Decius wrote:

Anyway, it’s not really about the dance scene vs. the hacker scene: it’s about two hugely popular hit songs vs. a tiny in-group that can’t be proven to have used the word at all.

There is an interesting conversation going on here about the origins of the word w00t. Basically, the question is, did w00t come into gamer slang via l33t speak, and therefore the hacker scene, or did it come into general usage online because of the 1993 hit song "Whoop, There it is!"

At the core is that there is absolutely no written evidence of use of the word w00t as an exclamation by people in the hacker scene prior to about 1998. There is a use in the hacker scene in 1995, but it is a proper noun (a crew called "w00t'z kidz"). Jason Scott drug up evidence of use on Usenet in 1994, but it was in the context of Magic Cards (D&D is another claimant to the origin of the word). Sans evidence, the verdict must go to "Whoop, There it is!" My memory, and that of several others, is that w00t was used in the hacker scene long before 1998, mostly on IRC. Although I'm not positive that w00t has no relationship to "Whoop, There it is!" I am pretty sure that it was used far earlier than internet archives seem to indicate.

So here is the question; Does anyone out there in MemeStreams land have any mailing list, BBS, or IRC chat logs from before 1998 that include the word w00t, in particular its use as an exclamation? I know some of you are pack rats and have lots of old stuff lying around. Looking for evidence, and not "I recall" or "we used to."

I remember w00t on IRC in the early 90s. I have no proof. What about those guys that did the hacker BBS archive?

Jello wrote:
I remember w00t on IRC in the early 90s. I have no proof. What about those guys that did the hacker BBS archive?

Good luck searching for:

\/\/00+!

Why would you assume it was "Whoop there it is" and not "woohoo" popularized by the simpsons?

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Woohoot

Shannon wrote:
Why would you assume it was "Whoop there it is" and not "woohoo" popularized by the simpsons?

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Woohoot

Give it until the people who make money for selling Simpson's reruns realize they could make a buck trying to claim they invented it, so that people will "look to the source".

I can remember chuckling at hearing that stupid song and thinking "they're using our word", but no, they were saying 'whoop' with a 'p'.

http://www.plasticbag.org/archives/2002/12/the_history_of_woot_whoot_and_w00t/

A 1990 use of whoot:
http://www.newspaperarchive.com/LandingPage.aspx?type=glp&search=whoot%201990&img=24544950

Decius wrote:

Anyway, it’s not really about the dance scene vs. the hacker scene: it’s about two hugely popular hit songs vs. a tiny in-group that can’t be proven to have used the word at all.

There is an interesting conversation going on here about the origins of the word w00t. Basically, the question is, did w00t come into gamer slang via l33t speak, and therefore the hacker scene, or did it come into general usage online because of the 1993 hit song "Whoop, There it is!"

Was one of the people involved in this conversation really, really high?

"Whoop" != "w00t".

One might as well be arguing that the phrase "d'oh" came about as a result of the invention of baked goods involving yeast additives.

Decius wrote:
Looking for evidence, and not "I recall" or "we used to."

(emphasis added)

I think that, it's presence as l33tspeak, and well, what the people who were typing 'w00t' were generally also typing about, are some pretty serious factors against getting people to incriminate themselves with logs. ;)

So here is the question; Does anyone out there in MemeStreams land have any mailing list, BBS, or IRC chat logs from before 1998 that include the word w00t, in particular its use as an exclamation? I know some of you are pack rats and have lots of old stuff lying around. Looking for evidence, and not "I recall" or "we used to."

That's pretty easy actually..

One Google query on etext found these:

* 1994 - Cult of the Dead Cat
* 1995 - Kunt Industries Limited
* 1996 - Evolution

Rattle wrote:
* 1994 - Cult of the Dead Cow

Best one yet, but its still too late. We need a ref from 2003!

Decius wrote:

Rattle wrote:
* 1994 - Cult of the Dead Cow

Best one yet, but its still too late. We need a ref from 2003!

2003? 1993?

Jello wrote:

Decius wrote:

Rattle wrote:
* 1994 - Cult of the Dead Cow

Best one yet, but its still too late. We need a ref from 2003!

2003? 1993?

Yeah, sorry I mean 1993... The pre-1998 references are important as they establish that the hacker scene was using w00t early on. They don't establish that w00t started with the hacker scene. We'd need earlier data for that.