Joel K. "Jay" Furr (born 1967 in

Roanoke, Virginia Roanoke ( ) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 100,011, making it the 8th most populous city in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the largest city in Virginia west of Richmond. It is lo ...

) is an American writer and software trainer notable as a

Usenet Usenet () is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it was ...

personality in the early and mid-1990s. According to

Brad Templeton Brad Templeton (born June 1960 near Toronto) is a Canadian software developer, internet entrepreneur, online community pioneer, publisher of news, comedy, science fiction and e-books, writer, photographer, civil rights advocate, futurist, public s ...

, Furr is one of the earliest people to refer to unsolicited electronic messages as "

spam Spam may refer to: * Spam (food), a canned pork meat product * Spamming, unsolicited or undesired electronic messages ** Email spam, unsolicited, undesired, or illegal email messages ** Messaging spam, spam targeting users of instant messaging ( ...

". The term "spam" had been widely used by

Monty Python Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four ...

fans to describe excessive torrents of verbiage on electronic chat systems and

multi-user dungeon A MUD (; originally multi-user dungeon, with later variants multi-user dimension and multi-user domain) is a multiplayer real-time virtual world, usually text-based or storyboarded. MUDs combine elements of role-playing games, hack and slash ...

s, analogous to the Vikings chanting "spam spam spam spam spam, WONDERFUL SPAM" in the famous Python sketch. Furr used the term in the

USENET Usenet () is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it was ...

newsgroup news.admin.policy to describe an out-of-control automated robo-moderation system known as ARMM. While he didn't coin the phrase, he appears to have been the first to use it to describe the phenomenon as it applied to USENET newsgroups. Furr created a line of Usenet kook T-shirts, which included a "Serdar Argic World Tour" shirt as well as one imprinted with the programming code for RSA encryption, boasting "This shirt is a munition", a reference to US export law. He is an alumnus of the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

and its

Demosthenian Literary Society The Demosthenian Literary Society is a literary society focused on extemporaneous debate at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. It is among the oldest literary societies in the English-Speaking world and was founded on February 19, 1803 by ...

. Furr serves as the official "Weigher of Coal" for

Richmond, Vermont Richmond is a town in Chittenden County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2020 census the population was 4,167. The main settlement of Richmond, in the north-central part of town, is a census-designated place (CDP), with a population of 853 at t ...

. Furr appeared in the editorial pages of the ''Washington Post'' on May 11, 2018, with an editorial noting that despite having no official duties whatsoever as Weigher of Coal, he is still required to follow strict ethical standards.

References

External links

* David DeLaney
net.legends FAQ
September 13, 1994. Retrieved October 18, 2005. * Joel K. "Jay" Furr
Joel Furr FAQ
version 4.9. May 1, 2005. Retrieved October 18, 2005. * Jon Wiener, Static in Cyberspace: Free Speech on the Internet. ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...

'', June 13, 1994.
online reprint
{{DEFAULTSORT:Furr, Joel 1967 births Living people Writers from Roanoke, Virginia Usenet people Virginia Tech alumni University of Georgia alumni