I found the following out on USENET (sci.space.history). I wonder if we can modify it for Space BBS (or MSNBC BBS) purposes? :-)

==============================

After a number of requests,

Crossposted sans permission from sci.military.naval

( Well, technically "1" is a number, after all... )

and because this is August, the month when all original
thought takes its annual vacation,

I have decided to repost several of my lists from years
past.

First, from October 1997:

The guide to news group contributors

The following is an attempt to help the members of my
favorite news groups, RAM and SMN, understand the various
types of contributors. I have not named any names; you know
who you are.........

Type G - The Guru

The Guru actually knows a lot of stuff over a fairly broad
range of subjects, and may or may not have operational
experience. The Guru's posts can be disputed, but cannot be
dismissed. Do not argue with a Guru unless you have proper
standing within the group. Silly flames directed toward a
Guru will draw concentrated counter battery fire from the
rest of the group. When provoked, the Guru can mimic the
characteristics of other types.

Type B - The Brat

The Brat has memorized one or two standard reference works
in an area, but has no actual experience. The Brat is like
a person who has a collection of pornography but has never
had sex. He uses a lot of foul language, although without
flair or style, in an effort to be "military". The Brat
believes the things he sees on "Wings" are true, and thinks
"The Final Countdown" and "Up Periscope" [and "Pearl Harbor"
and "U-571"] are documentaries. Brats are viewed as being
about 14 years old, but some are much older.

Type Z - The Zealot

The Zealot ferociously defends his own country, warfare
specialty, community, gender, political party or ethnic
group from the combined attacks of the entire rest of the
world. The Zealot has no doubts about his righteous
knowledge, and tends to flame anyone who questions the
slightest element of his rant. Lacking both the capacity to
compromise and the slightest sense of humor, he contributes
noise and
consumes bandwidth without providing any useful information.

Type H - Mr. Hypothetical

Mr. Hypothetical likes to create nonsensical combinations of
nonexistent combatant units and set them upon each other.
He can leap temporal, geographical and technological
boundaries at a single bound, and considers the actual
historical events of the past to be unworthy of his
attention. Because his
silly ideas are by definition untestable, Mr. Hypothetical
never loses an argument.

Type P - Picky-Picky

Picky-Picky thinks the rest of us are vitally interested in
the fact that the Mark 5 Mod 14 version of the Block 22 had
a framjammitz that was twelve millimeters longer than the
Mark 13, at least during leap year at high tide. This is
normally not a problem, unless there is another Picky-Picky
in the group who will quote the low tide value of 11
millimeters and begin an excruciatingly boring back and
forth discussion of the parameters involved. Picky-Pickys
like to use terms such as "parameter", which is an old
Scottish word meaning "lacking a life".

Type O - The Old Timer

The Old Timer knows that the only truly important aspect of
military history is what happened to his unit during the
months he was there, whenever that was. If he is a member
of that exclusive group of "Them What Has Been Shot At", he
is
doubly sure of his place in history. He is triply sure that
today's soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines are a bunch of
whining wimps. It's fun watching today's wimps try to argue
with the Old Timer, while they simultaneously honor his
service in the past.

Type E - The Expert

The Expert is actively working today as a professional with
the subject of the current discussion. He shares many
characteristics with the Guru, the Zealot and the
Picky-Picky. However, he has the advantage of invoking the
"classified" label whenever he starts to lose an argument.
"Well, you're wrong, but I can't tell you the details
because they're secret."

Type L - The Loon

The Loon is like the Zealot, but even less compromising and
much more entertaining. He begins with a bizarre
conclusion, usually some conspiracy story, and follows up
with "evidence" which has no relevance to reality.
Foolishly, the Gurus and Experts try to point out the gaping
holes in the story, using technical details and the laws of
physics. This of course only encourages the Loon, who is
not burdened with any
knowledge of the subject at hand. He simply modifies the
facts to fit his theory.

Type N - The Newbie

Newbies come in several varieties. Some have relevant real
world credentials, but have no concept of the technicalities
of operating a news reader. This is forgivable and
correctable. Others display their relative ignorance in
our little world, but they ask polite and specific
questions. This is understandable and laudable, and rarely
draws flames. A small number ask stupid questions, then
perversely refuse
to pay attention to the answers. They then become offended
when their little butts get a well deserved flaming.
Newbies have a half life of about two weeks, then they
transition to another type.

Type I - The Illiterate

Some of us can't type. This is usually graciously
overlooked by the group, and can be cured with the use of a
speltcheker. For others, English is legitimately a foreign
language. Their nonnative grammar and syntax is also
generally forgiven if
the thoughts behind the post are worthwhile. Another group,
unfortunately, is like totally dumb and just can't seem to
put two ideas together without using words like awesome and
cool and then they just go on and on and throw in dirty
words as
a substitute for vocabulary and they really don't seem to
know how to construct a readable sentence and particularly
don't realize that the sentence was over with long ago and
really should be put out of its misery even though their
poor writing
does seem to distract attention from the fact that they also
are incapable of producing a single simple rational thought.

Type S - The Smartass

I don't know anybody like that.

These categories are not rigid, most folks fit into several
of them at various times, depending on the phase of the moon
and the topic under discussion. That's why I have assigned
the Type Designators, which can easily be combined. For
example,
a G can easily become a PZE on certain subjects. We often
get silly cross posts from ILZ types, we try to attract
ON's, and the BNI community is often over represented.

Additions, corrections, complaints and comments
welcome............

---------------------------------------------------------
Back to 2001-

I expected to do a lot of editing, but realized things have
not changed that much in four years.

I have made two additions:

Type F - The Flamer

The Flamer has no accurate information to impart and is not
even interested in the topics. He usually participates in a
large number of often unrelated newsgroups, but his efforts
are only directed to insulting other posters. The Flamer
thinks that quoting 160 lines of previous posts and then
adding "Bwahahabwaha......" and a 60 line sig is the
pinnacle of wit and repartee.

Type A - The Acronymist

The Acronymists use excessive combinations of capital
letters in their post. Some do it to save typing and
because they think everybody knows what they mean. Others
do it to impress others with their "inside knowledge". A
few just make this crap up.