The Killfile Dungeon
owned by Tim Skirvin, operated by Nik and Kile

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A Brief History of the Dungeon

/Gotta love those pre-recorded voices.../

The Dungeon is the personal killfile of Tim Skirvin, maintained by his two killfile Daemons, Nik and Kile. In it is held everyone from the most vile Usenet criminals and the most innocent bystanders, all held together by the common thread of having offended Tim at some time in the past.

The Dungeon has a long and involved history, much of which has been lost to time and the vagaries of Usenet. That which remains, however, is more than worth a tour.

Time Period Event
November, 1993 Tim appears on Usenet
July 16, 1994 Nik and Kile, two Daemons fresh from killfile school, are hired to maintain Tim's killfile.
October, 1994 Anand Sarwate is the first person incarcerated in the newly created dungeon; he is held for approximately a week. Tim becomes aware of his Daemons at this time.
October, 1994 Mark Gibson is imprisoned in the dungeon for approximately three weeks. He later becomes the first to be permanently imprisoned within its walls.
November, 1994 Hannah Koenker is imprisoned for a week. In addition, Nik and Kile become the first Killfile Daemons to actively post to Usenet, at this time through a small gateway set up by Tim.
November 17, 1994 In honor of his 17th birthday, Tim sets up a permanent gateway for his Killfile Daemons to post to Usenet.
November 1994 - October 17, 1995 The Dark Period - Many people were killfiled in this time period, but all records of the period are spotty at best. In approximate order, the following people were imprisoned:

  • Steve Boursy (~3 weeks, then permanent)
  • Michael Falkner (~4 weeks, then permanent)
  • Robin King (~2 weeks, then permanent)
  • Bob Allisat (~3 weeks, then permanent)
  • Jennifer Glish (1 week)
    (Records indicate that this week probably started on July 2, 1995)
  • Rick "Woody" Sherwood (~2 weeks, then permanent)
    (Records indicate that the first two weeks may have began on July 13, 1995)
  • Mark Gibson (appeal denied)
  • Dave Hayes (~2 weeks)
  • Kaz Vorpal (permanent)
  • Keith and Mark Cochran and James Keegan (~1 week each)
    • April 13, 1995 The first limited web<->news gateway is set up for the Daemons. Nik and Kile begin work on building a home in this unprospected and dangerous territory.
    October 17, 1995 - December 21, 1995 With the extra room gained by the gateway, the dungeon is expanded to allow for more prisoners. The following people get imprisoned over the next several weeks:

  • 1995/10/17 - Joseph Dunphy (permanent)
  • 1995/10/17 - Mark Dunphy (~6 hours)
  • 1995/10/23 - Pete Zurich (~2 weeks)
  • 1995/11/06 - John Grubor (30 days)
  • 1995/11/21 - Steve Winter (~3 weeks)
  • 1995/12/19 - Michael Falkner (appeal denied)
  • 1995/12/21 - John Grubor (permanent)
    		•
    December 21, 1995 In recognition that John Grubor had so many morph-aliases, the Global Killfile is created to specifically deal with him. Later, the GK expands to include Steve Boursy.
    December 21, 1995 - April 2, 1996 The dungeon continues to grow to accomodate the growth of Tim's killfile.
  • 1995/12/21 - Peter Stone (14 days)
  • 1996/01/04 - John Stanley (~4 weeks)
  • 1996/01/09 - Vladimir Fomin (~3 weeks)
  • 1996/01/12 - Steve Boursy (appeal denied)
  • 1996/01/13 - Wilf LeBlanc (~2 weeks)
  • 1996/01/13 - Colin James III (~4 weeks)
  • 1996/01/24 - Bill Palmer (~2 weeks)
  • 1996/01/30 - James Westbrook (~2 weeks)
  • 1996/02/09 - Dan Howard (~4 weeks)
  • 1996/02/09 - Christopher Blanc (~3 weeks)
  • 1996/02/26 - John Stanley (permanent)
  • 1996/02/27 - Blowjob Jesus (~2 weeks)
  • 1996/02/29 - Steve Winter (permanent)
  • 1996/03/27 - Ricardo Gonzales (~4 weeks)
  • 1996/03/27 - Christopher Blanc (permanent)

    Nearing the end of this period, space is very tight. Nik and Kile decide that something must be done by the anniversary of the creation of their web gateway.

