÛÛ ³ÛÛÛÛÛ Û ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛßßßßßßÛÛÛÛÛÛßßßßßßßßßß ßßßßßÛÛÛßßßßßßÛßßßßßß  Û ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ ÛÛÛÛ ÚÄÄÄÛÛÚÄÄÄÛÛÚßßßß ßßÄÄÄ Úßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß ÚÄÄÄ  ßßßßßßßßÄÄ ÚÄÄÄ ÚÄÄÄ  ÛÛÛ ³ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ ÛÛÝ    ==[ ÛÛIssue #10 - The Long Awa ited SHEEP File ]== Û ÛÛÝ  ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß ßßßßßßßßßß ÛÛÛÛ³ÛÛÛ  Û³ÛÛÛÛÛ³ÛÛÛÛÛ³ÛÛÛÛÛ ³ÛÛÛÛÛ³ÛÛÛÛÛ³ÛÛÛÛÛ ³ÛÛÛÛÛ³ÛÛÛÛÛ³ÛÛÛÛÛ ³ÛÛÛÛÛ³ÛÛ ÛÛ    ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ Yes, the header of this file IS in Ansi. Call me crazy, but ascii is getting boring. A lot of people have been asking me about this for a while now, so here it is; The long awaited Sheep file. This file discusses things that Fuzzball and I (with 10 years experience a piece) along with the rest of the group have been talking about for months now. ALL of the group have been on both sides of this fence at some time or another. We at least know whats going through the "Sheeps" minds. If you don't understand what the term SHEEP is, it will be explained in the next paragraph. Many of the things said here, will be observations made primarialy by Fuzzball and myself, dealing with Attitudes and experience. Sheep (1) - A medium size furry animal that does nothing but eat, sleep, leave its droppings along the countryside, and blindly follow the sheepherder. Sheep (2) - One, who doesn't think about their actions, who does nothing but try to be like the sheepherder but takes it well too far. Not only do they make themselves look like total fools, they drag the unknowing sheepherders down with them, and make CyberSpace uninhabitable by leaving their droppings of abuse along the cyber countryside! I think everyone understands definition 1, but I hope definition 2 clears it up for some who didn't understand. Most of the things we will discuss are not new by any means. They are more like a stage people go through during a certain stage in their telecommunications lifetime. But there has been a strange phenominon (sp) that has happened, which makes us invent the term SHEEP. Lets explain a bit. Under normal circumstances, this is the normal progression of modem users, from origination to their death. Now there are some differences of course depending on location and things desired, but we feel this is what happens with the majority of cases. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=* Day 0 - Person Gets modem. 0-1 Months - Person discovers online services, such as Compu-Serve, Prodigy, and maybe even a private chat system or two. Some stay at this stage forever. Nothing is wrong with this. If that is what appeals to the user, that is fine, but in most cases, it changes to a different situation. 3 months - Users decides they want to put up their own BBS (although they don't know the first thing about doing it). This is fine in my opinion. Being helped by others is a great way to learn AS LONG AS this person realizes they are not close to experienced yet. 10-11 months - This user/sysop gets to be big-headed. Begins to get into a clique. i.e.-Textfiles, Hacking, Phreaking, Wares (leech!), creative anarchy, computer pornography, graphics etc.... THIS (in our opinion) is fine also. Everyone will eventually find something they like over the rest, and why not spend your time doing what you like? 2-3 years - At this point, the user/sysop is fed up with the people not involved in their clique, and decides to claim eliteness TO that clique (discussed above.) As for Fuzz and I, we deleted all the local users on our board and became importers for piracy organizations out of country (back in '83). We are all human, I don't look down on people who do this. It is a natural event. 3-5 years - One of 3 things happen. 1) The user/sysop gets NAILED by the feds. 2) The user fears getting nailed by the feds and drops out of the sysop (or entire BBS) scene. 3) Person acknowledges his arrogance, and decides to join the rest of the BBS society. 7 years- Person decides to re-involve himself in the BBS society, and begins to attempt to change things for the better. Whether it be fighting for user rights, or puts a board back up, this time to simply share his feeling on what a board should be like, and what they believe in. Now, this is all fine and dandy, but we have noticed a strange phenominon occur. We have not nailed down the cause of it yet but we have our suspicions. What we have noticed, is at the 3 month point (Yes, 3 months) some users skip the rest, and go right to the 2-3 year point. They decide they are the best, and that THEY know what they are doing better than all, and they don't remember coming up the chain, and being helped by others. They simply join a clique, or to be more exact, form their own clique. Unfortunately, what this