[bastion]

What ever happened to mods/admins for moderation of these threads? Hmm.

I say we appoint new moderators.

[SMacTech]

Originally posted by bastion:
What ever happened to mods/admins for moderation of these threads? Hmm.

I say we appoint new moderators.

We all need some entertainment! It is a new year after all.

[DavideMac]

billy_2004 has got them tied up and taped in some cyberspace basement. There's very little hope for us now.

Either that or billy is a mod.... in disguise! Oh the humanity........

[billy_2004]

God bless my little ibook
I love its every nook
And bless me as I burn a CD
Download files and music and movies
And may the CD's that I create
Be blessed from above
With thy great blessing and thy grace
But most of all thy love
So bless my little ibook, God
and those who look apon it
May they find naught but stability and joy
and happiness therein

[iNub]

I feel a profound sense of this-thread-died-long-ago-ness

[Lateralus]

Originally posted by bastion:
What ever happened to mods/admins for moderation of these threads? Hmm.

I say we appoint new moderators.

I second the motion.

[wataru]

Originally posted by bastion:
What ever happened to mods/admins for moderation of these threads? Hmm.

I say we appoint new moderators.

I reported abuse on this thread twice. This is the first time I've seen such inaction on the part of the mods (unless it's deliberate).

Then again, they may be away for the holidays. Let's cut them some slack, guys.

[sandman]

Billy,

Or should I call you "silly billy" as it probably more accurately characterizes your personality. I'm not sure what you're on but I really think you need to take a step back and re-read everything you've posted here. You seriously sound like a moron. In fact you MUST be kidding. Any shred of credibility you had was thrown out the window when you pulled the religious card out, because your speech clearly ruins any possiblilty of us thinking you're actually a Christian. Tell me, when was the last time you heard your minister (if you know one) tell someone to shove a dildo up their ass? Highly doubtful you have an answer to that. Regardless, you first need to do your homework before ever attempting to make a valid point again, and second you need to get the **** out of here because you have embarrased yourself enough pal.

[billy_2004]

This is a free worl pal, if you cannot handle opinion, i suppose you **** off as well. i am not embarassed by my posts. and yes, this was intentional, i was determined to go to any means necessery to tick people off in these threads. as if that wasn't obvious. as for meaning what i said? No, i do not mean anything, I am a mac user, and thought i would test the boundaries of human emotion and interaction.

[Xerxes]

You are a fool Billy.

X

Originally posted by billy_2004:
This is a free worl pal, if you cannot handle opinion, i suppose you **** off as well. i am not embarassed by my posts. and yes, this was intentional, i was determined to go to any means necessery to tick people off in these threads. as if that wasn't obvious. as for meaning what i said? No, i do not mean anything, I am a mac user, and thought i would test the boundaries of human emotion and interaction.

[SMacTech]

On one hand he cites being a Christian, and another he tells us to f*** off.
Modern medicine is not working for this poor soul. billy_2004, you say that Macs are the devil incarnate, yours is wearing off on you a little too much.
Did your parents forget to fill your Prozac, Wellbutrin, or Paxil scrips this month?

[ae86_16v]

Originally posted by DavideMac:
Hey blly, it that you 3rd from the left?
Don't bullshit us now!

http://www.apple.com/switch/

Hahhahaha. . . oh my. I couldn't stop laughing. (I am still laughing.)

Damn David, you are funny. Hahahhaah.

KraziKid, great job on the rebuttal (page 1).

[Nonsuch]

Originally posted by billy_2004:
as for meaning what i said? No, i do not mean anything, I am a mac user, and thought i would test the boundaries of human emotion and interaction.

Ah, the "anthropology" troll ...

[ae86_16v]

Did you guys missed this. . . ?

Originally posted by billy_2004:
Fine I admit it. I own a PowerMac G4. BUT...it's running Mac OS 9.2.2

[xe0]

lmao- best read Ive had in a while

[Chris O'Brien]

Jacob - you have very many problems...