    • April 2, 1996 The April Crisis begins. In the same day, Tim killfiles five people out of annoyance with the new month; this stretches the capacity of the dungeon to its limit, with one day before it celebrates its one-year anniversary.
  • 1996/04/02 - Erik Seielstad (14 days)
  • 1996/04/02 - Dmytri "Quirk" Kleiner (7 days)
  • 1996/04/02 - Bob Noel (14 days)
  • 1996/04/02 - Devin W. (14 days)
  • 1996/04/02 - James Westbrook (second offense, ~3 weeks)
    • April 3, 1996 Noticing that a revolution may be slowly forming, Tim makes some concessions. In exchange for their continued work, Tim promises Nik and Kile a domain name (files.org), access to a news->mail gateway, and work on a much larger space for the dungeon. Nik and Kile happily agree, and the April Crisis is ended.
    April 3, 1996 - April 10, 1996 The April Crisis ended, the killfile and dungeon continued to grow, this time with a lot more help from Tim.

  • 1996/04/08 - Blowjob Jesus (second offense, ~4 weeks)
  • 1996/04/08 - Colin James III (permanent)
    		•
    April 10, 1996 Tim decides to have the Daemons help out with information gathering by having them collect all of J. Michael Straczynski's posts in rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated. Encouraged by the growing killfile, they agree.
    April 10, 1996 - October 1, 1996 Further work continues on the Dungeon's space, but, as the reality that there is too much to do with this small a space hits, the work slows down immensely.

  • 1996/05/11 - Ricardo Gonzales (second offense, ~5 weeks)
  • 1996/05/16 - Ron Guilmette (~2 weeks)
  • 1996/05/21 - Todd Hedenstrom (~2 weeks)
  • 1996/05/22 - Dimitri Vulis (permanent)
  • 1996/06/16 - Jay "Jai Maharaj" Stevens (~4 weeks)
  • 1996/06/18 - Dave Hoogenberg (~2 weeks)
  • 1996/07/07 - Jack Wilson (~4 weeks)
  • 1996/07/14 - Tim Brown (5 days)
  • 1996/08/08 - Dave Hoogenberg (2 days)
  • 1996/08/10 - Archimedes Plutonium (~3 weeks)
  • 1996/08/24 - Ricardo Gonzales (permanent)
  • 1996/09/07 - Charley Kline (~2 weeks)
  • 1996/10/01 - Tung-Chiang Yang (~3 weeks)
    		•
    October 1, 1996 - October 31, 1996 With the final space gone from the main dungeon, all new inmates are put into temporary cells, in preparatin for a new, upgraded dungeon to hopefully be completed before the end of 1996.

  • 1996/10/03 - Bryan Kieft (~4 weeks)
  • 1996/10/09 - Nicholas Rich (~2 weeks)
  • 1996/10/18 - Chris Satterthwaite (~3 weeks)
  • 1996/10/20 - Chris Richmond (~3 weeks)
    		•
    October 31, 1996 - April 30, 1997 Work begins on the new dungeon; the framework is completed by the 9th, and all of the prisoners are moved in by the 14th of November. The Daemons begin to move onto other projects.

  • 1996/11/06 - John Boch (30 days)
  • 1996/11/20 - Bill Palmer (permanent)
  • 1996/12/28 - Ken Chen (procmail, two years)
  • 1997/01/21 - Richard Sauers (30 days)
  • 1997/01/23 - Jennifer Glish (procmail) (14 days)
  • 1997/01/28 - ThomasW540 (permanent procmail)
  • 1997/02/16 - Tim Brown (30 days)
  • 1997/04/14 - Scott Weiser (21 days)
  • 1997/04/15 - Richard Sauers (second offense, 28 days)
  • 1997/04/28 - Greg Kaiser (21 days)
    		•
    May 1, 1997 - August 4, 1997 After reports of an upcoming story on the Dungeon, several inmates begin to complain of mistreatment during their stays, threatening legal action. On May 1, Richard Sauers is temporarily moved to the EWS cluster at UIUC for increased security; a week later, the decision to move the Dungeon entirely off-site is made. The Dungeon is moved to dannyland.org as of May 19, 1997.

