A Killfile is a file, which contains filter rules for uninteresting message (Postings) or for messages of unwanted senders/persons; it is used primarily by people in the Usenet. Sometimes the Killfile is used as report in the discussion ("„I steck' you in the Killfile "“), which is expressed often also shortened by "„*PLONK* "“or "„*plonk* "“. "„Plonk "“is a loud-pictorial word, which copies the noise, which an entry causes in the case of the impact in the Killfile. After another Lesart "„Plonk is "“an acronym for "„please leave our newsgroup, kid "“("„please leave our newsgroup, child "“) or also for "„politeness limits overrun, NO of kisses "“. The entry of an address in the Killfile is called therefore also plonken (not to confound with plenken).

Further interpretations of "„plonk "“are: "„person leaving our newsgroup: killfile "“, i.e. "„person leaves our newsgroup direction Killfile "“, as well as the explanation circulating in the Usenet, plonk is the noise, with which a coffee filter on the soil of a garbage pail impacts. Transferred into German the impact/the entry is called in the Killfile "„platsch "“.

Killfiles are supported by most usual new readers (Gnus by the way uses so-called Scorefiles in place of Kill).

The term "„Kill "“originates in this connection allegedly from the early Tektronix computers from the 70's, which had a BASIC burned in the ROM as first. As storage medium magnetic tape cassettes in a format served prop. guessing eras with these computers; the instruction KILL deleted an individual file; with KILL UNIVERSE was again formatted the magnetic tape. In the documentation of these computers the instruction was described as "„KILL [FILE] "“, and a very frequent error was it to enter "„KILL 0 "“which had the same consequence as "„KILL UNIVERSE "“, i.e. a complete overrun on the magnetic tape. This may not be confounded with the kill instruction under Unix and/or Linux, with which aimed system processes (tasks) can be terminated.

See also

• /dev/null
• Net culture
• Troll (Internet)

Articles in category "Killfile"

We found here 3 articles.

Related Websites

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