Having said that - this thread was highly amusing. So what did you learn from the way people reacted?

thought i would test the boundaries of human emotion and interaction

[bettafish]

Hello, I believe it is time for an explanation.
For your information, my boyfriend is Jacob. My name is Liz. I am a computer programmer, and I study human mind and development at Malaspina. This was a great poll, as I portrayed a potentially unstable character, whos purpose was supposedly to bash Mac OS X users. In truth, we find that this billy fellow(name resembles that of bill gates-billy..get it?) is actually a mac user, but deep down is angered by his own ignorance towards Apple, and takes it out on random people. I find the reactions of the many people on this forum quite interestiing. Some welcomed a fight with billy with open arms, others despised billy, wishing that he be banned from these forums. Others saw right through his flaky character, and understood we was out to get attention. All in all, I found the majority of the people loved to hate billy. It's as if they wanted to prove how awsome Apple really is, and this was their chance to drown billy in sad truth which he did not want to admit. Some of my posts were outrageous, yes. But they were triggers for emotions that further drove this post into an Apple vs. Microsoft debate. It did go further than simple hardware and software. By bringing in religion, billy struck personally, and this further escalated the emotions in this thread to explode. By bringing in a sence of disruption to peoples personal beliefs, a new level is added. This is what I was going for, at what point do people snap? Why do they react the way they do? What created this anger? I deeply apologize for the controversy that has happened over the past 2 weeks. If you can understand in your hearts and realize this was never meant to hurt anyone or target any individual, it will be greatly appreciated. I do not expect forgiveness, neither am I asking, I am asking simply for understanding of the purpose this thread entailed. Thank you,
Liz Phillips

[ryju]

a g-g-g-girl? pix plz

[kmkkid]

Originally posted by bettafish:
Hello, I believe it is time for an explanation.
For your information, my boyfriend is Jacob. My name is Liz. I am a computer programmer, and I study human mind and development at Malaspina. This was a great poll, as I portrayed a potentially unstable character, whos purpose was supposedly to bash Mac OS X users. In truth, we find that this billy fellow(name resembles that of bill gates-billy..get it?) is actually a mac user, but deep down is angered by his own ignorance towards Apple, and takes it out on random people. I find the reactions of the many people on this forum quite interestiing. Some welcomed a fight with billy with open arms, others despised billy, wishing that he be banned from these forums. Others saw right through his flaky character, and understood we was out to get attention. All in all, I found the majority of the people loved to hate billy. It's as if they wanted to prove how awsome Apple really is, and this was their chance to drown billy in sad truth which he did not want to admit. Some of my posts were outrageous, yes. But they were triggers for emotions that further drove this post into an Apple vs. Microsoft debate. It did go further than simple hardware and software. By bringing in religion, billy struck personally, and this further escalated the emotions in this thread to explode. By bringing in a sence of disruption to peoples personal beliefs, a new level is added. This is what I was going for, at what point do people snap? Why do they react the way they do? What created this anger? I deeply apologize for the controversy that has happened over the past 2 weeks. If you can understand in your hearts and realize this was never meant to hurt anyone or target any individual, it will be greatly appreciated. I do not expect forgiveness, neither am I asking, I am asking simply for understanding of the purpose this thread entailed. Thank you,
Liz Phillips

And of course you made him american, rock on!

*new level added - patriotism*

PS if you wanted to see people snap, I suggest you take a look in the political forum



Chris

[theolein]

