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{{Short description|Turkish spammer and Armenian Genocide denier}}
'''Serdar Argic''' was the alias used in one of the first automated ] incidents on ], with the objective of ]. '''Serdar Argic''' ({{langx|tr|Serdar Argıç}}) was the alias used in one of the first automated ] incidents on ], with the objective of ].


==The Serdar Argic posts== ==Usenet posts==
⚫ For a period of several months in the first half of 1994, the Internet user under the pseudonym of "Serdar Argic" (with the address '''sera@zuma.uucp''') posted messages in any Usenet ] thread involving the country of ], arguing that the ] had not occurred or that ] had committed ] against Turks. Describing him in '']'', ] said:


<blockquote>Serdar Argic, who apparently managed to run a daily search on all of Usenet for mentions of Turkey, and followed up all such messages with lengthy and historically inaccurate diatribes about genocide against the Turks.<ref>Wendy Grossman, '']'', NYU Press, 1997, chapter 11 , </ref></blockquote>
⚫ For a period of several months in the first half of ], the Internet user under the pseudonym of "Serdar Argic", who claimed to have a doctorate, posted messages in any Usenet ] thread involving the country of ].


⚫ Argic's postings soon numbered in the tens of thousands, and averaged over 100 posts per day,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://imperium.lenin.ru/~verbit/scs/Mutlu_whatis.html |title=Hasan B-) Mutlu |publisher=Imperium.lenin.ru |date= |accessdate=2008-09-04}}</ref> the highest post count of any single Usenet entity at the time. He posted to several newsgroups, especially soc.history, soc.culture.Turkish, and misc.headlines. Because of the posting volume, repetitiveness and minimal responsiveness to follow-up posts, most observers concluded that it was the output of a program, or "]", which scanned for any new appearances of the keywords "Turkey" or "Armenia" in certain newsgroups and replied with saved pages of political text.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jaedworks.com/shoebox/serdar-eye.html |title=Serdar Argic in Eye Weekly |publisher=Jaedworks.com |date= |accessdate=2008-09-04}}</ref> The bot would automatically post a reply even if the original message had simply mentioned a ] but was cross-posted to a soc.* group. The posts sometimes contained direct responses to specific statements, indicating some human intervention.
Every time the word "turkey" was posted on any newsgroup, an automated program posting as Serdar Argic replied in the same thread, in which Argic argued that the ] had not occurred -- or that ] had committed ] upon Turks.


⚫ ===Response===
⚫ Argic's postings soon numbered in the tens of thousands, and averaged over 100 posts per day, the highest post count of any single Usenet entity. He posted to several newsgroups, especially soc.history, soc.culture.turkish, and misc.headlines. Because of the posts' repetitiousness and canned responses, most observers correctly concluded that they were being automatically posted by a software program which scanned for keywords in certain newsgroups and replied with a canned response. This program, or "]", would scan through newsgroups for any new appearances of the word "turkey" or "armenia" and respond with pages of political text. The bot would automatically post a reply even if the original message had simply referred to ] ] but was crossposted to a soc.* group. The posts sometimes contained direct responses to specific statements indicating that some human intervention was also involved.
⚫ Internet users sent complaints to ], the Internet service provider hosting the account of Serdar Argic. UUNET never took any action based on the complaints, since Serdar Argic was posting from a host downstream from the host they fed (anatolia!zuma) over which they had no control. Serdar Argic became known as the '''Zumabot''' due to the name of his host.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jaedworks.com/shoebox/zumabot.html |title=The Zumabot's Tale |publisher=Jaedworks.com |date= |accessdate=2008-09-04}}</ref>


⚫ Usenet messages can be cancelled, which prevents their further propagation. However, at the time, there was a fear of the free use of third-party cancellations, as it was felt they could set a precedent for the cancellation of posts by anyone simply disagreeing with the messages. Cancellations were rarely performed at the time, because spam was not the problem it became in subsequent years.
⚫ ==Response==


The Serdar Argic posts stopped in April 1994, after UUNET cancelled subscription of anatolia.
⚫ Internet users sent a barrage of complaints to ], the Internet service provider hosting the account of Serdar Argic. UUNET never replied to any of the complaints -- a fault that would be greatly magnified when ] became an increasingly common problem on the Internet in the years to follow. UUNET's justification was that Serdar Argic was posting from a host downstream from the host they fed (anatolia!zuma) over which they had no control. Serdar Argic became known as the Zumabot due to the name of his host.


==Popular culture==
⚫ At the time, there was a fear of the free use of third party cancellations, as it was felt they could set a precedent for the cancellation of posts by anyone simply disagreeing with the messages. Cancellations were rarely performed at the time, because spam had not become the problem it became in subsequent years.
] referred to Argic in his novel '']'' as a ] term for "the lowest layer of paranoid drivel that infested the Cable, spun out by degenerate, bug-ridden, knee-jerk auto-post programs. ] clutter." In his novel '']'', ] describes one character as "a kind of Serdar Argic of intellectual property."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.accelerando.org/_static/accelerando.html |title=Accelerando |publisher=Accelerando.org |author=Charles Stross |date= |accessdate=2008-09-04 |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20080519054317/http://www.accelerando.org/_static/accelerando.html <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archivedate = 2008-05-19}}</ref>


⚫ ==See also==
The Serdar Argic posts suddenly disappeared in April, ], after ] created a specific ] (alt.cancel.bots) to carry only cancel messages specifically for any post from any machine downstream from the "anatolia" ] feed which carried Serdar Argic's messages. This dealt with the censorship complaints of direct cancellations, because carrying a newsgroup was always the option of the news feed, and no cancellations would propagate unless the news administrator intentionally carried the alt.cancel.bots group. If sites chose to carry the group (most sites did), all of Serdar Argic's messages were removed from all newsgroups.
⚫ * ]


==Parody== ==References==
<references />
] referred to Argic in his novel ''The Star Fraction'' as a ] term for "the
lowest layer of paranoid drivel that infested the Cable, spun out by
degenerate, bug-ridden, knee-jerk auto-post programs. Kill-file
clutter."