    The June 1997 issue of Internet Underground has a story on the Dungeon entitled "The Global Killfile".

    Due to Tim's acquiction of the killfile.org domain name on May 23, 1997, www.killfile.org becomes the permanent home of the Dungeon.

  • 1997/05/10 - Seymour Dupa (21 days)
  • 1997/06/01 - Robert Holland (21 days)
  • 1997/06/05 - Brandy Alexandre (21 days)
  • 1997/06/10 - Neil McAliece (45 days)
  • 1997/06/12 - S.P. (21 days)
  • 1997/06/19 - Terri DiSisto (45 days)
  • 1997/06/20 - Theron Fuller (21 days)
  • 1997/07/10 - John Bambenek (21 days)
  • 1997/07/19 - S.P. (permanent)
    		•
    August 5, 1997 - October 12, 1998 In a temporary fit of insanity, Tim writes some code to allow the Dungeon's purpose to be expanded with NoCeM. Reports of all messages by Dungeon inhabitants begin to be distributed through normal Usenet channels, allowing others to share the advanatages of the now-stronger Dungeon. The Daemons happily accept this change, though many Dungeon members object strongly.
    Cell remodeling is completed on August 22nd.
  • 1997/08/05 - John Bambenek (second offense, 28 days)
  • 1997/08/13 - Al2048 (28 days)
  • 1997/09/08 - John Bambenek (third offense, 90 days)
  • 1997/09/17 - Information Security (28 days)
  • 1997/11/17 - Mark Hardwidge (14 days)
  • 1998/01/06 - Gary Burnore (21 days)
  • 1998/02/02 - Mike Khalili (10 days)
  • 1998/03/11 - Karl Denninger (21 days)
  • 1998/03/25 - Terri Tickle (permanent)
  • 1998/05/22 - James Peal (61 days)
  • 1998/07/19 - KalElFan (14 days)
  • 1998/07/21 - Sam (7 days)
  • 1998/07/22 - Ron Schwarz (14 days)
  • 1998/08/23 - Hipcrime (permanent)
  • 1998/09/08 - Igor Chudov (14 days)
  • 1998/09/23 - Brian Moore (7 days)
    • October 12, 1998 - December 29, 1998 After the NoCeM messages end due to some system changes on October 12, the Daemons decide to take a well-deserved vacation for a few months, from October 15 to December 27. Tim holds down the fort in the Dungeon as well as he can, but leaves a lot of stuff to be done later, when the Daemons get back.
    December 30, 1998 The Daemons returned, Tim works with the pair to upate the Dungeon graphically to include frames - after several days of discussions and agreements that there still be good text-only version to go with it. The new site goes online at about 6pm GMT, and includes a small set of page updates.
    November 17, 1999 In commomeoration of his 22nd birthday, the gates of the Dungeon are unlocked by Tim - without telling the inmates or the Daemons. This offends the Daemons greatly, causing them to leave for approximately a year. Still, it takes some inmates several months to wander out, and others never make it out at all.

    Escapees: Christopher Blanc, Steve Boursy, Terri DiSisto, Joseph Dunphy, Dave Hayes, Colin James III, Robin King, Rick Sherwood, KAZ Vorpal, Dimitri Vulis, John Stanley, Hipcrime, Ricardo Gonzales, Michael Falkner

    December 12, 2001 The Dungeon is reopened with the addition of Bloxy's. Remodelling begins to take advantage of this.
  • 2001/12/12 - Bloxy's (28 days)
  • 2002/02/02 - IRS Agent (28 days)
    • May 24, 2002 - June 8, 2002

    For reasons as-yet undisclosed, Tim decides that it's a good time to start updating the Dungeon for the new millenium. Frames are removed from the pages, and CGIs are written to better manage the various pages of the Dungeon. Also, various entries begin to be updated to better match current reality.

