In years past, threads about this 'forbidden topic' would disappear immediately. I never whacked any myself (I never quite agreed with why it was verboten), but I read 'em in the Trash whenever they occured.
Admittedly, I haven't done much other than lurk and make a post or two every six months for the past several years, so I'm not at all versed in the current culture. I have noticed that things seem to have relaxed a bit in the last year to two and the language filter is gone (no more imbedding [b ][ /b] in the middle of "fuck" just to get it to post), so maybe the time is right?
NOWHEREMOM is a big part of early Internet lore...someone actually wrote a dissertation about it...and it happened right here. It's been nearly eight years, and I still see it pop up from time to time on other forums...I actually think it a shame that no one can go back and read the original thread as posted. I think it's time AT actually has a discussion on the topic. I'll start...
I've had a bit I've wanted to add to the story for a long time but never bothered; initially out of deferrence to the mods and admins at AT, and then later just because I knew that no one would ever get a chance to read it before the thread got whacked. It's mostly faded from my thoughts since then, but it does pop up whenever I see mention of NOWHEREMOM elsewhere. I was browsing a thread on Ars tonight (no, I won't post the link, because I don't question the veracity...maybe I'm just getting soft now that I have kids, but whatever) where some posters became skeptical, and again Dennilfloss was mentioned. It got me thinking again, so what the fuck? I guess I'll find out in about an hour or so when I refresh the forum to see if this thread is still here...
For the record, I bear Dennis no ill will, and anyone else who does ought to have gotten over it seven years ago. I'm not trying to rehash that thread...I'm just interested in talking about it openly now, many years later, and adding my part of the story.
In Dennilfloss's 'confession' post, he mentioned someone who found out, and was basically run out of town. That was vapor...I later saw him posting as jeff jorgenson on Ars, but I haven't seen/heard anything from him in many years. I have no idea what happened to him. Dennilfloss mentioned another who 'discovered the truth' and kept quiet. That was me.
I wasn't a mod when it all went down. If I was, I might have looked up the IPs right then and there. I have no idea what I'd have done with the information, though. The whole thing never quite passed the stink test with me...I was skeptical, but to be on the safe side I posted a simple condolence in the 'death' thread and left it at that. Several months later, I joined the moderator team.
Maybe a year or so after that, I was enjoying one of my favorite pasttimes (browsing porn) when I stumbled on an image that was immediately familiar. Not just "she looks like someone I know", but a certain, "I've seen this picture before". I must have stared at her for an hour, wracking my brain to figure out who she was. I was thinking she was someone I went to high school with, and then the light bulb went off. I pulled up the 'Memorial Page', and not only was it the same person I was looking at, but the same picture. My version, though, wasn't cropped at the shoulders, and I was looking at her naked boobs and then some...
I immediately remembered a post (from one of the early spin-off boards) from Johnlee talking about something similar. Probably a year prior, he posted a thread requesting advice...he was porn browsing, and stumbled upon something curious, and was trying to decide if he should say anything. It was very cryptic and non-specific, and flew way over my head at the time, but once I stumbled upon the same set of photos it made perfect sense.
Like I said, I was always skeptical of the NOWHEREMOM death thread, but not enough to really look into it. When I saw that picture, though, I decided to investigate.
In those days, I often bought a six-pack of beer on my way home from work, and that night was no exception (this is important to the story). I had one beer before finding the picture, and then started guzzling them once I was on my mission...
I opened up the admin module to search IP addresses of posters (even back then it was pretty simple...type in a username, click a button, and get a text list of every IP they've posted from for the last few years). I searched 'Dennilfloss' and then 'NOWHEREMOM' and dumped them into Excel. A simple cross-check showed that 90% of the IPs were the same. It was quite clear to me at that point that Dennilfloss and NOWHEREMOM were one and the same.
