pseudo

/soodoh/ , n. [Usenet: truncation of pseudonym ] 1. An electronic-mail or
Usenet persona adopted by a human for amusement value or as a means of
avoiding negative repercussions of one's net.behavior; a nom de Usenet ,
often associated with forged postings designed to conceal message origins.
Perhaps the best-known and funniest hoax of this type is B1FF. See also
tentacle. 2. Notionally, a flamage -generating AI program simulating a
Usenet user. Many flamers have been accused of actually being such entities,
despite the fact that no AI program of the required sophistication yet
exists. However, in 1989 there was a famous series of forged postings that
used a phrase-frequency-based travesty generator to simulate the styles of
several well-known flamers; it was based on large samples of their back
postings (compare Dissociated Press ). A significant number of people were
fooled by the forgeries, and the debate over their authenticity was settled
only when the perpetrator came forward to publicly admit the hoax.