    • 2002/06/03 - ThomasW540 (permanent procmail, reinstatement)
    • 2002/06/06 - Jorie W. (14 days)
    • 2002/06/06 - John Stanley (permanent, reinstatement)
    • 2002/06/08 - Gharlane of Eddore (enshrined, permanent, post-mortem)
    • 2002/06/08 - Hipcrime (permanent, reinstatement)
    • 2002/06/08 - Ricardo Gonzales (permanent, reinstatement)
    • 2002/06/08 - Michael Falkner (permanent, reinstatement)
    • 2002/06/30 - John Bambenek (permanent, procmail + Usenet)
    • 2002/09/26 - Pavan Txxxxxx (14 days, later increased to 21)
    • 2002/10/29 - Jay Tamboli (30 days)
    • 2002/11/13 - Ashley Wise (21 days)
    • 2003/01/14 - Jay Tamboli (60 days)
    • 2004/02/04 - Jay Tamboli (14 days)
    • 2004/02/24 - Ragib Hassan (14 days, Orkut)
    • 2004/04/09 - Alan Connor (30 days, nnq only)
    • 2004/05/07 - Michael Bernstein (14 days, hpo only)
    • 2005/10/12 - 'wildman' (14 days)
    • 2005/10/21 - Wayne Brown (28 days)
    • 2005/11/26 - Alan Connor (45 days)
    • 2005/12/02 - Mark Kramer (28 days)
    • 2006/04/23 - Alan Connor (permanent)
    • 2006/05/01 - Wayne Brown (45 days)
    • 2006/06/03 - Holding Cell Inaugurated. For 30 days each:
    • 2006/05/25 - Charles Bee (14 days)
    • news.groups holding cell - 30 days a piece for:
      • 2006/05/31 - Dave Balderstone
      • 2006/06/01 - Gary Burnore
      • 2006/06/03 - Bob Officer
      • 2006/06/04 - Peter J Ross
      • 2006/06/11 - Aratzio
      • 2006/06/12 - Fred Hall
      • 2006/06/17 - spooge
      • 2006/06/19 - Daryl Hunt
      • 2006/06/22 - Sharon B
    • 2006/07/19 - Peter J Ross (45 days)
    • 2006/07/21 - Adam H Kerman (45 days)
    • news.groups holding cell:
      • 2006/07/21 - Aratzio (45 days)
      • 2006/07/30 - saur (30 days)
      • 2006/07/31 - Bob Officer (45 days)
      • 2006/08/01 - Andre Lieven (30 days)
      • 2006/08/05 - Sharon B (45 days)
      • 2006/08/11 - Chairman Cow + Aliases (30 days)
    • 2006/08/23 - Daryl Hunt (60 days)
    • 2006/08/25 - Wayne Brown (permanent)
    • 2006/08/26 - alt.config holding cell created; Hawk is its first resident.
    • 2006/08/27 - Brian Mailman and 2Rowdy into news.groups holding cell (30 days)
    • 2006/10/06 - Bloxy/nukleus into news.groups holding cell (30 days)
    • 2006/10/06 - Bob Officer into news.groups holding cell (85 days)
    • 2006/10/08 - saur into news.groups holding cell (30 days)
    • 2006/10/09 - Aratzio into news.groups holding cell (82 days)
    • 2006/10/24 - Adam Kerman, 68 days
    • 2006/11/09 - Daryl Hunt (permanent)
    • 2006/11/13 - Mark Kramer into news.groups holding cell (30 days)
    • 2006/11/17 - Kadaitcha Man into news.groups holding cell (30 days)
    • 2006/11/20 - Changed the format of the news.groups holding cell page, so that less maintenance is necessary.
    • 2007/05/03 - Omnibok, comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic (14 days)
    • 2007/06/13 - Adam Kerman (permanent)
    • 2007/06/13 - Aratzio (permanent)
    • 2007/08/27 - Gary L. Burnore (365 days, excludes news.*)
    • 2007/09/26 - Rebecca Ore (10 days)
    Nov 16, 2007 - Site is closed for renovations.

    Last Updated: Thu, Nov 22 2007
    735 accesses since 13 Jan 2008
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