Originally posted by bettafish:
Hello, I believe it is time for an explanation.
For your information, my boyfriend is Jacob. My name is Liz. I am a computer programmer, and I study human mind and development at Malaspina. This was a great poll, as I portrayed a potentially unstable character, whos purpose was supposedly to bash Mac OS X users. In truth, we find that this billy fellow(name resembles that of bill gates-billy..get it?) is actually a mac user, but deep down is angered by his own ignorance towards Apple, and takes it out on random people. I find the reactions of the many people on this forum quite interestiing. Some welcomed a fight with billy with open arms, others despised billy, wishing that he be banned from these forums. Others saw right through his flaky character, and understood we was out to get attention. All in all, I found the majority of the people loved to hate billy. It's as if they wanted to prove how awsome Apple really is, and this was their chance to drown billy in sad truth which he did not want to admit. Some of my posts were outrageous, yes. But they were triggers for emotions that further drove this post into an Apple vs. Microsoft debate. It did go further than simple hardware and software. By bringing in religion, billy struck personally, and this further escalated the emotions in this thread to explode. By bringing in a sence of disruption to peoples personal beliefs, a new level is added. This is what I was going for, at what point do people snap? Why do they react the way they do? What created this anger? I deeply apologize for the controversy that has happened over the past 2 weeks. If you can understand in your hearts and realize this was never meant to hurt anyone or target any individual, it will be greatly appreciated. I do not expect forgiveness, neither am I asking, I am asking simply for understanding of the purpose this thread entailed. Thank you,
Liz Phillips

Well, it certainly worked with me. I was just about to tell you to f**k off but I decided to posts something a bit more anal-ytical instead: The problem with stuff like that is that is that when the very same user posts, in the very same section of MacNN, about problems they're having with their Pismo and OS 10.3.2, one would normally be inclined to take them seriously and try and help them through the problem, if possible.

The billy_2004 persona however, got many people incredibly worked up over here, with the result that posts of his/her Mac problems then obviously get derisive and abusive answers, and make the forum quality worse. People are usually quite helpful here and, IF that was a simple test, it was in bad taste, and should belong in the lounge, not here.

I said IF in caps, because of the billy_2004 poster making a post about his/her supposed Neo OS, and your supposedly being a programmer, which actually leads me to believe that you are actually one and the same person, and therefore even more f**ked up than I thought.

[Nonsuch]

Originally posted by bettafish:
Hello, I believe it is time for an explanation.
For your information, my boyfriend is Jacob. My name is Liz. I am a computer programmer, and I study human mind and development at Malaspina. This was a great poll, as I portrayed a potentially unstable character, whos purpose was supposedly to bash Mac OS X users. In truth, we find that this billy fellow(name resembles that of bill gates-billy..get it?) is actually a mac user, but deep down is angered by his own ignorance towards Apple, and takes it out on random people. I find the reactions of the many people on this forum quite interestiing. Some welcomed a fight with billy with open arms, others despised billy, wishing that he be banned from these forums. Others saw right through his flaky character, and understood we was out to get attention. All in all, I found the majority of the people loved to hate billy. It's as if they wanted to prove how awsome Apple really is, and this was their chance to drown billy in sad truth which he did not want to admit. Some of my posts were outrageous, yes. But they were triggers for emotions that further drove this post into an Apple vs. Microsoft debate. It did go further than simple hardware and software. By bringing in religion, billy struck personally, and this further escalated the emotions in this thread to explode. By bringing in a sence of disruption to peoples personal beliefs, a new level is added. This is what I was going for, at what point do people snap? Why do they react the way they do? What created this anger?

I look forward to reading a report with your conclusions, comparing the data you collected to your original hypothesis. That is, of course, unless you just take pleasure in winding people up behind the excuse of "curiosity."

[DavideMac]

You know Liz, you didn't have to wind us up with rude and hateful comments. Frankly, a pot of espresso would have worked just as well...... and with no hard feelings.

I must say though I did enjoy it considering I didn't take any of it serious. Thanks for the fun and hope you got what you needed.

[bettafish]

Thank you for your understanding. Here are the links to Neo OS pictures...as you know, geocities is glitchy, if the picture does not show up, simply refresh or enter the address again.

System 1.0.2 Startup Screen
System Desktop 1.0.2
System 2.0.1 Startup Screen
System Desktop 2.0.1
System 5.2 Startup Screen
System 5 Login Screen
System 5 Desktop

[DaedalusDX]

I'd say I saw through you 100% right around when you brought up religion.

But from the very beginning I didn't believe you. You really didn't do your job very well at all.

I'd say your little experiment was flawed substantially, and looking back at this thread, I'd say that most of the MacNN readers reacted not with anger, but with humor. The character you dreamed up did not serve to create controversy more than he showed completely that he was merely a character that someone created, and that found amusing the spins you decided to put to it...

