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A comment on I was given some old BBS session logs and I scanned them.

Re:I was given some old BBS session logs and I scanned them by SwellJoe on Thursday December 25, 2014 @04:42AM (#8795913)
Now that I've had a chance to read more, I see that casual misogyny in the tech world is definitely not new. So far, I've seen a half dozen messages, and multiple people, calling someone named "Susan Thunder" a whore, bitch, etc. Example:

    Message number 7168 is 4 lines from John Billings
    To SUSAN THUNDER at 14:30:49 on 12-Mar-81.
    Subject: YOUR LAST MESSAE 
    YOU LEFT ONE THING OUT OF YOUR
    DESCRIPTION OF YOURSELF,
    WHETHER YOU CHARGE BY THE HOUR 
    OR THE EVENING?
And, I have seen no polite messages directed toward anyone with a female sounding name.

Given that 90+% of the messages are from people with male-sounding names, and every message, so far, that I've seen directed to a woman has been overtly hateful, it puts some things in perspective about why there are so few women in our industry today. I can't say that, as a 12 year old, I was treated with respect by the BBS community at large, but at least I wasn't on the receiving end of veiled rape threats.

I'm hoping I stumbled on the few really hostile messages in the bunch. But, I've bounced around a bit...I fear further study will only be further disheartening.

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Re:I was given some old BBS session logs and I scanned them by akira2501 on Thursday December 25, 2014 @06:22AM (#8796043)
You're missing the context.

Susan Thunder is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Headley. She was a prostitute. She was an adversarial figure in the phreaking scene at the time.

I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but this is a small slice of a much larger scene.

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Re:I was given some old BBS session logs and I scanned them by at-fates-hands on Thursday December 25, 2014 @01:54PM (#8796879)
She was also one hell of a social engineering hacker.

One of the last chapters in Cyberpunk, she's in an office of some big corporate big wigs and asked to demonstrate her hacking skills. Within ten minutes she had the system passwords for their network.

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Re:I was given some old BBS session logs and I scanned them by SwellJoe on Thursday December 25, 2014 @06:41AM (#8796063)
Interesting. But, still, the threats of violence and general dehumanization of her by several people is pretty horrible (someone has suggested she got someone arrested, but I don't see confirmation of that or an explanation for why...if they threatened violence against her, as several messages in the archive do, I wouldn't begrudge her for reporting those threats to police, for example).
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Re:I was given some old BBS session logs and I scanned them by akira2501 on Thursday December 25, 2014 @07:13AM (#8796097)
Really it's a bunch of people trying to impress and out-do each other. "Dave Starr", "Susan Thunder", and "Roscoe Dupran" tangled with each other through almost any format available to them.

Here's more old-school sources of all this rivalry: http://www.flyingsnail.com/missingbbs/ http://phrack.org/issues/10/2.html

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Re:I was given some old BBS session logs and I scanned them by SwellJoe on Thursday December 25, 2014 @07:22AM (#8796110)
It takes a truly epic troll to span decades...impressive, in a way. Embarrassing, too.
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Re:I was given some old BBS session logs and I scanned them by walterbell on Thursday December 25, 2014 @12:47PM (#8796726)
Could be reusable handle(s) in an extended psychology experiment. One person could use multiple handles, or one handle could be used by multiple people.
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Re:I was given some old BBS session logs and I scanned them by digi_owl on Thursday December 25, 2014 @10:43PM (#8797954)
http://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=5370

A recent-ish example of someone using multiple handles...

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Re:I was given some old BBS session logs and I scanned them by bobcostas55 on Thursday December 25, 2014 @05:24AM (#8795971)
If you read just 2 posts above the one you quoted, you'll see that "Susan" got someone from the board arrested.
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Re:I was given some old BBS session logs and I scanned them by SwellJoe on Thursday December 25, 2014 @05:36AM (#8795982)
Did she get them arrested for paying her for sex?

Edit: I just spent another ten minutes reading some of the various rants against Susan. I suspect David Starr is/was mentally ill. His obsession with her is creepy, and the accusations bizarre and practically incoherent. I don't know if Susan is a nice person, or a cop, or a fed, or whatever...but the stuff David Starr says is way out there. Also, I can't believe I have spent this much time at 5AM reading some stupid, probably mostly made up, BBS drama from 34 years ago.

Edit #2: The message you refer to is this:

    Message number 7166 is 18 lines
    from Jude Saucier To SUSAN THUNDER
    at 14!07:35 on 12-Mar-81.
    Subject: SUSAN'S PRANKS
    MS THUNDER, I HAVE BEEN OFF OF THE
    SYSTEM FOR QUITE SOME TIME ANO JUST
    FOUND OUT WHAT HAPPENED TO PAUL MONT.
    I JUST WANT TO LET YOU KNOW THAT
    I AM QUITE SICK OF YOUR LITTLE PRANKS.
    lF YOU GET YOUR ROCKS OFF BY PICKING
    ON KIDS I SUGGEST YOU BUY A GOOD 
    VIBRATOR INSTEAD.  I'll GIVE YOU A
    CHALLANGE
    -
    IF YOU WANT TO PICK ON SOME ONE
    -
    LET IT BE ME.  WHEN YOU DC THOUGH
    -
    LET ME WARN YOU
    -
    YOU ~Ill NEVER MESS ~ITH ANYONE
    PGAIN.  JUST BECAUSE YOU GO TO
    THE EXTENTS THAT YOU DO TO GET
    PEOPLE IN TROUBLE FOR THINGS THAT
    YOU ARE GUILTY OF YOURSELF DOESN'T
    ~EAN THAT YOU CAN GET EVERBOOY.
    I HAVE SOME SURPRISES IN STORE FOR
    YOU WHEN YOU START TO TRY DOING 
    DAMAGE TO ME.  BY THE TIME I AM
    THROUGH YOU WON'T EVEN HAVE A 
    TERMINAL TO USE THESE SYSTEMS.  
    THAt•s ENOUGH FOR NOW BUT DON•T
    FORGET
    -
    I'LL BE WATCHING YCU AND I WILL
    <NOT MAYBE> GET YOU SOON.  
    CONSIDER YOURSELF ~ARNED!
    !!!
    SEE YOU SOON
    JUDE.
    P.S.  PAUL HAD BETTER BE OUT OF
    THIS MESS SOON
    -
    UNDERSTOOD??
I can't make much sense out of that. But, it's also full of misogyny and threats of violence. That's pretty fucked up.
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Re:I was given some old BBS session logs and I scanned them by Vivtek on Thursday December 25, 2014 @07:46AM (#8796147)
> Also, I can't believe I have spent this much time at 5AM reading some ...

I upvoted you just for this. I so very feel that pain.

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