I tip my hat. To Buster.
And to Walter (quoted below):
Retired? No. Unsubscribed? Yes.
I've tried working with the folks behind Buster Friendly to come to some understanding of why they do what they do, but more importantly, how Buster's behavior has had a negative impact on aspects of the community.
Because Buster is operated by several different people who share the account, it would be difficult to pinpoint each individual who's used this avatar to sow confusion via trolling and other violations of the Terms of Use.
So, rather than delete the er, performance artists who are driving this social experiment, we'll just show Buster the door and dim the lights.
I was invited to join a private Tribe in which all was revealed to me.
Who/what is Buster Friendly?
"IN PHILIP K. DICK'S classic science-fiction novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (the source for Blade Runner), the near-future characters all spend their days glued to the television, addicted to an inexplicably popular variety/chat show called Buster Friendly and His Friendly Friends.
The titular host manages the neat trick of staying on the air 24 hours a day, every day, always preternaturally bubbly and enthusiastic no matter the hour one tunes in. Buster Friendly, of course, was a fictional construct, a cybernetic Johnny Carson meant to flesh out the sense of alienation and strangeness in Dick's dystopian universe."
And to Walter (quoted below):
Retired? No. Unsubscribed? Yes.
I've tried working with the folks behind Buster Friendly to come to some understanding of why they do what they do, but more importantly, how Buster's behavior has had a negative impact on aspects of the community.
Because Buster is operated by several different people who share the account, it would be difficult to pinpoint each individual who's used this avatar to sow confusion via trolling and other violations of the Terms of Use.
So, rather than delete the er, performance artists who are driving this social experiment, we'll just show Buster the door and dim the lights.
I was invited to join a private Tribe in which all was revealed to me.
Who/what is Buster Friendly?
"IN PHILIP K. DICK'S classic science-fiction novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (the source for Blade Runner), the near-future characters all spend their days glued to the television, addicted to an inexplicably popular variety/chat show called Buster Friendly and His Friendly Friends.
The titular host manages the neat trick of staying on the air 24 hours a day, every day, always preternaturally bubbly and enthusiastic no matter the hour one tunes in. Buster Friendly, of course, was a fictional construct, a cybernetic Johnny Carson meant to flesh out the sense of alienation and strangeness in Dick's dystopian universe."
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Re: ah.
Sun, June 13, 2004 - 12:50 AMNo, I wasn't a Buster, wasn't member of More Human Than Human. I'm just a mere human, and with no alts. either.
"ah" indeed! Many confusions cleared for me on the strange sad day of his death.
But yes, I was a Buster Friendly fan & miss "him" terribly. Maybe he was a bit pesky, but I don't think he deserved to DIE!
So much DRAMA right here on Tribe! Very much FUN, and so FUNNY!
But something else will come up.
For example:
Will FisherKing and Window Shady come to blows?? -
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Re: ah.
Thu, June 17, 2004 - 3:46 AMI was a member of More Human Than Human and I wish you had gotten the chance to come behind the scenes before our cover was blown. If it's any consulation, I wanted to get you backstage. I was acting as Buster when I created the "Buster Really belongs to too many tribes" You're one of the good ones Frosty. AJX, love you as well... -
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Re: ah.
Thu, June 17, 2004 - 4:25 AMwow! so how many busters were there? and did you have strict timetables for when you had to be logged on? -
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Re: ah.
Thu, June 17, 2004 - 2:56 PMNope. More than one could be logged on at once. You can get ALL the info from More Human Than Human. -
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Re: ah.
Thu, June 17, 2004 - 3:09 PM -
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Re: ah.
Thu, June 17, 2004 - 10:00 PMPart of the idea was to take advantage of the fact that several people could be Buster at the same time. This meant that no schedule had to be kept and that we could have a chunk of code keeping Buster online whether anyone was using him or not. On a good day, Buster could invite over 100 people to join his tribe while simultaneously hosting his show and joining/visiting more tribes.
I wanted the mental presence of Buster to infect as many people as possible as quickly as possible, primarily with the purpose of making observable the rapid infection process, itself, and as openly lacking any other clear purpose. -
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Re: ah.
Sat, June 19, 2004 - 2:29 AMYes I love you too, and hail to all the Busters & all the Buster stuff. It was kickass fun, which is a GOOOOOD thing, nuthing wrong, not idiots distracted (well, some...) but lots of fine excellent folk getting it slowly somehow (or getting that there was something to get and digging it.)
anyway..... yeah, fun. -
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Re: ah.
Sat, June 19, 2004 - 5:41 PMStay tuned.
I just heard a rumor that the real reason Buster was deleted
was that Tribe.net had sold or licensed the Buster Friendly Show to some large but low-flying international conglomerate centered in TaiPei.
They might be sending out someone as an interim moderator in Buster's place, at least to oversee the 'restructuring'
Sounds kinda' scary. -
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This is the maximum depth. Additional responses will not be threaded.
Re: ah.
Sat, June 19, 2004 - 6:15 PMyou mean Rajulio? beloved, yet hated by some, which would be proper qualifications for the job. -
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Re: ah.
Sat, June 19, 2004 - 10:38 PMNot Rajulio.
The head office has hinted that they might be sending some guy named 'Peng You'.
People who have dealt with him say he's a total hard-ass.
There is a lot of concern about TOU violations lately.
The buzz is that upper management may have gone more than a little too far and overcompensated for Buster in their choice of Mr. Peng.
There could be some downsizing or some rather extreme forms
of remediation for TBFS participants.
Some guy named 'Ranj' in the as-yet unidentified corporation's largest India office told me:
"If you think Buster or Walter doesn't 'get it', you haven't ever run it past Mr. Peng'
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Re: ah.
Sat, June 19, 2004 - 11:11 PMGo ahead and Peng Mi ! Peng Yu ! Thank you.
I just surface-scum.
I not know nothing.
Waiting breathlessly for next time to be manipulated.
ahhhh... -
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Re: ah.
Sun, June 20, 2004 - 9:23 PMI think it's pronounced more like 'PUNG-yo'.
Apparenty, the first message he sent said:
'Now all your Buster are belong to us.'
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