Virus Trading Scene: Let me 'splain

Posted by HomeSlice on April 30, 2000 at 11:53:08:

Al and Brien: Since I believe neither of you is active in any vx-related subjects (short of reading Zines), let me explain who traders are, the fluctuations within the scene, our motives and the like.

Off my page (www.coderz.net/homeslice) you can find the "Beginner's" link, and Tally's fine article on virus trading. Tally is uniquely qualified for this material since he's been around and is considered an "old timer" like myself. What you don't understand is that most hard-core traders are NOT coders. Most of us have experimented with vx code but nothing serious. Would that qualify us as a "coder"... not really. Maybe to an outside observer such as yourself, but hacking away at a couple languages and calling ourselves "vx coder" would be quite insulting to the REAL coders, such as Zombie, GriYo, Vecna, etc.

Nor are we "retired coders". A good analogy would be a surgeon and the assistant. Give the right circumstances the assistant could probably do some routine surgery from seeing it performed all these years. Does that make her a surgeon? I think not. But being in the scene enough time increases your familiarity with the procedures.

Most of us have rabid streaks of obsessive-compulsiveness with our collections. Unlike the "Elite D00d" who grabs every virus offered, we become livid over a bad sample or fake viruses going around. I personally exclude (bad sample), Droppers, damaged, those pesky 500k trojans, etc from my stash and am very meticulous about what goes in, where it's placed, the scanning parameters used by AVP, Fprot, etc.

Most serious collectors are moving into their 30's, with kids, corporate jobs, mortgages, and all the joys of adulthood. We WERE FidoNet a few years ago, active in discussions, reading most every message that scrolled across the local BBS's Fido Virus echo. We racked up countless long distance bills dialing up any BBS where we might locate a new strain. And were welcomed to major boards (WCIVR, CRIS, etc) because of the magnitude of our existing collections.

We watched from the sidelines as SMEG, MtE, Melissa rolled around and big contraversies hit our scene. Although we broke no laws, many of us kinda ducked behind a bush and hoped to stay out of trouble. Are we deviants, lawbreakers, criminals? Bah. We are outstanding citizens, who bend over backward in some cases to stay out of trouble. Productive, hard-working people who enjoy a little vice.

Spreading vir, causing problems... last thing on our mind. In fact, you'd be surprised to learn that 20% of us obtained Master's Degrees in various subjects. So please, before you paint us all with a stroking brush, consider the difference between real collectors and "dabblers". A small distinction for you, an outside observer I imagine, but rather insulting to the real people.

Our scene itself fluctuates according to media attention. Similar to school shootings (bad analogy, I know), when a hot Vx story reaches CNN it strikes up curiosity and all types of "dabbler-class collectors" appear out of the woodwork. 90% of which vanish after a few months with little to show for their efforts. But a couple gems usually hang around and enhance our club, get involved and mature into a serious collector after a couple years.

If you were to dissect our behavior down to reinforcement level, we are simply collectors. Stamps, coins, hubcaps, back issues of Playboy, Vx. New acquisitions, exciting and enticing methods or vir we haven't seen before, curiosity and boyhood inquisitiveness at its finest. B.F. Skinner himself would be hard-pressed to explain the collecting habit. You just need to deal with us, take us seriously and be respectful.

btw: Scandals that happen "in house" are similar to an inside joke. Would take hours to explain and after completely finished, you still wouldn't "get it". So why bother.

Have a nice day!