The Fool on the Hill: A Usenet Character Study

I have been playing on several Usenet groups for many years. Everyone who plays on Usenet knows that there are many kinds of personalities in these groups. For the most part, the personnas represented on the newsgroups are nothing like the real-life personalities of the posters.

There is one particular annoying personality on one of my Usenet groups. In real life, he's a devout Christian and pillar of his community and a very charitable soul. He loves his family and he cares for his neighbors. That said, you would think he was a nice guy? Not! He is probably one of the most obnoxious posters I've ever come across.

The fool on the hill reads a post and decides, in his unchallengeable opinion, what the poster's motive is. Almost always, the poor poster is just asking a question or stating an opinion. Hill-fellow enters into his famous tirades. His two favorite epithets are "bozo" and "moron" Lately he has combined them into "boron." Kinda cute.

Whenever he disagrees with a woman, he declares that she has "her panties in a knot." He rarely refers to male undergarments, so I feel quite justified in stating that he is most definitely a sexist.

Anyway this Hill-fellow gets himself involved in discussions that he hasn't a clue about. He is very insecure because he doesn't know "everything" so he lambastes the original posters, calling them liars, frauds and his favorite pet names (see above). Then he catches it from the other members of the group because he's acting like a jerk. His next step is to twist the original poster's words around to make himself look legitmate. He winds up looking foolish.

Admission of error is not in his portfolio. In order to climb out of the holes he digs for himself he tries to become the "nice-guy" Those of us who have known his posts recognize that when he becomes the "nice-guy" he's lost. The posts drift away or, as this group is famous for, become something entirely different and off topic.

Usenet is fun. It's cyber-people watching at its finest.