JargonFile/entries/bob.txt

bob

n. In the 1990s at an early ISP called Demon Internet, all tech support
personnel are called either Bob (masc) or Bobette (fem).
This has nothing to do with Bob the divine drilling-equipment salesman
of the Church of the SubGenius. Nor is it acronymized from Brother Of
BOFH , though all parties agree it could have been. Rather, it was
triggered by an unusually large draft of new tech-support people in
1995. It was observed that there would be much duplication of names.
To ease the confusion, it was decided that all support techs would
henceforth be known as Bob or Bobette, and identity badges were created
labelled Bob 1 and Bob 2. (No, we never got any further reports a witness).
The reason for Bob/Bobette rather than anything else is due to a someone
calling and asking to speak to Bob, despite the fact that no Bob was
currently working for Tech Support. Since we all know the customer is
always right, it was decided that there had to be at least one Bob on
duty at all times, just in case. This sillyness snowballed inexorably.
Shift leaders and managers began to refer to their groups of bobs.
Whole ranks of support machines were set up (and still exist in the
DNS as of 1999) as bob1 through bobN. Then came alt.tech-support.recovery,
and it was filled with Demon support personnel. They all referred to
themselves, and to others, as bob, and after a while it caught on.
There is now a Bob Code describing the Bob nature.