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From: wildbill@ucbvax.ARPA (William J. Laubenheimer)
Newsgroups: net.misc,net.jokes
Subject: USENET Awards, anyone?
Message-ID: <4082@ucbvax.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 9-Jan-85 01:38:00 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.4082
Posted: Wed Jan  9 01:38:00 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 12-Jan-85 01:18:50 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
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Xref: watmath net.misc:7241 net.jokes:10236

Given that the total volume of USENET traffic can now be measured in
terms of megabytes per week (I have no idea how that compares to
anything, but it is certainly impressive), it would seem to be a
reasonable idea to attempt to recognize some of the truly brilliant
people and transmissions over the course of the past year. After all,
if "the press" can have Pulitzers, the movies have Oscars, mystery
writers have Edgars, and SF writers have Hugos, Nebulas, and a bunch
of other little awards too, there's no reason why USENET writers can't
have awards, too.

So let's lay some ground rules and try to get started.

First, we need a name for the things. "The USENET Awards" just doesn't
have the right amount of zing to it; something better is required.
Perhaps we need somebody's name (mine is not available, besides being
too long), or some symbol of the Net.

Next, there have to be categories. Just to get started, let me propose
a few, some serious, some less so:

Best Technical Article
Best Nontechnical Article
Best Technical Author
Best Nontechnical Author
Best Program in net.sources
Most Valuable Bug Fix
Most Interesting Newsgroup
Most Worthwhile Poll
Least Worthwhile Poll
Best Flame
Most Rabid Flame
Best Joke (subcategory for ROT13s)
(somebody's name) Award for Least Intelligible Article
(somebody's name) Award for Most Extremist Posting to net.politics
(somebody's name) Award for Most Irrational Response to a Request to Honor
                  Another's Viewpoint
        [will probably be found in net.religion or associated groups]
(somebody's name) Award for Meritorious Service to the Net
Asbestos Skin Award for Flame Tolerance
Most Intelligent Debate

[nominees for the named awards are needed. They should be truly
outstanding examples of the category - perhaps the first winners]

Plus any other categories which seem like a good idea (and perhaps not
all of these, depending on the general consensus).

Once categories have been selected, nominees will be solicited, voting
rules established, and eventually winners announced.

Progress reports on the goodness and/or necessity of all this, as indicated
by the mail volume received at ucbvax!wildbill, will be posted.

            _\|   ____   |/_            Bill Laubenheimer
            / \ /      \ / \            UC-Berkeley Computer Science
               |  o  o  |               ucbvax!wildbill
-------------------()-------------------
Killjoy's on vacation...Murphy's running the show!