B1FF

What Does B1FF Mean?

B1FF is a fictional profile of a USENET poster character that represents a typical “n00b.” This fictional teenage character uses his brother’s VIC-20 computer to log on and post items that illustrate naïveté and inappropriate use of the forum.

Techopedia Explains B1FF

The creation of B1FF is often attributed to Joe Talmage, who also authored “The Flamer’s Bible.” Eventually, B1FF caught on as a way to lampoon users who breached the net etiquette of the USENET era. Some of these cardinal sins include posting in all capital letters, with many exclamation points or wingding characters, misspellings and engaging in tangential conversations. Having a very long signature block was also a characteristic of B1FF’s speech. The B1FF character illustrates some of the origins of internet trolling and forged identities, and how social communities arise around a particular type of technology.

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Margaret Rouse

Technology Specialist

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.

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