Welcome

The FidoNet HolySmoke Echo Archive is a database of approximately 350,000 messages posted to the FidoNet HolySmoke echo between 1993 and 2004. The contents of this archive is derived from Fredric Rice's massive collection of text files found at TotalBS.org.

The HolySmoke echo was a religious debate forum on FidoNet. The echo's official cover story was that it was for rational and polite debate, but the reality was—and I say this with great affection—that it was a non-stop three-ring flame circus. (Interested parties may want to compare and contrast the tone of the Echo Guidelines posted monthly by the echo moderator and the tone of David Rice's FAQ.)

You can browse the archive directly by using the Calendar. You can also search the contents of messages, as well as the authors and recipients of messages.

Site Search


Message Bodies: Searches the bodies of messages. Quotes in messages are not searched.
Message Authors: Searches the "From" line of messages.
Message Recipients: Searches the "To" line of messages.

Technical

I wrote software to parse Fredric Rice's text files and extract messages, to create parent-child threading relationships among them, and to present them in a searchable Google Groups-like interface for easier browsing.

Threading of messages was done entirely programatically. While spot checks of the results were very pleasing (in my humble opinion), it is essentially impossible for the results to be completely checked by humans. As such you may, for example, see a quoted message that is not actually the parent message or that is not found in the thread at all. You may be able to find those "missing" messages by using the search feature.