I was pissed (remember it wasn't that long after the whole mess went down) and I felt taken...and I'd burned through my whole six pack of Iron City pounders and started in on my roommate's bottle of Seagrams Gin so my thinking wasn't entirely clear. I decided that "The Truth Should Be Known!" and planned to post what I'd found out directly to the forums. I wanted to do it anonymously (I didn't want to betray the principle of anonymous mods by posting stuff from the admin module under my username...but planned fess up to them after it all blew over), so I downloaded the app for "Bluelight" (free Internet from Kmart...boy, that takes me back) so I could dial in on another ISP and post from a different IP. I had every intention of just posting the spreadsheet (already had it uploaded to Tripod), but remember the six-pack and my roommate's gin... I made it as far as registering a username, I think it was Uncle_Charley or Uncle_Spanky, or something like that...but I ran into some sort of snag that my booze-addled brain can't remember. Maybe the connection kept dropping, or I couldn't get to the email to confirm the registration (not sure if AT did that back then, though...If I had to bet money on it, I'd put my cash on the connection)...in any case, I gave up and went to my bed to pass out. I emailed my spreadsheet to Harvey and Russ (the forum admins at the time) before I did, though, and said in the message that I wanted to post it.
I went to work at 9am the next morning with a wicked headache. I opened my email to see responses from Harvey and Russ. We battled back and forth through most of the day. Harvey was nice and understanding, Russ not so much...anyone who remembers him ought to easily imagine what he'd typed. We fought over email for a few hours, and eventually I decided it just wasn't that important. Dennilfloss was a mod at the time, though, and they wouldn't 'fire' him, so I quietly quit in protest. I've occasionally wondered if they knew before I sent them the 'proof'...I figure vapor was smart enough that he ought to have send the same thing, but Dennilfloss wasn't a moderator then, and I can't see them making him one knowing what happened...so I don't know. They did leave him on as a mod for a while after that, so who knows?
The mods all shared contact info (including phone numbers) back in those days, and Harvey had left me a message on my answering machine first thing that morning that went something like " don't do it...it'll just cause greif and hurt people"...it was very cryptic and non-specific (and typical Harvey). My roommate picked it up and got scared...when I got home from work, he was waiting for me. As soon as I walked in the door, he asked me what kind of trouble I'd gotten myself into...he thought I was mixed up in the mob or something. I laughed, showed him the thread and explained what was going on.
A few months later, Dennilfloss posted his "Confession" thread, and the two of us drank beer at ate popcorn while it all went down.
Eventually, someone else found out what happened and threatened to expose. I think it was Red Dawn, but I've never known for sure. In any case, Dennilfloss posted his confession, and the rest is history. I've occasionally wondered how it would have gone down if I'd been able to post my 'proof' as soon as I found it (I never told Russ and Harvey that it was my original intention). In any case, it's a fun bit of Internet lore, and I'm glad to have been a part of it.
Admittedly, I haven't done much other than lurk and make a post or two every six months for the past several years, so I'm not at all versed in the current culture. I have noticed that things seem to have relaxed a bit in the last year to two and the language filter is gone (no more imbedding [b ][ /b] in the middle of "fuck" just to get it to post), so maybe the time is right?
NOWHEREMOM is a big part of early Internet lore...someone actually wrote a dissertation about it...and it happened right here. It's been nearly eight years, and I still see it pop up from time to time on other forums...I actually think it a shame that no one can go back and read the original thread as posted. I think it's time AT actually has a discussion on the topic. I'll start...
I've had a bit I've wanted to add to the story for a long time but never bothered; initially out of deferrence to the mods and admins at AT, and then later just because I knew that no one would ever get a chance to read it before the thread got whacked. It's mostly faded from my thoughts since then, but it does pop up whenever I see mention of NOWHEREMOM elsewhere. I was browsing a thread on Ars tonight (no, I won't post the link, because I don't question the veracity...maybe I'm just getting soft now that I have kids, but whatever) where some posters became skeptical, and again Dennilfloss was mentioned. It got me thinking again, so what the fuck? I guess I'll find out in about an hour or so when I refresh the forum to see if this thread is still here...
For the record, I bear Dennis no ill will, and anyone else who does ought to have gotten over it seven years ago. I'm not trying to rehash that thread...I'm just interested in talking about it openly now, many years later, and adding my part of the story.
In Dennilfloss's 'confession' post, he mentioned someone who found out, and was basically run out of town. That was vapor...I later saw him posting as jeff jorgenson on Ars, but I haven't seen/heard anything from him in many years. I have no idea what happened to him. Dennilfloss mentioned another who 'discovered the truth' and kept quiet. That was me.
I wasn't a mod when it all went down. If I was, I might have looked up the IPs right then and there. I have no idea what I'd have done with the information, though. The whole thing never quite passed the stink test with me...I was skeptical, but to be on the safe side I posted a simple condolence in the 'death' thread and left it at that. Several months later, I joined the moderator team.
