What about Spot? March 16, 2013 4:07 PM   Subscribe

So Kibo shows up in this post and becomes MeFi's Own and there isn't a MeTa to observe it?

No. There is a MeTa to observe it.
posted by kenko to MetaFilter-Related at 4:07 PM (68 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite

Never heard of him but a quick Google gives me this badly written Wikipedia page. Is that him?
posted by octothorpe at 4:23 PM on March 16, 2013 [1 favorite]


Yes.
posted by dfan at 4:25 PM on March 16, 2013 [1 favorite]


Well, technically it's his hand and the outer perimeter of his head.
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:26 PM on March 16, 2013 [1 favorite]


Technically, cortex, it's a wikipedia page.
posted by kenko at 4:27 PM on March 16, 2013 [2 favorites]


My Kibo Number is 1.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 4:36 PM on March 16, 2013 [2 favorites]


Most people here are too young to know who Kibo is.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 4:39 PM on March 16, 2013 [6 favorites]


I told you all that he was just sleeping under the mountain.
posted by Justinian at 4:53 PM on March 16, 2013 [2 favorites]


                ___   |\
	   ___| . \_|   \
	  /                  \
	/'                   .\
	\       .               |
	 \.      _.            /
	  |__----' \_._*/  ----PERTH
posted by Justinian at 5:01 PM on March 16, 2013 [4 favorites]


WOOHOO IT'S OLD USENET FOGEY NIGHT HERE ON THE METAFILTERS!
posted by rmd1023 at 5:08 PM on March 16, 2013 [7 favorites]


Well, now I'm dead. I was just reminiscing earlier today about my first days on the internet, on alt.folklore.urban, where Kibo was both an urban legend and someone who occasionally popped in.

I have now completed the internet.
posted by Lyn Never at 5:12 PM on March 16, 2013 [3 favorites]


> Most people here are too young to know who Kibo is.

I only fwee and a haf years old and I know who kibo is.
posted by jfuller at 5:14 PM on March 16, 2013 [2 favorites]


I'm a few years older than he is but I either never heard of him or don't remember.
posted by octothorpe at 5:17 PM on March 16, 2013


So Kibo shows up in this post and becomes MeFi's Own and there isn't a MeTa to observe it?

You posted it. What, are you challenged?
posted by cjorgensen at 5:18 PM on March 16, 2013


You posted it. What, are you challenged?

You read the more inside, I see.
posted by kenko at 5:22 PM on March 16, 2013 [1 favorite]




I believe the proper thing to say here is, "Welcome, Kibo!"
posted by SLC Mom at 5:32 PM on March 16, 2013 [2 favorites]


I think it's weird too that there isn't more buzz around a Kibo sighting. The guy's a legend, and one of the originators of the kind of oddball internet humor that people buy off the shelf now, including the folks around here.
posted by facetious at 5:33 PM on March 16, 2013


net.legends.
posted by kenko at 5:34 PM on March 16, 2013


WOOHOO IT'S OLD USENET FOGEY NIGHT HERE ON THE METAFILTERS!

Why is this night different from every other night?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:45 PM on March 16, 2013 [45 favorites]


Full disclosure: Didn't know who he was. In mid twenties, barely ever looked at Usenet. This is an internet generation gap.

Why don't you all just f-f-f-fade away
posted by dismas at 5:53 PM on March 16, 2013 [1 favorite]


(Seems like a cool dude, though, don't get me wrong!)
posted by dismas at 5:53 PM on March 16, 2013


I'm actually a bit comforted to see so many other people who have never heard of Kibo, because that's how I feel about pretty much every "Look who joined!" thread on MetaTalk except usually I'm alone.
posted by cribcage at 5:57 PM on March 16, 2013


Why is this night different from every other night?

Good point.

I am once again ever so glad that nearly all of my youthful indiscretions are back beyond the google/dejanews search event horizon.
posted by rmd1023 at 5:58 PM on March 16, 2013 [4 favorites]


Technically, Kibo should not have showed up in that thread, as he had not yet been mentioned. (He should have showed up in many prior threads instead, such as this one about his own site a mere twelve years ago.) I worry, however, that this might now melt the USENET-MeFi portal as the thread gets crossposted to alt.tasteless, etc. -- and Xenu save us if alt.religion.scientology gets involved.
posted by dhartung at 6:32 PM on March 16, 2013 [1 favorite]


(One of) Kibo's signature(s)
That's the worst-looking map of Australia I've ever seen.
posted by Daily Alice at 6:46 PM on March 16, 2013 [1 favorite]


MeFites may not know who he is, but I bet they know a word he popularized in rec.org.mensa.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 6:57 PM on March 16, 2013


Hail Kibo! We who have aged ungracefully salute you (again)!
posted by octobersurprise at 7:43 PM on March 16, 2013


Monsieur Caution: "My Kibo Number is 1."

