Laughed when I came across this.
The same guy has trolled through here.

Offensive intruder poisons chat lines

12.01.2001
By MICHAEL FOREMAN
Local internet service providers may consider blocking an American from taking
part in online discussions following one of the worst cases of "flaming" seen
in this country.

A mysterious figure calling himself "Bertie the Bunyip" has upset local Usenet
newsgroups after a bizarre campaign that has included posting fake photographs
of a topless Queen Mother.

If someone burst into a cafe or pub and started yelling obscenities and abusing
everyone in sight, you might expect the manager to throw them out or call the
police.

But neither of these remedies is available to the newsgroup users, who are
desperate to rid themselves of what is known on the internet as a "troll."

Trolls get their kicks from baiting other people using online discussion
forums.

"Bertie the Bunyip" is believed to be a commercial pilot living in the United
States.

He claims to have been similarly hounding newsgroups in the United States for
three years, despite complaints to the FBI and a libel action against him.

After local users unwisely responded to his taunts, the Bunyip's replies soon
spread to the nz.comp and nz.politics newsgroups.

New Zealand politicians - including some ministers - are believed to use the
politics group.

In the past few days, the American has paralysed the most popular of the local
forums, nz.general, which is read by up to 50,000 people.

Bunyip's antics have prompted some users to stop using the newsgroups.

Bunyip changes his identity characteristics every 30 or 40 posts, so it is
difficult to check him using e-mail or newsreader software blocked senders'
lists.

David Farrar, a newsgroup user and information technology adviser to National
Party leader Jenny Shipley, described the "flame" war as the worst outbreak of
its kind he had seen on New Zealand discussion groups.

Applying sanctions against Usenet users could be extremely difficult, said Mr
Farrar.

Bunyip has been using a Seattle-based newsgroup service called Altopia, which
has a liberal policy on what it will allow.

"One of the problems of newsgroups is that they are about as close to anarchy
as anything can get," he said.

"If you get a person going rogue, as this Bertie the Bunyip has, you would
normally complain to their internet service provider.

"Unless it is causing actual harm, they don't see it as their job to police
it."

Xtra systems support specialist Richard Stevenson said he could easily filter
the messages from Xtra's news server - one of several providing Usenet feeds in
New Zealand.

But he would not decide to do so himself.

Mr Stevenson said he had not yet had to remove individual posts but had
occasionally, at the request of the Department of Internal Affairs, blocked
newsgroups that were related to child pornography.

He was not concerned about Bunyip's rights to freedom of speech.

"He's got to get it into his skull that [news servers] are private property."

Mr Farrar believed that if Bunyip persisted for more than a couple of weeks,
local internet service providers might agree to remove him from New Zealand
servers.

But it was more likely that Bunyip would disappear quite quickly if ignored.

Gould 0738 wrote:

Laughed when I came across this.
The same guy has trolled through here.

Offensive intruder poisons chat lines

12.01.2001
By MICHAEL FOREMAN
Local internet service providers may consider blocking an American from taking
part in online discussions following one of the worst cases of "flaming" seen
in this country.

A mysterious figure calling himself "Bertie the Bunyip" has upset local Usenet
newsgroups after a bizarre campaign that has included posting fake photographs
of a topless Queen Mother.


Ahhh...Karen Elizabeth Smith's altered ego? No, not the topless queen
mother.


--
Email sent to is never read.

Bertie was kind of humorous when he first starting yipping after JAX
but that got old very quickly and they both ended up in the bozo bin.

================================================== ===


On 13 Jan 2004 01:59:15 GMT, (Gould 0738) wrote:

Laughed when I came across this.
The same guy has trolled through here.

Offensive intruder poisons chat lines

12.01.2001
By MICHAEL FOREMAN
Local internet service providers may consider blocking an American from taking
part in online discussions following one of the worst cases of "flaming" seen
in this country.

A mysterious figure calling himself "Bertie the Bunyip" has upset local Usenet
newsgroups after a bizarre campaign that has included posting fake photographs
of a topless Queen Mother.

If someone burst into a cafe or pub and started yelling obscenities and abusing
everyone in sight, you might expect the manager to throw them out or call the
police.

But neither of these remedies is available to the newsgroup users, who are
desperate to rid themselves of what is known on the internet as a "troll."

Trolls get their kicks from baiting other people using online discussion
forums.

"Bertie the Bunyip" is believed to be a commercial pilot living in the United
States.

He claims to have been similarly hounding newsgroups in the United States for
three years, despite complaints to the FBI and a libel action against him.

After local users unwisely responded to his taunts, the Bunyip's replies soon
spread to the nz.comp and nz.politics newsgroups.

New Zealand politicians - including some ministers - are believed to use the
politics group.

In the past few days, the American has paralysed the most popular of the local
forums, nz.general, which is read by up to 50,000 people.

Bunyip's antics have prompted some users to stop using the newsgroups.

Bunyip changes his identity characteristics every 30 or 40 posts, so it is
difficult to check him using e-mail or newsreader software blocked senders'
lists.

David Farrar, a newsgroup user and information technology adviser to National
Party leader Jenny Shipley, described the "flame" war as the worst outbreak of
its kind he had seen on New Zealand discussion groups.

Applying sanctions against Usenet users could be extremely difficult, said Mr
Farrar.

Bunyip has been using a Seattle-based newsgroup service called Altopia, which
has a liberal policy on what it will allow.

"One of the problems of newsgroups is that they are about as close to anarchy
as anything can get," he said.

"If you get a person going rogue, as this Bertie the Bunyip has, you would
normally complain to their internet service provider.

"Unless it is causing actual harm, they don't see it as their job to police
it."

Xtra systems support specialist Richard Stevenson said he could easily filter
the messages from Xtra's news server - one of several providing Usenet feeds in
New Zealand.

But he would not decide to do so himself.

Mr Stevenson said he had not yet had to remove individual posts but had
occasionally, at the request of the Department of Internal Affairs, blocked
newsgroups that were related to child pornography.

He was not concerned about Bunyip's rights to freedom of speech.

"He's got to get it into his skull that [news servers] are private property."

Mr Farrar believed that if Bunyip persisted for more than a couple of weeks,
local internet service providers might agree to remove him from New Zealand
servers.

But it was more likely that Bunyip would disappear quite quickly if ignored.