{{Authority control}}
==Identity of Serdar Argic==

During the Serdar Argic phenomenon it was widely believed that the person responsible for the posting was ], who at the time was a graduate student in the Department of ]s at the ]. The belief stemmed initially from the fact that Serdar Argic's newsgroup posts went through a news feed administered by Ahmet Cosar. Many believed that Cosar was also responsible for the posts of Hasan Mutlu, another extremely active poster of Turkish nationalist beliefs whose last Usenet post had come one day after Serdar Argic's first (September 1/August 31 ]). In a post of March 22, ], Serdar Argic asked a user to mail him a journal, and gave Ahmet Cosar's name and U of M address as the mailing address. In April 1994 Cosar posted angry messages under his own name against the actions of Chakerian and others attempting to contain the Argic bot. A person using Cosar's feed created the group alt.cancel.armenian.garbage in an attempt at canceling pro-Armenian posts, but never posted cancellations to this group.

Ahmet Cosar got a PhD degree from University of Minnesota in 1996, so obviously his visa was not "revoked" as claimed here previously. He is currently an Assoc.Prof. of computer engineering in the Middle East Technical University, Turkey(http://www.ceng.metu.edu.tr/~cosar). The identity of Serdar Argic is known by all of the people who were around to follow these events and, certainly, he was not Ahmet Cosar. Ahmet Cosar was only the Usenet provider of Serdar Argic. If this is considered a "crime" I have nothing more to say.

⚫ ==See also==
* ]
⚫ * ]


] {{DEFAULTSORT:Argic, Serdar}}
] ]
]
]
]

Latest revision as of 14:45, 31 October 2024

Turkish spammer and Armenian Genocide denier

Serdar Argic (Turkish: Serdar Argıç) was the alias used in one of the first automated newsgroup spam incidents on Usenet, with the objective of denying the Armenian genocide.

Usenet posts

For a period of several months in the first half of 1994, the Internet user under the pseudonym of "Serdar Argic" (with the address sera@zuma.uucp) posted messages in any Usenet newsgroup thread involving the country of Turkey, arguing that the Armenian genocide had not occurred or that Armenians had committed genocide against Turks. Describing him in Net.wars, Wendy Grossman said:

Serdar Argic, who apparently managed to run a daily search on all of Usenet for mentions of Turkey, and followed up all such messages with lengthy and historically inaccurate diatribes about genocide against the Turks.

Argic's postings soon numbered in the tens of thousands, and averaged over 100 posts per day, the highest post count of any single Usenet entity at the time. He posted to several newsgroups, especially soc.history, soc.culture.Turkish, and misc.headlines. Because of the posting volume, repetitiveness and minimal responsiveness to follow-up posts, most observers concluded that it was the output of a program, or "bot", which scanned for any new appearances of the keywords "Turkey" or "Armenia" in certain newsgroups and replied with saved pages of political text. The bot would automatically post a reply even if the original message had simply mentioned a Thanksgiving turkey but was cross-posted to a soc.* group. The posts sometimes contained direct responses to specific statements, indicating some human intervention.

Response

Internet users sent complaints to UUNET, the Internet service provider hosting the account of Serdar Argic. UUNET never took any action based on the complaints, since Serdar Argic was posting from a host downstream from the host they fed (anatolia!zuma) over which they had no control. Serdar Argic became known as the Zumabot due to the name of his host.

Usenet messages can be cancelled, which prevents their further propagation. However, at the time, there was a fear of the free use of third-party cancellations, as it was felt they could set a precedent for the cancellation of posts by anyone simply disagreeing with the messages. Cancellations were rarely performed at the time, because spam was not the problem it became in subsequent years.

The Serdar Argic posts stopped in April 1994, after UUNET cancelled subscription of anatolia.

Popular culture

Ken MacLeod referred to Argic in his novel The Star Fraction as a slang term for "the lowest layer of paranoid drivel that infested the Cable, spun out by degenerate, bug-ridden, knee-jerk auto-post programs. Kill-file clutter." In his novel Accelerando, Charles Stross describes one character as "a kind of Serdar Argic of intellectual property."

See also

References

  1. Wendy Grossman, Net.Wars, NYU Press, 1997, chapter 11 (a), (b)
  2. "Hasan B-) Mutlu". Imperium.lenin.ru. Retrieved 2008-09-04.
  3. "Serdar Argic in Eye Weekly". Jaedworks.com. Retrieved 2008-09-04.
  4. "The Zumabot's Tale". Jaedworks.com. Retrieved 2008-09-04.
  5. Charles Stross. "Accelerando". Accelerando.org. Archived from the original on 2008-05-19. Retrieved 2008-09-04.
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