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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>bob</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../B.html" title="B"/><link rel="previous" href="boat-anchor.html" title="boat anchor"/><link rel="next" href="bodge.html" title="bodge"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">bob</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="boat-anchor.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">B</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="bodge.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="bob"/><dt xmlns="" id="bob"><b>bob</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> At <a href="http://www.demon.net/" target="_top"> Demon Internet</a>, all
tech support personnel are called &#8220;<span class="quote">Bob</span>&#8221;. (Female support
personnel have an option on &#8220;<span class="quote">Bobette</span>&#8221;). This has nothing to
do with Bob the divine drilling-equipment salesman of the
<a href="../C/Church-of-the-SubGenius.html"><i class="glossterm">Church of the SubGenius</i></a>. Nor is it acronymized from &#8220;<span class="quote">Brother Of
<a href="BOFH.html"><i class="glossterm">BOFH</i></a></span>&#8221;, 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 &#8220;<span class="quote">Bob</span>&#8221;, and identity
badges were created labelled &#8220;<span class="quote">Bob 1</span>&#8221; and &#8220;<span class="quote">Bob 2</span>&#8221;.
(&#8220;<span class="quote">No, we never got any further</span>&#8221; reports a witness).</p><p>The reason for &#8220;<span class="quote">Bob</span>&#8221; rather than anything else is due to
a <a href="../L/luser.html"><i class="glossterm">luser</i></a> calling and asking to speak to
&#8220;<span class="quote">Bob</span>&#8221;, despite the fact that no &#8220;<span class="quote">Bob</span>&#8221; was
currently working for Tech Support. Since we all know &#8220;<span class="quote">the customer
is always right</span>&#8221;, it was decided that there had to be at least one
&#8220;<span class="quote">Bob</span>&#8221; on duty at all times, just in case.</p><p>This sillyness snowballed inexorably. Shift leaders and managers
began to refer to their groups of &#8220;<span class="quote">bobs</span>&#8221;. Whole ranks of
support machines were set up (and still exist in the DNS as of 1999) as
bob1 through bobN. Then came <tt class="systemitem">alt.tech-support.recovery</tt>, and it was filled
with Demon support personnel. They all referred to themselves, and to
others, as &#8220;<span class="quote">bob</span>&#8221;, and after a while it caught on. There is
now a <a href="http://bob.bob.bofh.org/~giolla/bobcode.html" target="_top"> Bob
Code</a> describing the Bob nature.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="boat-anchor.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../B.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="bodge.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">boat anchor </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> bodge</td></tr></table></div></body></html>