Tell me, oh Oracle
Do you endeavor with a difficult dilemma, or ponder a posed problem you cannot perspicaciously pursue? Angling anxiously for advice? The Internet Oracle can help! Like all famous oracles, the Internet Oracle is omniscient, and will provide some answer to your question. In return, the Oracle may require that you perform a small service ...
Source: Internet Oracle
Does anyone out there remember / still participate in the Internet Oracle?
Update: I see the rest of what I'd tried writing here didn't make it into the post. Anyway, what I meant to say was that the Internet Oracle was one of my first brushes with the fact that there were people out there on that Internet.
I'd been dealing with FTP servers and Archie and reading Usenet archives, but I'd not yet logged on to IRC for the first time. I'd already had experience with chatting and message bases via dial-up BBSes, but this Internet thing was something altogether more. So, the Oracle was the first experience I had of sending something out into the void, and getting not an automated response but a wittily-crafted response from an obviously real person.
Archived Comments
I do remember, but it has been ages..
The Internet Oracle got me through many, many (okay, about fifteen) nights on the Very Late Shift at the computer helpdesk, back when I was a wee undergrad...
I'm actually still on the Oracle's mailing list. I loved it as an undergrad, came back about five years ago. There's no information anywhere on how to get off, though, so now that I have no time I end up just deleting the digests.
Ooohhhh... Haven't heart about Oracle for agges... The Internet Oracle is intended primarily as a cooperative effort for creative humor. Since its main purpose is just to let folks have fun, there are intentionally few rules. However, an etiquette has developed among its participants.
I remember being astonished and trying to puzzle out why people would contribute, until I tried it a few times myself. I also remember being a bit sad about not getting any immediate feedback (smiles, nods, applause -- the stuff that works on IRC, MUSHes, etc.)
Oh jeez, I've been subscribed to the mighty Oracle since about, ummm... 1989?
Like most, however, I haven't taken time to read the digests very often over the last several years.
remember it: oh yes. loved it: oh yes.
biff: [needs monospace font for max.laugh]
The Usenet Oracle has pondered your question deeply. Your question was:
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