The High Weirdness Project: alt.slack

alt.slack
groups.google.com/group/alt.slack/topics

The Sacred Usenet Newsgroup of the SubGenius.

Created back in 1988, alt.slack was largely unusued empty until the great Internet SubGenius Conquest took place in 1993 to 1994. The newsgroup's popularity exploded at that time, and it has never looked back. Dr. Onan Canobite was one of the first SubGenius Heirarchy members to join the newsgroup, followed by Orton Nenslo. Rev. Ivan Stang arrived in November of 1994, and has never left. (Though the newsgroup regulars do occasionally hose him down to keep him from raising too much of a stench.)

Unearthed from the ancient days of alt.slack – posted on February 11, 1995:

: "…Up until VERY recently, this newsgroup was as lame, as Pink, as ridiculous, as STUPID, and as boring as any dumb newsgroup you can think of. It was as bad as the SubGenius forum on AOL, if not worse. For the longest time, all one could find here be cascades and talk about "TV shows with Slack." The traffic on this newsgroup was practically dead. At this time one year ago, five messages a day would be something to cheer about, even if they were all contributions to a cascade.

: "But then things began to change on alt.slack. Some time around last summer, true SubGenii suddenly began showing up on alt.slack! The true Yetisyn had reached up to the Heavens and cried out "'Bob,' save this newsgroup from the Conspiracy!" And "Bob" had answered by telling us, "FUCK YOU, YUH LOSERS - YOU WANT A GOOD NEWSGROUP, YOU GOTTA DO IT YORESELF!" And so they did. People dedicated to the never-ending Total War against the Conspiracy began posting messages here, and (even more importantly) replying to each other's posts. Users here became familiar with each other. We even had an IRC meeting one Sunday evening last year to talk about our beloved Church. One person from Dallas showed up then, and it was from him that we learned of the fate of KNON and the Hour of Slack.

: "Yea, the seeds sown on alt.slack began to flower! Weirdness took its rightful place here, and we even fought and won a flame war with the Discordians. (Thanks to Grand Clavister and Lt. Wilkes for their efforts!) The legendary John_-_Winston showed up here briefly, but alas, he disappeared from the Net soon afterwards. (That's a pity, too, because he was a kook worthy of Donna Kossy's notice. He posted regularly about his visits with lizard men from Jupiter, and his writing had a style of its own.) Rev. Duchez and Lamont and Carey and all the other fools who we see here now showed up. Brother Aaron Propes informed us of the successes of his Campus Crusade for "Bob." Mighty NENSLO appeared, and the newsgroup has never been the same since.

: "And JHVH-1 looked down on alt.slack, and He saw that it was Good. And He blessed alt.slack with Revelation X -- The Bob Apocryphon.

: "Shortly after that, Stang appeared, only to chastise the newsgroup for talking about palindromes and stuff.

: "However, the members of alt.slack responded to Stang with their own Rants. Things proceeded from there, and we've watched as Stang progressed from Clueless Newbie to Techno Geek.

: "Yes, fellow inhumans, much has happened in the last year on alt.slack!

: "But we mustn't fool ourselves into thinking that it's always been this way. Check for references on alt.slack in those Internet books that are being published at the rate of one a day (or so it seems), and you'll see that the older books al stuff alt.slack in with the other ridiculous newsgroups like alt.religion.kibology (which I still say is nothing more than three jokes endlessly repeated), talk.bizarre and other alt.weenies newsgroups. In fact, we're STILL plagued by cascades and Bobbies and nonsense, but this newsgroup is generating its own Slack now (thanks to YOUR great efforts!), and the signal:noise ratio here is 10,000 percent better than it was a year ago.

: "PRAISE "BOB!" FUCK "BOB!" AND PRAISE ALT.SLACK!"

alt.slack is the reason why there is not an official Web-based discussion board, message board, bulletin board, or what have you for the Church of the SubGenius. We don't need one! alt.slack is available worldwide on many thousands of Usenet servers, and it is free for anyone to participate in without having to "register." (Although these days, with Usenet servers being shut down by the major Internet providers, you may have to sign up at a Web-based newsgroup gateway to see alt.slack.)

The newsgroup is a constant, never-ending stream of babble and Babel that represents the very best AND the worst the Church of the SubGenius has to offer! You can see your favorite SubGenii posting here, and the most hated kooks. You can see rants! Brags! Links to strange Web sites and videos! Lame jokes! Lamer porn! GOOD porn! Profanity of the type that would make alt.tasteless blush! And it is all constant, flowing, never-ending, with new messages being posted ALL the time.

Much of the content of the latest SubGenius Sacred Tome, The Subgenius Psychlopaedia of Slack - The Bobliographon, was originally posted to alt.slack over the past 14 years. Rev. Ivan Stang merely filtered most of the pablum out to produce a glowing, radioactive gem of PURE SLACK that appeared to us in book form. But if not for alt.slack, that Sacred Tome would not exist!

Apart from the occasional Subgenius-related discussion, there's plenty of hating going on here. Woe to any Bobbie that comes along and takes a dump here. They will be eaten alive!

2010: The Death of alt.slack

July 9, 2010: Over the past two years, a number of major Internet services have shut down their access to Usenet Newsgroups altogether, including Verizon, Comcast, Cablevision, and even AOL. Furthermore, the Web has become the primary form of online mass communication, to the point where many people on the Internet never look at newsgroups anymore or have simply abandoned them to the trolls and spammers. In the past year, the new ScrubGenius discussion group at Google Groups has become the major focal point for the Church of the SubGenius, though the SubGenius groups on Facebook have attracted a sizable following – especially the official SubGenius Foundation Facebook page, the SubGenius-founded group Fuck ‘Em If They Can’t Take A Joke, and the Facebook page for the High Weirdness Project. The Church is using these new venues to leave the old kooks behind, and we are finally able to give them the treatment they deserve – namely, ignoring them completely and not giving them any attention. This migration away from alt.slack has become more apparently over the past several months. But it was at X-Day 13 in 2010, when we had plenty of time to discuss the newsgroup’s fate in person, that we realized that the change has come and it has been accepted by nearly everyone in the Church. alt.slack was a historic and essential part of the Church for a good part of its life, as “Bob” infiltrated the Internet. But times are changing and we are still evolving. And our beloved alt.slack is, alas, a thing of the past – good for trolling and cross-posting SubGenius propaganda to other newsgroups, such as alt.conspiracy. But alt.slack is no longer the primary source of information on the Church, and it is no longer the only way for SubGenii to meet other SubGenii. The new groups are taking the place of alt.slack – especially ScrubGenius – but there is a new, shining beacon of Slack that is truly THE best way to bring outcast mutants together for “Bob.”

And what is this new SubGenius meeting place? X-DAY!

: See also: Usenet Newsgroups