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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!uwvax!uwmacc!rick
From: rick@uwmacc.UUCP (the absurdist)
Newsgroups: net.jokes.d
Subject: Lighten up :  this is net.jokes!
Message-ID: <780@uwmacc.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 10-Mar-85 22:33:19 EST
Article-I.D.: uwmacc.780
Posted: Sun Mar 10 22:33:19 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 12-Mar-85 21:11:22 EST
References: <1418@ut-ngp.UUCP> <4206@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Reply-To: rick@uwmacc.UUCP (Rick Keir)
Followup-To: net.jokes.d
Distribution: net
Organization: UWisconsin-Madison Academic Comp Center
Lines: 35


[ beep beep ]
(Recently) :
>In the nettiquete document that lists all the jokes you shouldn't post,
>someone should add a line that says not to post anything you just read
>in a fortune.  Save us all a lot of annoyance.

A couple of articles have appeared lately, getting on the case of a poster
for posting something  that wasn't "original" in someone's opinion.
	"Clone of My Own" may be in some people's fortune files;  it is 
also something people have heard sung, read in science fiction filk-song 
books or sf magazines, etc.  Similarly, "Deteriorata" may have been written 
by National Lampoon, but it has long since passed into popular culture.  
I've seen it on posters, t-shirts, and 100th-generation photocopies.  
It is rare that I have seen either of these given author credit in ANY
form.
	It is quite likely that posters don't know the origin that you do.
Unless you wish to claim clairvoyant powers, please don't assume you know
where someone heard a joke.  
	Signature files often contain lines like "from the fingers of ...".
These should not be interpreted as claims of authorship in the case of
net.jokes;  jokes are commonly assumed to be the common property of a
culture.  All those lines represent is the postnews software dutifully
including something the poster wrote into his or her .signature file
months ago.
	Ok?	  After all, this isn't someone posting the Unix Kernel in net.sources
and claiming they cooked it up for their OS class....
-- 
"Hey, check it OUT! I'm leaping tall buildings with a single BOUND!
 Stay right where you ARE!  I've gotta locate a SPEEDING BULLET!"
					-- Ambush Bug

Rick Keir -- MicroComputer Information Center, MACC
1210 West Dayton St/U Wisconsin Madison/Mad WI 53706
{allegra, ihnp4, seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!rick