"September that never ended" Used by veterans of newsgroups to refer to September 1993 when America Online made access to newsgroups possible. According to these veterans the quality of discussion on the newsgroups markedly declined.
The term arose from the fact that prior to this date there was a periodic decline in the quality of newsgroup discussion around September due to an influx of college students starting their studies and being provided with Internet accounts by their universities. These students, being unaccustomed to the conventions of newsgroups, temporarily lowered the level of discussion until they became used to the mores and standards of newsgroups.
How to cite this entry:
"September that never ended" A Dictionary of the Internet. Darrel Ince. Oxford University Press, 2009. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. 6 September 2011
