Like to tell stories? Like to listen to them? How about the onehanded escapee from the mental hospital, whose hook was found dangling on the cardoor handle of a frightened couple? Or the model who wanted a tan really fast, went to several tanning salons in a row, and acquired a peculiar odor from cooking her insides? Or how about the infamous "Good Times" virus?
Legends live, and that is what the Usenet newsgroup alt.folklore.urban (AFU) is all about. It used to be a lot busier than these days, receiving a couple of hundred posts on an average day. But even though things have slowed to a few dozen posts a day, it's still a good group to visit. The subjects that get discussed range from hoary old stories to embattled discussions on whether old window glass is slowly sagging out of its frames.
Folks who post "Have you heard this one" usually get the weary reply, "Yeah, we have!" possibly followed by some advice on how to lurk for a while and get acquainted with the group. This is generally because if you have heard it, chances are excellent that everyone else has, too. Another question that is rarely suffered gladly is "I just heard this, is it true?" Much of the time, if you have to ask, it probably is not.
Contributors who go to great pains to research their story, find out where it came from ("where did you hear that, mom?" "So, Aunt Bessie, you say your friend Betty told you that? What's her number?") and look up any additional information in sources like Brunvand's books on "Urban Legends" get an appreciative pat on the back. In fact, some of the most interesting bul^H^H^Hdiscussions derive from comparing variations on current legends, the route they have travelled, and how they resemble the stories told hundreds of years ago.
Of course, there are the occasional pranks and jokes, and a sense of humor is absolutely essential, since the oldtimers despise "emoticons." AFU is not your average newsgroup.
The group has been around for some time. It has an extensive FAQ. The RTFM mailserver can also send the FAQ in response to mail that contains the line
in the text. The mail version may be a bit more current than the WWW version, but it doesn't have all those cool links to additional information!
For general guidelines on what not to do on Usenet, see Alan Meiss's well researched 101 Ways to be Obnoxious on Usenet. If you don't understand some of these 101 ways, you might consider finding out before posting to Usenet, because otherwise there's the distinct possibility that you'll end up being obnoxious without realizing it. You'll have an audience of millions in some of these groups.