pseudo: /soo'doh/ n. [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.
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