Subject:      Re: M=E=O=W Primer:  What all of this garbage is *really* about........
From:         "Dave S. King" <dsking@husc.harvard.edu>
Date:         1996/12/06
Message-ID:   <32A7877C.7DE9@husc.harvard.edu>
Newsgroups:   alt.college.college-bowl,alt.fan.karl-malden.nose,alt.fan.ok-soda,alt.stupidity,alt.usenet.kooks

David Kim wrote:
>
> This post is intended for newbies who are wondering what all of this
> feline vocalizaion on the net is all about.  This article will be posted
> periodically on the following meow-intensive newsgroups:
>
> alt.fan.karl-malden.nose
> alt.college.college-bowl
> alt.tv.beavis-n-butthead
> alt.fan.ok-soda
> alt.stupidity
>
> And, due to the nature of the subject matter, it will also be posted to
> alt.usenet.kooks.
>
> 12/5/96
>
> *** BEGIN MEOW HISTORY ***
>
> A long, long time ago (in usenet terms), a group of students from
> Harvard began posting to the then-empty newsgroup
> alt.fan.karl-malden.nose.  Since Deja News seems to no longer be keeping
> articles from before 1/1/96, I am guessing this occured sometime late in
> 1995.  Most of the posts were just about their lives.  "It's snowing
> now," or "I hate writing papers," or "yesterday I did such and such..."
> That kind of thing.  My guess is that harvard.general did not like them
> posting personal messages, so they took it elsewhere.  The main posters
> in alt.fan.karl-malden.nose were:
>
> Mark Staloff
> Scot J. Trudeau
> Julia Starkey (aka just julia)
> Julia Kim (no relation to David Kim or to Julia Starkey)
> Chuck Truesdell
> Susan Marie Groppi
> and, most notably, Matt Bruce.
>
> Early in 1996 Matt Bruce made a comment he will probably regret for a
> very long time.  He suggested that, just as they "invaded" afkmn, they
> should try invading alt.tv.beavis-n-butthead.  Ask any of these kids now
> and they will INSIST that they were not serious, but at the time they
> were already crossposting into alt.fan.pooh and alt.fan.ok-soda.
>
> The natives of atbnb did not take well to Mr. Bruce's remark.  The
> "invasion," so to speak, was met with retaliation.  Now, it just so
> happened that one of the Harvard kids, probably Chuck Truesdell, had a
> habit placing "meow meow" in many of his posts, ala Henrietta Pussycat
> of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.  There was also a quote of Matt Bruce,
> whether it is really he who said this or not I don't know, but it went
>
> > Meow meow Henrietta Pussycat meow meow meow The Presidents of the United
> > States of America meow Kitty?
> >
> > --Matt
>
> Somehow or another this led the kind folks of atbnb to dub Matt Bruce
> "Commandante Meow Meow Matt Bruce," and to start lots of flames with the
> words "meow meow" in them.  It just so happened that some of these
> flames were discovered by group of rogue spammers that included none
> other than John Grubor himself.  For those of you not familiar with
> Grubor, he is a disbarred lawyer from PA and the grandfather of all
> usenet kooks.  These spammers started to expand the meow flame war to
> more and more newsgroups.  They even found it fun to forge the names of
> the Harvard kids as the authors of the meow messages.  The Harvard kids
> attempted, naturally, to stop this forgery, only making the spammers
> more angry with the "elitist HIV League weenies."
>
> It was then decided that the best way to "get back" at the Harvard kids
> for preventing them from forging them was to attack them where they
> lived.  AFKMN was flooded with crossposts about Commandante Meow Meow
> Matt Bruce, and a new invention: the MEOW MEOW ARMY.  It was also noted
> that many of these kids were pariticipants in College Bowl, so
> alt.college.college-bowl became another victim of meow attacks.
>
> By May of 1996 the *real* Harvard students gave up trying to defend
> themselves and fled afkmn.  I received an e-mail from one of them
> informing me that they were going to a group known as alt.groppi (for
> Susan Marie Groppi), and not to tell anyone.  Alt.groppi is only carried
> on a box at Harvard, so they are relatively safe from crossposters
> there.
>
> Meanwhile the Meowers continued their attacks on
> alt.college.college-bowl and the rest of Usenet throughout summer and
> fall 1996.  If anyone tried to get in their way, they flamed them (via a
> charming invention known as the "cascade") to hell and back.  Meow kind
> of took on a life of its own, as newbies saw all of the meow stuff and
> said, "That looks like fun..."
>
> Today alt.college.college-bowl is so choked with meow posts and the like
> that actual College Bowlers are unable to use it to discuss matters
> concerning quiz trivia games at the college level.  Petrea Mitchell, a
> student at NYU, started a "cascade watch" to keep track of Meowers and
> encourage people to report such spammers to their postmasters (aka
> "netcopping").  This has been met with further retaliation (i.e. spam)
> by the ever-growing meow community.
>
> *** END MEOW HISTORY ***
>
> I *think* that's pretty much the complete story.  If you have anything
> to add, please respond to this post.

It's not bad.