has done, is make them believe they are gods in User-Land without having any knowledge, or experience to back them up. Inevitably (sp) they make total fools of themselves, and piss people off (people who could crush them). Now, no names will be mentioned as I said before, but I will use case numbers to describe people. For this little ditty, we need a ficticious place for them all to gather. Nothing better than a $20,000 32 line chat system. We shall call it ChatLand from here on in. ChatLand was put up by someone who wanted to bring something new, interesting, fun, and powerful to the area. This person wanted people to be able to call anytime, and enjoy themselves. The money has been spent (Alot of it I must say), and the time invested to make this the best around. Now, the raw materials are there, but a board is only as good as its users make it. At the same time ChatLand went up, another board, shall we call it TextLand, started focusing on something we kindly refer to as "Derfs". The sysop of TextLand is very good friends with the sysop of ChatLand. Originally, neither thought their boards would conflict with each other, and definately not hurt the other. But inevitably (sp) they did. If you dont understand what derf is, read the earlier TLS or TANJ files. That should help. Now, one of the activities on TextLand was to make public people who HAVE the experience, but are still ignorant by logging on a BBS as someone different and basically fooling them into talking about things that are supposed to be private. They would buffer the conversation, and make it into a file, and release it to the public, basically making the DERF-ELECTED person look like a total idiot. Now, I thought it was funny, but I also felt bad for the derf too. Its not cool to take things said in private, and spread them around to everyone. Well, the majority of users felt the same as I did. Unfortunately, a small group of new users to ChatLand (all had less than 4 months experience) thought this was hysterical, and really got involved in TextLand's activities. If TextLand continued doing things as they did before, things would have been fine, but unfortunately, the small band of new users started getting over-involved in the DERF activities. We will call this group SHEEP, for this is the same group that the term was invented for. The sheeps activities got so bad, it spread over to ChatLand, and people were being made derfs on ChatLand. Eventually, ChatLand got a reputation as "Second home of the Derf-File", so this detrimented ChatLand. Now, The sysop of TextLand didn't realize his affects on ChatLand. After all, its not his fault (it isn't). He did not recruit any of the sheep, he didn't ask them to call ChatLand. He also believes in total freedom of speech (I also do, but I think mature judgement should be used by the author) so when the sheep started submitting file entries, he put them in his files. I nor anyone else blame the sysop of TextLand for the sheeps activities. At this point, the published sheep begin to get swollen heads. The sheep often graze in ChatLand. Now ChatLand depends new people calling, and people having a good time (for references) to support itself. Only problem is, the sheep (who at this point) have only 5 odd months of experience. BUT, they are published, so now when a new modem user logs on, and asks a question about something the sheep are discussing, the sheep rebel, and abuse him, and he hangs up. Who wants to call somewhere where they get abused. I sure don't. What the sheep don't realize is for every one of these people they do this too, that could amount to over 30 people who won't call, because this new person finds a new board and talks down about ChatLand. This has happend at LEAST 25 times since June. A rough estimate is they eliminated 750 people from calling. Thats alot of people to piss off. Because of this, the people who call ChatLand just to meet others, get angry. Well, guess what? Instead of admitting their OWN ignorance, they start to abuse the people who feel this way. And more people stop calling. It is a wonder ANYONE calls ChatLand anymore. The Sysop of ChatLand has tried to control them, and is one step from getting rid of them. But now he has to worry about THEM talking bad about ChatLand. At this point, he can't take anymore losses. So now you have a small summary of what has transpired over the last few months with Chat/TextLand. Here are a few case examples of the sheep. I will catch hell for this, but none of them have the guts to confront me about it. I will probably have flat tires when I release this, but TRUST me, I will get the last laugh anyway. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-* Case Study - "Roach" Roach is not necessarily a bad sheep, but probably the most ignorant. He has written a few of the DERF files, and a few other nonsense files. *I* personally refuse to put anything of a nonsense nature in my TLS files. The others in the group may, but I feel we have a more important need among the users. Incident #1 : Roach is on ChatLand, Babbling about stupid things. The Sysop of ChatLand logs on as an alias, to see how roach will abuse him. The sysop mentions something he refers to call a "Radio Modem". Roach (being the ignorant one he is) decides there is no such thing (sadly its been around since probably around '84) and decides to bash the sysops alias account. I think to this day, he still refuses to admit he qualifies for DERF in his own derf files. Habbits : Continually changes handles. Has had at least 5 since he started. Thats averages to one a month. He often abuses new callers, and tries to pass himself off as GOD to the others. Simply hasn't been around long enough to brag. Case Study - "Einstein" Einstein is probably the most intellegent NON-THINKING person I know. He's probably around 16, very small, and doesn't realize ignorance has nothing to do with intellegence. Incidents : Has the NERVE to submit a nonsense story of "101 Uses for the American Flag" file for TLS publication. I dont THINK so pal! It would be interesting to a sheep, but not for anyone who wants intellegence in their life. Habbits : Has this annoying habbit of annoying me by threatening older people (once a Vietnam Vet) with physical violence when he doesn't weigh but a Buck O 5. Granted he has been a good sheep lately, but he ruined it for a few people, by abusing others and getting them to bad-talk ChatLand. Case Study - "Caidoz" Caidoz is a very soft spoken in person. In person he knows his limitations, but on the boards, he often tries to provoke others, simply so he can be accepted into the SHEEP organization. He too is new, and quiet ignorant. Incidents : Has been witnessed SEVERAL times abusing others. Unlike the rest, he does not pick on the young user crowd, he picks on the older users, trying to get them to get pissed off so he can be a Derf author. MANY people have stopped calling because of his actions, and he has no idea about it. Him, and Einstein usually work as a team when together. When I confront him about it on ChatLand, and express my thoughts on his actions, I think he feels I am taking it too seriously. To me, ChatLand is almost useless to call anymore. There are like no new users anymore. I know all the ones on there, and I dont like many of them, so why call? I do it to try to make ChatLand a better place. Habbits : Just VERY annoying, and abusive in general. Case Study - "Veg" I wouldn't clasify veg as a sheep, but all in all, he has contributed to the problem of abuse. Veg feels that BBS's are public, and total freedom of speech is the law. If I put up a BBS, and I dont like the way someone acts towards others on it, I will delete him, as he would also. I like Veg in person. He is a very good person, but I dont think he realizes the damage he does. BTW-Veg is NOT ignorant. He DOES have a few years experience. Out of all discussed in this file, I hope VEG takes this as simply MY opinion. It is not a suggestion, just an expression. Case Study - "12 O'Clock" This person also has a lot of years experience. Unfortunately, the sheep have grasped on to him as a sheepherder. He knows it, and he is a good person. He is trying to teach them things. He has a vast knowledge about alot of things, but I wish he would teach them how to treat other users first. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-* Hopefully, this will spread light to the sheep, and make them realize what they are actually doing. There are MANY more people that are on the border of SHEEPDOM. Maybe this will sway your decision a bit. If you sit back, and remove yourself from the situation, you will realize that our observations are pretty real, and honest. Its time to grow the hell up people. To "Veg" and "12 O'Clock", I DO NOT nor anyone else hold you accountable for thier actions at ALL. Please, take my critisism constructively, and do as mentioned before...step out of the situation, and take a look at THEM. As said before, the herders are not to blame. They have done nothing to deserve the reputation the sheep are giving them. I hope they eventually (if not already) realize THEY are also being hurt in this. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-* To the people not in this area (like our new friends in Ohio) take this as a story that COULD happen to you. Learn from ours and others mistakes. Don't let them take over. Hey, if anything, you get a new nifty term to use for users like this - Sheep! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-* Till Next Time! -Powerslave /////// // ///// // // // // // ///// // // // // ///// ///// =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= The Lawless Society =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 11/29/92