The thread died long ago... people were not angered or felt attacked... they just got bored of the billy character you created.

[ApeInTheShell]

Where is your justification?

Mac OS X is better because it has brought various users from different fields of expertise together. You don't have to plead to get help in the mac community.
Operating systems will continue to copy each other because some features are good idea's. The difference is how Apple implements the features it copies. For example, fast user switching. If you have Quartz Extreme a cube turns to the next screen. Which really isn't another screen but you understand.
Another example, is the Dock which was inherited from NeXt. A preview of the window you have minimized with an accurate description. Remove applications via drag n drop. It gives you visual cues instead of the highlights on the Taskbar. Windows is a left brain OS while the Mac OS uses both areas of the brain.
Multitasking doesn't exist in Windows XP. Your always fighting the OS instead of gettign work done or any activiity that requires your time.
That's all i'm bothering to discuss.
Make a better argument next time

[theolein]

Originally posted by bettafish:
Thank you for your understanding. Here are the links to Neo OS pictures...as you know, geocities is glitchy, if the picture does not show up, simply refresh or enter the address again.

System 1.0.2 Startup Screen
System Desktop 1.0.2
System 2.0.1 Startup Screen
System Desktop 2.0.1
System 5.2 Startup Screen
System 5 Login Screen
System 5 Desktop

I for one am not amused by your antics. Apart from that this belongs in the lounge, not here.

[MDA]

Originally posted by DaedalusDX:
I'd say I saw through you 100% right around when you brought up religion.

But from the very beginning I didn't believe you. You really didn't do your job very well at all.

I'd say your little experiment was flawed substantially, and looking back at this thread, I'd say that most of the MacNN readers reacted not with anger, but with humor. The character you dreamed up did not serve to create controversy more than he showed completely that he was merely a character that someone created, and that found amusing the spins you decided to put to it...

The thread died long ago... people were not angered or felt attacked... they just got bored of the billy character you created.

I would add that another mistake you made was making the billy character a ranting lunatic at times and someone who was meticulously describing the OS they had designed at another. It just didn't make any sense. It seemed to me that something must be up.

MDA

[Chris O'Brien]

So did you ask the mods to leave this thread open so you could perform your 'experiment'? I can't figure out how it got to over 200 posts....

[DavideMac]

What's everyone complaining about anyway? It wasn't billy_2004 that started this, all he did was state an opinion that XP was a much better OS than OS X. What's wrong with that? I for one don't completely agree although there are elements in XP that are much better. In fact his first post didn't even criticize Apple hardware, software or peripherals, just mentioned that OS X was a weaker OS. In my opinion it was MDA that started the name calling and personal slandering, just take a look at his first post. Totally uncalled for! In fact, it's those comments that completely insult a person and begs for confrontation and eventually combat. If anyone should be locked from this thread it should be him. Even Billy's second thread did not insult anyone and simply mentioned that we are Mac "freaks" with quotes and stated "as WE like to call ourselves" referring the fact that so many of us are absolutely devoted to Apple's products and their vision. Nothing wrong with that comment, but "moronic sheep"? Well I say "Who really started it and who's really the immature one."

p.s. don't ever confuse grammar and knowledge with immaturity and stupidity. They are different!

Good to see that most people who obviously are very secure in their choices use humour and wit in their posts.

Still (and always will be) glad to be a Mac "freak"!

[Xerxes]

Absoluete rubbish. This is a cop out. Billy has made many posts until now with Mac problems, praises etc.. So this psycho's line is dribble.

A scientific study would not invlove coming onto a internet newsgroup and swearing and cursing...this is complete crap. If you are indeed a professional you are disgrace to your trade and should be expelled from any professional body that endorses you.

You are nothing but a sad, lonely individual who doesn't have the guts or conviction to stand behind their words now that your'e faced with people who have easily put you to shame.