Mine too, from way back before the web was even a concept.
posted by Mitheral at 7:45 PM on March 16, 2013


Weird. Kibo and I are from the same village in New York. SCOTIA REPRESENT
posted by Sticherbeast at 8:24 PM on March 16, 2013 [1 favorite]


(One of) Kibo's signature(s)

My hand twitched CTRL-K on seeing that .sig.

Oh, killfile. How I loved thee.
posted by Mezentian at 8:47 PM on March 16, 2013 [1 favorite]


Oh, Kibo. You introduced me to the LULs of so much terrible erotic fiction.
posted by klangklangston at 9:01 PM on March 16, 2013


"Most people here are too young to know who Kibo is."

That's pretty goddamned depressing.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:04 PM on March 16, 2013 [1 favorite]


We haven't arrived into Usenet Reborn until Peter David shows up to savage a critic to death with his bare teeth.

That, and we have a Poker thread where all of the top-dollar, brand-name gamblers going back fifty years all flame each other over their "system" and take spot wagers on how the arguments play out.

We already have Wesley Crusher hating us, so we're ahead of the curve there - Barney is so non-relevant today it's eerie, more people know about the '70s cop sitcom, but we can all still plot to level and pave the planet so our rocket-powered hot-rods can race unimpeded.

I'll be over in alt.sex.embarrasingly.specific.fetish.stories if you need me.
posted by Slap*Happy at 9:27 PM on March 16, 2013


God I'm old.

Oh, look! It's past my bedtime!
posted by Floydd at 9:31 PM on March 16, 2013


I've never used Usenet in my life, and heavens, I know who Kibo is!

Also: OMG KIBO!!!!

Finally: This thread got me to that thread, which got me to watch the 1990s condensed down into 2 hours. It was amazing. Transformative. Worst in every way.
posted by meese at 10:13 PM on March 16, 2013 [1 favorite]



H   H
H   H
H   H
HHHHH
H   H
H   H
H   H

posted by cortex (staff) at 10:59 PM on March 16, 2013 [6 favorites]


oh man what

what

i seriously just linked that kibo signature in the chat on the 15th

and here we are

i think i'm hyperventilating
posted by reprise the theme song and roll the credits at 1:54 AM on March 17, 2013


oh man oh man

i hope i'm allowed
posted by reprise the theme song and roll the credits at 2:01 AM on March 17, 2013


In mid twenties, barely ever looked at Usenet. This is an internet generation gap.

Why don't you all just f-f-f-fade away


I see you have a passing familiarity with your grandfather's record collection, though I suppose Justin Bieber is more your thing?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 4:06 AM on March 17, 2013


You introduced me to the LULs of so much terrible erotic fiction.

alt.butt.harp, how I miss thee...
posted by PeterMcDermott at 4:08 AM on March 17, 2013 [1 favorite]


The day before this thread I was talking about UUCP !-path mail routing, and ftp'ing the internet host file with some friends.

But that was then. And now I have the internet in my pants. And I can fit dozens of gigs of cat pictures and bad fanfic into my nostrils thanks to the wonders of micro-sd cards.
posted by rmd1023 at 7:04 AM on March 17, 2013


Poor Spot!
posted by moonmilk at 7:04 AM on March 17, 2013 [2 favorites]


Heh. Cool.

I'm old too, apparently. :)
posted by zarq at 7:05 AM on March 17, 2013


I was too busy on the Comp.Protocols.Tcp-Ip.Eniac mailing list to take much notice of Kibo.
posted by Obscure Reference at 7:20 AM on March 17, 2013


PeterMcDermott: "I see you have a passing familiarity with your grandfather's record collection, though I suppose Justin Bieber is more your thing?"

Excuse me sir but I'm a 1 Directioner. Please keep your fandoms straight.
posted by dismas at 8:21 AM on March 17, 2013 [3 favorites]


I just assume that kibo is always already everywhere. He's all around in the ether. Wherever there's a flame war, wherever there's a pedant beating up some hapless n00b, he's there. He's there in the ASCII art, in the in-jokes, whenever people touch fingers to keyboard, he's there.

