bob

( n.)

   At  Demon  Internet,  all  tech  support  personnel are called "Bob".
   (Female  support  personnel  have  an  option on "Bobette"). This has
   nothing  to do with Bob the divine drilling-equipment salesman of the
   {Church  of  the  SubGenius}.  Nor is it acronymized from "Brother Of
   {BOFH}",  though all parties agree it could have been. Rather, it was
   triggered  by  an unusually large draft of new tech-support people in
   1995.  It was observed that there would be much duplication of names.
   To  ease  the  confusion, it was decided that all support techs would
   henceforth  be  known  as  "Bob",  and  identity  badges were created
   labelled "Bob 1" and "Bob 2". ("No, we never got any further" reports
   a witness).

   The  reason  for  "Bob" rather than anything else is due to a {luser}
   calling  and asking to speak to "Bob", despite the fact that no "Bob"
   was  currently  working  for  Tech  Support.  Since  we all know "the
   customer  is  always  right",  it was decided that there had to be at
   least one "Bob" on duty at all times, just in case.

   This  sillyness  snowballed  inexorably.  Shift  leaders and managers
   began  to  refer  to  their  groups of "bobs". Whole ranks of support
   machines  were set up (and still exist in the DNS as of 1999) as bob1
   through  bobN. Then came alt.tech-support.recovery, and it was filled
   with Demon support personnel. They all referred to themselves, and to
   others,  as "bob", and after a while it caught on. There is now a Bob
   Code describing the Bob nature.

[glossary]