Dragonlance Community News
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BITTER DINOS COMMIT MASS SUICIDE
Reason: 10-billionth discussion Twelve youths from various countries were found dead at their computers two days ago, in what seems to be the world's first international online mass suicide. The Associated Press was receiving reports of young people aged between 22-30 years from different parts of the world, found with slashed wrists and blood soaking their computer keyboards. As more stories and details emerged on the news wires, it was found that all these suicides had one thing in common: these youths were subscribers to an Internet Dragonlance mailing list and/or long-time users of a usenet newsgroup called alt.fan.dragonlance. The mailing list and newgroup are electronic discussion forums for the Dragonlance(R) series of books published by Wizards of the Coast (the company based in Seattle, WA, and behind the popular Magic: The Gathering(R) and Pokemon(R) collectible card games). In both these forums, the suicides were known as "bitter dinos"——people who had been around for the discussions and were active in them for at least 4-5 years——"an eternity in Internet time," said Internet sociologist Dr. Wilhearn Querrhk. The doctor is a member of an international group of investigators looking into the phenomenon. Many of the suicides (the last confirmed count of the dead was 12) left farewell messages on their computer monitors. One or two of these messages, in fact, have been circulating on the newsgroup. "Apparently these bitter dinos were very dedicated fans," said Querrhk. "And they had seen a lot in their time. The topic that pushed them over the brink was a very very old one, it seems, one that they were mortally sick of." The topic in question involved the hypothetical situation: If a movie were to be made out of the Dragonlance books, who should play the principle characters? A search of usenet and list archives this morning revealed that this question had been brought up 10,000,000,012 separate times in the past five years. "It is too much. I cannot take this anymore," read one of the farewell messages to the mailing list, this one posted from Australia. "I can't stand this [expletive] topic." "[Expletive] you, stupid newbies. You have taken my life," a Norwegian bitter dino was found to have typed on his computer, before he slashed his wrists. "Newbies" are the Internet name for newcomers to the Internet. It seems the dreaded Dragonlance movie question was, almost invariably, a question enthusiastic newcomers and Dragonlance fans liked to ask on the discussion boards, being unaware that the topic had been discussed billions of times before. Another final message, this one from Asia, contained the following text: "It seems I cannot run from this subject anymore. I have threatened to killfile, I have ranted, I have told them to shut up. Now, maybe this way, I can have some PEACE." (Capitalization from the original text.) A spokeperson from Wizards of the Coast expressed regret over the suicides. "This is indeed a tragedy. We at Wizards express our sorrow and regret over the loss of these young lives." The spokesperson added that it was not Wizards' policy to strictly moderate the subjects in the discussion lists, especially if they were, in this case, Dragonlance-related. It was a Dragonlance mailing list and the question was asking Dragonlance fans their favorite actors for specific Dragonlance characters, should a Dragonlance movie ever be made. "It was only unfortunate that such a topic should have come up 9,999,999,999 times before," the WotC spokesperson said. The usenet newsgroup, meanwhile, is unmoderated. Past attempts to bury the subject or urge the discussions to other forums were always unsuccessful, either receiving heat from the newbies themselves, or being drowned out by re-postings and discussions of the dreaded question. "Yeah, the topic comes up pretty often," said an alt.fan.dragonlance visitor who said he "dropped in there once in a while." He said he wished to remain unnamed. "It's definitely up there with the 'Raistlin is a woman' topic and the 'When is the third Raistlin Chronicles book coming out?' question." A temporary ban on the Dragonlance movie topic was imposed on the Dragonlance mailing list yesterday, in an effort to prevent any more long-time list-subscribers from killing themselves. However, analysts say that pressure from other list members pleading the First Amendment will probably cause the ban to be lifted soon, and they fear that the subject's death toll will rise. —AP, Reuters.
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