[Usenet: truncation of `pseudonym']
1. An electronic-mail or Usenet persona adopted by a human for
amusement value or as a means of avoiding negative repercussions of
one's net.behavior; a `nom de Usenet', often associated with
forged postings designed to conceal message origins. Perhaps the
best-known and funniest hoax of this type is B1FF. See also
tentacle. 2. Notionally, a flamage-generating AI program
simulating a Usenet user. Many flamers have been accused of
actually being such entities, despite the fact that no AI program
of the required sophistication yet exists. However, in 1989 there
was a famous series of forged postings that used a
phrase-frequency-based travesty generator to simulate the styles of
several well-known flamers; it was based on large samples of their
back postings (compare Dissociated Press). A significant
number of people were fooled by the forgeries, and the debate over
their authenticity was settled only when the perpetrator came
forward to publicly admit the hoax.
