It looks like the Y2K spin-meisters are winning the PR campaign.

I am a member of Utne on-line, the bulletin board system for the Utne Reader literary magazine. In the Utne virtual community there are thousands of discussion topics, and over ten thousand registered users. Several months ago, a GI created a thread called "Y2K is it a real problem or Chicken Little?" In the scheme of Utne discussions, it has gotten very little activity, mostly from the originator, with an occasional DGI barb thrown in. In the past month the topic had become nearly inactive, sometimes no posts for days at a time, rarely more than one or two a week. When I checked in tonight, I was surprised to see that there were 23 new posts to the thread in the past two days. Unprecedented! Somewhat hopeful that something had happened to sound a wake up call to this mostly intelligent, well-read community, I excitedly clicked onto the thread. Well, there were 23 new posts from several different forum participants who suddenly, after months of disinterest, felt compelled to alert the world. Their message? Not only is Y2K not real, but there are dangerous elements, with racist and religious fundamentalist agendas, actively wishing for the end of the world. Militant, white supremacist millenium wackos, stockpiling food, trying to cause bank runs and create panic, in the hope of an excuse to kill minorities. I am nearly too pissed off to appreciate the irony that Eric Utne, the founder, is a GI. He risked his reputation when he published the on-line e-zine, The Y2K Citizen's Action Guide. I wonder how he feels now when he sees the members of his on-line community, who have a general reputation for having more than two brain cells to rub together, ridiculing his efforts? It would be easy to call these people trolls or shills, except that I recognize the user names from other Utne discussions. This is really sad.

-- RUOK (RUOK@yesiam.com), February 05, 1999

Answers

R- might have just been a flock (?herd? ?gaggle? ?gang?)of trolls - we've seen some pretty vicious one-day attacks around here, any chance it was the same sort of thing over there?

Arlin

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), February 05, 1999.

Sad stuff!

-- Watchful (seethesea@msn.com), February 05, 1999.

RUOK, it seems interesting (and probably not a coicidence) that, as Arlin pointed out, there has been concentrated spikes of troll postings since, well, starting about the time of the "State of the Union" address.

Some of the other topics you pointed out in specific are discussed on this LINK

Hang in there.

Mr. K

-- Mr_Kennedy (y2kPCfixes@motivatedseller.com), February 05, 1999.

Thanks for your responses, all. The anger is cooling down, but the sadness lingers. The people parotting the party line are long-time regulars I recognize from other discussions at Utne. They've never contributed to the Y2K thread before, I see no reason to think they are plants, and I've not seen them behave as trolls in the past. It has made me think that, if this new Spin (as per Mr. K's link or the Times article)can be so effective, so quickly, among normally independent thinkers, there is less hope than I wished.

-- RUOK (RUOK@cantsleep.com), February 05, 1999.

Can the posters to the Utne forum post anonymously (like in this forum, can they choose to use any nick or email address they want to?)

If they can, they can forge names of regulars and post at will. I've seen it happen on this forum before (not a lot, but some).

-- Mr_Kennedy (y2kPCfixes@motivatedseller.com), February 05, 1999.

Mr. Ruork, Their message that "there are dangerous elements, with racist and religious fundamentalist agendas, actively wishing for the end of the world," is probably true to a certain extent, for there are more of those than most people realize. I've met a few myself, on other forums. But to say that Y2K is not real!! Talk about denial. It's the computers stupid.

But I must say, I resent their "one size fits all profile." I am not a racist in any sense of the word, except that occasionally white people, of which I am one, make me think "the fools in town are on our side." But yes, I must confess, even at my age, I get militant when I see the environment polluted and degraded by corporate bullies. But I would be mortified to be included in either the right-wing or fundy category. (I always get flamed when I say that.) But when it comes to being a wacko, I have to confess, that's me, for I have prepared for something that is "not real."

-- gilda jessie (jess@listbot.com), February 05, 1999.

Please give the url and maybe some of us could go over there and give some intelligent, contary views. This would be really sad to leave that forum with no discussion.

-- a mom (let us@um.com), February 05, 1999.

http://www.utne.com

-- Mr_Kennedy (foundit@utne.com), February 05, 1999.

Clicked on http://www.utne.com/Y2K/inde x.html

Gave me an error message: "The page you're seeking was not found!"

Seems as though the uncivil troll population has pillaged and burned another community...

-- Mr_Kennedy (y2kPCfixes@motivatedseller.com), February 05, 1999.

Mr. K,

The Utne forum requires registration, using a valid email address. The software doesn't allow for anonymous users or impersonation of other users. The link for Y2K Citizen's Action Guide is Utne Y2K guide. After seeing your message, I checked, and the link is still active. The guide has hyperlinks to each chapter, or the entire guide can be downloaded in Adobe. It is quite well done.

a mom,

The URL Mr K. provided for Utne is the forum home page, and you can navigate to the registration page from there, or go directly to Registration.

Thanks again for your response. As a long-time member of Utne, this has been very disappointing. Eric Utne earned my respect with his public stance on Y2K, and the publication of the Y2K Citizen's Action Guide.

-- RUOK (RUOK@yesiam.com), February 05, 1999.

I think it should be said here for the record that the vast majority of posters to this forum are not racists.

And that shouldn't be a surprise. Anyone who reads Ed Yourdon's book "Time Bomb 2000" can see that it has no political, economic or religious agenda to it.

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), February 05, 1999.

And I suppose I am the only one who noticed the spike of weird posts here just around the time Milne showed up a couple weeks ago. Either they follow Milne around, they coordinate with Milne because he likes it, or someone else sends them around after Milne because they want to associate him with weird stuff. Pick whichever one you like, no charge.

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), February 05, 1999.

RUOK,

I hang out at Utne sometimes, too. I hadn't noticed a Y2K conference. I'd like to take a look at it, could you point me in the right direction? I read the Utne Y2K guide when it first came out, and thought it was very useful and balanced. Eric Utne deserves better than to be painted with the broad brush of apocalyptic fanaticism.

Paul,

I have noticed that most of the weird posts happen on weekdays. Makes me think either someone posting from work, or on school computers. As to your choices, I'd guess either one or three (hmmm...the tiger or the tiger?), or possibly an unfortunate coincidence.

-- Wanda (lonevoice@mailexcite.com), February 05, 1999.

Well met fellow Utneite! The y2k board is in the Currents Conference--Topic #400---"Y2K is it real or Chicken Little?" Look for jasia.

-- RUOK (RUOK@yesiam.com), February 06, 1999.