Wake me up if Ed "Pantyhead" Wollmann or SOLLOG turn up here. Because that would be surprising.
posted by Sidhedevil at 10:01 AM on March 17, 2013 [1 favorite]


Was the dickwolf thread MetaFilter's meow war?
posted by Sticherbeast at 10:34 AM on March 17, 2013 [1 favorite]


Ok Kibo can come in, but not that guy that shows up whenever Turkey or Armenia is mentioned.
posted by humanfont at 11:07 AM on March 17, 2013 [1 favorite]


i seriously just linked that kibo signature in the chat on the 15th

I probably should just have linked it here, but we all did wild and crazy shit in 2005, amirite?

my kibo # is also 1
posted by dersins at 12:08 PM on March 17, 2013


Ok, all y'all that don't know about Kibo...you do know about the Internet Oracle, right? Please? (oh god i'm so old)
posted by notsnot at 12:09 PM on March 17, 2013 [3 favorites]


Yes! From Nethack! Which is the only reason I was ever on Usenet!
posted by dismas at 12:10 PM on March 17, 2013 [1 favorite]


> I was just reminiscing earlier today about my first days on the internet, on alt.folklore.urban

That was one of my favorite spots, along with alt.usage.english -- where I still can be found sometimes, tootling along with MacSOUP.
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:16 PM on March 17, 2013 [1 favorite]


you do know about the Internet Oracle, right?

And in response, thus spake the Oracle:
The USENET Oracle that can be known is not the true USENET Oracle.
posted by rmd1023 at 12:40 PM on March 17, 2013 [1 favorite]


That was one of my favorite spots, along with alt.usage.english -- where I still can be found sometimes, tootling along with MacSOUP.

I still own and even occasionally wear the alt.possessive.its.has.no.apostrophe shirt which I bought in high school. I don't know if the group is still active, though.
posted by kenko at 3:26 PM on March 17, 2013


> I just assume that kibo is always already everywhere. He's all around in the ether.

Basically, he's Google. The name change was for disambiguation purposes.
posted by ardgedee at 4:10 PM on March 17, 2013 [1 favorite]


Kilroy is still around? I thought he died after World War 2.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 8:30 PM on March 17, 2013


I've met Kibo, in person (at Bob's old video salon in north Cambridge (no not that Bob)). Seemed like a perfectly normal fellow, had reasonable reasons for his Usenet efforts. Just getting by like the rest of us. Just a smidgen poignant to meet a legend and it was all just ok, normal, "why, yes I'm ___, just having fun day by day. I expect he'll attend an occasional meetup if it fits his schedule.
posted by sammyo at 9:24 PM on March 17, 2013


I had to look it up, bit I'm familiar with some of his exploits.

This feels a little like when Old Gods are summoned, except he's an Old God of The Web.
posted by cmoj at 11:09 PM on March 17, 2013


Things are never gonna be as good as they were, will they?
posted by Doroteo Arango II at 12:31 AM on March 18, 2013


Nope because they weren't that good even back then.
posted by Mitheral at 12:38 AM on March 18, 2013 [1 favorite]


Given his "about me" mefi user info lacks a signature, I'm not sure it's the real deal.

(add kids these days who don't know who kibo is ? geeze..)
posted by k5.user at 8:18 AM on March 18, 2013


Hah! Pave the Planet! *wheeze*
posted by wenestvedt at 12:14 PM on March 18, 2013


Holy cow, I wasn't paying much attention over the weekend and missed this. Dude brought the fire. HI KIBO.
posted by mintcake! at 1:00 PM on March 18, 2013


Alt.flame.metafilter
Or
Alt.metafilter.flame
posted by humanfont at 8:39 PM on March 18, 2013


or
alt.metafilter.largetea.cheerslove
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:35 AM on March 19, 2013


alt.metafilter.largetea.cheers.cheers.cheers surely?
posted by Mezentian at 8:40 AM on March 19, 2013


We have so much better moderation here than the alt.* hierarchy ever did. Perhaps we are rec.arts.best.of.the.web
posted by dersins at 8:49 AM on March 19, 2013


I think Kibo is a pretty cool guy, eh invents vanity search and doesn't afraid of anything.
posted by radwolf76 at 9:45 AM on March 19, 2013


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