This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Novil Ariandis (talk | contribs) at 20:33, 22 May 2020 (→top: I love mysteries! But this is not one! Cleaned up this mess of an article that gave a completely wrong impression of the topic.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 20:33, 22 May 2020 by Novil Ariandis (talk | contribs) (→top: I love mysteries! But this is not one! Cleaned up this mess of an article that gave a completely wrong impression of the topic.)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Markovian Parallax Denigrate is the term used to describe a series of unexplained messages posted to various Usenet groups in 1996. While the messages have different, nonsensical titles, this specific title has become the identifier for the whole phenomenon. The posts are often mentioned in conjunction with other strange or unsolved internet mysteries such as Publius Enigma. Hundreds of messages were posted. They were initially dismissed as spam by the Usenet administrators. The incident has been referred to as "the Internet’s oldest and weirdest mystery", and "one of the first great puzzles of the internet".
Based on the email address given in the "From" field of one of the Usenet posts, a Daily Dot article discussed the possible involvement of antiwar activist Susan Lindauer as source of these posts in 2012. However, the email address actually belonged to a University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point student of the same name and was very likely spoofed to cover the true identity of the poster.
Cryptology expert Nick Pelling noted in his blog Cipher Mysteries that most of the Usenet groups receiving the messages dealt with Christianity. He speculated that the spammer was on a personal vendetta against those groups and that the content of the messages was randomly taken from several lists of low-frequency words. Other people speculated that a programmer experimenting with text generators or Markov chains could have created the messages.
See also
References
- Dewey, Caitlin (May 2, 2014). "Five of the Internet's eeriest, unsolved mysteries". Washington Post. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
- ^ Förtsch, Michael (November 25, 2016). "Sieben ungelöste Rätsel des Internets". Wired.de. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
- ^ "The Usenet "Markovian Parallax Denigrate" mystery..." Cipher Mysteries. 2018-09-16. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ^ Morris, Kevin (November 2, 2012). "The Markovian Parallax Denigrate: Unraveling the Internet's oldest and weirdest mystery". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
- Privalov, Alexander (August 24, 2017). "Краткий курс истории спама". Popmech.ru. Retrieved 10 September 2017.