X

Originally posted by bettafish:
Hello, I believe it is time for an explanation.
For your information, my boyfriend is Jacob. My name is Liz. I am a computer programmer, and I study human mind and development at Malaspina. This was a great poll, as I portrayed a potentially unstable character, whos purpose was supposedly to bash Mac OS X users. In truth, we find that this billy fellow(name resembles that of bill gates-billy..get it?) is actually a mac user, but deep down is angered by his own ignorance towards Apple, and takes it out on random people. I find the reactions of the many people on this forum quite interestiing. Some welcomed a fight with billy with open arms, others despised billy, wishing that he be banned from these forums. Others saw right through his flaky character, and understood we was out to get attention. All in all, I found the majority of the people loved to hate billy. It's as if they wanted to prove how awsome Apple really is, and this was their chance to drown billy in sad truth which he did not want to admit. Some of my posts were outrageous, yes. But they were triggers for emotions that further drove this post into an Apple vs. Microsoft debate. It did go further than simple hardware and software. By bringing in religion, billy struck personally, and this further escalated the emotions in this thread to explode. By bringing in a sence of disruption to peoples personal beliefs, a new level is added. This is what I was going for, at what point do people snap? Why do they react the way they do? What created this anger? I deeply apologize for the controversy that has happened over the past 2 weeks. If you can understand in your hearts and realize this was never meant to hurt anyone or target any individual, it will be greatly appreciated. I do not expect forgiveness, neither am I asking, I am asking simply for understanding of the purpose this thread entailed. Thank you,
Liz Phillips

[Salex_Ander]

Can't we all just get along?

Whether billy is real or not doesn't matter. Whether he uses a PC or not doesn't matter. Who really cares what OS anybody else uses? Use what works best for you.

I've been using a Mac since the 1980s, and always will be as long as they're available. But, I am forced to use a PC at work. Such is life.

I can do things on the Mac that my PC friends could never dream of. They can do things on their PCs that I could never dream of (nor want to). So be it. I bash my friends because of their PC use, and they bash my Mac, but it's all in jest.

To get so upset about someone else's computer preference is ludicrous. To make hateful and spiteful comments about someone is senseless. Over what, a computer... Get real.

I enjoyed this thread because it shows how insignificant things matter so much to so many people. Don't sweat the small stuff.

[theolein]

Originally posted by Black Book:
So did you ask the mods to leave this thread open so you could perform your 'experiment'? I can't figure out how it got to over 200 posts....

^What he said.

[darrick]

why is she assuming that the posted responses here to her invented character's rantings were sincere and serious. seems to me that people could have been zooming her just like she was zooming them.

(and maybe this liz person still has more masks to pull off, like some scooby-doo villain)

anyway, this thread has just been, and continues to be, one huge troll feast. flaming like she did in this forum isn't part of any real experiment, with a hypothesis and control groups and such -- she was just trolling.

Malaspina's "Liz Phillips" -- queen of the trolls.

[bettafish]

I would love it if the subject could be dropped. It is over.
I have, on the other hand, put together a web site this morning outlining the main features of Neo OS system 5.2. If you please, you may take a look. This link will not work(due to geocities), so simply copy and paste the text, or retype it in the address bar. Thanks.

http://www.geocities.com/bettafish2000/neo5.swf

[SMacTech]

Was this thread just some contrived scheme to help promote your Neo OS?
BTW, you might want to use a spell checker on your SWF presentation. It looks good, until you see the many spelling errors.

[Talleyman]

Originally posted by billy_2004:
Mac OS X is really weak guys....I cant believe you actually USE it...get a real OS. Get XP.

Man...You guys are suckers....what a troll!!!

I'm embarassed to say I'm a Mac user because of some of you reactionary infants!

Sheese...

tman

[RMXO]

+1

[Krusty]

Originally posted by darrick:

(and maybe this liz person still has more masks to pull off, like some scooby-doo villain)

[seriously not joking]
man, I hadn't thought of that whole "mulitple mask scooby-doo" thing in years. Thanks for reminding me
[/seriously not joking]

oh ... +1

[Chris O'Brien]

Since this thread is still going and absolutely pointless, I'll do something pointless too:

post_count++

If I do it another 38 times I won't be a junior member anymore