/sü-dō/
[USENET: truncation of pseudonym]
n. 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 BIFF.
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.
<h2>/sü-dō/</h2><p>[USENET: truncation of <em>pseudonym</em>]</p><p>n. 1. An electronic-mail or <a href="/whatis/USENET">USENET</a> persona adopted by a human for amusement value or as a means of avoiding negative repercussions of one's net.behavior; a <em>nom de USENET</em>, often associated with forged postings designed to conceal message origins. Perhaps the best-known and funniest hoax of this type is <a href="/whatis/BIFF">BIFF</a>.</p><p>2. Notionally, a <a href="/whatis/flamage">flamage</a>-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 <a href="/whatis/Dissociated-Press">Dissociated Press</a>). 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.</p>