Maybe a year or so after that, I was enjoying one of my favorite pasttimes (browsing porn) when I stumbled on an image that was immediately familiar. Not just "she looks like someone I know", but a certain, "I've seen this picture before". I must have stared at her for an hour, wracking my brain to figure out who she was. I was thinking she was someone I went to high school with, and then the light bulb went off. I pulled up the 'Memorial Page', and not only was it the same person I was looking at, but the same picture. My version, though, wasn't cropped at the shoulders, and I was looking at her naked boobs and then some...
I immediately remembered a post (from one of the early spin-off boards) from Johnlee talking about something similar. Probably a year prior, he posted a thread requesting advice...he was porn browsing, and stumbled upon something curious, and was trying to decide if he should say anything. It was very cryptic and non-specific, and flew way over my head at the time, but once I stumbled upon the same set of photos it made perfect sense.
Like I said, I was always skeptical of the NOWHEREMOM death thread, but not enough to really look into it. When I saw that picture, though, I decided to investigate.
In those days, I often bought a six-pack of beer on my way home from work, and that night was no exception (this is important to the story). I had one beer before finding the picture, and then started guzzling them once I was on my mission...
I opened up the admin module to search IP addresses of posters (even back then it was pretty simple...type in a username, click a button, and get a text list of every IP they've posted from for the last few years). I searched 'Dennilfloss' and then 'NOWHEREMOM' and dumped them into Excel. A simple cross-check showed that 90% of the IPs were the same. It was quite clear to me at that point that Dennilfloss and NOWHEREMOM were one and the same.
I was pissed (remember it wasn't that long after the whole mess went down) and I felt taken...and I'd burned through my whole six pack of Iron City pounders and started in on my roommate's bottle of Seagrams Gin so my thinking wasn't entirely clear. I decided that "The Truth Should Be Known!" and planned to post what I'd found out directly to the forums. I wanted to do it anonymously (I didn't want to betray the principle of anonymous mods by posting stuff from the admin module under my username...but planned fess up to them after it all blew over), so I downloaded the app for "Bluelight" (free Internet from Kmart...boy, that takes me back) so I could dial in on another ISP and post from a different IP. I had every intention of just posting the spreadsheet (already had it uploaded to Tripod), but remember the six-pack and my roommate's gin... I made it as far as registering a username, I think it was Uncle_Charley or Uncle_Spanky, or something like that...but I ran into some sort of snag that my booze-addled brain can't remember. Maybe the connection kept dropping, or I couldn't get to the email to confirm the registration (not sure if AT did that back then, though...If I had to bet money on it, I'd put my cash on the connection)...in any case, I gave up and went to my bed to pass out. I emailed my spreadsheet to Harvey and Russ (the forum admins at the time) before I did, though, and said in the message that I wanted to post it.
I went to work at 9am the next morning with a wicked headache. I opened my email to see responses from Harvey and Russ. We battled back and forth through most of the day. Harvey was nice and understanding, Russ not so much...anyone who remembers him ought to easily imagine what he'd typed. We fought over email for a few hours, and eventually I decided it just wasn't that important. Dennilfloss was a mod at the time, though, and they wouldn't 'fire' him, so I quietly quit in protest. I've occasionally wondered if they knew before I sent them the 'proof'...I figure vapor was smart enough that he ought to have send the same thing, but Dennilfloss wasn't a moderator then, and I can't see them making him one knowing what happened...so I don't know. They did leave him on as a mod for a while after that, so who knows?
The mods all shared contact info (including phone numbers) back in those days, and Harvey had left me a message on my answering machine first thing that morning that went something like " don't do it...it'll just cause greif and hurt people"...it was very cryptic and non-specific (and typical Harvey). My roommate picked it up and got scared...when I got home from work, he was waiting for me. As soon as I walked in the door, he asked me what kind of trouble I'd gotten myself into...he thought I was mixed up in the mob or something. I laughed, showed him the thread and explained what was going on.
A few months later, Dennilfloss posted his "Confession" thread, and the two of us drank beer at ate popcorn while it all went down.
Eventually, someone else found out what happened and threatened to expose. I think it was Red Dawn, but I've never known for sure. In any case, Dennilfloss posted his confession, and the rest is history. I've occasionally wondered how it would have gone down if I'd been able to post my 'proof' as soon as I found it (I never told Russ and Harvey that it was my original intention). In any case, it's a fun bit of Internet lore, and I'm glad to have been a part of it.
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