pr0n

[Grant Barrett]

On mardi 19 juin 2001 08:28, Dennis R. Preston <preston at PILOT.MSU.EDU> wrote:
>These and other messages are playing a pretty strict game with the
>meaning of meaning. Must we have a "strict sense" (i.e., referential)
>distinction to have a difference in "meaning"? How about the old
>"America" versus "Amerika"? Still the same place (literally) but
>surely different in "meaning" since the latter reveals something
>about the attitude of the speaker/writer.

That's true.

I'm completely guessing here, but if you search for pr0n on Slashdot, it's often
used to make fun of script kiddies, newbies, and the "me too!" sub-culture. Slashdot is
generally an insidery, true geek culture (though lots of posers, newbies and trolls).
By using pr0n a deep-seated netizen refers to the whole porn sub-culture,
stereotypically defined as hordes of greasy little teenagers looking for pictures of Britney
Spears nude, not the multi-million dollar porn economy or the actual porn artifacts
themselves.

As for the "me too!'' culture, the biggest explosion of that on the net was when AOL
finally hooked its millions of users of with direct Internet access (I don't
remember the year). Suddenly, all the other sub-cultures were invaded by hordes of grabby,
greedy little monsters who didn't understand etiquette, restraint or politeness. They
thought everything was free for free. They barged in everywhere: IRC, Newsgroups,
warez sites, pr0n archives, bulletin boards, mailing lists. You still see it: maybe
there's a haxxor/phreak/4l33t bulletin board somewhere, a newbie (or a knowing troll)
posts a dopey request for a script to break into the grade-storing computers at his
school (without providing any technical information), and then suddenly all the lurkers
spring out, replying with "me too!" one after the other, each one wanting to ride the
coat-tails of the first poster, thinking they're about to break into the
plug-and-play, do-it-yourself world of hacking and cracking. Same for porn: I stopped using IRC
when they requests for "n e 1 got pr0n??????!!!!!" and all the subsequent "send 2 me
2!!!!" became more common than actual content.

I think those are the kind of people would use the word pr0n as (mistaken) proof of
their insider status, which usage would be judged by true insiders as evidence of
their complete *lack* of insider status, but maybe that's just me.

[Obviously, one's definition of insider is always just loose enough to include
oneself, isn't it?]

--
Grant Barrett
gbarrett at worldnewyork.org
http://www.worldnewyork.org/
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Brooklyn, NY 11211
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