I think it’s only natural to be drawn to some things. Most things we find alluring, we are supposed to feel guilty or ashamed of…
Mostly, I am referring to common vices.
Al Gore, whether he was a contributor to the advent of the internet or not, was not likely a player in the elements which really spurred on the growth of it: Vices.
Some of us were users of online life prior to any graphical interface being layed over it. Everything was text and most of the ‘net was in the form of UseGroups or Newgroups, sometimes called Usenet.
My understanding is, its pretty much gone, that raw form. But tonight I ran across a smidgeon of what once was and my participation in it. Ever search for yourself? I did.
As a substitute for actually gambling on sports, me and some other guys used to participate in an exercise of futility called RGS. I don’t recall what the name stood for, but it was myself and some aerospace engineers who fancied themselves Sports Handicappers. You found online ‘lines’ for sporting events of your choosing and risked imaginary funds in an ego-driven contest for manhood.
I searched for RGS and my handle, Kimba1964 and found this entry from 2009. Though way before the time of this communication, the web had become graphically fancy, many of us old dudes still liked the old ways of doing things. Indeed, nowadays ‘groups’ are long destroyed by spam and trafficking of illegal files and, as a result, provider after provider has been cutting off all direct access to them. Here’s a sample of the RGS group format and my final entry:
rec.gambling.sports ›
Gerald wins the RGS Baseball Week 9 Contest
—–BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE—–
Hash: SHA1
Updated through Sunday, June 7
Gerald won the Week 9 Contest and $250 had been added to his total.
Player Previous June 7 Current Week Month BOTW?
Kimba $7269 3-2, +$314 $7583 4-9, -$128 4-9, -$128 Y
Gerald $6586 1-0, +$100 $6936 7-6, +$ 73 7-6, +$ 73 N
Gary $4523 0-0, +$ 0 $4523 0-0, $ 0 0-0, $ 0 N
June 7:
Kimba
W +$ 80 TOR -1.5 rl, -125 play of the month //NO SUCH THING AS POM
W +$186 nym -108 play of the day
L -$100 CWS -119
W +$248 SF -121 play of the week
L -$100 LAD -121
bodog
3-2, +$314
Gerald
W +$100 Oakland Athletics -114
Pinnacle
1-0, +$100
Weekly Contest Winners (+$250 bonus):
Week 1: Gerald 9-5 +$506
Week 2: Kimba 7-3,+$412
Week 3: Kimba 13-9,+$505
Week 4: Gerald 3-2,+$ 48
Week 5: Gerald 5-3,+$256
Week 6: Gerald 1-0,+$100
Week 7: Kimba 13-10,+$136
Week 8: Kimba 8-2,+$678
Week 9: Gerald 7-6,+$ 73
Week 10: (pending)
Monthly Contest Winners: (+$500 bonus)
April: Gerald 13-5,+$938
May : Kimba 32-26 +$149
June : (pending)
Player Notes:
Kimba: Always to risk (e.g., -110 = risk $100 to win $91)
Gary : Always listed pitchers
Gerald: Always action, unless specified; Always Pinnacle, unless specified
—–BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE—–
Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (MingW32)
iEYEARECAAYFAkosxoMACgkQPl8vZUv/GlDmDgCfbfUPj3Gm2aCa7YF3xEvbCb8V
GQ0AnA94rFxYVTgt7f7iUkK6ViPg2kHq
=+SOy
—–END PGP SIGNATURE—–
6/13/09
RGS Baseball CONTEST -My Participation
Usenet is being dumped by at&t
we are also likely going homeless in 2-3 weeks, sans a miracle……so the
point be moot.
Been nice playing with you guys over the years. I will have this for a
couple days more……please feel free to write me via my old email:
kimb…@yahoo.com and be sure to include RGS in the title, so that msgs
could be found……….would be interested in knowing if there are any
truely FREE third party news access servers.
Will likely also be dumping my domain: www.BestWager.info which i have
owned for something like 6 years.
Got three little ones and a mrs to worry about……and the shelters are not
accepting anyone.
Cheers
William
***********************
Why this exchange of notes has been preserved by the web, when almost no other traces exist? Who knows… But herein, I pay homage to what was the basis of what we take for granted.
