Fake weblog?

December 11, 2001 3:01 PM

Okay, so I'm, like, 99.39% certain that this weblog is a fake of the Rubberburner.com variety. Help me out with the other %0.61, here. Can anyone figure out if this Onion article is mocking a real site, or whether the Onion author created the site as a suppliment to his story?
posted by Shadowkeeper to General Weblog-Related at 3:01 PM (10 comments total)

Reasons I think it's a put-on:

• Searching Google for "Nate Orenstam turns up nothing, except for mentions of the Onion article
• Ditto for Google Groups
• And wouldn't a "Java Programmer to the Stars" have some java on his homepage, fer crissakes?

posted by Shadowkeeper at 3:05 PM on December 11, 2001

It's a put-on.
posted by jpoulos at 3:11 PM on December 11, 2001

Also, I looked for this last week, when I first saw the article - I got nothin'. Also, this.
posted by hotdoughnutsnow at 3:18 PM on December 11, 2001

It keeps getting weirder. From one of the other accounts at jesusH:

These files are stored for my personal use. If I find that others are downloading them, I will remove them.

Wouldn't that be a tragedy?
posted by gleuschk at 3:21 PM on December 11, 2001

I gotta admit that I looked too. And I scoffed at "slashdot.com". Please. How l33t can he be if he's using the .com address rather than the .org address? Every Slashdotter with a number under 10,000 knows the .com is a relatively new addition, so anyone using the .com is a newcomer.

(Number 1700, baby).
posted by Mo Nickels at 5:02 PM on December 11, 2001

maybe he's too indie to care.
posted by lotsofno at 5:53 PM on December 11, 2001

Isn't his name an anagram of Nanometers? Yup... those Java guys are pretty funny alright.
posted by dlewis at 6:13 PM on December 11, 2001

If you check the domain name registration for jesush.com, it belongs to a Jeff Pease, the same name as the same name as one of the writers on jesush.com and was created back in 2000. Moreover, Mr. J. Pease exists and is a student at UCSD. This fits with comments in the log and comments on Mr. J. Pease's own pages.

nateorenstam.com, on the oher hand, was created on December the 4th, the day before the onion editorial was published. This record was created by D. Pease (more than likely the Dave Pease on jesush.com). Mr. D. Pease appears to be a writer for baseballprospectus.com (a couple of the utilities on his page point there and a google of his name turns up a bunch of hits).

Conclusion the first: jesush.com is probably real.
Conclusion the second: nateorenstam.com is a parody hosted on jesush.com.

Still needed: a connection between Misters Pease and The Onion.
posted by iceberg273 at 7:42 PM on December 11, 2001

What's even more odd is that shlonglor, who is linked both Nate Orenstam and is a friend of the jesush.com folk, went to the same small private university that I did for two years (at which point he graduated).

*marvels at this internet thing*
posted by iceberg273 at 8:07 PM on December 11, 2001

I'm with you, icey. The internet just makes me *glow*.
posted by jpoulos at 11:44 AM on December 12, 2001