...maybe you had to be there...

[ysobel]

Context: With IRC, if you get disconnected sometimes your nick lingers, and many IRC clients will sign you on as foobar_ since foobar is still taken.

This ... can get dangerous, if it cascades.

So I come back from being afk, and this is what I see on my screen:

[10:52] * foobar_____ has joined #channel
[10:53] * foobar______ has joined #channel
[10:54] * foobar_______ has joined #channel
[10:54] * foobar____ Quit (Connection reset by peer)
[10:55] * foobar________ has joined #channel
[10:55] * foobar_____ Quit (Connection reset by peer)
[10:56] * foobar______ Quit (Connection reset by peer)
[10:56] * foobar_________ has joined #channel
[10:57] * foobar_______ Quit (Connection reset by peer)
[10:57] * foobar________ Quit (Connection reset by peer)
[10:57] * foobar__________ has joined #channel
[10:58] * foobar___________ has joined #channel
[10:59] * foobar_________ Quit (Connection reset by peer)
[10:59] * foobar____________ has joined #channel
[11:00] * foobar__________ Quit (Connection reset by peer)
[11:00] * foobar_____________ has joined #channel
[11:00] * foobar___________ Quit (Connection reset by peer)
[11:01] * foobar______________ has joined #channel
[11:02] * foobar_______________ has joined #channel
[11:03] * foobar____________ Quit (Connection reset by peer)
[11:03] * foobar_____________ Quit (Connection reset by peer)
[11:04] * foobar________________ has joined #channel
[11:04] * foobar______________ Quit (Connection reset by peer)
[11:05] * foobar_________________ has joined #channel
[11:06] * foobar_______________ Quit (Connection reset by peer)
[11:06] * foobar__________________ has joined #channel
[11:07] * foobar________________ Quit (Connection reset by peer)
[11:08] * foobar__________________ Quit (Connection reset by peer)
[11:08] * foobar_________________ Quit (Connection reset by peer)
[11:09] * foobar__________________ has joined #channel
[11:10] * foobar___________________ has joined #channel
[11:11] * foobar____________________ has joined #channel
[11:12] * foobar__________________ Quit (Connection reset by peer)
[11:12] * foobar_____________________ has joined #channel
[11:13] * foobar______________________ has joined #channel
[11:13] * foobar___________________ Quit (Connection reset by peer)
[11:14] * foobar_______________________ has joined #channel
[11:14] * foobar____________________ Quit (Connection reset by peer)
[11:14] * foobar________________________ has joined #channel
[11:15] * foobar______________________ Quit (Connection reset by peer)
[11:15] * foobar_________________________ has joined #channel
[11:16] * foobar_____________________ Quit (Connection reset by peer)
[11:16] * foobar__________________________ has joined #channel
[11:16] * foobar_______________________ Quit (Connection reset by peer)
[11:17] * foobar________________________ Quit (Connection reset by peer)
[11:18] * foobar_________________________ Quit (Connection reset by peer)
[11:18] * foobar__________________________ Quit (Connection reset by peer)
[11:18] * foobar__________________________ has joined #channel
[11:25] * foobar__________________________ Quit (Connection reset by peer)
[11:26] * foobar__________________________ has joined #channel
[11:33] * foobar__________________________ Quit (Connection reset by peer)

...I just about died laughing.

I think that means I need more sleep or something.

Comments

[meloukhia]

I laughed. And now I'm on a mission to replicate it.

[ailelie]

*headdesk*

[jesse_the_k]

Which brings to mind USENET strings of perfectly nested quote characters, where the comments incremented in length from 1 character to 79 and then back again. (I tried Googling for an example, but didn't know how to get there from here.)

Folks who began their netizenship after the WWW can be amazed by this FAQ on ASCII art

[azurelunatic]

AWESOME.