Major John Titor: Time Traveller or Hoaxer?

[newyorklily]

The person known as Major John Titor has fascinated people since his first faxes were received by Art Bell in 1998. Now, he has become a modern day legend. This article from io9.com does a good job of putting the pieces together to find out just who Major John Titor really was.

The Man Who Told the Internet He'd Come From the Future (http://io9.com/5869362/the-man-who-told-the-internet-hed-come-from-the-future)

[Doc]

The John Titor story was one of the first bizarre tales I read on the internet. I found it fascinating for the lenght of time it went on, the number of people who followed it and the improbability of it all. I think it fails the test of internal logic: Why would a time traveler on a mission do what Titor said he was doing, etc.? I think it is the best example of a one-person, low cost hoax for fun and games that I have seen. In that sense, it sets the standard for the least amount of resources a person would have to put into a viable hoax.

[theavenger]

Titor's tales make my hoax list along with many other stories over the years.

[norenrad]

When I hear "Time Traveler" in any discussion, I usually just walk away. Unless the time traveler is traveling back in time less than 50 years, they would have to make a ton of preparations, money would be one of them. Human beings need to bathe, access to showers and clean clothing would be an obstacle. My point is that a traveler would need money, shelter, history and identification, that or be real savvy in the ways of a criminal and I think we have enough of those in our own timeline.

[Eric]

I admit to never spending the time to looking into this story yet. I did read the link provided. Really he needed to get an IBM 5100 from 1975 to debug computers in 2036? lol How did this story get so big?
Guess hindsight is clearer. Glad I didn't waste my time with him. Thanks for the link Lily.